Statewide PA

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    Low Turnout for Philly DRBC Frack Ban Hearing, Antis Dominate

    Philadelphia is the sixth most populous city in the United States, with over 1.5 million residents. And yet *maybe* 120 people turned out yesterday for a Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) hearing on their proposed plan to permanently ban fracking in the Delaware River Basin. A pair of hearings were held earlier this week in rural northeast PA–in Waymart–where the turnout was upward of 150 people! Judging from the wild claims by green groups like THE Delaware Riverkeeper that thousands (millions!) of people don’t want fracking in the river basin, you’d think more than maybe 120 people would turn up for a hearing in a city like Philly. Could it be not all that many people in southeast PA give a hoot about fracking in two northeastern PA counties? That thought crossed our minds as we read the accounts of those who showed up at yesterday’s meetings in Philly. Yes, antis outnumbered those in favor of fracking, but that’s to be expected in Philly. Here’s a recap of yesterday’s meetings…
    Read More “Low Turnout for Philly DRBC Frack Ban Hearing, Antis Dominate”

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    Range Res. 2018 Budget & 5 Yr Outlook: Focus on SWPA Marcellus

    Yesterday Range Resources released a pair of press releases. One outlines a high level overview for what the company will spend in 2018 and beyond, for the next five years. The other release trumpets Range’s “proved reserves.” As for 2018, Range says they are reducing the amount of money they will spend to drill this year versus what they spent last year. Range previously said they would spend $1.15 billion this year. That’s now been reduced to $941 million. Last year Range spent $1.27 billion, so this year’s spending is down 26% over last year. That’s a pretty hefty decrease. The good news is that Range will spend 80% of this year’s budget on drilling in the Marcellus, mainly in southwestern Pennsylvania. Even though Range will spend and drill less this year, they predict production will grow another 25%. As for the 5-year outlook, Range says almost all growth will come in the Marcellus (not the Louisiana Haynesville, their other drilling location). Range still has some 3,200 locations where they can drill new wells. Range CEO Jeff Ventura says shale has entered a “new era” of shale development where companies (like Range) have “captured the most prolific resources” and will now switch to focus on returns for shareholders. Translation: We won’t be drilling as much as we did in the past so we can concentrate on bottom line profitability. Which explains why Range is spending less this year than last. In the release Range calls the Marcellus its “flagship asset” and clearly signals the company will keep its focus here, in our region. As for proved reserves (how much gas and oil is in the ground, retrievable with today’s technology and at today’s costs), Range says proved reserves as of December 31 increased by 26% from the prior-year, now at 15.3 trillion cubic feet equivalent (Tcfe). That’s alotta gas! We have the Range announcements below, along with an updated PowerPoint slide deck chocked full of useful information…
    Read More “Range Res. 2018 Budget & 5 Yr Outlook: Focus on SWPA Marcellus”

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    PA AG Not Backing Down re Chesapeake Energy Royalty Lawsuit

    At the end of last year Chesapeake Energy offered a $30 million olive branch to Pennsylvania landowners to settle claims the company had screwed them out of royalty money by artificially inflating post-production costs in an elaborate scheme to pocket more money at landowners’ expense (see Chesapeake Agrees to $30M Royalty Settlement for PA Landowners). Chesapeake’s proffered deal would give the average PA leaseholder (some 14,000 of them) a one-time $2,140 payment–adjusted up or down for the size of their acreage. Frankly, it’s chump change. The big concession by Chesapeake in the proposed deal is that it gives landowners the right to reset the terms of their leases going forward. The catch is that Chesapeake won’t pull the trigger on the deal unless/until PA’s Attorney General, who has an ongoing, separate lawsuit filed against Chesapeake over the same issue, settles as well. PA AG Josh Shapiro has fired back saying he will not cave to Chesapeake’s “pressure tactic” and settle. PA landowners are caught in the middle. Some of them want the Chesapeake $30M chump change deal saying a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush. That is, the AG may eventually lose his case–and it will take years to play out. Why not take the money and run now, especially if we can reset the lease terms to prevent any more gouging by Chesapeake? But other landowners, including National Association of Royalty Owners (PA Chapter) President Jackie Root say PA landowners “deserve better” than the deal offered by Chesapeake. Here’s the latest in the royalty wars…
    Read More “PA AG Not Backing Down re Chesapeake Energy Royalty Lawsuit”

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    Riverkeeper Gears Up to Fight PennEast in Court via FERC Requests

    That didn’t take long. We knew it wouldn’t. Last Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave its full, final approval for the PennEast Pipeline project, a $1 billion, 120-mile primarily 36-inch natural gas pipeline that will stretch from Dallas (Luzerne County), PA to Transco’s pipeline interconnection near Pennington (Mercer County), NJ. (see FERC Grants Final Approval for PennEast Pipe – Real Battle Begins). Yesterday THE Delaware Riverkeeper, a radicalized Big Green group, filed two requests with FERC: (1) a motion to “rehear” (i.e. reconsider) their decision to approve PennEast, and (2) a motion to block any construction on PennEast until the motion to rehear has been decided. As Riverkeeper plainly states on their website, “A Rehearing Request must be submitted and denied before a legal challenge in court can be pursued.” A court challenge is, of course, the strategy. Asking FERC to rehear the decision is nothing more than going through the motions, jumping through the necessary hoops. A huge side benefit for Riverkeeper with FERC’s decision to approve PennEast is that the opposition to the project can be leveraged as a big fundraiser for Riverkeeper: “Help us stop the big, bad pipeline. Donate here!” Below is Riverkeeper’s press release (i.e. fundraiser) about their plan to challenge FERC approval, along with their FERC filings from yesterday…
    Read More “Riverkeeper Gears Up to Fight PennEast in Court via FERC Requests”

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    PA Groups Want to Steal Marcellus $ to Fund “Free” College Educ

    On Tuesday, two left-leaning, Harrisburg-based Democrat groups with innocent sounding names–the Keystone Research Center and the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center–introduced what they labeled as “The Pennsylvania Promise” during a presentation in the Capitol Rotunda. We call it “The Pennsylvania Grand Theft.” No doubt inspired by autocrat Andrew Cuomo in the state next door and his “free college tuition” program, the groups want to give away a “free” college education to PA residents who go to a PA state college or university. Of course nothing is free. The program would cost $1 billion a year and would be funded in part by (you guessed it), a Marcellus Shale severance tax. The personal state income tax would also go up in order to help pay for this “free” program. How is this not theft? Transferring money from those who work hard to earn it–to those who don’t. Government theft, plain and simple. We have such a program here in New York State and people are leaving our state in DROVES. Year in and year out NY loses population, particularly in the Upstate region. Socialism, the transference of wealth from those who earn it to those who don’t (or won’t), eventually breaks down when the earners get tired of being shaken down by their government and move away. That’s what will happen in PA if a cockamamie plan like “The Pennsylvania Promise” is adopted…
    Read More “PA Groups Want to Steal Marcellus $ to Fund “Free” College Educ”

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    Marcellus Methane Emissions Study has Fatal Errors; Retracted

    Last year a peer reviewed study published by researchers from the University of Maryland in the American Geological Union’s (AGU) Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres claimed methane was leaking from the Marcellus Shale at a rate of 3.9% based on three flight measurements in September and August 2015. That’s a lot. Using that rate of 3.9%, the authors boldly concluded that shale gas development is a “climate detriment.” They actually said, “the use of natural gas rather than coal for combustion will result in a relatively greater climate impact over the next few decades.” Yeah, burning natgas is worse than burning coal for the environment. Just one teeny, tiny problem. The research is wrong. In a huge “oops we screwed up”–the study has now been retracted. Why? Due to an “error in wind measurements” that led to wildly wrong emissions estimates. And will you read about that in mainstream news–the same news that carried the original “shale gas is worse for the environmental than coal” stories? Nope. Crickets. Silence. Here’s the news from our friends at Energy in Depth about the yet another so-called research study exposed as fraudulent…
    Read More “Marcellus Methane Emissions Study has Fatal Errors; Retracted”

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    New “Marcellus Workers Cause STDs” So-Called Research Study

    Those evil, nasty frackers just LOVE having sex. Sex, sex, sex, all the time. Everybody knows it. When shale workers arrive in town, the incidence of gonorrhea (i.e. “the clap”) goes up. So says a laughable, totally made up “research study” recently published in the so-called Journal of Public Health Policy. This is not the first time we’ve heard this particular anti-fossil fuel argument–that shale causes sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). We’ve highlighted this anti lie a number of times over the years (see our stories here). Just like all lies pedaled by antis, they recycle this one again and again–it comes around every year or two. If you tell a lie often enough… This most recent permutation uses, in the exact words of the authors themselves, “a quasi-natural experiment within the Marcellus shale region plus panel data estimation techniques to quantify the impact of fracking activity on local gonorrhea incidences.” In other words, they just made it up. Spit-balled. Guessed. Lied. There is no real science here…
    Read More “New “Marcellus Workers Cause STDs” So-Called Research Study”

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    FERC Grants Final Approval for PennEast Pipe – Real Battle Begins

    PennEast Pipeline Route – click for larger version

    It took over three years, but finally (finally!) PennEast Pipeline received a full, final kiss of approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Friday. One of the five FERC commissioners–Democrat Richard Glick (wind lobbyist, hand-picked by Chuck Schumer), voted against approving the project. Why are we not surprised? PennEast is a $1 billion, 120-mile primarily 36-inch natural gas pipeline that will stretch from Dallas (Luzerne County), PA to Transco’s pipeline interconnection near Pennington (Mercer County), NJ. The pipeline is an important conduit to move gas from the prolific gas fields of northeastern PA to markets in southeast PA and New Jersey. From the beginning of the project there have been a collection of so-called environmental organizations opposing it–including THE Delaware Riverkeeper, NJ Sierra Club, and the NJ Conservation Foundation. All radical groups, far far out of the mainstream. Unfortunately NJ elected an authoritarian Democrat as governor–Phil Murphy (see Dem Candidate for NJ Gov Opposes PennEast, After He $upported It). Murphy (a tool of Big Green) intends to obstruct PennEast any way he can (he said so during the campaign). So the fight for PennEast is far from over. The real battle is just beginning. However, with FERC on their side, PennEast can begin construction this year, in 2018. The more pipeline laid in the ground, the harder it becomes for Murphy and his radical supporters to stop it…
    Read More “FERC Grants Final Approval for PennEast Pipe – Real Battle Begins”

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    PA DEP Invites Public Comment on Shell 60-Mile Ethane Pipeline

    Falcon Ethane Pipeline proposed route – click for larger version

    The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is taking a close look at Shell’s proposal to build an ethane pipeline to feed the $6 billion cracker plant now under construction in Beaver County, PA. In fact, the DEP wants public input on the ethane pipeline–by Feb. 20th. Brief history: In February 2016, MDN brought you exclusive news that Shell had begun approaching landowners in Beaver County to get them to sign easements for two ethane pipelines to feed the mighty cracker plant they plan to build in the county (see Exclusive: Shell Leasing Land for 2 Pipelines to PA Cracker Plant). At that time Shell had still not fully committed to building the cracker–something they finally did in June 2016 (see Breaking: Shell Pulls the Trigger, PA Ethane Cracker is a Go!). NGI’s Shale Daily broke a story in August 2016 that shed new light on the project–news that Shell is working on an ethane “pipeline system” with two “legs” to feed the cracker, confirming the tip we received in February (see Shell Working on 94-Mile Ethane Pipeline to Feed PA Cracker). Last October Shell filed an application with the PA DEP for the PA portions of the pipeline (see Shell Files PA Application for Ethane Pipe to Feed Cracker Plant). The DEP is now considering those portions–some 60 miles running through the state. Here’s how you can comment on/support the project…
    Read More “PA DEP Invites Public Comment on Shell 60-Mile Ethane Pipeline”

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    New Park Foundation “Study” Targets PA Conventional O&G Wastewater

    For years now the radical Park Park Foundation has been buying its research from a few select professors at a few select universities. One of the scientists for sale is Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment (see Duke Hit Piece on Shale Water Usage from Same Park-Sponsored Prof and Latest Case of Duke U Bought & Paid “Research” by Park Foundation). Here’s how it works: Park funds Dr. Vengosh’s “research,” and he conveniently “discovers” all sorts of nasty things about shale fracking, publishing his “research” in obscure, peer reviewed journals. Mainstream media picks it up and runs it. Readers who only scan headlines get the impression fracking is evil. Mission accomplished for Park (another hit on fracking) and for Vengosh (another buck in his pocket). That’s how it works in the world of bought-and-paid-for fractivism. We though Vengosh had reformed. In October 2016 he published a fracking wastewater study, funded by the National Science Foundation (NOT the Park Foundation) that found there’s really nothing to worry about after all when it comes to Marcellus Shale wastewater (see Duke U Researcher Tries to Repair Reputation with Wastewater Study). But Vengosh has had a relapse–perhaps he needs more money? Vengosh, with funding from the Park Foundation, has just published a new study that blames conventional (not shale) oil and gas development in Pennsylvania for an increase in radioactivity in streams/rivers where conventional (not shale) wastewater has been treated and released by local sewage treatment plants…
    Read More “New Park Foundation “Study” Targets PA Conventional O&G Wastewater”

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    Adelphia Gateway Pipeline Near Philly Files with FERC

    Adelphia Gateway Pipeline map – click for larger version

    In November MDN shared the exciting news that an old oil pipeline stretching from Northampton County, PA through Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties, terminating in Delaware County at Marcus Hook, had been purchased by a subsidiary of New Jersey Resources and will get converted to flow Marcellus natural gas to the greater Philadelphia region (see Oil Pipeline Near Philly to be Converted to Flow Fracked NatGas). The project/pipeline is called the Adelphia Gateway. Adelphia ran an open season–a period of time when shippers can reserve capacity along the pipeline–and got requests for twice the amount of capacity the pipeline will hold (see Converted Pipeline Near Philly Gets 2X More Interest than Capacity). That was more than enough for NJ Resources to move forward with the project. Last week they filed an official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to convert the existing pipeline to flow natural gas, and add various facilities (like meter stations) along the way…
    Read More “Adelphia Gateway Pipeline Near Philly Files with FERC”

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    2 Landowner Groups Merge to Fight DRBC’s Theft of Drilling Rights

    Landowners who live in the Delaware River Basin feel betrayed and disenfranchised following the actions of the aggressive, malignant Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC)–a quasi-governmental agency set up to oversee and protect water usage within the Delaware River Basin. The DRBC colors WAY outside the lines of its charter by limiting not just water use, but land use within the basin. The Delaware River and its tributaries supply fresh drinking water for some 14 million people, including New York City. The DRBC, under the pretense of protecting water, issued draft regulations on Nov. 30 that will permanently (!) ban hydraulic fracturing in the basin (see DRBC Drops Permanent Frack Ban Bomb – Public Hearings in January). Residents in Wayne and Pike counties in PA are furious. They could have, long ago, leased their land for drilling had it not been for the DRBC. And a drilling ban isn’t the only way the DRBC is screwing the residents who live within the basin. The agency has become an arm of the Rockefeller/gentry clan who want to make the region their own personal, private playground. Enough is enough. Two different landowner groups in the basin–Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance (NWPOA) and the Upper Delaware River Basin Citizens (UDRBC)–are merging together to fight the DRBC beast. Their philosophy is “better together.” Their mission is righteous and the stakes are critical. We applaud these groups joining together to beat back the tyrannical DRBC…
    Read More “2 Landowner Groups Merge to Fight DRBC’s Theft of Drilling Rights”

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    PA House Advances “Fix DEP & Other Agencies” Plan with 5 Bills

    As part of the Pennsylvania Senate’s misguided and mangled budget bill last year, Republicans managed to slip in fixes to the state Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) chronic delays in issuing permits related to shale drilling (see PA Senate’s “Olive Branch” of “Relaxed Regulations” for Drillers). Unfortunately the fixes came out before the final budget passed. Problems remain for Marcellus drillers. Delays are long in the Keystone State when it comes to permits for shale wells. The problems NEED to get fixed, now. In early January, PA House Rep. Greg Rothman introduced a standalone bill to address the problem (see Bill Introduced to Fix PA DEP’s Extreme Delays Issuing Permits). Rothman’s bill, House Bill (HB) 1959, would give certified third parties the right to review and force the DEP to issue permits when/if the DEP can’t get off it’s duff and do it in a timely manner. Not long after Rothman’s bill was introduced, a second bill was introduced, by State Rep. Brian Ellis (see New Bill Would Force PA DEP to Work WITH the Marcellus Industry). Ellis’ bill, HB 1960, is called the “State Agency Regulatory Compliance Officer Act” and will create a new Regulatory Compliance Officer position in each state agency, including the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). The new Compliance Officer would have the authority “to block an agency from imposing fines and penalties for violations and to rewrite the policies under which fines and penalties are imposed.” The aim of the bill is to force all PA state agencies (including the DEP) to work *with* the people and companies they regulate, rather than play gotcha. Those two bills, plus three more, are part of a suite of bills being offered by the PA House “Common Sense Caucus.” The Caucus, headed by Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, released a report yesterday called the 2017-18 Regulatory Overreach Report (full copy below). The report gives examples of egregious regulatory overreach and proposes five bills, including HB 1959 and HB 1960, to fix the problem. Note the Caucus is not just picking on DEP with this proposed fix–they ambitiously want to make all state agencies work better…
    Read More “PA House Advances “Fix DEP & Other Agencies” Plan with 5 Bills”

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    Supersize Me! Marcellus/Utica Well Pads Now Host Up to 40 Wells

    The Marcellus/Utica Shale industry is changing underneath our feet–literally! Last time we checked, most well pads in the Marcellus/Utica sported an average of maybe 3-4 wells–with a dozen wells on a pad being “big.” Something has changed, dramatically, in the gas fields of PA, OH and WV. The “new normal” are supersized well pads–holding as many as (gasp) 40 wells! We hasten to add no such pad yet exists–a pad with 40 wells drilled from it. However, there is an EQT well pad in Allegheny County (near Pittsburgh) with 38 wells permitted (9 of which have been drilled so far). EQT says it now averages drilling 17-18 wells per pad. Antero Resources is drilling an average of 10 wells per pad–up from 3-4 “just a few years ago.” The trend now is more wells per pad, and longer laterals–meaning fewer well pads overall. That’s good for the environment, and good for the bottom line (less money spent pushing dirt around developing pads). Here’s an update on the trend to supersize well pads in the Marcellus/Utica…
    Read More “Supersize Me! Marcellus/Utica Well Pads Now Host Up to 40 Wells”

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    PA Enviros Resist Transferring Surplus to Help Balance State Budget

    Last September, amidst a heated state budget battle in Pennsylvania (where the phrase “severance tax” was on the lips of every Democrat and RINO in Harrisburg), a group of PA House Republicans did the hard work Gov. Tom Wolf and his cronies in the legislature refused to do: They figured out how to fund a wildly overspent budget without raising a single tax (see PA House Introduces Balanced Budget with NO Severance Tax). How did House Republicans do it? They went looking for state agencies hording money, with a plan to relieve them of their surplus. You know how it goes. Each year agencies don’t spend all of their allotted money, yet they ask for more the following year anyway, knowing legislators may shave some from the request. It’s obscene. Yet that’s how the game is played. When Republicans went looking, they found even the Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) and Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) have been squirreling money away, unused in some of their programs. The House Republican plan from last September was not adopted, but elements of it were included in the final budget. The final budget passed in October instructs Gov. Wolf to reallocate $300 million from surpluses at various state agencies–from the agencies of his own choosing–as part of the “funding” for this year’s budget. The House Appropriations Committee will hold a meeting on Jan. 25 to question representatives from DCNR and DEP about the use and operation of special funds under their administration–to see if there’s a bit of surplus there that can be used for the state budget. Judging by the reaction from a former DEP Secretary, it seems both agencies take umbrage at having to subject themselves and their surpluses for scrutiny. At its core, this issue is about who will pay bloated teacher’s salaries in Philadelphia. Big Green wants to target the Marcellus industry to pay “for the children.” Yet when they themselves are asked to contribute a small amount of their bloated excess (give it up for the Philly teacher’s unions), THEY resist! They are all for raiding another industry, but refuse to have their own departments “raided” in order to balance a hugely overspent state budget. Anyone else smell rank hypocrisy?…
    Read More “PA Enviros Resist Transferring Surplus to Help Balance State Budget”

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    PA DEP Considers Rule Reducing/Eliminating VOC Emissions for O&G

    On Jan. 24 the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Small Business Compliance Advisory Committee will hold a meeting in Harrisburg to discuss, among other things, RACT (“reasonably available control technology”) regulations for the oil and gas industry. The new regulations are aimed at further reducing volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions at oil and gas sites. The new regs, scheduled to go into effect in 2021, will require the use of technology to achieve a 95% reduction in VOCs from existing sources, including storage tanks, pneumatic pumps and centrifugal compressors. Supposedly this is a requirement being driven by a Control Technology Guideline (CTG) from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. We’re not sure whether conventional/vertical, or unconventional/shale will be affected by the coming changes. We suspect both will be affected. So it behooves the industry to get involved now, while there’s still time to tweak the new regs…
    Read More “PA DEP Considers Rule Reducing/Eliminating VOC Emissions for O&G”