Penn Township Allows Drilling to Avoid $300M Lawsuit by Apex
This news is a bit dated, from last December, but important nonetheless. Under threat of a $300 million lawsuit, Penn Township (Westmoreland County, PA) voted to allow Apex Energy to build two Marcellus well pads, and arranged for more hearings on four more well pads. In April 2016 Penn Township blocked permits for Apex well pads (see Penn Twp Blocks Apex Energy Well Pad Request, What Next?). In May it happened again (see Penn Twp Commissioners Block Apex Shale Well Request in 3-2 Vote). In June the town began to ramp up talk of uber-restrictions on drilling, via zoning ordinances (see Penn Township Considering More Restrictions on Drilling). And in August, the town held a hearing on a proposed new Marcellus-killing ordinance (see Penn Twp Hearing Discusses Marcellus-Killing Ordinance). Meanwhile, Apex was losing $70,000 PER DAY by not drilling on land for which they held valid, legal leases, and for wells that were duly permitted by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection. So Apex launched a lawsuit to make the town pay for its harmful actions. By December, the town board was singing a different tune (about time)…
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One of the antis’ favorite tactics in opposing the Mariner East 2 pipeline is to claim it’s unsafe. It’s a bomb waiting to go off. Mariner East 2, as a reminder, is a $2.5 billion, 350-mile natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline that will run from eastern Ohio through the state of Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. It will flow mostly ethane, but also propane and butane. One town near Philadelphia where the pipeline is slated to run is West Goshen Township (Chester County). The leaders of the town wanted an honest, independent assessment of the pipeline and its potential danger to residents–so they hired the independent consulting firm Accufacts to study the safety of the project. The report is in (full copy below) and shows not only does Mariner East 2 meet, but in fact exceeds federal minimum safety requirements. There goes another anti argument, disappearing into the atmosphere like burned carbon dioxide…
Inspired by the criminal actions of eco-terrorists in North Dakota (see 
Rabidly anti-drilling organizations like the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council (CAC) have been using the deep pockets of their contributors to stir up dissent against Sunoco’s Mariner East 2 NGL pipeline, particularly in towns in the Philly orbit (see 
In December the Potter Township Board of Supervisors convened a public hearing on the proposed Shell ethane cracker plant–to be built in Potter Twp–that ended up going on for 10 hours (see 
In October 2014 the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) fined PA driller EQT $4.53 million for a leaky wastewater impoundment in Tioga County, PA (see 
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is…what adjective can we use? Recalcitrant. Stubborn. Pigheaded. Stupid. Perhaps all of the above. Wolf is clearly in over his head and the most ineffective PA governor in more than a generation. When he assumed office in 2015, he floated a budget calling for a new 5% severance tax on the Marcellus industry–a tax which even his supporters admitted would be closer to 17% (see 
In June 2015 MDN told you about a really cool plan by a Pennsylvania company to establish a CNG (compressed natural gas) terminal in Lycoming County, PA as a way to get natural gas to manufacturers, fleets and businesses where no pipeline infrastructure now exists (see 
A special offer to MDN readers from the Appalachian Pipeliners Association (APA). MDN readers are invited to the January 2017 APA Dinner Meeting and Presentation: Oil & Gas Journal’s Forecast and Review–2017. Presented by Oil & Gas Journal Editor, Bob Tippee, the presentation (on Jan. 17) is sure to benefit industry operators and suppliers interested in learning more about what’s in store for the year ahead. MDN readers get a special discount to attend…
In July 2016 MDN told you about a smallish, but important pipeline project in the Delmarva Peninsula area, which includes most of Delaware and portions of Maryland and Virginia. Eastern Shore Natural Gas’ 2017 System Expansion project will bring new sources of natgas from an interconnection Eastern Shore has with the mighty TETCo (Texas Eastern Company) pipeline near Philadelphia (see 
Two radical Pennsylvania-based “environmental” groups are not exactly merging–but almost. One group is the radical PennFuture, which gave rise to such luminaries as John Quigley (fired as Sec. of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection), John Hanger (left the state, former DEP Secretary, ran for governor last time, lost, supports legalizing pot), and Cindy Dunn (currently Secretary of Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources). PennFuture is tax exempt, yet it routinely engages in political activity in violation of its IRS 501(c)(3) status. The other group is Conservation Voters of PA, a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization affiliated with a political action committee (PAC). The two groups are combining certain portions of their operations–“policy, advocacy, and legal resources”–in an attempt to “hold legislators accountable, mobilize voters, and shine a spotlight on candidates’ records on clean air, water and energy issues.” Our view is that their organizations’ membership and donations are dwindling and this is two failing organizations clinging to each other so they don’t slip beneath the waves into oblivion…
Some 200 leftist/radical bought-and-paid-for “protesters” (paid by Big Green groups) “rallied” in downtown Philadelphia yesterday in front of both of PA’s U.S. Senate office (Bob Casey, total jerk and Democrat hack, and Pat Toomey, marginal Republican). They were protesting President-elect Trump’s picks to run the EPA, Dept. of Energy and Dept. of Interior–calling them “climate deniers.” This is part of a national campaign paid for by radical environmental groups, like 350.org and the Sierra Club, groups totally invested in the theory that mankind is causing the earth to catastrophically heat up–even though the temperature record doesn’t back up the theory. Holding silly banners like “NO CLIMATE DENIAL CABINET” they paraded around, collected their paychecks, 
Several townships in the Philadelphia orbit appear to be colluding with each other and with the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council in passing nearly identical resolutions opposing the Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids pipeline. Eight townships or boroughs along or “close to” (meaning not along) the route in Delaware and Chester counties have published resolutions or proclamations badmouthing the project. The municipalities include: Edgmont, West Goshen, Thornbury, Middletown, Westtown, Rose Valley, Swarthmore and Media. Some of the self-incriminating evidence for collusion comes from an admission by one of them: “The community statements are similar to each other because of consultation between their leaders.” And this, from the odious Clean Air Council: “Alex Bomstein, a lawyer with the environmental group Clean Air Council, said that while there are other local campaign such as those in Lebanon and Huntingdon Counties, the efforts in Delaware and Chester Counties are more ‘developed’ in the Philadelphia suburbs. ‘There are more people organizing than elsewhere,’ he said, probably because of a greater population density closer to Philadelphia.” Why would the StateImpact Pennsylvania propagandist quote the CAC in the same article as the colluding towns, unless they were somehow tied together?…