Statewide PA

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    Another Look at “Rule of Capture” Case that Threatens PA Marcellus

    MDN brought you important news in April that the Pennsylvania Superior Court had handed down a decision (known as the “Briggs” case) that has the power to greatly restrict, perhaps even stop, Marcellus drilling in PA (see PA Superior Court Overturns “Rule of Capture” for Marcellus Well and PA “Rule of Capture” Case has Power to Limit Marcellus Drilling). The issue, in brief, is that the Superior Court decision disallows using an age-old principle called the “rule of capture” when it comes to shale drilling and fracking. It opens the door to a myriad of frivolous lawsuits claiming that a fracture, a crack created during fracking, is draining gas from a neighbor’s property without justly compensating the neighbor for the gas. Southwestern successfully argued in a lower court that the odd crack here and there that may slip under a neighbor’s property is permissible. The landowner appealed to Superior Court and three judges heard the case. Southwestern, following the decision, petitioned the Superior Court to have all of the sitting justices (called en banc) hear the case (see Southwestern Appeals “Trespass” Case to Entire PA Superior Court). No word yet on whether the Superiors will do it. In the meantime, we spotted an article by the ace lawyers at the Blank Rome law firm discussing the case and its implications. We can’t stress enough just how critical this case is to the future of drilling in Pennsylvania, which is why we bring you the following…
    Read More “Another Look at “Rule of Capture” Case that Threatens PA Marcellus”

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    New Bills Limit PA DEP Permit Appeals, Reduce Enviro Judge Terms

    As we reported yesterday, Big Green radicals in Pennsylvania are grumpy that the PA House passed five bills meant to fix the dysfunctional PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (see PA House Passes 5 Bills to Fix Broken DEP, Environuts React). Conservative Republicans in the House continue to play offense (which we love). On Monday of this week, PA Sen. Camera Bartolotta (R-Washington) sent around a memo to fellow House members asking them to co-sponsor two new bills she plans introduce. The first bill will narrow the grounds on which a DEP-issued permit may be appealed. Antis love to file endless appeals of permits for drilling and pipelines, dragging out the process in hopes of eventually defeating a given project. The first bill will fix that. The second bill reduces the terms of sitting Environmental Hearing Board judges. If a judge has been on the bench for 10 or more years, their term will expire and they will not get a chance to continue. The second bill is aimed at draining the EHB swamp (pun intended). Both bills are common sense measures, and of course, Big Green radicals are already howling at the moon because of them…
    Read More “New Bills Limit PA DEP Permit Appeals, Reduce Enviro Judge Terms”

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    Antis Weaponize PA Enviro Rights Amendment in Effort to Kill Shale

    AR-15 rifle

    The Pennsylvania Environmental Rights Amendment (ERA), passed by the good citizens of PA in 1971, is a poorly worded piece of legislation with good intentions, adopted in a hurry in response to a disaster. Like all legislation that’s hurried and adopted in response to disasters (natural or man-made), the ERA is deeply flawed. Antis are now using the ERA as a bludgeon–perhaps a better analogy is more like an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle–in their attempt to assassinate the Marcellus Shale industry. Unfortunately, they are having some success in the PA court system. The ERA laid dormant after its adoption until an awful PA Supreme Court decision in 2013 breathed new life into it for antis (see Ongoing Fallout from PA Supreme Court’s Wrong Act 13 Decision). Since that time, antis have sued drillers and pipeline companies a number of times, citing the ERA, and in some cases winning (see PA Anti Strategy: Weaponize Recent Court Ruling Against Shale Dev). Emboldened by these wins, “Article 1, Section 27” as the ERA is known, is being employed in more places, even (especially) outside the court room…
    Read More “Antis Weaponize PA Enviro Rights Amendment in Effort to Kill Shale”

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    PA House Passes 5 Bills to Fix Broken DEP, Environuts React

    In March the Pennsylvania House State Government Committee debated and voted to approve a slate of five bills aimed at fixing not only the slowmo way the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) approves shale permits, but also roll back some of the egregious regulatory overreach that now exists in PA (see PA House Committee Approves 5 “Fix DEP” Bills – What’s Next?). The vote to report the bills out of committee was along party lines, with zero liberal Democrats voting in favor of fixing the DEP. In a move that has alarmed and angered Big Green and its supporters, all five bills were voted on by the full House yesterday–and all five passed! Once again, not a single Democrat voted to fix the DEP. What happens now?…
    Read More “PA House Passes 5 Bills to Fix Broken DEP, Environuts React”

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    Broken Record: Wolf, Dems & RINOs Float 4% Severance Tax

    Every year it’s the same thing from “America’s most liberal governor,” PA’s Gov. Tom Wolf: propose a severance tax on natural gas production, a tax in addition to the existing impact tax (which is already the equivalent of a severance tax), and demagogue the issue in hopes of shaming/pressuring/bullying Republicans into passing such a tax. When/if such a tax is passed, give every last dime of it to teachers unions in the Philadelphia area–the people who elected Wolf to office. That’s been Wolf’s modus operandi since he assumed office. And it has just happened again, for the fourth time. Wolf, along with two liberal Democrats and two Republicans in Name Only (RINOs, from the Philly area) gathered yesterday to announce new severance bills introduced in both the PA House and Senate that will slap a Marcellus-killing 4% tax on shale production, on top of the existing ~4% impact tax. Here we go again…
    Read More “Broken Record: Wolf, Dems & RINOs Float 4% Severance Tax”

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    PA Court Rules ME2 Pipe has Power of Eminent Domain, Period

    One of the ways anti-fossil fuel groups have tried to stop the Mariner East 2 Pipeline project is by tying it up in court. Various lawsuits have been filed going back years (see our list of lawsuit stories here). One litigant, a Big Green group headquartered in Philadelphia, the so-called Clean Air Council, has tried repeatedly to get the courts to deny ME2 the right to use eminent domain in cases where landowners refuse to cooperate (see Clean Air Council’s Strange War Against Mariner East Pipeline). CAC argued that ME2 is not a “public utility” and therefore not entitled to the use of eminent domain. That argument flamed out. They also argued since ME2 crosses a state boundary–into a small part of Ohio–it’s not an intrastate but interstate project and should be subject to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) instead of the PA state Public Utility Commission (PUC). That argument bombed too. CAC then argued ME2 is using a public taking for a private enterprise (not for the public good). Also tossed out. A court case that began in 2015 made its way to the PA Commonwealth Court and yesterday the Commonwealth Court finally shut down the CAC’s long-running lawsuit once and for all, denying their wild claims…
    Read More “PA Court Rules ME2 Pipe has Power of Eminent Domain, Period”

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    Atlantic Sunrise Doles Out $264,300 in Grants to Schools, Towns

    Pipeline companies are known for their largess in showering local schools, towns and nonprofit agencies with money for worthy causes. Among those who engage in this civic practice is Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project. Atlantic Sunrise is a $3 billion, 198-mile pipeline project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from northeastern PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County, PA. In 2015, the Atlantic Sunrise Community Grant Program was established to benefit community organizations in communities within the Atlantic Sunrise footprint. Since 2015, the Atlantic Sunrise has doled out more than $2 million across the 10-county project area in support of noteworthy projects. And they’ve just done it again. A total of 41 PA organizations have just received a total of $264,300 in contributions–more than a quarter of a million dollars! We have the full list below, along with information about how your organization can apply for the next round…
    Read More “Atlantic Sunrise Doles Out $264,300 in Grants to Schools, Towns”

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    Some PA Drillers Threaten to Spoil it for All via Royalty Shenanigans

    We’ve written a number of posts over the years about the ongoing, sometimes quiet sometimes not, civil war between Pennsylvania landowners and some (not all) drillers who use inflated post-production deductions to pad their own bottom lines, leaving landowners with peanuts–sometimes with no royalties at all (see Deep Dive: PA Royalties Civil War Between Landowners & Drillers). If we can oversimplify and summarize this complex issue, landowners maintain that a 1979 PA law guarantees landowners a 12.5% royalty regardless of expenses involved in extracting the gas, and drillers say no, landowners must abide by the contracts they’ve signed and if those contracts allow post-production costs to be deducted before calculating a royalty, the rate may go lower than 12.5%–sometimes to zero and below. PA landowners have, for the past six plus years, lobbied for legislation to clarify and protect a 12.5% minimum royalty. Today we have a guest post from the landowner point-of-view. Thad Stevens is a Gaines, PA resident and real estate developer. Thad has negotiated more than 50 oil and gas leases. He sits on the Dept. of Environmental Protection Citizen Advisory Council and is a director with the National Association of Royalty Owners PA chapter. We consider Thad a friend. He’s smart and he’s passionate about the the ongoing issue that some companies take inflated post-production deductions leaving PA landowners with little or nothing. Thad writes that some of PA’s gas drillers are displaying real arrogance in their attitudes toward the very people they need the most–landowners…
    Read More “Some PA Drillers Threaten to Spoil it for All via Royalty Shenanigans”

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    MarkWest Energy Settles EPA Air Pollution Case for $5.6 Million

    NOTE: A previous version of this post reported a total price of $3.2 million, now changed to account for the addition of an extra $2.4M for required SEPs. See below.

    Two MarkWest Energy subsidiaries, MarkWest Liberty Midstream Resources and Ohio Gathering Co., have been forced into signing a settlement of claims brought by the U.S. Dept. of Justice, Environmental Protection Agency, and the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection over charges of releasing too much air pollution from facilities they operate throughout eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania in the Utica and Marcellus shale. The agreement signed yesterday by MarkWest calls for the company to spend $2.6 million to install and operate new technologies to minimize VOC (volatile organic compounds) emissions at their facilities–19 major, standalone facilities and 273 smaller facilities. The company will also implement three supplemental environmental projects (SEPs) for an additional $2.4 million. In addition, MarkWest will pay the government a $610,000 fine (i.e. shakedown). Total cost to get the government of out their hair: over $5.6 million. The government claimed MarkWest had not applied for nor complied with necessary permits. But the real disaster, the thing that sent government bureaucrats into fits, is that MarkWest failed to file proper paperwork required under the Clean Air Act. However, the settlement didn’t all go the government’s way. In agreeing to the settlement, MarkWest “expressly denies and does not admit any liability to the United States or PADEP arising out of the conduct, transactions or occurrences alleged in the complaint,” which means antis can’t file frivolous lawsuits against MarkWest over air pollution…
    Read More “MarkWest Energy Settles EPA Air Pollution Case for $5.6 Million”

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    EIA: PA’s Natural Gas Production Hits New Highs Each Year

    Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, yesterday took a close look at natural gas production in Pennsylvania and how it has grown. A few interesting factoids: PA averaged a record high 15 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas production in 2017–3% higher than 2016. Most of PA’s natural gas production comes from the Marcellus Shale. PA production accounted for 19% of total U.S. marketed natural gas production in 2017. PA produces more natural gas than any other state except Texas. Several key pipelines have helped move some of PA’s enormous production to other markets. Here’s the insightful look at PA natgas production from expert number crunchers at EIA…
    Read More “EIA: PA’s Natural Gas Production Hits New Highs Each Year”

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    Sunoco Says ME1 Ready to Restart, but PUC is Dragging its Feet

    Ethane and propane had been flowing through the converted Mariner East 1 (ME1) pipeline safely for more than year, hauling the two natural gas liquids (NGLs) from southwest PA all the way to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. However, ME1 was suddenly switched off on March 3 by order of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) after a sinkhole opened up under the pipeline in Chester County, exposing some of the bare steel to the open air (see PA PUC Shuts Down Mariner 1 Pipeline Due to Mariner 2 Sinkhole). Sunoco Logistics Partners, the owner of ME1, is building a new set of pipelines called Mariner East 2 (ME2) close to the existing ME1. Construction work in the area on ME2 led to the sinkhole that exposed ME1. The PUC shut down ME1 until further notice, requiring Sunoco to conduct a study of the area and provide the PUC with evidence to reassure them that ME1 is OK and will not leak or explode. Sunoco conducted the study, provided its results, and has told the PUC it’s time to restart ME1. But the PUC is dragging its feet, taking its time to review Sunoco’s work, and in no particular hurry to restart ME1–even though the outage is impacting the drilling program at companies like Range Resources…
    Read More “Sunoco Says ME1 Ready to Restart, but PUC is Dragging its Feet”

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    Insane Legislation Requires PA Residents Use 100% Renewable Energy

    Right around Earth Day politicians become even nuttier than they usually are. This year is no exception. A truly breathtaking, totally insane pair of bills have just been introduced in the Pennsylvania legislature, in observance of Earth Day, that would force all Pennsylvanians to use electricity generated from 100% so-called renewable sources by the year 2050. It’s totally preposterous and lunatic–but there you have it. Actually being in your right mind is no longer a requirement for high office–at least in PA. Democrat Rep. Chris Rabb introduced the bill in the PA House, and Democrat-lite (i.e. RINO) Sen. Charles McIlhinney introduced the bill in the PA Senate. Unsurprisingly they’re both from the Philadelphia area, where living in the real world doesn’t exist. The object of the proposed law is to dump the use of all “fossil fuels” and instead rely on unreliable wind and solar to produce all electricity in the Keystone State. Do you know how much of PA’s electricity is produced by wind and solar today? A piddly 2.8%. Nuclear generation is the #1 source of electric in PA at 41%, followed by coal at 29.6% and natural gas at 25%. Do you really, in your heart of hearts, believe PA can generate 100% of its electricity from wind and solar by 2050? It’s a fantasy, totally unconnected with reality. Yet that’s all we’ll hear and read for the next few days until, blessedly, we get past so-called Earth Day…
    Read More “Insane Legislation Requires PA Residents Use 100% Renewable Energy”

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    PA DEP Hunger Games Competition to Distribute $12.6M in ME2 Money

    In February Sunoco Logistics Partners agreed to pay a massive (historically high) $12.6 million fine to the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) for “permit violations related to the construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline project” (see Sunoco LP Pays PA DEP $12.6M to Resume ME2 Pipeline Construction). Sunoco’s ME2 construction activities caused a few erosion issues here and some drilling mud leaks there–so-called “harms” to the environment. Surely some of the massive, historically high $12.6 million fine Sunoco is paying will be used to “fix” those problems, right? Wrong. Sunoco has to pay twice–pay to clean up the problems AND pay the fine. The fine was essentially a shakedown–Sunoco had to pay it or they would not be allowed to resume construction work on ME2. Yesterday the DEP announced a new program to distribute the $12.6 million of fine money. In Hunger Games tradition, the DEP is launching a lottery for the 85 municipalities along ME2’s path, allowing those “districts” to submit begging proposals to request some of the money for programs in their district. What kind of programs? “[P]rojects that reduce or minimize pollution and protect clean water.” In other words, just about anything contestants can dream up. They have 45 days, from May 7 to June 21, to make a grab for the cash (i.e. submit a grant application)…
    Read More “PA DEP Hunger Games Competition to Distribute $12.6M in ME2 Money”

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    Southwestern Appeals “Trespass” Case to Entire PA Superior Court

    Southwestern Energy has just taken the next very important step in a process that frankly has us holding our breath. Two weeks ago MDN brought you the news that the Pennsylvania Superior Court handed down a decision that has the power to greatly restrict, perhaps even stop, Marcellus drilling in PA (see PA Superior Court Overturns “Rule of Capture” for Marcellus Well and PA “Rule of Capture” Case has Power to Limit Marcellus Drilling). The issue, in brief, is that the Superior Court decision disallows using an age-old principle called the “rule of capture” when it comes to shale drilling and fracking. It opens the door to a myriad of frivolous lawsuits claiming that a fracture, a crack created during fracking, is draining gas from a neighbor’s property without justly compensating the neighbor for the gas. Southwestern successfully argued in a lower court that the odd crack here and there that may slip under a neighbor’s property is permissible. The landowner appealed the case to Superior Court and three judges heard the case. One of the Superior judges authored a decision overturning the lower court, with a second judge “joining” (agreeing with) the decision. The third judge was AWOL (“not participating”). Frankly, the stakes could not be higher for the future of Marcellus drilling in PA. Southwestern has just filed a request with the Superior Court asking that all 20 judges who sit on that court hear and consider the case, which makes sense given the gravity of the case and PA’s economic future…
    Read More “Southwestern Appeals “Trespass” Case to Entire PA Superior Court”

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    Did StateImpact Forum on PA Gas Royalty Issue Resolve Anything?

    Perhaps our headline for this article is a tad misleading. Maybe the better question is, Was a meeting held yesterday in Towanda, PA on the topic of gas royalties *meant* to resolve anything? The answer of which is, “Probably not.” PBS StateImpact Pennsylvania organized and hosted a forum yesterday on the topic of PA landowners getting screwed over by energy companies with respect to royalty payments. Both sides were well represented at the forum. We think it’s a cool concept, to get both sides talking about a very important issue. However, StateImpact, funded and controlled by Big Green backers including the William Penn Foundation and Heinz Endowments, is not an impartial, unbiased news organization that wants to honestly explore this important issue. StateImpact is NOT an impartial broker. Their purpose is to play both sides against each other and enjoy the chaos that ensues. Whip up more animosity between both sides. Make no mistake: StateImpact abhors shale drilling and prefers it not happen at all in PA. With that as the proper context to understand the event, some good points did emerge from the discussion, despite StateImpact’s bad intentions…
    Read More “Did StateImpact Forum on PA Gas Royalty Issue Resolve Anything?”

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    PA DEP Report – Virtually No Methane Migration from Shale Wells

    The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) released the results of it’s industry-leading program to monitor oil and gas wells for methane (and oil and brine) migration–that is, for anything would impact groundwater. The Mechanical Integrity Assessment Program, as it’s called, is “the most rigorous routine well integrity assessment program to protect groundwater in the United States,” requiring quarterly inspections by operators of their wells. The DEP is in the process of releasing the results of those reports for the past four years–from 2014-2017. They’ve just released results for 2014 (full copy below). What did the DEP find? “[L]ess than 1 percent of operator observations indicated the types of integrity problems, such as gas outside surface casing, that could allow gas to move beyond the well footprint.” In other words, there is virtually no methane migration happening from shale (and conventional) natural gas wells because of good well casings and regular checks. It is hard to overstate how important these findings are. The DEP’s own evidence disproves wild claims that methane is migrating from shale wells everywhere, claims made by anti-fossil fuel radicals and a colluding media (see examples from StateImpact Pennsylvania). Below is the good news that there is virtually no methane migration happening in PA from Marcellus Shale wells…
    Read More “PA DEP Report – Virtually No Methane Migration from Shale Wells”