Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Washington County
Cecil Twp Proposes Ban on New Shale Drilling via 2,500-Ft Setback
The Board of Supervisors for Cecil Township in Washington County, PA, has caved to pressure from radical leftists and is floating a plan to effectively ban all new shale drilling in the township by increasing setbacks from “protected structures” from 500 feet to 2,500 feet (a half a mile!). The supervisors will hold a special meeting tonight to discuss this lunacy. We strongly recommend you attend and voice your opposition.
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The big news (for us) with the weekly Baker Hughes rig count is that last week, Pennsylvania laid down its use of three active drilling rigs, resulting in the lowest rig count in the state in 2 1/2 years. PA now operates 18 active rigs, down from 21 the week prior. The last time PA operated only 18 rigs was, according to our records, in November 2021. Fortunately, West Virginia picked up one of those rigs and improved its count from five to six. Ohio remained the same with nine active rigs. So, the Marcellus/Utica, in total, went from 35 active rigs two weeks ago to 33 active rigs last week. The national rig count (for both oil and gas rigs) dropped by two, now with 583 active rigs. 
UGI, a diversified energy company with midstream (pipeline) operations in the Marcellus and one of PA’s largest utility companies, wants 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. UGI needs extra supplies of natural gas to inject into its utility system during peak periods in the winter months. The company says it will be a temporary situation. 
Last Friday, former President Donald J. Trump held a rally in Johnstown (Cambria County), PA, in the southwestern part of the state. A key focus of the meeting was energy and Trump’s support of PA energy versus Kamala Harris’ position of being against fracking (contrary to her recent flip-flop on the issue). During the rally, Mark Caskey, founder of Steel Nation (builds many of the compress plants and other buildings for the Marcellus Shale industry), addressed the crowd, promoting the Marcellus and knocking Harris’ fracking flip-flop. Trump was so impressed he called Mark back to the stage. 
By now, you’ve read here on MDN and likely heard via mainstream news that Kamala Harris claims she’s had a change of heart and won’t (if she’s elected president, God perish the thought) ban fracking. How magnanimous of her. Praise Kamala. We don’t believe her for a New York minute, and neither should you. However, her recent remarks in attempting to rewrite history that she never did want to ban fracking (liar!) and that she won’t now is not sitting well with climate zealots in Pennsylvania. People like THE Delaware Riverkeeper and the co-founder of the Better Path Coalition. 
For the week of August 19 – 25, a total of 34 permits were issued to drill new shale wells in Marcellus/Utica. The Keystone State (PA) had 16 new permits. PA’s top recipient was Chesapeake Energy, with six permits in Bradford County. Coterra Energy was a close second, with five new permits issued in neighboring Susquehanna County. The Buckeye State (OH) received 13 new permits, with Encino Energy (EAP) receiving eight and Ascent Resources five. OH’s permits were spread across Guernsey, Harrison, and Noble counties. Finally, the Mountain State (WV) received five new permits, all of them for Northeast Natural Energy in Monongalia County. 
Hats off to Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw, who is floating yet another bill that will benefit the state, electric ratepayers, and the Marcellus industry — all at the same time. Yesterday, Yaw announced his intention to float a new bill that would create the Pennsylvania Baseload Energy Development Fund. What is it? It’s a fund that would set up a revolving loan program at a low interest rate to encourage private companies to build more baseload electric power generation in the state. That is, build more gas-fired power plants.
Yesterday, MDN brought you the news that two dozen states have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to place a temporary block on new EPA regulations that will put all coal plants out of business and block most (if not all) new gas-fired power plants from getting built (see 
We bet you never thought that old idiom about pigs flying was true. In this case, it is! Range Resources operates a temporary above-ground water pipeline in Mount Pleasant Township (Washington County), PA. The pipeline (essentially a giant water hose) flows Ohio River water to Range’s fracking sites. Range sent a PIG (pipeline inspection gauge) down the pipeline, and it got caught. The water pressure built up and exploded the pipe, sending the PIG flying through the air. Yes, Virginia, pigs can fly! OK, OK. After we got done laughing out loud about a flying pig, we settled down to read and better understand the situation. The pipeline explosion resulted in damage to a local farmer’s property, which was no laughing matter for the farmer.
“Follow the money.” Never a truer phrase spoken. “The fix is in” is another trite but true phrase. Put the two together, and you have an apt description of the latest news to come from Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration — that the state is now working with (giving money to) the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) to train union workers to plug oil and gas wells, in essence funneling federal dollars into the pockets of a single labor union (which delivers a reliable vote for the Democrats). Your tax dollars at work funding the Democratic Party.
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. Most of the states in PJM are not energy self-sufficient. They don’t produce enough electricity to meet their own demand. Pennsylvania is the exception and has become THE main producer in the PJM region, exporting electricity to its neighbors. However, according to a chilling new report by Pittsburgh Works Together (PWT), PA Gov. Josh Shapiro’s electricity proposals will destabilize the PJM grid and potentially cause massive blackouts. 
We continue to be range-bound with respect to the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count. The count has gone up and down every few weeks. But since the third week of June, the range has been as low as 581 and as high as 589. And that’s it. We seem to have found the bottom (we hope we have). Last week, the national rig count lost another rig and now stands at 585. The Marcellus/Utica remained even at 35 active rigs after losing one rig two weeks ago. Pennsylvania operates 21 active rigs; Ohio operates nine active rigs; and West Virginia operates five active rigs.
Eureka Resources, which operates three frack wastewater treatment facilities in the Marcellus Shale, has idled one of its three plants, the Standing Stone plant in Bradford County, PA. According to an inspection report by the Department of Environmental Protection conducted on August 19, Bob Cooney, Vice President of Operations at Eureka Resources, told the DEP inspector that the facility’s “primary customer” had stopped sending wastewater to the plant. As a result, all plant employees were laid off as of approximately July 30. This morning, MDN spoke to Eureka CEO Dan Ertel about what’s going on at the plant and plans for the future. 
We spotted a press release about pipeline repair company operating in the Marcellus/Utica, located in Ohio, Precision Pipeline Services, buying out a pipeline repair company based in Pennsylvania, Allegheny Contracting. We checked, and we’ve never written about either company. We always get a thrill when uncovering new companies involved in the M-U we didn’t know about. Both companies are privately-held, and the financial particulars of the deal were not disclosed.
In March, we reported that two Democrats and one anti-drilling RINO who run Bucks County, PA government (a Philadelphia suburb) fell for the bait by Big Green and filed a lawsuit against Big Oil companies for supposedly, knowingly, causing the Earth to toast to a cinder (see