Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia
New O&G Pipeline Approvals Dropped 50% Under Biden-Harris
Here’s a sobering fact: A web of red tape and environmentalist lawfare in the courts have derailed six of the last seven proposed interstate pipeline projects that could have delivered Appalachian natural gas to New England, the Southeast, and other regions of critical demand. The only pipeline to survive was the Mountain Valley Pipeline, and it took a literal Act of Congress to get it across the finish line. Here’s another sobering fact: Oil and gas pipeline approvals have dropped by 50% during the Biden-Harris administration (compared to the last three presidents before Biden). The precipitous drop was on purpose.
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We are officially 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. Last week, the national rig count lost two rigs and now stands at 586. The Marcellus/Utica also lost one rig and now uses 35 active rigs. Pennsylvania remained the same with 21 active rigs. Ohio lost a rig (second week in a row) and now operates nine active rigs. West Virginia remained the same with five active rigs.
For the week of August 5 – 11, a total of 26 permits were issued to drill new shale wells in Marcellus/Utica, with the vast majority issued in Pennsylvania. The Keystone State had 21 new permits, with an eye-popping 19 going to EQT split between Greene and Washington counties (in the southwestern part of the state), and two issued to Range Resources in Beaver County. Ohio issued five new permits last week, with four going to Ascent Resources in Jefferson County and one to Encino Energy (EAP) in Guernsey County. West Virginia’s online data service is currently out of order, and there is no ETA for when it will be fixed, so we have no permits to report for the Mountain State. 
With the presidential election only 80 days from now, the money coming from Washington, D.C. to swing states like Pennsylvania is flowing like a river, as we told you yesterday (see 
At a packed meeting in May, the Indiana Township (Allegheny County, PA) Planning Commission voted unanimously (4-0) to delay a decision on rezoning a 59-acre parcel along Route 910 from office/commercial to light industrial — which would allow gas drilling on the site (see 
In early 2018, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) collected a whopping $1.7 million fine from Energy Corporation of America (ECA) for violations at 17 well sites in Cumberland, Jefferson, and Whiteley Townships in Greene County, and Goshen Township in Clearfield County (see 
Epsilon Energy issued its second quarter 2024 update earlier this week. Epsilon, a relatively small company, used to concentrate most of its effort on developing Marcellus Shale wells. However, over the past few years, the company has expanded into other plays and now owns assets in the Anadarko (Oklahoma and Texas) and the Permian (Texas and New Mexico). Epsilon typically does not do its own drilling. The company joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy (in the Marcellus), and the other company does the drilling. For 2Q, Epsilon’s capital expenditures were $5.7 million, primarily related to work in Texas.
Many political pundits say the presidential election will come down to Pennsylvania. Whichever candidate wins PA — Trump or The Cackler — will likely win the White House. EVERYTHING that happens between now and then has a political component, including yesterday’s announcement by the Biden-Harris Dept. of Interior that yet another slug of up to $152 million is coming PA’s way for plugging orphaned and abandoned conventional oil and gas wells. This has politics written all over it. 
Sometimes, we are at a loss to explain the actions of “our side” (the fossil fuel industry). This is one of those times. Penn State University, in recent years, has become hostile to fossil energy and the shale fracking that pervades (and blesses) the state. Yet petrochemical giant Shell, with its $15 billion ethane cracker in Beaver County, PA, is donating $1 million to Penn State to fund (and we quote): “initiatives focused on energy transition, decarbonization, polymer recycling and biodiversity, and the creation of an inclusive and innovative energy workforce.” Translating the gobbledygook: It’s $1 million to fund a way to put Shell and other fossil energy companies out of business. We have to ask, Why would Shell do this?
The mighty Shell ethane cracker plant in Monaca (Beaver County), PA, has a new person in charge: Emma Lewis, senior vice president of U.S. chemicals and products at Shell. We told you Lewis had replaced Hilary Mercer back in January (see 
A Washington County, PA, man and his anti-fossil fuel lawyer have won the right to force Chevron executives to testify in court in a case where the man accuses Chevron of using PFAS (“forever chemicals”) in fracking fluids in 2011-2012 near his home. He alleges the chemicals spread to his water well and damaged his health and the health of family members who drank and used the “contaminated” water.
In July, MDN told you about a disappointing (but not surprising) decision from the Democrat leftists on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (see 
The vast majority (up to 99%) of Pennsylvania’s abandoned conventional wells are “orphans,” or wells without an identifiable, documented owner whom the state can hold liable for cleanup. Orphan wells date back to the Civil War in some cases. Even with “newer” wells, the problem has been poor recordkeeping by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (see