Pennsylvania

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

DEP Sec. Abruzzo Says Budget Bill Means Delay in New Drilling Regs
July 16, 2014July 16, 2014

On Monday, MDN asked the question and explored the issue of whether or not the recent language slipped into the PA budget bill (that was passed and signed by Gov. Corbett) to separate conventional and unconventional drilling regulations would require the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and their Environmental Quality Board (EQB) to go back to the drawing board with new regulations stipulated by the Act 13 law (see Is PA’s Act 13 Law on Last Legs with Passage of PA Budget?). DEP Secretary Chris Abruzzo tackled that issue head-on yesterday…
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Allegheny County | Education | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

PTI Welcomes First Class of Welding Associate Degree Students
July 16, 2014July 16, 2014

Responding to the urgent and ongoing need for skilled welders in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, Pittsburgh Technical Institute announced yesterday a new associates degree in welding to train pipe and structural welders. The first class in the new degree program will begin on July 21 and another cohort will begin in October. PTI says they expect both classes to be filled to capacity…
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Accidents | CNX Resources | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

Fire at CONSOL Well Pad Site in Greene County, PA
July 15, 2014July 15, 2014

CONSOL Energy experienced a small fire yesterday around 3:30 pm at their Green Hill 11 drill pad near Waynesburg (Greene County), PA. There are precious few details, but we know that no one was injured, and the fire was out and the fire department left the scene within two hours–meaning it was fairly minor…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Is PA’s Act 13 Law on Last Legs with Passage of PA Budget?
July 14, 2014July 14, 2014

It’s early days yet–but here’s a developing and potentially disturbing story for drillers (and landowners, and supply chain companies) in Pennsylvania. As MDN reported, last week PA Gov. Tom Corbett signed a $29.1 billion budget bill (see PA Budget Signed by Gov. Corbett – No Severance Tax This Year). The good news is there will be no jobs-and-drilling killing severance tax–this year. The bad news is that regulations that should have been standalone–to separate conventional and unconventional drilling–were slipped into the budget bill. Why is that bad? Because, as StateImpact Pennsylvania is reporting, it may lead to the total gutting of the Act 13 law…
Read More “Is PA’s Act 13 Law on Last Legs with Passage of PA Budget?”
About MDN | MDN Resources | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Baker Hughes Announces 2Q14 Well Count – What is a Well Count?
July 14, 2014July 14, 2014

No doubt you’ve heard of the Baker Hughes rig count–the number of drilling rigs currently in use to drill oil and gas wells. Baker Hughes has provided that data for, like, forever! Used to be you could lay a ruler down and determine whether supplies of natural gas would increase or decrease based on the number of drilling rigs in use. That went out the door a few years ago with shale wells. Production numbers are no longer closely tied to the rig count. So Baker Hughes invented a new metric to help: well counts. They reported last week that well counts are up 5% in the second quarter of 2014 over 2013. Wait, what’s a well count? And why is it important?…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Anti-Drilling Group Sues PA over Budget and $ from State Leases
July 14, 2014July 14, 2014

The litigious anti-drilling group Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF) waited all of about two hours after PA Gov. Tom Corbett signed the 2014 PA budget before filing a lawsuit to prevent the use of money from leasing more state forestland and parks for drilling under (not on). Gov. Corbett originally requested $75 million in new revenue from the effort. As we pointed out, that $75M represents exactly 0.00255 of the budget (see PA Dems: No Leg to Stand on Criticizing $75M Forest Drilling Plan). In other words, a rounding error. Never mind that Ed “fast Eddie” Rendell sold $444 million worth of leases that drill on as well as under, when he was governor. House and Senate Republicans upped the number to $95M and Corbett signed the budget, so the PEDF is trying to make legal mischief, once again…
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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

Commerce Dept Slaps Foreign Countries for Steel Pipe Dumping
July 14, 2014July 14, 2014

MDN has kept an eye on the developing story of foreign countries–particular South Korea–“dumping” cheap steel pipes in the U.S., pipes used in the shale drilling industry (see US Senators Join Chorus: “Illegal” Steel Pipe Dumping by S Korea and “Dumping” Leads to 177 Jobs Lost at PA Marcellus Pipeline Plant). Seems that the Obama Commerce Department agrees and has taken decisive action to put an end to it. Last Friday the Commerce Department slapped a stiff tariff (i.e. tax) on tubular goods (steel pipes) coming in to the U.S. from South Korea and eight other countries…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Budget Signed by Gov. Corbett – No Severance Tax This Year
July 11, 2014July 11, 2014

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican, signed a Republican-passed budget for the state yesterday. The budget, thankfully, does not include a Marcellus Shale severance tax. It does, however, include new regulations that separate drilling standards between conventional (vertical only) and unconventional (shale) drilling. MDN has long chronicled the battle by PA’s Democrats to transfer wealth from the drilling industry to PA schools, and in the process kill the goose laying the golden eggs in PA (see PPG Op-Ed: Don’t Kill the Marcellus Goose Laying the Golden Eggs). In signing the budget, Corbett axed a bunch of money from the legislature’s budget, which has led to a Republican civil war in Harrisburg…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Trucking | Washington County

Range’s Next Battle in Robinson Twp: Water Tank Facility
July 11, 2014July 11, 2014

In May MDN told you that after a two-year intentional delay by Robinson Township (Washington County), PA, Range Resources finally won the right to move forward with drilling two wells (see Range Resources Finally Wins Case to Drill 2 Wells in Robinson Twp). Robinson is one of the seven selfish towns that sued Pennsylvania over zoning provisions in the Act 13 law–a case they eventually won. Robinson tries to block drilling as much as they can–but the court has goosed them and told them they can’t stop all of it. Range’s next battle is whether or not Robinson will allow them to build a “tank pad”–a pad with tanks to store fresh water used in drilling and fracking operations…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Wastewater | XTO

XTO Seeks Documents to Prove PA AG Kane Targeted Company
July 11, 2014July 11, 2014

It was obvious from the beginning when Kathleen Kane was elected as Pennsylvania’s Attorney General in 2012 that she had a huge Marcellus Shale chip on her shoulder and that she would go after the drilling industry (see Will New PA AG Go After the Marcellus Drilling Industry?). She’s done just that–targeting the shale drilling industry in several high profile cases. One of those cases–a three-year old accidental spill by XTO in Lycoming County, PA–she reopened after it had been closed. Why? To make an example of XTO (see PA AG Abuses Her Authority, Files Criminal Charges Against XTO). That case is back in the news with a new twist…
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Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Court: PA’s Landlord & Tenant Act Doesn’t Apply to Oil/Gas Leases
July 11, 2014July 11, 2014

A Pennsylvania landowner signed an oil and gas lease on 98 acres and later sold part of that acreage to someone else. The someone else promptly filed a “quiet title action” making the argument that the lease is invalid because of the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951. The quiet title action put a cloud on the title to the property and the whole thing ended up in court. PA Superior Court recently ruled that “no,” the lease is not invalid and not under the purview of the Landlord and Tenant Act. Our friends at top law firm Babst Calland break it down for us…
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Accidents | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Wastewater | Westmoreland County | WPX Energy

Important Update on WPX Energy Leaking Impoundment in SWPA
July 10, 2014July 10, 2014

On Monday MDN told you about three families near a WPX Energy wastewater impoundment near Ligonier (Westmoreland County), PA who say their well water has been contamined by frack wastewater leaking from the impoundment (see WPX Wastewater Impoundment Source of Water Contamination in W PA?). We have an important update on that story. WPX spokesperson Susan Oliver contacted MDN and provided details of their strong response to the situation, and new information that we don’t believe anyone else has bothered to publish…
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Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Landfills | Pennsylvania | Regulation

DEP Delays Scranton Landfill Expansion; Requires Study
July 9, 2014July 9, 2014

The third busiest landfill in Pennsylvania is the Keystone Sanitary Landfill, located on the outskirts of Scranton. The Keystone Landfill accepts a great deal of drill cuttings–leftover dirt and rock from Marcellus drilling. MDN has long chronicled Keystone’s fight to first accept and then expand the landfill (see Scranton Landfill Request for More Shale Cuttings Approved and Scranton Landfill Wants to Double (Again) Shale Cuttings). Local officials objected to the expansion but eventually gave up (see Scranton Suburb Ends Objection to Shale Cuttings at Landfill). The Keystone Landfill is back with another request. But it’s not to expand outward–this time they want to expand skyward…
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Housing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA’s Act 13 Impact Fees Help Fund Affordable Housing
July 9, 2014July 9, 2014

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett’s office announced yesterday that since 2011, the PA Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement Program (PHARE) has invested $49.8 million from natural gas and federal funding sources has been invested in housing initiatives by the Corbett administration to address housing needs created by the growing natural gas industry presence in Pennsylvania. Much of that money has come from Act 13 impact fees…
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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Greene County (PA) | Pennsylvania | Rice Energy

Chesapeake Sells 22K Acres in Greene County, PA to Rice Energy
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

Chesapeake Energy continues to sell off assets in an attempt to boost its stock price and make corporate raider Carl Icahn even richer. The latest fire sale: Rice Energy announced yesterday they’ve picked up 22,000 acres and 12 Marcellus Shale wells from Chessy located in Greene County, PA for $336 million. According to Rice’s President & COO Toby Rice, the acreage is a “high quality” shale asset located in an area they’ve been developing since 2009…
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Earthquakes | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA DEP Considers New Rules to Prevent Earthquakes from Fracking
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has launched a “massive data mining project” to consider drafting new rules around induced seismicity–or the possibility that in rare circumstances fracking itself may cause low-level earthquakes. What seems to have caught the attention of the DEP is the assumption by their counterparts in Ohio, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR), that a series of low-level earthquakes near the OH/PA border were in fact due to fracking operations being conducted by Hilcorp (see ODNR Says Youngstown Earthquakes “Probably” Caused by Fracking)…
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