Murrysville Rejects Antis’ Petition to Cancel Leases Under Parks
Last December, Murrysville (PA) Council members voted to lease land for shale drilling under two town parks—Duff Park and Murrysville Community Park (see Murrysville, PA to Vote in Dec. on Plan to Drill Under Two Parks). Murrysville is located in Westmoreland County, in the southwestern part of the state. Olympus Energy pitched proposals to lease under both parks, using their adjacent leased acreage (on private land) to set up rigs to drill under the parks, which the council approved. The council also approved a lease last year with Apex Energy to drill and frack under Kovalczik Park. Last week, so-called environmental group Protect PT presented a petition to the council asking them to rescind the leases for drilling under the three parks. Read More “Murrysville Rejects Antis’ Petition to Cancel Leases Under Parks”
Last Friday, RBN Energy published a blog post declaring that the Shell ethane cracker in Monaca (Beaver County), PA, is now “firing on all cylinders.” The post retrospectively covers the project’s history, from construction through recent problems as the plant was commissioned to the present day. We learned something interesting: Shell, a petrochemical giant and owner of other cracker plants producing various products, had exited the plastic pellets business years ago. The Monaca cracker is Shell reentering that market. 
Two weeks ago, Pennsylvania lost two rigs, down to just 13 active rigs, the lowest PA’s rig count has been since July 2016 (see 
Ten permits were issued to drill new shale wells in Marcellus/Utica for the week of Oct. 7 – 13, half the number issued the prior week (see 
The environmental left continues to try and co-opt the term “Evangelical Christian,” defined as protestants who tend to be pro-life and conservative in their political views. We’re talking about the so-called Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN) and its political lobbying arm, EEN Action. The group continues to pressure Pennsylvania’s political leaders to adopt unreliable renewable energy (by government fiat) and to force residents to dump their use of fossil energy. We previously exposed them for who they really are (see 
In November 2022, PA’s then-Governor, Tom Wolf, signed into law a bill providing $142 million annually in state tax credits for several purposes, including clean hydrogen hubs, natural gas use, semiconductor manufacturing, and milk processors (see 
An assistant professor of data science at Saint Vincent College in Westmoreland County, PA, recently published a study (based on hospital records) examining whether some chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing affect the occurrence of pre-term births (PTB) and low birth weights (LBW) in the United States. She looked at data from several counties in southwest PA. The researcher says she found that “counties that had more hydraulic fracturing wells that utilize chemicals that target certain hormones also had greater amounts of PTB and LWB.” Yet her data shows just the opposite! 
In early September, MDN told you that UGI Corporation, one of PA’s largest utility companies, plans to store trailers of LNG in the parking lot of a storage facility near Scranton, PA, and is seeking a zoning variance to do so (see 
Once again, the bottom dropped out of the Pennsylvania Marcellus rig count. PA lost two rigs last week, down to just 13 active rigs, the lowest the PA rig count has been since July 2016. That’s the lowest rig count for PA in more than eight years, lower than the deep dark days of the pandemic four years ago. Ohio and West Virginia’s counts remained the same at nine and ten, respectively. On August 23, PA ran 21 rigs, OH had nine rigs, and WV had just five rigs. Last Friday (just two months later), PA had 13 rigs (a loss of eight from August), OH still had nine, but WV had ten rigs (a gain of five of PA’s lost eight). The realignment of rigs from PA to WV is an ongoing, big story concerning the rig count. 
PJM Interconnection is the largest U.S. power grid operator, serving 65 million people in 13 states plus the District of Columbia (including PA, OH, and WV). PJM supplies power to more than 20% of the U.S. economy. The organization issued its annual Winter Outlook yesterday. The analysis says PJM and its members have adequate resources to serve the forecasted demand for electricity this winter under expected conditions, although reserve margins continue to shrink with continued generator (coal plant) retirements and increasing demand. However, if we have “extreme” weather events, problems like blackouts are possible. In other words, we will have enough electricity, but cross your fingers that we don’t experience any extreme weather. 
It’s good to revisit the basics from time to time. When drilling a shale oil or gas well, each well produces “brine,” a super-salty (minerally) water from the depths that keeps flowing long after the well is drilled and is online. This is not surface water; fresh water found down to about 300 feet. This is another layer of water thousands of feet below the surface. Disposing of brine can be a problem given the minerals in it. A lot of brine is recycled and used again for new drilling and fracking. But what happens when drilling slows down? The water continues to flow out of existing wells and needs proper disposal. Researchers at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, may have a new solution. 
Earlier this week, MDN told you about the final chapter in the tragedy of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) Refining Complex (see 
If you live in Pennsylvania, particularly in an urban area, and happen to be black, Asian, or Native American, and you own an Apple product and like to do things outdoors, you can expect a knock on your door by the Democrat anti-shale/global warming squad hoping to recruit you to become a Kamala Harris zombie voter. The younger or older you are, the better (especially under 25 and over 65). The Dems never see people in all of their complexity as individuals who can be reasoned with rationally—they only see groups that can be herded given the right fear-tactic stimuli, like schoolyard bullies from the fourth grade. That’s how they hold on to power.