Pennsylvania

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Health Impacts | Industrialization | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Partisan Attack on Shale Drilling by PA Budget & Policy Center
December 22, 2014December 22, 2014

The virulently leftist, anti-drilling and partisan so-called non-profit Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center (kook lefties) released a report last week, funded by the Park Foundation and Mamma Teresa Heinz Kerry’s Heinz Endowments, that says shale drilling in Pennsylvania is responsible for just about everything bad: high deaths due to traffic accidents, high rents, crime, and (don’t laugh), even sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Who knows–maybe even the Black Plague, ebola, sun spots, stray comets and other calamities can also be laid at the feet of shale drilling…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Unemployment “Plummets” in SWPA, Thanks to the Marcellus
December 22, 2014December 22, 2014

All we heard about, endlessly, from mainstream media in Pennsylvania during the 2014 PA campaign for governor is how Corbett (Satan himself) can’t do anything right, and even his so-called best buddies in the energy industry couldn’t cover up the fact that Pennsylvania is losing jobs like crazy. Unemployment in the Keystone State sucks. Where are all those promised shale jobs? Yada yada yada. So went the narrative. But that was then, this is now. Now that the media’s candidate (Tom Wolf) has won, it’s time to start telling the truth again. The truth? In places where there’s active drilling, like southwestern PA, unemployment numbers are way down, at historic lows…
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New York | Pennsylvania | Statewide NY | Statewide PA

Shale Gas News Radio – December 20, 2014 [Audio]
December 22, 2014December 22, 2014

Every Saturday the one-hour Shale Gas News show airs on Scranton, PA’s 94.3 FM “The Talker” radio station. The show is co-hosted by Kevin Lynn of Linde Corporation and Bill desRosiers from Cabot Oil & Gas. MDN editor Jim Willis knows Bill and counts him as a friend. Bill asked Jim to join he and Kevin on this past Saturday’s program to discuss the New York decision to ban shale drilling. Below is the lineup for the show (Jim appeared at the beginning of the program), along with an option to listen to a recording of the full hour. MDN will bring you the latest program show notes and recordings for Shale Gas News each week (well worth your time to listen)…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide NY | Statewide PA

Dela. Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum Takes Credit for NY Frack Ban
December 19, 2014December 19, 2014

Talk about breathtaking arrogance. We always knew THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum, had a high opinion of herself. But we didn’t fully know, until now, just how arrogant she truly is. Get this: van Rossum is taking credit for New York’s decision to ban fracking. Delusions of grandeur, anyone? Trying to puff up your own importance when relatively few know you even exist? According to van Rossum, the decision to allow fracking in Pennsylvania is all political, and the decision to ban fracking in New York is all based on science. Can anyone say LMAO?…
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CNG/LNG | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Wyoming County (PA)

P&G Plant in NEPA Adds Marcellus CNG Filling Station
December 19, 2014December 19, 2014

One of the most overlooked stories of the past few years in MDN’s opinion is the story of Proctor & Gamble in Wyoming County, PA (near Wilkes-Barre). P&G has some 150 massive manufacturing plants worldwide to make their products. The plant in Wyoming County makes Pampers and Luvs diapers, and Charmin toilet paper. Like the other P&G plants, the massive Wyoming plant consumes a LOT of electricity–800 billion killowatt hours, enough energy to run 40,000 homes. However, as of last year, all of the electricity P&G needs at the Wyoming plant is produced by P&G–using Marcellus gas to power its own electric plant (see P&G’s Only Energy Self-Sufficient Plant is Powered by Marcellus). It is the only P&G plant worldwide that is 100% energy self-sufficient–right in northeast PA. Now, Marcellus gas from the P&G property will also be used to feed a compressed natural gas (CNG) filling station located at the plant…
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Deep Well Services | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Supply Chain

PA Snubber DWS Continues to Expand, Adds New Rigs for Utica Shale
December 19, 2014December 19, 2014

In September, MDN told you about Deep Well Services, the only “snubbing” oilfield services company headquartered in Pennsylvania (see PA “Snubbing” Company DWS Experiences Rapid Expansion). Once again the company is on the grow, adding several new rigs to its expanding fleet…
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Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA Gov-Elect Wolf Transition Team Includes DRBC’s Carol Collier
December 17, 2014December 17, 2014

Pennsylvania Gov.-elect Tom Wolf has selected the members of his takover team (sometimes referred to as a transition team). Who has he selected when it comes to taking over the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR)? Those are the two organizations most closely involved with the issue of shale gas drilling in the Keystone State. MDN has reviewed the list of takeover team members for both the DEP and DCNR (see it below). We’ve identified those we consider either pro-drilling (highlighted in green) or anti-drilling (highlighted in red). At a glance it appears to be pretty evenly split. However, the big red flag for us is the appointment of Carol Collier, former director of the Delaware River Basin Commission, to the DEP takeover team. Interesting thing is, Wolf’s website doesn’t mention Collier’s most recent position at the DRBC–perhaps hoping no one would notice?…
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Energy Companies | EXCO Resources | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

EXCO Resources Suspends Dividend Payments to Shareholders
December 17, 2014December 17, 2014

It’s never a good thing when a publicly traded company suspends dividend payments. EXCO Resources, an oil and natural gas driller with operations in Texas, Louisiana and a small drilling operation in the Pennsylvania Marcellus, announced on Monday that because the price of oil has gone so low, they’ve suspended dividend payments to shareholders. One more case of how low oil prices can and does affect drilling for natural gas in the northeast…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Sen Brewster’s “Excrement for Education” Severance Tax Bill
December 17, 2014December 17, 2014

Pennsylvania State Sen. Jim Brewster (Democrat from Allegheny & Westomoreland counties) wants to be known as the politician that killed Marcellus drilling in the Keystone State. That’s the only thing we can conclude from his efforts to introduce (yet again) a bill that would tax Marcellus drilling into idleness. Brewster’s plan calls for KEEPING the impact fee and ADDING a severance tax to it–but deducting impact fee payments from the severance tax. Complicated cockamamie? Yeah. Brewster proudly calls his bill/plan “Extraction for Education” because it will give all of the severance portion raised (5% or whatever portion it works out after impact fees) to teachers’ unions. We call it “Excrement for Education”…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Senators to Re-Introduce Impact Fee Bill for Pipelines
December 17, 2014December 17, 2014

Two Philadelphia-area state senators, John Rafferty (Republican from Collegeville), and Andrew Dinniman (Democcrat from West Chester), will introduce legislation in January that would extend the Act 13 impact fee to include newly built gathering and transmission pipelines in the state. The new fee/tax would be based on the amount of acreage used by the pipeline, which includes the entire right-of-way on either side of the pipeline. According to the senators, most of the revenue generated would stay with the local counties and towns where the pipeline is located, in keeping with the intent of an impact fee. The industry is pushing back, saying pipelines have a minimal impact…
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Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Utica Shale | Washington County

Range Resources Drills Highest-Ever Initial Producing Utica Well
December 16, 2014December 16, 2014

Yesterday Range Resources released an announcement with two big pieces of news. The first (and lesser) news is this: Range is trimming its 2015 exploration and production budget by 18% compared to what they spent this year. The 2015 capital expenditure budget is now set at $1.3 billion. However, the company says production will continue to increase, even with less spending on drilling. The second and more important news: Range has drilled a Utica Shale well that has dethroned Magnum Hunter’s Utica well (see Magnum Hunter Takes the Prize: Top Producing Utica Well) as being the most initially productive horizontal shale well ever–in the Marcellus, Utica or any other shale play. Range says their Utica well is producing an initial production rate of a mind-blowing 59 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d). In the course of a single month, that one well produces enough gas to heat more than 25,000 U.S. homes for an entire winter. Oh…and just where is Range’s new gargantuan Utica well located? In Washington County, PA…
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Landowner Coalition News | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Washington County

Go it Alone? Or Join a Landowner Coalition/Group?
December 16, 2014December 16, 2014

Not every landowner can belong to a group that negotiates a lease to allow Marcellus or Utica Shale drilling. In some areas (like PA, WV and OH), much of the large tracts of land is already leased. However, if you can belong to such a group, MDN believes it is in your best interests to do so. For example, take the experience of landowners in Washington County, PA…
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Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA “High” Society Meeting Yields News Related to Marcellus
December 16, 2014December 16, 2014

It’s interesting and instructive that when members of the Pennsylvania Society, the so-called “cream of Pennsylvania’s elite” get together for their annual soiree, they go to…New York City. And they party. At this year’s meeting there were several pieces of news that related to the Marcellus Shale. In fact, three of the four major pieces of news are closely tied to the Marcellus. They include: corrupt Philadelphia City Council President Darrell Clarke wants to run for mayor; incompetent PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane will run for a second ignominious term; and new PA Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman appears to be a RINO like the outgoing Senate Majority Leader…
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Commodity Price | Crude Oil | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

How are Low Oil Prices Affecting Marcellus-Focused Law Practices?
December 16, 2014December 16, 2014

We continue to see stories mentioning the collapse of the oil price and its potential ramifications on shale drilling in the northeast. Yesterday we brought you insight into how low oil prices may (or may not) be affecting Ohio Utica Shale drilling (see OOGA Says Some Drilling in OH Stopped by Low Oil Price). Today, we have a story about how the low price of oil may or may not be affecting the legal industry that serves the Marcellus and Utica industry. When it comes to whether or not lawyers are seeing a slow down, it all depends on what part of the industry they serve…
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Butler County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | XTO

PA DEP Issues “Cease & Desist” Notice to XTO in Butler County, PA
December 15, 2014December 15, 2014

The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) says XTO Energy never applied for or received a permit to push dirt around to create a truck access area near a planned drill pad in Butler County, PA. So the DEP has issued a “cease and desist” order to XTO. Unless and until they get permission (Mother May I?), XTO has five days to patch it up and re-seed it or throw mulch over it to prevent erosion…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | UIL Holdings

UIL CEO “Disappointed” by Phila. Gas Works Deal Abortion
December 15, 2014December 15, 2014

We’re left with one, very strong recommendation, after the abortion of the deal to sell Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) to UIL Holding, a Connecticut utility company: Philadelphia City Council members need to be investigated to see whose pockets have gotten fatter since the deal was aborted. The head of UIL has spoken on the record about the deal for the first time. In an interview last Friday, UIL CEO James Torgerson said he had met privately “multiple times” with all but two (of 17) Philly City Council members and by his count 9 of them would have voted “yes” on a deal to sell PGW to UIL. The only conclusion we can reach is that money has changed hands to stop the deal from going forward. What other conclusion can a sane, rational, thinking person reach? It’s time for an investigation–in particular of Councilwoman Marian Tasco, who refused to meet and talk with UIL even once. Tasco chairs the Philadelphia Gas Commission. Too bad Pennsylvania’s Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, refuses to investigate people from her own party. We say it’s time for a special prosecutor to be appointed…
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