Kamala Harris’ Position Supporting Nat’l Frack Ban Roils PA Voters
Here is an incontrovertible fact: In a CNN town hall debate during the 2019 presidential primary, Kamala Harris said, “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.” She hasn’t changed her position in the last five years. And that’s a problem for Harris in “swing” states like Pennsylvania. She said she would ban it from “day one” on federal lands and then work her way around to private lands later. The left always uses incrementalism. There is no question that Harris is left of Joe Biden if such a thing is possible. We think it’s quite possible Harris will try to recruit PA’s dud, do-nothing Governor, Josh Shapiro, to run with her as her VP candidate to try and persuade PA voters that her radical position supporting a fracking ban shouldn’t prevent them from voting for her. Harris figures that if Shapiro is on the ticket, it will assuage voters’ concerns. Don’t fall for it. If Harris loses PA, she loses the election.
Read More “Kamala Harris’ Position Supporting Nat’l Frack Ban Roils PA Voters”
Yesterday, the Biden-Harris Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced selected recipients of over $4.3 billion in so-called Climate Pollution Reduction Grants from the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) aimed at “community-driven solutions that tackle the climate crisis, reduce air pollution, advance environmental justice, and accelerate America’s clean energy transition.” In other words, it’s bribe money going to the Democrats’ favored donors and to states where they need votes this November. Handing out $4.3 billion will buy a LOT of votes. One of the big winners, unsurprisingly, is the swing state of Pennsylvania and its Democrat Governor, Josh Shapiro, who received $329 million (7.7% of the entire total).
A disappointing (but not surprising) decision from the Democrat leftists on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was issued last Thursday. The so-called Supremes ruled in favor of allowing three well-financed Big Green groups, including the Sierra Club, PennFuture, and Clean Air Council, to join a lawsuit attempting to force the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) obscene carbon tax on coal- and gas-fired plants in the Keystone State. Big Green can now participate, bringing along big money and attorneys to support the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), which is trying to force state participation in RGGI.
In June, MDN told you about a very small lease deal on offer for North Huntingdon Township in Westmoreland County, PA (see 
In May, the supervisors of West Deer Township (Allegheny County), PA, held a regular monthly meeting. One item on the agenda was the potential adoption of revisions to the town’s oil and gas drilling ordinance. A number of (supposed) residents showed up to question the revisions and ask for stricter setbacks (a bigger distance from drilling to homes and other structures). Ultimately, the supervisors decided to delay a vote on the revisions, pushing it off until a future meeting (see 
For the week of July 8 – 14, a total of 31 permits were issued to drill new shale wells in Marcellus/Utica. Pennsylvania had a nice increase with 25 new permits issued. A full 9 of PA’s permits went to Snyder Brothers for a single well in Armstrong County. Another 6 permits went to EQT in PA’s Greene and Washington counties. There were 5 new permits in Ohio, all of them going to Encino Energy for a single pad in Guernsey County. West Virginia had a single new permit going to EQT in Wetzel County.
Environmental radicals have struck out a second time, and they’re pretty bitter about it. We’re talking about Senate Bill (SB) 831, the Carbon Capture & Sequestration (CCS) Act. Last week, a strong bipartisan majority in the PA legislature ignored the radicals that had asked Democrat legislators to block the bill, passing the bill and sending it to the governor’s desk (see 
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is seeking public input on four draft environmental assessments evaluating potential impacts from the proposed plugging of orphaned oil and gas wells on public lands in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. One of the assessments seeks public input on plans to cap twenty abandoned gas and oil wells along the river flowing into the Shenango River Lake in Mercer County.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That appears to be the philosophy of a group of radicalized “environmental” groups attempting to pressure Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to veto a new bill sitting on his desk, Senate Bill (SB) 831, the Carbon Capture & Sequestration (CCS) Act. Last week, a strong bipartisan majority in the PA legislature ignored the same group that had asked Democrat legislators to block the bill (see 
Last fall, MDN shared the sad news that Pennsylvania State Rep. Charity Grimm Krupa (Republican In Name Only from Fayette County) had turned against the Marcellus industry (see 
A MAJOR victory for Pennsylvania Republicans that is not getting the attention it should. For years, PA State Sen. Gene Yaw and others have lobbied for review by qualified third parties to speed up the turnaround time to approve relatively simple permits issued by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), including earth disturbance/erosion permits, known as Chapter 102 permits, and water obstruction and encroachment permits, known as Chapter 105 permits (see 
Over the past seven-plus years, BKV Corporation (Banpu Kalnin Ventures), the American arm of Banpu (96% owned by Banpu, Thailand’s largest coal mining company), has become one of the top 20 gas-weighted natural gas producers in the U.S. BKV originally entered the American shale sector by investing $500 million in 2016-2017 to buy existing Marcellus wells and acreage in northeast Pennsylvania. Then the company went wandering into other shale plays (see 
We’ve covered the Pennsylvania state budget negotiations and passage in years gone by when PA’s then-Gov. Tom Wolf (far-left Democrat) requested a Marcellus-killing severance tax every year he was in office (eight loooong years). We’ve largely ignored the PA budget this time around under PA’s do-nothing dud of a governor, Josh Shapiro, as his proposed budget didn’t include a severance tax proposal. The budget passed last Thursday (two weeks late). We happened to spot a comment by the Marcellus Shale Coalition offering words of praise for the budget, so that got our attention. What is in this budget the MSC likes?