A group of enviro-Nazis has sunk to a new low in their holy mission to block Marcellus Shale drilling. A group of colluding Big Green groups along with sympathetic (and sycophantic) “reporters” (i.e propagandists) from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are exploiting the pain and suffering of southwestern PA families of children who have cancer in their attempt to stop shale drilling. It’s disgusting and sick.
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Category: Statewide PA
Stranded PA Marcellus Gas Converted to LNG, Trucked to New England
Got a well drilled and ready to produce with no prospects of connecting it to a pipeline system any time soon? No problem! We have exciting, breaking news to share. Edge Gathering Virtual Pipelines 2 LLC (EDGE) earlier today announced in May they deployed a special LNG unit to a remote Marcellus well in PA, converting gas from the well into LNG. The LNG was then loaded into a special unit and trucked to a gas utility some 300 miles away in New England. A new “virtual pipeline” is born!
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ET Appeals PA DEP Order on Revolution Pipeline to Enviro Court
Energy Transfer continues to squabble with the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) over the fate of the still-closed Revolution Pipeline in western PA. In May the DEP issued an order to Energy Transfer, builder of Revolution, to “identify and restore or mitigate all streams and wetlands that it illegally eliminated or altered during the construction” of the pipeline (see PA DEP Claims Energy Transfer Illegally Damaged Streams, Wetlands). DEP claims ET “illegally” eliminated at least 23 streams and changed the length of another 120 streams.
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PA PUC Launches “Safety Review” for Liquids Pipes – Antis Rejoice
Pennsylvania antis from the Philadelphia area who don’t want pipelines running through their neighborhoods (NIMBY types) have beat the drums of war so loud and for so long, they’ve finally begun to intimidate the non-partisan, shouldn’t-be-intimated PA Public Utility Commission (PUC). The PUC last Thursday launched a “major review of its safety regulations for hazardous liquids pipelines” in response to pressure from Mariner East 2 pipeline foes. It’s sad to see a government body cowed by a few loudmouthed troublemakers.
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PA Court Rules “On” Does Not Mean “Under” in Lease Payment Case
A Pennsylvania landowner thought he could finagle extra payments from XTO Energy after his land was drilled under from a neighboring property. The landowner had signed a lease, and the lease contains language that says if XTO were to drill “on” his property (i.e. install a well pad) the landowner would receive an extra payment. The landowner sued saying “on” also means “under” when XTO drilled under his property. The Superior Court of Pennsylvania disagreed, saying “on” means “on the surface” and “under” does not mean “on”.
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Range Resources Lays Off 5% of Employees – PA Affected
Yesterday the Pittsburgh Business Times broke the news that Range Resources, one of the Marcellus/Utica’s biggest drillers (and in fact the very first driller to sink a Marcellus well, back in 2004), has laid off 40 employees–roughly 5% of its workforce. The layoffs are split between the company’s Pennsylvania and Texas operations.
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DRBC Executive Director Tambini Loses His Cool at UDC Meeting
We had high hopes for Steve Tambini, former vice president of operations at Pennsylvania American Water, when he was appointed Executive Director of the Delaware River Basin Commission in 2014 (see DRBC Selects Steve Tambini as New Leader, Enviro Groups Unsure). After all, DRBC’s previous director, Carol Collier, was nothing more than a shill for radical Big Green groups during her 15-year tenure. Just about anyone would be better. Unfortunately our hopes for Tambini have been dashed over the past five years since he took over.
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Updates for PennEast & Adelphia Gateway Pipeline Projects
Two important pipeline projects, PennEast and Adelphia Gateway, are at various stages of approval. PennEast is a $1 billion (or $1.2 billion, depending on the source) new greenfield pipeline project from Luzerne County, PA to Mercer County, NJ. PennEast will flow PA Marcellus gas to markets in NJ. Adelphia Gateway is an old oil pipeline, already in the ground, that runs from Northampton County, PA through Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties, terminating in Delaware County at Marcus Hook. Adelphia will flow Marcellus gas to the Philadelphia region. PennEast was announced in 2014, and Adelphia in 2017. Neither has yet begun construction. What’s the status for each project?
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Pres. Trump Targets Marcellus/Utica to Bulk Up PetChem Industry
President Trump is pushing members of his administration to work with state regulators in Appalachia–Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania–to “build the country’s first natural gas and petrochemical hub” outside of the Gulf Coast. According to Energy Secretary Rick Perry, such a plan is in the the country’s national security interests. Members of the Trump team are also having discussions with leftists like NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to try and convince him to allow pipelines into and through the state. If states like NY won’t allow it, Perry holds out the hope/threat that the feds will invoke the Constitution’s interstate commerce clause to make them.
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PA Sen. Dinniman Intros Bill Requiring Study of “Old” Pipelines
Pennsylvania Senator Andy Dinniman, leftist Democrat from Chester County (near Philadelphia), continues his mission to try and block all three Mariner East pipelines from achieving or continuing service, flowing natural gas liquids to Marcus Hook. His latest attempt is “pipeline safety” Senate Bill (SB) 677, a bill requiring an all natgas and NGL pipelines over 50 years old to conduct an “end of life” study.
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PA Severance Tax Bills Intro’d in House & Senate w/Strong Support
It looks like Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s “promise them anything and everything” Santa Claus routine is working. We’re referring to Wolf’s so-called Restore PA plan that will provide (over a number of years) $4.5 BILLION worth of goodies to Pennsylvanians by slapping a Marcellus-killing severance tax on the already impact taxed shale industry. Legislation was introduced yesterday in the PA House to create Restore PA (House Bill 1585) and fund it with a severance tax, and we’ll be darned if there weren’t 99 House members who signed up to sponsor it (16 of them traitorous Republicans).
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NARO Warns WV & OH About PA Cross-Unit Drilling Bill
In March MDN brought readers a pair of posts about a new bill in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, HB 247, which would allow fully leased parcels that are part of one drilling “unit” to be combined with parcels in a different unit–“cross-unit drilling” if you will (see PA Floats Bill to Allow Shale Drilling to Span Multiple Units and Revisiting PA Bill to Allow Shale Drilling Across Multiple Units). The National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO) at a recent meeting in WV warned landowners about HB 247 and its potential to come to both WV and OH if it passes in PA.
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IFO: PA Natural Gas Production Hits New All-Time High in 1Q19
Last week the PA Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released their latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for Jan-Mar 2019 (full copy below). It shows natgas production rose 14.7% compared to the same period last year–to yet another new all-time high. However, compared with 4Q18, the increase was a modest three-tenths of one percent–essentially flat. Is this the beginning of the end when production fails to continue rising?
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PA Sen. Yaw Sees the Light – Doesn’t Support Severance Tax
Pennsylvania State Sen. Gene Yaw, Republican from Lycoming County, PA, seems to have changed his mind about a severance tax on Marcellus Shale production. The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) visited Williamsport in Yaw’s home district yesterday. At a joint press conference to discuss the superiority of an impact fee to a severance tax, Yaw called those supporting a severance tax “bobbleheads.” Whoa, way to go Sen. Yaw! That’s a far cry from his vote in favor of a severance tax in 2017 (see PA Sen. Gene Yaw Defends Vote for Severance Tax).
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PA Republicans Push Alternative to Wolf’s Insane Severance Tax
In April MDN told you that Pennsylvania State Senators Camera Bartolotta (Washington County) and Pat Stefano (Fayette County) had beaten PA Gov. Tom Wolf at his own game by offering to pay for his so-called Restore PA plan, not by using a severance tax on shale production, but instead by allowing more shale drilling on PA state lands (see PA Senators Steal Wolf’s Thunder, Propose Drilling to Fund Goodies).
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New Study: PA NatGas Carbon Emissions HALF that of Coal Mining
A new study just published in the peer reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters by an international team of researchers finds that natural gas “has half the carbon footprint of underground coal mining.” The researchers looked at (did measurements of, actual real science) methane in the atmosphere by flying transects over the southwestern portion of Pennsylvania and adjacent portions of West Virginia and Ohio. Marcellus/Utica central. One of the researchers from Penn State said this about the findings: “Obviously, renewable energy would be better, but there is no debate, switching to natural gas is worth it in the short run.”
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