Shapiro Pays Hollow Lip Service to NatGas in New Economic Strategy
Actions speak so much louder than words on a page, don’t they? Take Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. When he was Attorney General, he relentlessly threatened and attacked and harassed the companies in the Marcellus industry (see our many stories here). Now, as Governor, he’s trying to kill the Marcellus gas-fired power plants in the state by forcing a carbon tax on them begun by his predecessor (see PA Gov. Shapiro Proves He’s Radical Left – Appeals RGGI Decision). So when Shapiro, as governor, releases an economic development strategy document for the state (52 pages long) that pays lip service to the role of natural gas in the future of the state (four references total, and no mention of the Marcellus), color is not impressed. Yet some are falling all over themselves to heap praise on this do-nothing governor. Not here. He’s a putz. We’re here to remind you of that.
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Score a (very) minor victory for the radicals of a Little Green Group (funded with money from Big Green groups) called Protect PT. Last October, a lawsuit brought by Protect PT against a second injection well planned for Plum Borough (Allegheny County), PA, had oral arguments before the state’s Commonwealth Court (see 
In early 2013, the Pittsburgh International Airport and Allegheny County, PA, signed a deal with CONSOL Energy (now CNX Resources) to lease 9,000 acres surrounding the airport for natural gas drilling (see 
Last November, CNX Resources CEO Nick Deiuliis signed a voluntary deal with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to expand drilling setbacks and several other regulatory steps not mandated for shale drillers under PA law (see 
Both conventional and unconventional (shale) drillers in Pennsylvania were supposed to submit a new annual report to the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) on December 10 detailing volatile organic compound (VOC) and methane emissions from their operations over the past one-year period. Shortly before that deadline, the DEP suspended the due date. This past weekend, the DEP published a new due date. Drillers must submit the annual report (for 2023) by June 1, 2024.
Big, breathless news coming from the do-nothing Josh Shapiro gubernatorial operation last Friday. THE MAN has made an edict to those waskily Marcellus drillers: You WILL disclose the chemicals you will use to frack and drill any given well you receive a permit for. Lights! Fireworks! Loud claps of thunder (and an echo) as if GOD has spoken. It is commanded from on high. Except…Marcellus drillers *already* make those disclosures! There is no “there” there in Shapiro’s edict. He’s (sorry for laughing out loud) jumping up and down, making a spectacle of himself over nothing. Literally. He’s hoping nobody will notice that he’s just served up a cheese puff instead of a sirloin steak.
In December, Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO), the agency charged with providing revenue projections along with impartial and objective analysis of fiscal, economic, and budgetary issues for the citizens and legislature of Pennsylvania, provided its best guess as to how much revenue the PA impact fee (i.e., severance tax) will generate from shale wells drilled or flowing in 2023 (see 
The Shell ethane cracker plant in Monaca, PA (Beaver County) just hit a milestone: It’s been up and running (in a manner of speaking) for one year. Except during that one year, quite a bit of the time was spent NOT running due to various technical and equipment issues. According to a review done by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “the plant’s polyethylene units — the three clusters of pipes and vessels that turn ethylene into lentil-sized plastic beads — were down as much as they were running in that first year.”
The Baker Hughes rig count gained another rig last week. The count went from 620 active rigs two weeks ago to 621 last week — up a single rig. It went up a single rig the week prior, too. And that’s about where we are. We have floated between 620 and 625 for all of December and January — dipping to 619 for one week during that period. It appears we’ve hit the bottom and are stable. The Marcellus/Utica remained constant last week with 42 active rigs, after PA added two rigs the week before.
There were 20 new permits issued to drill in the Marcellus/Utica during the week of Jan. 15 – 21, versus 24 permits issued during the prior week. Pennsylvania issued 11 new permits last week. Ohio issued 9 new permits. West Virginia had a big, fat zero new permits last week. Ascent Resources scored the most new permits issued, with 5 permits across two counties, Jefferson and Harrison, in Ohio. Encino Energy (EAP in the list) had the second most new permits issued with 4 permits in Harrison County, OH.
Here’s a story that escaped our radar…until now. Catalyst Energy, Inc., proposes converting an existing gas production well on Route 646 in Cyclone (Keating Township in McKean County, PA) into a shale wastewater injection well. The well would handle up to 30 truckloads of wastewater per day. The prospect of the traffic and location near some homes did not sit well with some local residents. However, the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved the plan on Jan. 11, although it didn’t publicly announce the approval until Tuesday, Jan. 23.
Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 170, introduced early last year, would increase setback distances for shale wells from 500 feet to 2,500 feet — effectively killing any new shale well drilling anywhere in the state (see 
From time to time, the issue of wells that need plugging appears in the news. We highlighted one such story earlier this week (see 
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Range Resources, the first driller to sink a Marcellus well back in 2004, has applied for and received a conditional use application to build three well pads in Fawn Township in Allegheny County, PA. The township secretary says a road into the property is now being built. Construction of the well pads is not expected “until the weather breaks.”