Drill Cuttings Used to Build New Road in Lycoming County, PA
Imagine this: a backhoe sinks its bucket into the ground, scoops out some dirt, and the dirt is used to build a road. No big deal. Now imagine this, a very long drill goes down into the earth and digs out dirt. Because the dirt comes from deep down, some of it may be mixed with minerals not found near the surface, so a company processes the deep down dirt to remove any extra minerals, and the dirt is then essentially the same chemical composition as the dirt from near the surface–and it’s used to build a road. The dirt from deep down is called drill cuttings. Environmental Nazis repeat the magical incantation, “It’s been fracked!” and therefore they begin to hyperventilate that “fracked waste” is being used to build a road. Our example illustrates antis’ intellectual dishonesty about what drill cuttings are. When we spotted a story that a private hunting club in Lycoming County (Williamsport area) in PA will build a new road using processed drill cuttings, and the spin job done by the anti-drilling shills at the taxpayer-funded PBS StateImpact Pennsylvania, we had to laugh…
Read More “Drill Cuttings Used to Build New Road in Lycoming County, PA”
In June MDN reported on yet another new unlegislated law (called a “rule”) issued by the rogue federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that bans the disposal of wastewater from oil and gas drilling via public wastewater/sewage treatment plants (see 
Recently a group of 12 Pennsylvania state representatives held a hearing in Armstrong County, PA on the topic of separate regulations for PA’s small conventional vs large shale drillers. You may recall that new drilling rules from the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) have been approved for shale drillers, called Article 78a, but not for conventional drillers, called Article 78 (see 
Last week MDN reported that Dennis Davin, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) had gone on a roadshow to three counties that will be most affected by Shell’s ethane cracker plant planned for Beaver County (see 
The Donald is coming to Steel City to talk to frackers. Last Friday the Marcellus Shale Coalition, organizers and operators of the top notch Shale Insight conference and trade show held each year, announced that they had extended an invitation to both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to speak at this year’s event being held in Pittsburgh on September 21 & 22. The Donald said “yes” and Hillary said “no.” The Donald supports fossil fuels and their safe extraction and what they can do for America’s energy security. Hillary doesn’t. Need we say more? Oh, one more thing: MDN is happy to announce we will have a booth at this year’s Shale Insight. More on that in future posts. For now, here’s the exciting news that The Donald will address attendees at Shale Insight in less than a month…
We believe this bit of news is exclusive to MDN–we’ve not seen it anywhere else, yet. In early August MDN reported that the novel legal argument offered by the radical leftist PA-based group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) in Grant Township (Indiana County), PA claiming to represent a local ecosystem had failed (see 
A banker, a real estate developer and a natural gas drilling company rep walk into a bar… No wait! This isn’t a joke! A banker, a real estate developer and a natgas drilling rep were panelists at seminar held yesterday, organized by the Pittsburgh Business Times. Even though there has been a major slowdown in Marcellus/Utica drilling, all three panelists were upbeat and optimistic–in no small part because of the coming Shell ethane cracker in nearby Beaver County. One comment made about the Shell cracker: “We’re not just building a facility; we’re building an industry.” That’s just how major the Shell project will be in the greater Pittsburgh area. Another comment: “The Marcellus Shale is not in the tank…It has slowed down, which is typical of industries that are sensitive to price cycles, [but] it’s consistent, affordable and is stable.” More interesting tidbits from the PBT soiree…
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has fined two CONSOL Energy subsidiaries, CNX Gas (the drilling division) and CONE Midstream (co-owned by CONSOL and Noble Energy) for coloring outside the lines when they built some gathering pipelines in four western Pennsylvania counties. CNX was fined $139,000 and CONE was fined $45,000 for veering off the path officially filed with the DEP. According to DEP spokesman John Poister, the numskulls didn’t pay attention and were sloppy (our words, his sentiment). Here’s the official announcement from the DEP, along with comments from Poister…
We suppose we should have known, but we didn’t. We didn’t know that Pennsylvania has a Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). In fact, the DCED has its own cabinet-level Secretary–Dennis Davin–appointed by Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf in January 2015 when Wolf assumed office. Davin has stayed largely under the radar–until now. Wolf has sent Davin out on a road show to promote the forthcoming Shell ethane cracker plant. Davin is conducting roundtable discussions in various communities around PA to generate ideas on how local businesses can benefit from the cracker. So far he’s visited Beaver County (where the cracker will be built), Lawrence County and Washington County. The DCED is flooding the airways with press releases about Davin’s cracker road show…
Gene Barr is the president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry. The PA Chamber is a big supporter of the Marcellus industry. Writing a column that appears in a recent edition of the York Dispatch, Barr gives full-throated support to three pipelines “critical” to PA’s future: Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise; Sunoco Logistics’ Mariner East 2; and UGI Energy Services’ PennEast. We really liked Barr’s column (read it below). However, we would add a fourth pipeline to his list of critically important pipelines for PA drillers: the Williams Constitution Pipeline. While the three projects Barr names will be mostly built in PA, the Constitution Pipeline will be mostly built in New York State. We suppose that’s all we have to say for you to know why that project is in trouble. At any rate, here’s the reasons Barr offers for supporting the three pipelines he mentions in his column, reasons that equally apply to the much-needed Constitution Pipeline too…
Pennsylvania, like all states, is on a mission to combat the fairy tale of man-made global warming by reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions (the stuff you exhale with every breath), and by reducing methane (i.e. natural gas) that escapes into the atmosphere. Global warmists have talked themselves into the belief that a little methane leaking here and there is worse than a supernova. Whatever. The Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) in PA is tasked with developing a plan to reduce CO2 and methane emissions in the Keystone State. They’ve just released a final version of their 2015 Climate Change Action Plan Update (full copy below). Among the suggestions from the brainiacs at the DEP is dressing up trucks in skirts (don’t ask)…
This one has us scratching our heads. Landowners Damon and Kendra Baker, in Tioga County, PA, signed a lease with Shell’s SWEPI in 2006. We’re guessing the signing bonus was peanuts because at that time the Marcellus was still in its infancy in PA. SWEPI constructed a well pad on their property in 2010 but had drilled no wells by the time the lease expired in 2011. The Bakers wanted a healthy re-signing bonus to allow SWEPI to lease their land again. SWEPI’s final offer was $150,000 (not sure for how many acres). The Baker’s, according to SWEPI, wanted half a million dollars. SWEPI said “no thanks” and therefore, according to state Dept. of Environmental Protection standards, needs to restore the property to its original state and be done with it. But the Bakers won’t let them re-enter the property. So SWEPI is suing and the clock is ticking–they only have until December to put it back to original condition or the company will be fined $500/day until it’s done…
In May MDN told you that the Penn Township (in Westmoreland County, PA) zoning board voted to refuse to grant a permit to Apex Energy to build a DEP-permitted well pad in the town (see