Peters Twp Gives the Middle Finger to Drillers One Final Time
Peters Township, the most populous township in Washington County, PA, is one of the seven selfish towns that sued the state over the zoning provisions in the Act 13 law, eventually winning at the PA Supreme Court level (see PA Supreme Court Rules Against State/Drillers in Act 13 Case). The Act 13 victory gives townships the right to pass local zoning ordinances that restrict–but don’t ban–Marcellus/Utica drilling. Peters has been adept at using the victory to keep drilling banned by “studying” the issue to death (see Peters Twp, PA Pretends to Debate Ordinance to Allow Drilling). That pattern of behavior continued into last year (see Peters Twp, PA Continues to Delay Drilling by “Studying” It). Sooner or later you have to come down on one side or the other, and Monday night Peters decided–to screw Marcellus drillers. Town council passed a new drilling ordinance (4-2) that says drilling is ONLY allowed in areas zoned for industrial uses, which rules out areas zoned for agricultural uses (where most drilling happens). Even the drilling in industrial areas, a grand total of 138 acres in the township, will have to be a “conditional use” with loads of permits and reviews. In other words, Peters just flipped off the drilling industry, telling them “don’t ever bother drilling here”…
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Yesterday MDN reported that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has essentially gutted the rest of the Act 13 drilling law passed in 2012 (see 
Following up on yesterday’s Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision to eviscerate the rest of the 2012 Act 13 drilling law (see 
The Democrat-controlled Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled yesterday in another (hopefully final) decision on the 2012 Act 13 Marcellus drilling law passed and signed by then-Gov. Tom Corbett. Four Democrat judges have just struck down more of Act 13, leaving not much left except the part that raises money and gives it away (called an impact fee, otherwise known as a severance tax). You will recall that seven selfish towns sued the state over the Act 13 law and it’s provision that would substitute a statewide, uniform and fair set of zoning ordinances for drilling in place of a patchwork, crazy quilt system of local ordinances for oil and gas drilling. These seven selfish towns wanted their own ordinances and sued, ultimately winning at the Supreme Court (see 
Landowners from Bradford, Susquehanna, Wyoming and Lycoming counties (Pennsylvania) attended a rally in Harrisburg, at the Capitol, on Tuesday. They were there to lobby for and support passage of House Bill (HB) 1391, a bill that would guarantee landowners a minimum 12.5% royalty payment regardless of post-production costs. We have extensively covered this issue, which is causing a schism between landowners and drillers (see our most recent article: 
Something noteworthy is happening in southwest Pennsylvania. Landowners and pro-gas supporters are turning out at local hearings to support more drilling. Case in point: Range Resources had applied for a permit to build a drill pad near a local elementary school in Mt. Pleasant (Westmoreland County), PA. Moms Clean Air Force and other anti-drillers turned out to oppose the plan. A local town board meeting was packed to capacity. However, a majority of those packing the meeting were pro-gas and wore t-shirts with “Land Owners United” printed on them. Cool! About time our side began to turn up for these meetings to support the industry…
MDN is pleased to bring you another guest post from our very good friend Chris Acker. Chris is a geological engineer with an MBA. He grew up in the oil fields of Venezuela where his father, a petroleum engineer, was a drilling contractor for all the major players, onshore and off. Chris’ interest in energy economics and policy found him working for Exxon, Petroleum Industry Research Associates and Petroleos de Venezuela. He bought a parcel of land in the PA countryside twenty-five years ago and later semi-retired to work on antique pianos (see 
Yesterday MDN reported the big story that Rice Energy is paying $2.7 billion to buy the assets of Vantage Energy (see 
The legal beagles at the Norton Rose Fulbright law firm recently issued a post on their Hydraulic Fracking Blog with updates on five important bills currently before the PA House and Senate that will affect the Marcellus industry (drillers, midstreamers and landowners)–with details for what’s in the bills and the status for each bill. Likely the most controversial of the bills is House Bill (HB) 1391, which would guarantee PA landowners a 12.5% minimum royalty regardless of post-production costs. That bill is due for a procedural vote today. Other bills are in bottled up in various committees where they may or may not make it out for a full vote. The PA House is in session today, tomorrow, and then Oct 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, and Nov 14, 15. That’s it–just 10 more days in session before the end of the year. The PA Senate is in session today, tomorrow, and then Oct 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26. Just 8 more days for the Senate. So whatever is going to happen must happen quickly. Here’s a rundown on the five important bills, including HB 1391 (“Amendments to Oil and Gas Lease Act”), HB 2275 (“Changes to Environmental Quality Board membership”), HB 2277 (“Amendment to Oil & Gas Act related to bonding requirements”), HB 2319 (“Amendment to Oil & Gas Lease Act”), and HB 2361 (“Pennsylvania Turnpike Right-of-Way Act”)…
Last Friday MDN ran a guest post from an executive who works for a Pennsylvania exploration and production company (E&P, what we call a “driller” here on MDN). In the post, titled 
Contrary to irrational fossil fuel haters and the lies they spread about pipeline companies, those companies do listen and work with local communities and individual landowners to tweak the route of a proposed pipeline in an effort to minimize impacts. Case in point: PennEast Pipeline is 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. It’s being vigorously opposed by anti-drillers including THE Delaware Riverkeeper, the Sierra Clubbers and others. Last Friday PennEast filed 33 changes to the proposed route with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), to accommodate landowners and communities. This is how adults behave, unlike the childish, petulant, spoiled children who run organizations like Riverkeeper and the Sierra Club. PennEast listened, reflected, and changed. The response from the antis? “You can’t build it. CAN’T CAN’T CAN’T CAN’T CAN’T.” There is no reasoning with people who are un-reasonable. Here’s a description of the changes PennEast made to the route through PA and NJ…
With apologies to Meghan Trainor, the second and final day at Shale Insight was “All about that Trump, bout that Trump–no Hillary.” However, as exciting as it was to hear The Donald (we’ll share the notes we took during his speech below), we heard an even better speaker yesterday: A young man (kid, really) by the name of Alex Epstein, author of the book “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels” and founder of the Center for Industrial Progress. As we did yesterday, we will give you our highlights and impressions of sitting in on several of the days main sessions, followed by a plethora of links to stories from reporters who were there covering the event–mostly those there to cover the Trump speech. We also link to the full text of The Donald’s speech below. Buckle up! Here we go…
A Williams Transco Leidy pipeline ruptured in Lycoming County, PA in June 2015 (see