Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell
Green Activists Complain to Wrong Agency re Shell Cracker Violations
Last Thursday around 30-40 environmental activists (anti-fossil fuelers), along with a handful of local residents, rallied in Beaver, PA, before showing up for the Beaver County Commission regular meeting. The protesters, who want the Shell ethane cracker plant shut down, vented their concerns about the plant to county commissioners. The three county commissioners listened while antis vented for more than an hour (they should receive hazard pay). The problem is, the protesters were in the wrong venue.
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According to Baker Hughes, which has tracked rig counts since 1944, drillers cut the rig count once again last week (overall by a single rig), the sixth week in a row when the rig count has gone down. This is the first time the U.S. oil & gas rig count has gone down six weeks in a row since July 2020–nearly three years ago. Oil rigs rose by one last week to 556. Gas rigs fell two to 135, the lowest since March 2022. According to oil and gas expert David Blackmon (who writes for Forbes), a rig count slumping for six weeks in a row is a trend and cannot be ignored. What about the Marcellus/Utica?
Last June (one year ago), the story broke that Penn LNG, headed by Franc James, a native of Philadelphia, had “quietly lined up support to build a $6.4 billion liquefied natural gas export terminal near Philly.” Not wanting this golden opportunity to die from opposition by radicalized environmentalists, Pennsylvania State Rep. Marina White (Republican from Philadelphia, a true rarity) sponsored House Bill (HB) 2458, which passed and was subsequently signed into law by then-Gov. Tom Wolf (see 
A radicalized left-wing organization hellbent on forcing the end of fossil energy called Evergreen Action, along with another radical nonprofit called Ceres, partnered and paid a for-profit company called Synapse Energy Economics (that works exclusively for left-wing groups) to produce a completely sham and false “report” that (try not to laugh) claims Pennsylvania residents will pay less for their electricity under the onerous, Marcellus-killing Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax.
New shale permits issued for May 29-Jun 4 in the Marcellus/Utica finally went higher again last week. There were 25 new permits issued, up from the dismal 8 new permits issued the previous week. Last week’s permit tally included 13 new permits for Pennsylvania, 6 new permits for Ohio, and 6 new permits in West Virginia. EQT scored the most new permits with 7 issued in Greene County, PA. Close behind in the #2 position was Antero Resources, with 6 new permits issued in Ritchie County, WV.
Here we go again. The shale-hating Democrats of the Pennsylvania legislature have floated a resolution to “study” how much money the Commonwealth is losing by not imposing an obscene severance tax on top of the existing impact fee (which is a severance tax by another name). Every single year Tom Wolf occupied the governor’s chair (eight loooooong years), his budgets insisted on including a Marcellus-killing severance tax. And every single year, the Republican-controlled legislature wisely refused. With a new Democrat governor, Josh “do nothing” Shapiro, and with the Dems now controlling the House (by a single vote), they are at it again–hoping to enact a Marcellus-killing severance tax. The first step is to “study” it…
In March, environmental radical Pat McDonnell of PennFuture, the former Pennsylvania Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), along with his best friend THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum, sued McDonnell’s former agency over permits the DEP issued to Williams to build the Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project (see 
With a one-vote majority in the Pennsylvania House, the Democrats who run the House are stepping up their attacks on the oil and gas industry in the state. The latest attack is House Bill (HB) 652, which is aimed at blocking new permits to build or expand various projects–including gas-fired power plants and wastewater injection wells–in so-called environmental justice areas. The left defines environmental justice as any area with a certain percentage of blacks and Latinos, or an area with a lot of poor people (i.e., rural). So, environmental justice areas are pretty much anyplace in the entire state–because every location is either urban (with minorities) or rural (with poor folk). Heads I win, tails you lose.
In March, MDN brought you the news that New Fortress Energy (NFE) confirmed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it plans to apply for updated permits to build an LNG export plant in landlocked northeastern Pennsylvania (see 
Last week the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released its latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for January through March 2023 (full copy below). There was 120 new horizontal wells spud (drilled) in 1Q23, a big decrease of 27 wells (-18%) compared to 1Q22. Natural gas production volume was 1,838 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in 1Q23, down 14 Bcf (-0.7%) from 1Q22. It is the fifth quarterly decrease in production in a row, comparing the same quarters year-over-year. Sadly, 1Q23 production was also down from 4Q22–by 1.0%.
Anti-fossil fuel zealots are demanding an update on a $2.5 million “study” awarded to the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health to “conduct research on the potential health effects of hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania” (see 
Cornell University professor Robert Howarth has poked his head up again to bash shale energy. This time he’s taking aim at hydrogen produced from natural gas. Howarth hates fossil fuels–all of them–including clean-burning natural gas. In March 2011, Howarth and two other Cornell profs published a peer-reviewed study in the journal Climatic Change titled, “Methane and the greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations” (see 
Last summer Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 2644 was passed into law, becoming Act 96 of 2022 (see 
The weather has been fantastic for those of us living in the northeastern U.S. over the past few weeks. Clear blue skies (when they aren’t clouded with wildfire smoke from Canada), really warm temperatures, and absolutely no rain to spoil outdoor activities. Here in the Binghamton, NY area, we went from a surplus of rain and swollen rivers and lakes just a month ago to a rain deficit today. Lawns and fields and beginning to turn brown. Hey, we’re not complaining! But we do need some rain. The lack of rain in the Susquehanna River Basin has triggered water withdrawal restrictions for 42 oil and gas drillers and four other large water users (46 in all) by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC). In many cases, the SRBC order is to “cease withdrawal.”