Pennsylvania

Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell | Statewide PA | Wastewater

Shell Cracker Wastewater Discharge Becomes an Issue
December 22, 2016December 22, 2016

Environmentalists are accusing Shell of using a loophole to discharge wastewater at their future ethane cracker that will exceed state limits for TDS (total dissolved solids). The issue may sound familiar. In 2011 Pennsylvania “requested” that municipal sewage treatment plants without specially outfitted equipment stop accepting and processing Marcellus wastewater (see PA DEP, Marcellus Shale Coalition Admit Drilling Wastewater Likely Contaminating Drinking Water). Almost immediately, it stopped, which was a good thing for the environment. The problem with shale wastewater (i.e. produced water) is its high TDS content, including bromide. When bromide combines with chlorine used in wastewater treatment plants, it combines to produce trihalomethanes, which (in some studies) indicate increased levels of cancer in humans (see MDN In-depth: Marcellus Wastewater Discharges via Municipal Sewage Treatment Plants into PA Waterways). Nasty stuff. While the Shell ethane cracker will not process shale wastewater, it will produce water with TDS as part of its process. Shell plans to use a permit from the plant it is replacing, an old zinc smelting plant, to discharge a certain volume of water with TDS. Environmentalists say the volume they will discharge is too much and if the plant were not using a pre-existing permit (swapping ethane cracking for zinc smelting) the volume of wastewater they want to discharge would not be approved. That is, Shell is leveraging a loophole, a permit grandfathered in, and the volume of wastewater it will discharge may endanger humans downriver. Legit? Not legit?…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA DEP to Conduct ‘Listening Tour’ for ‘Environmental Justice’
December 22, 2016March 29, 2017

The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) will go on a “listening tour” early next year, to focus on so-called environmental justice–whatever that is. Apparently environmental justice means asking poor people if they’ve been abused by the oil and gas industry in any way–and if they have a beef, the DEP will “do” something about it. That’s our take. This isn’t the first “listening tour” conducted by the DEP. You may recall in 2013 the agency conducted a listening tour for new drilling regulations (see PA DEP Launches Public Comments on New Drilling Rules, Roadshow). It went so well, they extended it into 2014 (see PA DEP Extends Roadshow for Public Comment on New Drilling Rules). Last year the now-fired DEP Sec. John Quigley went on a 14-stop listening tour to elicit input on PA’s version of Obama’s disastrous Clean Power Plan (see DEP launches public talks on Clean Power Plan). Here’s the latest on the listening tour/roadshow from PA DEP…
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Carbon County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation

Kidder Twp Approves Zoning for PennEast Compressor Station
December 21, 2016December 21, 2016

A little good news to share about the PennEast Pipeline project–a $1 billion, 118-mile, primarily 36-inch pipeline that will get built from Dallas (Luzerne County), PA to Transco’s pipeline interconnection near Pennington (Mercer County), NJ. Last month PennEast got some bad news–a further delay from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in delivering a final environmental review. The review was supposed to be done last August, but got pushed to this December. Then in November, FERC announced it would be next February before the final review is delivered (see FERC Delays PennEast Pipeline Final Review – Again). That review is the big nut to crack. However, there are many smaller regulatory issues along the way that are also important. One of those is getting permission to build a few compressor stations along the pipeline’s route. One of those locations, in Carbon County, PA, has just approved PennEast’s plan to site a compressor station there…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Union (Once Again) Lies About PA Marcellus Severance Tax
December 21, 2016December 21, 2016

From the beginning of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s disastrous administration, we have told you the unvarnished truth: Wolf’s call for a high tax on Marcellus Shale gas production is a giveaway, a pay-back, to teachers unions for their support of him in defeating Republican Gov. Tom Corbett (see PA Gov Wolf Proposes Marcellus-Killing 7.5% Severance Tax). Wolf held up the first budget by nine months, wreaking havoc on the state, over this very issue–screw the Marcellus industry to give its money to teachers (i.e. for “education” and “for the children”). What a boatload of horse manure. As we’ve repeatedly SHOUTED–PA already has the equivalent of a severance tax. It’s called an impact fee plus a corporate income tax. When you take the two together, the average “tax” paid by Marcellus drillers is HIGHER than that paid in other big oil and gas states, like Texas and Oklahoma. Enacting an ADDITIONAL severance tax on top of it–even in place of it–would be a disaster, shutting down most Marcellus drilling. And yes, there is gas in other states and yes drillers will leave PA if such a tax is enacted. And yet unions, like AFSCME Council 13, continue to pedal lies about the severance tax…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Sunoco Logistics

Desperate Antis Try One Last Legal Maneuver to Stop Mariner East 2
December 21, 2016December 21, 2016

You may recall our story about the daughter of a Huntingdon County, PA landowner, radicalized by Big Green groups (as evidenced by her association with well known protesters previously arrested), who took to a tree on her mom’s property in order to illegally stop crews working on tree clearing for the Mariner East 2 pipeline (see PA Anti Literally Goes Up a Tree to Stop Mariner East 2 Pipeline). It ultimately didn’t matter, because Sunoco came back and cut down the few trees they need to cut anyway (see Sunoco Tricks Radicalized Protester – Returns and Cuts More Trees). Eventually law enforcement got around to arresting the daughter, and the mom (who also trespassed during tree clearing). Law enforcement also arrested a serial criminal trespasser/anti who aided and radicalized them. Unfortunately, in a miscarriage of justice, the charges against all three were dropped (see Charges Dismissed Against Tree Sitting Anti in Huntingdon County). The up-a-tree girl and her mom, with backing by Big Green money, continue to litigate. They are being used by Big Green, and fossil fuel-hating Big Green lawyers for the mom and daughter think they’ve found a clever legal tactic to stop Mariner East 2–not just from their property, but from being built across the state period. It is their final “hail Mary” pass…
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Baker Hughes | Energy Services | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Cool Tool Shows Where Working Rigs are Located in M-U
December 21, 2016December 21, 2016

The GoMarcellusShale Forum where landowners and others interested in shale drilling hang out and swap messages back and forth was recently updated to become ShaleForum.com. It’s an excellent site with lots of great chatter going on for those with an interest in shale-related matters, including a very active Marcellus/Utica discussion. One of those discussions recently caught our eye. A poster on ShaleForum provided a link to an interactive map application hosted by Baker Hughes. We had not previously seen the app and found it to be very useful. The app shows where all of the active rigs currently drilling are located–across the entire country. You can filter the app to show only states or regions you are interested in. We played with it a bit to show you maps for PA, WV and OH where shale rigs are currently located…
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Air Quality | Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Regulation | Shell | Statewide PA

Shell Seeks to Horse Trade Air Pollution Credits for Cracker Plant
December 19, 2016December 19, 2016

In June 2015, a full year ahead of Shell’s final investment decision (FID) to build a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant complex in Beaver County, PA, the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection issued the project air quality permits–which was a “critical” requirement for Shell before making their decision (see Shell Receives Air Quality Permit from PA DEP for Cracker Plant). Two months later, two litigious Big Green environmental groups with deep pockets–the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council and the Washington, DC-based Environmental Integrity Project–tried to scuttle the project by appealing the DEP’s issuance of the air quality permits (see Big Green Groups File to Block Shell Cracker Air Quality Permit). Fortunately the DEP blew off the Big Green appeal. However, the issue of air pollution is not yet totally resolved. In order for Shell to build the plant–a plant that will have a fair amount of emissions–they need to buy pollution credits from other plants. That is, if other plants are installing new air pollution controls, or shutting down, Shell can buy their emissions allotments, and use them for the cracker project. In the end, it’s all about controlling how much of the nasty stuff, like volatile organic compounds (VOCs) gets pumped into the air in a given region. But there’s a problem. Shell can’t find enough VOC credits to buy, so they’re proposing a deal with the DEP to buy a different kind of credit instead–NOx or nitrogen oxides. Will the DEP allow Shell to horse trade NOx for VOCs? That’s the billion dollar question…
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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Drillers Don’t Have to Plug Old Wells Before Fracking, For Now
December 19, 2016December 19, 2016

On Oct. 8, after five years in the making, Pennsylvania adopted new shale drilling regulations (see PA’s New Chapter 78a Drilling Regs Go into Effect Oct 8). Although the regs were ready at the end of the Gov. Tom Corbett Administration, Corbett fumbled the ball and the regs didn’t get adopted, which left them vulnerable to the incoming left-leaning Tom Wolf. Wolf’s people mangled the regulations under the Dept. of Environmental Protection Dictator/Secretary John Quigley, who got fired over unethical collusion with Big Green groups (see Smoking Gun: Copy of the Email that Got John Quigley Fired). Some of the good stuff remained, but onerous new elements were introduced. One of the onerous new regulations has to do with abandoned and orphaned wells. PA is dotted with hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells drilled since the first well drilled in 1859. The problem is that the state has only mapped and is aware of under 10,000 of those wells. If a driller happens to horizontally drill through one of those old wells, water and chemicals (more likely methane) can take an express elevator to the surface and come out where it shouldn’t–perhaps contaminating water supplies, among other unfortunate outcomes. The new Chapter 78a regulations attempted to handle the situation by requiring drillers to map and plan for how they will avoid that outcome–by avoiding and plugging any abandoned or orphaned wells up to 1,500 feet away. The problem for drillers is that they often do not own the lease rights and have no legal right to enter land up to 1,500 feet away to conduct surveys and plug wells–a catch 22 situation. And plugging a well isn’t cheap. Should drillers today have to pay for something someone else did decades ago? The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), on behalf of its shale drilling members, sued to stop abandoned well provision (along with several other provisions), which a judge agreed to do, at least for now until a full trial can decide the issue (see PA Judge Temporarily Blocks Some DEP Chapter 78a Drilling Regs). The judge put a temporary order blocking the abandoned/orphaned well provision in November, and upheld that block again in December. For the time being, Marcellus drillers do not have to map and plug old wells that don’t belong to them…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA DEP Sec. Believes in Global Warming (Amidst Record-Cold Days)
December 16, 2016December 16, 2016

Patrick McDonnell Acting Secretary, DEP

By all accounts Pennsylvania’s Acting Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, Pat McDonnell, is doing a reasonably good job (see Gov. Wolf Nominates Pat McDonnell to Head PA DEP, Finally). He’s certainly much less confrontational than his predecessor (see Smoking Gun: Copy of the Email that Got John Quigley Fired). However, McDonnell professes to believe in man-made global warming. He recently said that addressing “climate change” remains a “top priority” for the Gov. Wolf administration. Whatever. What’s somewhat disturbing is that PA intends to go well beyond federal guidelines when it comes to restricting “carbon-causing” activity in the state. However, what we find amusing is that as McDonnell mouthed his words about global warming, we are in one of the coldest of cold snaps to hit the northeast in several years. Way below the average temp for this time of year. Ah, Mr. Secretary, tell us again how human activity is causing Mom Earth to toast…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

Backlogs in the Marcellus/Utica – COBs and DUCs
December 16, 2016December 16, 2016

We’ve seen signs of increased drilling in the Marcellus/Utica. Just look at the Baker Hughes rig counts month by month. Ever so gradually, the number of rigs operating in our region is creeping back up. The smart analysts at BTU Analytics have been crunching the numbers and looking at the data–and they have a theory about why new drilling is coming back, very soon, in the Marcellus/Utica. It all has to do with the backlog. You’ve heard about DUCs–drilled but uncompleted wells. But have you ever heard of COBs? That’s Completed wells on backlog. Depending on where you are located in PA, COBs have a great deal to do with where drilling will happen…
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Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Regulation | Shell

Potter Twp Declines to Approve Permits for Shell Cracker, For Now
December 15, 2016December 15, 2016

The Potter Township Board of Supervisors convened a public hearing on Tuesday afternoon at 3 pm that ended up going until 1 am Wednesday. The intent was to approve Shell’s request for permits to begin construction on the multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant. That didn’t happen. Instead, the supervisors decided to hold another hearing Wednesday night. They did, and that hearing went for over an hour, in closed-door session. At the conclusion, the supervisors made a couple of requests from Shell, which Shell agreed to. However, the supervisors are still not ready to approve the permits and instead asked for more paperwork to be filed–by both Shell and the radical, anti-fossil fuel Big Green group Clean Air Council (from Philadelphia). It seems the antis are attempting to stop this project cold–which should have the good citizens of Beaver County (indeed the entire northeast) outraged. At any rate, we’re sure the permits will be forthcoming–but now it won’t happen until sometime in January…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

Marcellus Gas Part of “Low Carbon” Research Project at Penn State
December 15, 2016December 15, 2016

The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection is using an unspecified amount of grant money from the U.S. Department of Energy to fund a Penn State pilot project that combines a natural gas-fired electric plant with solar cell and battery energy storage systems in a hybrid system to power several office buildings, a sewage pump station and several Penn State training center facilities. The hope is to prove developing “microgrids” like this one can lead to a “low-carbon footprint.” Hey, at least they wised up and are using Marcellus natural gas (a hated fossil fuel) as part of their “low carbon” research. Here’s the details on the latest big money project, using taxpayer dollars, under way at Penn State…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crime | Energy Services | Huntingdon County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Sunoco Logistics

Charges Dismissed Against Tree Sitting Anti in Huntingdon County
December 14, 2016December 14, 2016

You may recall our story about the daughter of a Huntingdon County, PA landowner, radicalized by Big Green groups (as evidenced by her association with well known protesters previously arrested), who took to a tree on her mom’s property in order to illegally stop crews working on tree clearing for the Mariner East 2 pipeline (see PA Anti Literally Goes Up a Tree to Stop Mariner East 2 Pipeline). It ultimately didn’t matter, because Sunoco came back and cut down the few trees they need to cut anyway (see Sunoco Tricks Radicalized Protester – Returns and Cuts More Trees). Eventually law enforcement got around to arresting the daughter, and the mom (who also trespassed during tree clearing). Law enforcement also arrested a serial criminal trespasser/anti who aided and radicalized them. Unfortunately, in a miscarriage of justice, the charges against all three have been dropped…
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Energy Companies | Energy Services | EQT Corp | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | Upper Devonian Shale | Utica Shale | West Virginia

EQT 2017 Forecast: Drilling 119 Marcellus, 81 UD, 7 Utica Wells
December 13, 2016December 13, 2016

EQT is feeling bullish about natural gas drilling in the northeast for 2017. The company has just released its 2017 operational forecast. What do we notice? First off, they plan to spend $1.5 billion next year, most of which ($1.3 billion) will be used to drill and complete new wells. That’s a whopping 50% increase from spending $1 billion this year. The next thing we notice is what type of wells they intend to drill: 119 Marcellus wells (76 in PA and 43 in WV); 81 Upper Devonian wells, which will be drilled on the same pads as deeper Marcellus wells, but only in PA; and 7 “deep Utica” exploratory wells. EQT also reworked a midstream deal with Williams in the Ohio Valley. Below are the exciting details of what’s ahead for EQT in 2017, including a second announcement from EQT Midstream about what’s ahead for the pipeline subsidiary, including details on how much they plan to spend on the Mountain Valley pipeline project in the coming year…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Litigation | Minuteman Environmental Services | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Former PA AG Kathleen Kane’s Vendetta Against Marcellus Co Over
December 13, 2016December 13, 2016

One of the many companies in the Marcellus industry targeted by Pennsylvania’s former Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, for extinction was Minuteman Environmental Services, a PA company that served the shale industry with several different businesses (see PA’s Anti-Drilling AG Charges Minuteman with Enviro Crimes). Kane orchestrated what can only be called a terror attack on Minuteman and its owner Brian Bolus and his family (see Minuteman Enviro Says PA AG Office “Terrorized” Family Members, Filing Lawsuit). Minuteman wasn’t the only business she attempted to bully. She also tried to turn accidents into crimes for both XTO Energy (see PA AG Abuses Her Authority, Files Criminal Charges Against XTO) and EQT (see PA Attorney Gen. Kane Abuses Office Again, Arrest Warrant for EQT). But it was her vendetta against Minuteman that was the most poignant and egregious–using the power of the AG’s office to bully a small business literally out of existence (since gone bankrupt). One of the charges was that the owner of the business, Brian Bolus, illegally added his mom and dad to the health insurance plan for the company. Fantastically Kane went after mom and dad, charging them with health care fraud. That charge, along with other charges, have been dropped now that Kane herself has been tried and convicted and will do jail time for committing perjury (among other things) in a case unrelated to Minuteman and the Marcellus industry. Kane is headed to jail (see PA’s Anti-Drilling AG Kathleen Kane Sentenced to Jail for Perjury). As one of the employees in the AG’s office said, “through a pattern of systematic firings and Nixonian espionage, she created a terror zone in this office.” Kane’s reign of terror is now over–and the case against Minuteman is now mostly gone, with just a few loose ends to tie up…
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Electrical Generation | Energy Services | FirstEnergy | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

FirstEnergy Finds Buyer for 4 PA NatGas-Fired Power Plants
December 13, 2016December 13, 2016

FirstEnergy, based in Akron, OH, is one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. FirstEnergy owns a variety of regulated and non-regulated power generation plants. In November the company announced it wants to sell six power generating plants in PA, four of them natural gas-fired plants (see FirstEnergy Selling 4 NatGas-Fired Electric Plants in PA). The plants being sold are non-regulated–part of FirstEnergy’s strategy to become a 100% “regulated” utility in the next 18 months. Good news: FirstEnergy found a buyer willing to pay $885 million for the four natgas plants in PA…
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