Pennsylvania

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    Anti-Fracking Jackets for Sale at Local Craft Fair in Pittsburgh

    Ever been to a local craft fair? They’re fun. You usually find everything on display and for sale from potholders to original paintings to wooden toys to kettle corn. It’s always eclectic–you never know what you’re going to find at such a show. The one thing we’ve never seen (or heard of), until now, is anti-fracking items for sale. Such a booth turned up at a recent craft fair held in Pittsburgh. It’s just, well, unseemly. Out of place. Kind of like a drunken relative who shows up for a family gathering–someone whom no one wants to be there…
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    Cinci Law Firm Opens New Office/Energy Practice in Pittsburgh

    292586LOGOJust last week we told you it’s getting so bad out there because of the low price of oil and gas, that even some law firms are closing down. We told you that Burleson LLP, headquartered in Houston but with a sizable office they opened in Pittsburgh six years ago, is shutting down all of their offices, including Pittsburgh (see Prominent Energy Law Firm Closing Down – Lack of Business). That puts 31 Burleson employees (including 26 lawyers) in the unemployment line. But just like that, another law firm, this one from Cincinnati, has just announced they are OPENING a new office in Pittsburgh. And guess what? They’ve hired 10 of those Burleson lawyers for their new Pittsburgh office…
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    Seneca Res. Cuts Deal with IOG Capital to Fund Up to 80 PA Wells

    Art of the DealYesterday National Fuel Gas Company, the utility giant headquartered in Buffalo, NY and parent of Marcellus driller Seneca Resources, announced that Seneca has partnered up with energy investor IOG Capital to essentially fund Seneca’s Marcellus drilling program in Elk, McKean and Cameron counties in north-central Pennsylvania. The outlines of the deal are thus: IOG will provide the cash and Seneca will do the drilling on up to 80 Marcellus wells on 10,500 acres in the Clermont/Rich Valley area of PA. IOG will get an 80% working interest in the wells. In addition to drilling the wells, National Fuel’s midstream subsidiary will connect the wells and get the gas to market. What this deal means is that Marcellus drilling activity in the Clermont/Rich Valley area will pick up over the few years. Here’s the details of this somewhat complicated deal…
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    NEPA Electric Plant Converted from Coal to NatGas a Huge Success

    As MDN has previously chronicled, Chicago-based Invenergy hopes to build what will be the largest (to date) electric generating plant in the state of Pennsylvania powered by natural gas. Invenergy hopes to build the 1300-megawatt plant in the borough of Jessup (Lackawanna County), near Scranton. But there’s been quite a bit of opposition, most of it from anti-fossil fuelers (see our Jessup power plant stories here). The folks in Jessup might want to cast their eyes on another project not far away, in Luzerne County, where a former coal-fired power plant was recently converted to burn natural gas. That plant, owned and operated by UGI, reduced sulfur dioxide emissions by 99%, and reduced nitrogen oxide emissions by 95%. That is, natgas-fired electric plants are one of the lowest polluting ways to generate electricity–and far more reliable than alternatives like solar and wind…
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    Shell Closing Pittsburgh Office, Moving 180 People to Houston, TX

    Shell is closing its Pittsburgh-area office and moving “most of” the 180 workers who worked there to its U.S. HQ in Houston, Texas–so says a Shell spokesperson. A few workers may remain and redeploy to various field offices that Shell intends to keep open–including a field office in Tioga County, PA where they have an active drilling program. Shell drilled just eight wells in PA this year, compared to 17 last year and 31 the year before that. Notice a pattern? Perhaps most importantly Shell stresses the office closure has nothing to do with the work on a proposed ethane cracker plant in Beaver County…
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    Decision-time for Landowners in Demchak/Chesapeake Royalty Case

    lawsuitIs the long, sordid affair over Chesapeake Energy screwing Pennsylvania landowners out of royalties finally near an end? Chesapeake and some landowners, part of the “Demchak” class action lawsuit–certainly want you to think so. A year ago MDN told you about a settlement between “several thousand” Pennsylvania landowners and Chesapeake over the royalty issue–Chessy deducting post-production payments by pipeline companies in what some call a scam that leaves landowners signed with Chesapeake receiving royalty checks that are pennies on the dollar compared to what they should receive. The new settlement for those “several thousand” would be 2/3 of $11 million, after the lawyers get their 1/3 cut (see Chesapeake & PA Landowners Settle Royalty Lawsuit…Again). Many PA landowners who are leased with Chesapeake now face a decision–and doing nothing is not an option. The lawyers and the court are about to close the door on what is called the Demchak class action lawsuit. PA landowners with a “market enhancement clause” in their lease should have already received a form letter announcing that unless they opt out of the settlement, they will be included. Below we have an excellent outline of what your options are according to the PA National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO), along with the opinion of one Bradford County landowner who is less than thrilled with the Demchak settlement…
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    PA Senate Committee Votes to Recommend AG Kane’s Removal

    Last Wednesday, the Pennsylvania State Senate committee investigating PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane recommended to the full Senate that she be removed from office. Now. Before any more damage is done to the office of the AG. We’ve long covered the scandal that is about to bring down Kathleen Kane (see our Kane stories here). The scandal bringing her down has nothing to do with the Marcellus Shale, other than it will rid us of a liberal Democrat who illegally targets the drilling industry. No–she has herself to thank when she finally walks (or is dragged) through the exit door. She is a mean, vindictive person who sought to discredit a political enemy by leaking privileged grand jury testimony to a reporter (a felony), and then lying under oath about it (which is perjury, another felony). In fact she’s been indicted on a number of crimes. Last week the PA Senate said “enough is enough, it’s time for her to go.” And what did Kane do? Once again, like a broken record, she said a bunch of dirty old men who work for the state and who swapped porn using their state email accounts are out to get her because she discovered their dirty little secret…
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    PA Game Commission Keeps on Leasing, Not Subject to Wolf’s Ban

    In a companion story today, MDN brings you news that anti-drillers are taking a case to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that could potentially require the state to consider “environmental rights” when considering whether or not to allow drilling on state-owned land. That is, a requirement that drilling be banned on state-owned land. One state agency that owns state land–the Pennsylvania Game Commission–continues to lease land for drilling even though there is currently an executive order by Gov. Tom Wolf that prohibits drilling in state-owned parks and forests. The Game Commission is outside of the executive branch and therefore autonomous and continues to lease land. Here’s an update on who drills the most on and under Game Commission land, and the latest leases (signing bonus and royalties) the Game Commission most recently negotiated…
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    PA Supreme Court to Hear Case on Banning Drilling on State Lands

    Pennsylvania’s Democrat Supreme Court will take up the issue of whether or not private property rights still exist in the Keystone State. That’s the clear legal issue before the court over whether or not the State of Pennsylvania can continue to allow oil and gas drilling on state lands and use the revenues it receives as part of the general fund. Lower courts have all ruled that yes, the state can legally lease its own property, and allow drilling under public land for which it doesn’t, in some cases, own the mineral rights. But radical environmentalists are attempting to abuse the state’s highest court–now packed with liberal Democrats–to achieve what they can’t achieve by any other means. They’re hoping the high court will find a new cockamamie “right” to protect the environment that trumps public and even private property rights in the process. That is, they’re hoping the Supremes will rule that the state MUST ban drilling on state-owned land, in order to protect Mother Earth…
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    State Official Calls Shale Impact “Profound” on PA Agriculture

    Recently the Pennsylvania Agriculture Department Executive Deputy Secretary, Michael Smith, addressed the Natural Gas Task Force for the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP) in Hershey. He had some interesting things to say about shale development in the state. Among them: Shale’s impact on agriculture in the state will be “profound” and “transformative.” Did he mean that in a good way, or a bad way? Yes…
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    Success Story: Welder Starts Pre-Fab Company in PA Shale Country

    MDN has previously marveled and talked about the amount of money welders can command in the shale industry–upward of $1,000 per day (VERY long, 12-hour days). It’s hard work out in the elements–not for the faint of heart. Today there are fewer welding jobs simply because there’s less drilling going on and therefore less wells that need pipelines connected to them. However, this is a story about a welder who didn’t just settle for welding pipelines and equipment at drill pads. This is the story of a welder who have the guts to start his own pre-fab business in the heart of Pennsylvania shale country–and hit it big. Make no mistake, this is not like hitting the lottery. Starting and running a business is HARD work. But if you have what it takes, it can pay off in spades, as it has for our latest Hero of the Marcellus, welder Bill Emick…
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    Natural Gas is Killing City Trees! Tree Whisperer Tells All

    Here’s one more reason to dump evil, nasty, rotten fossil fuels–like natural gas. It kills trees. Yes, methane is a TREE KILLER. Who knew? In yet another laughable “all fossil fuels are evil” meme from the usual suspects at the Democrat house organ called StateImpact Pennsylvania, we get the latest anti-fossil fuel story about how methane leaks in cities are killing poor, defenseless trees that can’t stand up to that nasty bully, fugitive methane. Seems there’s a good business to be had being a tree whisperer…
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    PennEnergy Resources Building Frack Water Pipeline from Ohio River

    PennEnergy Resources, a small but active driller in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale, is working on a plan to pipe water from the Ohio River to its drill sites in Beaver County, PA. PennEnergy is, according to the latest edition of the Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook (Vol. 2) one of two active drillers in Beaver County–and the most active at that. The company was founded by energy executives Rich Weber and Greg Muse in 2011. Here’s the low down on piping Ohio River water to be used for fracking…
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    Prominent Energy Law Firm Closing Down – Lack of Business

    It’s always fun to bust on lawyers–everyone’s favorite pass time, right? “How many lawyers does it take to screw in a light bulb?….” All joking aside, we love lawyers here at MDN. Well, most of them, anyway. Some of our best customers (and biggest supporters) are lawyers. And we love them right back–because you’re nuts if you sign ANYTHING to do with oil and gas without first running it by a qualified attorney. We’ve always said it, and we always will. You need a good lawyer. So it pains us to report that a prominent energy law firm is closing up shop. Burleson LLP, headquartered in Houston, opened an office in Pittsburgh six years ago. Burleson founder and managing partner, Rick Burleson, announced to the firm on Monday that not only is he shutting down the Pittsburgh office, but ALL of the firm’s offices, including HQ in Houston. Why? The slowdown in the oil and gas sector. You don’t lose 233,000 jobs over the course of a year in a single industry without major ramifications for other businesses involved in that industry…
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    PA DEP Fines Chesapeake $1.4M for 4-Year Old Landslide

    Make Him an Offer He Can't RefuseWe’ll let you decide whether the recent action by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is in line with being a good regulatory watchdog, or with being a mafia Don, using the power of the government to shake down a drilling company. On Sept. 15, 2011 as Chesapeake Energy was drilling the Stinger 8H well in Aleppo Township (Greene County), PA, in an area known for its landslides–they experienced (yes) a landslide. The landslide created sediment that plugged about one-fourth of a mile of seven “streams” so tiny they don’t have names–essentially drainage ditches. The seven drainage ditches, when they have water in them, flow into a very small creek called Harts Run. In return Harts Run, which crosses the border into West Virginia, eventually empties into a slightly bigger creek called Pennsylvania Fork Fish Creek, which eventually empties into Fish Creek (slightly bigger again), which eventually empties into the Ohio River–on the other side of WV where it borders with Ohio. There is zero chance any of the sediment made it beyond Harts Run, let alone all the way to the Ohio. But still, it’s not a good thing if you’re not “careful” to prevent what the Guvment believes you should be able to prevent. Chesapeake, since that time (over four years ago), has essentially fixed the problem–spending millions to do so. Apparently there’s a little bit of work left to do. The PA DEP comes along and yesterday announced that Chesapeake has agreed to pay the DEP a whopping $1.4 million fine for this four year-old accident, as well as do a bit of tidying up of the drainage ditches. Here’s the kicker–Chessy doesn’t even own that well any more…
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    PA County Judge Rules Rex Can Begin Drilling First Martian Well

    My Favorite MartianAs we have long chronicled, a few anti-drilling parents from the Mars School District (Butler County, far western part of the state), backed by a couple of Big Green groups from the other side of the state (in the Philadelphia area), sued Middlesex Township to stop shale drilling in rural portions of the county. Rex Energy had applied for, was legally permitted for, but still hasn’t been allowed to drill a series of wells some three-fourths of a mile from the Mars School (for background, see our long list of “Martian” stories here). This is the outrage: These very same anti-drillers fought hard to overturn a portion of the 2012 Act 13 law that took zoning of oil and gas out of the hands of local towns and put it in state hands. The zoning portion of Act 13 was overturned by the PA Supreme Court. The antis got what they wanted–except, it seems, they got a little too much of what they wanted. They didn’t factor that in some towns there would be a majority who favor fracking and shale drilling–like in Middlesex. Middlesex ran an extensive series of nine hearings over seven months and eventually adopted zoning ordinances that allow Rex to drill. So the antis sued to stop what they previously sued to achieve. Eventually a group of landowners counter-sued the antis (rightfully so) for denying them access to allow drilling on their own land. That lawsuit is still playing out in the courts. Last Thursday a Butler County judge ruled, once again, that the zoning ordinances adopted by Middlesex are legal and therefore drilling can commence. The antis will appeal the decision and continue to try and block local landowners from legally using their own property as they see fit…
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