It seems we owe an apology to Williams for the story we ran earlier this week (see PA Businesses Still Not Paid for Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline Work). We took Williams to task for the fact many of the subcontractors that did work for their contractor Welded Construction have still not been paid for work done on the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project. There’s far more to the story, including details on how those subcontractors can get their money.
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Category: Statewide PA
PA Businesses Still Not Paid for Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline Work
NOTE: See our follow-up post on this, with important new information: New Details on Williams and Unpaid Pipe Contractors in Lancaster.
Hey Williams, get off your rear-ends and start paying the bills owed for work done on YOUR pipeline! At least 77 local businesses in and around Lancaster County, PA are caught in the crosshairs of a dispute between Williams and one of its main contractors, Welded Construction (see Williams Withholds Payment Forcing Pipeline Builder into Bankruptcy).
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PA Gov Wolf Declares War on ET/Sunoco – No New Pipeline Permits
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has just declared full-on war with Energy Transfer and its Sunoco Logistics subsidiary by directing the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to suspend all reviews of clean water permit applications and other pending approvals for all of ET/Sunoco’s pipeline projects in the state, including Mariner East 2 (ME2) and the Revolution pipeline project.
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PA Shale Drilling Permits Issued in January Show Mixed Bag
The folks at Argus Media have done an analysis of the number of shale well permits issued in Pennsylvania for January 2019. The numbers show the number of new permits issued during January were up 72% from the number issued in December 2018, but down 11% from the number of permits issued in January 2018, one year earlier. Can we divine anything from this mixed bag of numbers?
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PA DEP Southwest Office Says Permit Backlog Down 75%
One of the long-running complaints from shale drillers across Pennsylvania has been the amount of time it takes the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to issue a simple permit–like an erosion and sediment control permit.
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List of PA’s 42 Shale Drillers – How Many Wells Drilled & Where
It’s good to step back every now and again and look at who is drilling, how much they are drilling, and where they are drilling. We have such a list below for the 42 active shale drillers in Pennsylvania.
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PA Gov. Wolf Launches Severance Tax Fight 5th Year in a Row
Yes, we told you so. We told you that if our friends in PA were to unwisely reelect Tom Wolf for a second (and thankfully final) term as governor, he would continue to fight for a Marcellus-killing severance tax each and every year of his ignominious second term. Democrats (and some Republicans) just can’t keep their hands off other people’s money–it’s in their DNA.
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“Rule of Capture” Briefs Filed w/PA Supreme Court in Briggs Case
In November the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to hear a case, Briggs v. Southwestern Energy, that is hands-down the most important court case to ever happen regarding the Marcellus Shale in PA. And no, we’re not exaggerating. A blizzard of briefs by Southwestern and those supporting Southwestern were filed earlier this week.
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The Rise of the Utica…in Southwest Pennsylvania!

The Utica Shale is beginning to get noticed in southwestern Pennsylvania. The rise of the Utica can be traced back to a single well drilled by CNX Resources in 2015.
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PA Drillers/Pipelines Must Now Deal with 3 Protected Bat Species

Bats are a big deal in the Pennsylvania Marcellus. Why? Drillers and midstreamers can’t cut down trees from April 1st through October 31st of each year for fear of killing a northern long-eared bat that may be roosting in one of those trees. The PA Board of Game Commissioners have just added two more bat species to the list, further complicating the issue.
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PA AG Investigates Shale Drillers for “Enviro Crimes”

It turns out Pennsylvania’s current Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, is not much different than his predecessor, Kathleen Kane (who is sitting in jail for committing perjury). Kane, and now Shapiro, have targeted the Marcellus Shale industry, accusing drillers of committing crimes against the environment. It’s cheap and it’s sleazy and a total abuse of the office, all for political grandstanding.
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PA Enviro Radicals Brainwash/Use Children to Pressure Gov. Wolf
How is it not child abuse to brainwash young kids with your particular brand of sick environmental radicalism? That’s apparently what THE Delaware Riverkeeper herself has done–brainwashed little kids.
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Banpu Opens Field Office in NEPA, Looks to Invest $300M in 2019

Banpu Pcl, Thailand’s largest coal producer, invested over $500 million in 2016-2017 to buy existing Marcellus wells and acreage in northeast Pennsylvania (see our Banpu stories here). The last such purchase was in December 2017 (see Banpu/Kalnin Buys 5,289 Ac & 35 Wells in NEPA Marcellus for $105M). Banpu is back–in a big way.
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PA Marcellus Map – Where Does Drilling Happen?
A few weeks ago MDN brought you an updated map showing where Utica drilling has (and has not) happening in Ohio (see Ohio Utica & Marcellus Maps – Where Does Drilling Happen?). We heard from a number of MDN subscribers asking for similar maps for Pennsylvania and West Virginia. We struck out for WV, but we do have a map that shows the location for shale wells in PA.
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PA PUC Begins Geologic Testing Near ME1 Sinkhole
A couple of developments to share with you about the Mariner East 1 NGL pipeline which has been completely shut down since Jan. 21 when a new sinkhole appeared in Chester County exposing a few feet of the bare pipe (see New Mariner East 1 Sinkhole Appears, PA PUC Shuts Down Pipeline).
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All of Mariner East 1 NGL Pipe Shut Down Indefinitely by PA PUC
MDN previously reported that last Sunday a new sinkhole appeared exposing a tiny section of the Mariner East 1 (ME1) NGL pipeline in Chester County, PA, prompting Sunoco Logistics Partners to close down ME1 in the Greater Philadelphia area (see New Mariner East 1 Sinkhole Appears, PA PUC Shuts Down Pipeline).
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