Pennsylvania

Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Susquehanna County

PA DEP Rejects PIOGA’s Call to Dump 4 Non-Voting TAB Members
April 24, 2015April 24, 2015

week and a half ago MDN told you about the brewing showdown between the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association, or PIOGA (see PIOGA Turns Up the Heat on Wolf/Quigley Over TAB/Article 78). The bone of contention is Acting DEP Secretary John Quigley’s appointment (illegal appointment according to PIOGA) of four mostly anti-drilling board members to the DEP’s Oil & Gas Technical Advisory Board (TAB). The four are non-voting members–but they gum up the real work that needs to get done by TAB in approving new drilling regulations–something called Chapters 78 and 78a. Yesterday the DEP doubled down and rejected PIOGA’s call to dismiss the four new members appointed by Quigley. Actually, all five voting members were replaced by Quigley too, in a great purge (see Why did PA DEP Acting Sec Quigley Mass Fire Gas Advisory Board?). PIOGA previously said they will consider a lawsuit to pursue the matter should Quigley continue down this road…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA DEP Plans to Air Conventional Drilling’s Dirty Laundry
April 24, 2015April 24, 2015

Pennsylvania’s conventional (non-shale) oil and gas drillers have long argued they should be exempt from new rules and regulations that apply to shale drillers. The wells they drill are much shallower, use less water (and less of everything, including truck trips), and in general conventional drillers say shale regulations will drive mom and pop drillers out of business entirely. The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, however, doesn’t quite see it that way. The DEP has made certain allowances for the difference between shale and non-shale, but the DEP has drawn a line in the frac sand on other matters and plans to press it case that conventional drillers need to step up their game…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Town Supervisors Say “No Thanks” To Wolf Severance Tax Plan
April 24, 2015April 24, 2015

More and more people are waking up to the fact that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed severance tax is not only bad for the Marcellus industry–it’s bad for the state too. The latest group to officially oppose it is the influential Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors (PSATS). The group’s president said yesterday that the fee from the severance tax intended to replace the current impact fee (under Act 13) that provides an important source of revenue for municipalities would not grow as drilling grows. PSATS has figured out the dirty little secret–Wolf intends to raid money that would have gone to townships in order to grease politicians hands in Harrisburg, allowing that money to disappear into the black hole of state spending…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Butler County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Rex Energy

Martian Sighting in Harrisburg – Keep Wells Away from Schools
April 24, 2015April 24, 2015

Where’s HG Wells when you need him? We’ve had another Martian sighting! At yesterday’s PA Dept. of Environmental Protection Oil & Gas Technical Advisory Board (TAB) meeting, Amy Nassif, representing some of the parents from the Mars School district in Butler County, PA, addressed TAB members imploring them to “keep oil and gas well pads away from schools.” Aaah, Ms. Nassif–what about well pads that already exist ON SCHOOL PROPERTY? Like the well pad at the Elk Lake School in Susquehanna County (see Rural NE PA School Nets $1.7M in Royalties from 2 Marcellus Wells). Should they rip out their two wells–wells that haven’t harmed a single student and have brought in millions of dollars for the school?…
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Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell | Sullivan County

PA Gov. Wolf Talks to Shell About Beaver County Cracker Plant
April 23, 2015April 23, 2015

PA Gov. Tom Wolf is bullish on the possibility of an ethane cracker coming to Beaver County, PA. He thinks a cracker is “inevitable.” In what can only be described as a faux pas for Wolf, he spoke about his love of a cracker yesterday, on Earth Day (oops). Earth Day is all about Democrats professing love of Mother Earth and hatred of fossil fuels. Must be Wolf didn’t get the memo. Wolf says he’s spoken to Shell muckety-mucks to let them know PA still wants a cracker. He said the Shell muckety-mucks say the project is “still on track” although there’s no timetable for a decision–which we take to mean no decision will be made for the foreseeable future…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Anti-Drillers Pressure Philly City Council to Dump Energy Hub Plan
April 23, 2015April 23, 2015

A group of 33 anti-progress organizations, headed up by the odious and misnamed Food & Water Watch, have (fantastically) sent a letter to members of the Philadelphia City Council to tell City Council they should forget about making Philly an East Coast “energy hub.” The blithering idiots refuse to acknowledge the reason they’re alive and able to send such a letter is due to the beneficence of fossil fuels. They are only able to organize and protest fossil fuels–because of the existence of fossil fuels. The good news is that City Council is so corrupt they won’t notice or care anyway…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Center for Sustainable Shale Dev Gets Grant to Keep Going
April 23, 2015April 23, 2015

A spot of good news for the Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD). The CSSD has struggled to obtain funding after Mamma Teresa Heinz Kerry, the William Penn Foundation and the quacks at PennFuture all pulled their funding for the group (see PAI Says 3rd Enviro Group – PennFuture – Abandoned CSSD). The Richard King Mellon Foundation threw the CSSD a lifeline by donating (see CSSD Thrown a Lifeline from Richard King Mellon Foundation). Now comes word that the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation has renewed their support with another one-year grant…
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Education | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Lackawanna College Gets New Virtual Well Control Training System
April 23, 2015April 23, 2015

The Lackawanna College School of Petroleum & Natural Gas is one of the country’s premier petroleum technology programs. It’s located not far from the border of New York State–in New Milford (Susquehanna County), PA. Lackawanna’s program is one of perhaps half a dozen such programs in the entire country. It fills a need to train oilfield and midstream workers for highly technical, skilled positions. Like running compressor stations, or running drill rigs. The Lackawanna program is a two-year program which sits nicely between a four-year year petroleum engineering degree on one side, and the trades, like welding or being a roustabout on the other side. Last year Cabot Oil & Gas made an eye-popping $2.5 million grant to the college (see Cabot Oil & Gas Does it Again – $2.5 Million Gift to Lackawanna College). A new $150,000 grant from the State of Pennsylvania has just been announced that will bring a state-of-the-art virtual training system for well control to Lackawanna…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

Confirmed: PA Natgas Production Decreased from Jan to Feb 2015
April 22, 2015April 22, 2015

As MDN told you last week, natural gas production in Pennsylvania went DOWN from January to February 2015 (see Exclusive: PA Feb Natgas Production Numbers Show Decrease from Jan). We now have the percentage by which it decreased: 9%. As we said last week, EQT and a few other laggards didn’t file their numbers on time. Those numbers are now in and we have the final summary below showing production for both January and February, and the percentage difference–both by county and by driller. Mainstream and industry publications we’ve read say February natgas production in PA was either flat or slightly up from January. That simply is not the case. We’ve run the numbers–twice. We’ve pulled the raw data from the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection–twice. We’ve checked and rechecked and, as we predicted last week, “we expect production to have decreased somewhere around 8-10% overall.” We nailed it, if we might immodestly say so ourselves. So why does everyone else say production rose slightly?…
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Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA Drilling Permits Drop 30% Jan-Mar – How Low Will it Go?
April 22, 2015April 22, 2015

How low will it go? Data from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) shows a significant drop in the number of Marcellus Shale drilling permits issued for the first quarter of 2015. In fact, the number of permits issued dropped 30% in 1Q15–to the lowest number of permits issued in the past five years. Here’s a look at the numbers…
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Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Pennsylvania | Regulation

Invenergy Gets Notice of Violation in PA for Disturbing 3 Mud Puddles
April 22, 2015May 4, 2015

One more twist in what is shaping up to be a very long process to build the state’s largest electric generating plant powered by Marcellus Shale gas. Invenergy hopes to build the 1500-megawatt plant in the borough of Jessup (Lackawanna County), near Scranton, on an 80-acre former coal mine and landfill site (see UGI to Feed Jessup, PA Electric Plant with Marcellus Shale Gas). The project was announced in 2013. Part of the evaluation process for the site is to determine if there’s nasty stuff left over from the landfill that needs to be moved. Invenergy hired a company to drill some test holes to analyze what’s down there. As part of drilling those holes, the company hired “disturbed” three wetlands areas. In other words, they pushed some dirt around in three mud puddles/swamps. Invenergy recognized the error and immediately notified the Dept. of Environmental Protection who has now, nine months later, issued a notice of violation to Invenergy for disturbing the mud puddles. It remains to be seen how costly the error was…
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Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

PA DEP Releases 2013 Air Pollution from Drilling Report
April 21, 2015April 21, 2015

Each year the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) collects air emissions data for the natural gas industry as required by PA’s Air Pollution Control Act. Yesterday the DEP issued a comprehensive report for calendar year 2013. It’s no surprise that several categories of air pollutants increased–the more wells you drill, the more activity, the more air pollution. What *is* surprising is that two categories of air pollution decreased: carbon monoxide (CO) and methane (CH4). You also need to throw this into the mix: The way the information is collected and reported changed in 2013. The DEP began requiring data from compressor stations supporting coalbed methane wells. That is, they grew the pie–the data is sort of apples and oranges. And still the CO and CH4 numbers went down! Below is the DEP summary of the numbers, broken out by type of air pollution…
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Accidents | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Sunoco Logistics | Washington County

PA DEP: Sunoco Facing “Significant” Fine for Non-Toxic Mud Spills
April 21, 2015April 21, 2015

Last September MDN told you about a drilling mud spill that ended up in Little Mingo Creek in Washington County, PA (see Mariner East Pipeline Drilling Spills Mud in Local Creek). Sunoco Logistics was using a contractor to drill under the creek when the drill bit hit something really hard and broke, and the mud poured out of a ruptured hole and into the creek. Fortunately the mud, which is a substance called bentonite, is non-toxic and used in products from shampoo to deodorant and toothpaste. However, in sufficient quantities it can suffocate aquatic life. We didn’t think much about that incident until we spotted a story that says the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is about issue Sunoco Logistics a fine for that accident–a really big fine…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County | Wastewater

Range Loses 2nd Appeal, Must Provide PA Well Site Chemical List
April 20, 2015February 8, 2019

Three families who live near a former drill site and frack wastewater impoundment at the Yeager Marcellus Shale site in Washington County, PA sued Range Resources in May 2012 claiming the air they breathe and the water they drink had been contaminated by Range’s operation at the site (see EPA Investigating Range Drill Site in Western PA). Litigation ensued, and years passed. In 2013, a Washington County court ordered Range (not its contractors, but Range itself) to disclose a list of all chemicals used at the site–right down to the type of motor oil used in vehicles coming and going at the site (see PA Judge Forces Range, Contractors to Provide Chemical List). It will be an almost impossible task to construct such a list at this point, especially in light of the fact they’re in the process of closing the site. So Range appealed. Last June they lost that appeal (see Court Says Range Resources Must Disclose Chemicals in SW PA). Range appealed again, and last week they lost that second appeal…
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Education | Energy Companies | Exxon Mobil | Industrywide Issues | New York | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide NY | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

ExxonMobil Donates $47M to Higher Ed, Including Marcellus Region
April 20, 2015April 20, 2015

ExxonMobil runs an incredibly generous program called the Educational Matching Gift Program under which they have just donated $47 million to ~900 colleges and universities across the United States. Here’s how it works: for every $1 ExxonMobil employees, retirees, directors and surviving spouses contribute to the Matching Gift Program, ExxonMobil matches it with $3. In Pennsylvania, the total pot donated to higher education was $3.8 million. In Ohio, it was $909,000. Virginia colleges are getting $1.3 million. New York State colleges and universities are getting a whopping $3.4 million–after New York State has screwed ExxonMobil royally (the company has lost millions of dollars in lease expirations when it couldn’t drill shale wells in the state because of Andrew Cuomo’s fracking ban). And yet, ExxonMobil gave money to the Empire State anyway, to some of the very schools who provide shelter and sponsor anti-drilling zealots. It shows the caliber of the people who run the company. One more: New Jersey, big users of oil and gas, but haters of pipelines and shale drilling, got $1.1 million…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

“Peaceful” Protesters Removed from LNG Export Hearing in Philly
April 17, 2015April 20, 2015

Another example of a “peaceful, non-violent” protest occurred yesterday in Philadelphia. City Councilman David Oh organized a meeting to discuss the feasibility of locating a facility inside city limits to liquefy and export natural gas. The city owns Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), the largest municipal-owned utility in the country. PGW already has a small LNG facility in the city, but currently it’s set up to import LNG, not export it. Councilman Oh wanted to explore the possibility of converting the site to export LNG. You may recall the corrupt Philly City Council nixed a potential deal to sell PGW to UIL Holdings (see Philly City Council Kills the Phila. Gas Works $1.86B Deal). Since that time, City Council members like Oh have tried to save face and figure out how they might turn around the near-bankrupt PGW. One of the most promising ideas is to set up a small exporting operation. A meeting to discuss that idea was held on the campus of Drexel University. A meaningful portion of those attending were anti-drilling nutters who wouldn’t shut up and had to be escorted out by Drexel security personnel. Yep, just more of your “peaceful, non-violent” types out to make a point…
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