PA State Senator Introduces Bill to Regulate Gathering Pipelines
We’re not quite sure what to think about this one. A Republican PA State Senator, Lisa Baker, on Monday introduced a bill in the PA Senate (SB 488, see a copy below) to regulate low-pressure natural gas gathering pipelines. Currently those lines, over 3,600 miles of them, are not regulated by any state or federal agency. Baker’s bill would put them under the oversight of the PA Public Utility Commission. Hey, we’re not against regulation in general. It’s an important part of the puzzle that makes energy possible. We are, however, against unnecessary and onerous regulation. We are against barriers that would slow, to a crawl, the installation of new gathering lines–what are by all accounts very safe pipelines. When was the last time you heard about a local gathering line that sprung a gas leak, blew up, etc.? Yeah, us too. Never. So the real question here is: Is regulating these lines even necessary? We suspect not, but we’ll keep an open mind while this plays out…
Read More “PA State Senator Introduces Bill to Regulate Gathering Pipelines”
The Baker Hughes rig count in the U.S. continued to be on fire in February. Whoops! Poor choice of words. The rig count continued its rocket ride. In January the average number of U.S. rigs was 683. In February, the count zoomed to 744, up 61 rigs in just a month. Each active rig translates into hundreds of jobs, both directly working at the rig and indirectly in services delivered to the rig and its workers. It also means more landowners will soon have royalty payments heading in their direction. When rigs are active, life is good. What about rig counts in the Marcellus/Utica? Total rig count went up another 3 rigs. Two of the rigs were added in WV (now 10), and one in PA (now 34). OH’s rig count remained the same (20 rigs) in February as January. Just 3 added rigs out of 61 means other shale plays (primarily the Permian and other oil plays) are where most of the rig action is happening. Here’s the full set of numbers, along with a pretty MDN chart showing the last 12 months of rig counts in the Marcellus/Utica…
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved Atlantic Sunrise in early February (see 
Dennis Davin, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED), has been one of the loudest and most credible voices in the disastrous PA Gov. Tom Wolf Administration. Davin has done great work in promoting the Shell ethane cracker and the jobs/economic development it will bring to the state (see 
At last week’s Oil & Gas Awards’ 2017 Northeast Industry Summit, MDN editor Jim Willis heard former Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary, Michael Krancer, say that the DEP’s proposed changes to General Permit (GP) 5 and 5A are “a big deal” and that the permits, as drafted, have the potential to stop PA natural gas production for 12-18 months while new regulations get sorted out (see 
PennEast Pipeline is a $1 billion, 118-mile pipeline from Luzerne County, PA to Mercer County, NJ. Along the entire length of the pipeline, there will only be one compressor station–located in Carbon County, PA. This past Wednesday the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) conducted a public hearing on the compressor station plan. Nominally the hearing is to elicit feedback from the public. However, as is so often the case, these are not really hearings but theatrical performances where anti-drilling kooks put on the equivalent of a circus act. But antis weren’t the only ones who showed up for the hearing. Plenty of supporters were there too…
The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), charged with overseeing potential impacts on the Delaware River and the various tributaries that feed it, has stepped outside of its legal bounds with plans to review the PennEast Pipeline, part of which will run through the Delaware River Basin area. In 2014 the DRBC tried to tell PennEast and its sponsors that the pipeline will need their approval before it can be built (see 
Yesterday MDN editor Jim Willis had the pleasure of attending, and moderating two panel sessions, at the Oil & Gas Awards 2017 Northeast Industry Summit in Pittsburgh. (Jim is back in Binghamton today, very tired!) When the sessions are made available via video, Jim will post them here on MDN. In the meantime a few words about the sessions and presenters, and about what we consider some pretty big news coming out of yesterday’s meeting. The day began with MDN friend George Stark, Director of External Affairs for Cabot Oil & Gas, making an impassioned plea for everyone in the industry to get involved with telling the great story of our beloved industry. Don’t think it’s someone else’s role–it’s the role of every single person in the industry, from janitor to secretary to CEO. George gave a rousing, opening address. George was followed by a panel discussion led by MDN friend Charlie Schliebs, Managing Director of Stone Pier Capital. Charlie’s panel tackled some interesting topics about mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcies, and where they see the price of natural gas going over the next several years. After Charlies panel was a panel discussing pipeline projects. The moderator was Fred Lowther, a partner at powerhouse energy law firm Blank Rome. Fred, who once worked on the Iroquois Gas Transmission Pipeline project when it was being built, said over the years since that pipeline was built he’s often joked they failed to do a “celebrity impact statement” when building it. Liked that line! After Fred’s panel was a talk given by Michael Krancer, also with Blank Rome (and former Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection). Mike is always a take-no-prisoners presenter. We’ve always loved the way he thinks and expresses himself. Yesterday was no different. It was during Mike’s talk that we found what we believe was the most important thing said yesterday. It has to do with PA’s proposed General Permit 5A. Mike said if GP-5A is enacted as written, it will result in a 12-18 month moratorium on production in Pennsylvania…
The Allegheny Institute exists to conduct research, education and advocacy work in a mission to defend taxpayers and businesses against burdensome taxation, inefficiency and intrusiveness of an ever expanding government. That’s a pretty tall order because government–at all levels–is always expanding, like a voracious monster. Think of the Allegheny Institute as a mini version of the Heritage Foundation–focused on Pennsylvania. Last week the Institute published a new policy brief dealing with the latest severance tax proposal by PA Gov. Tom Wolf. This is a think piece–but not overly heavy. It is quite readable (within a few minutes) and delivers food for thought. As the author points out, you can change to a severance tax from an impact fee (i.e. tax), but will you really reap all of the revenue claimed? Politicians like Wolf often gloss over the economics. Currently, the impact fee is levied on drillers. A severance tax, if enacted, would (in many/most cases) be deducted as an expense from royalty checks, placing the burden for the tax on landowners–and lowering their income, which means less in the way of state income tax revenues. The severance tax proposed by Wolf, when considered honestly, is nothing short of a disaster…
A fake report recently issued by the anti-drilling, radically left and biased Public Herald (populated with activists masquerading as “journalists”) claims that some 9,400 residents in Pennsylvania have filed complaints that fracking has caused them ill-health in one way or the other. It is, according to anti-drillers, a public health “crisis.” How do we know this so-called report is TOTAL BS? Look at who wrote it, and look at who funded it: community organizers wrote it, the Heinz Foundation funded it. This is another sterling example of Joseph Goebbels-like propaganda. The Harrisburg Patriot-News allowed one such community organizer/anti-fossil fueler to run an article on the opinion-editorial page touting the report as legitimate. You can fool some of the people some of the time…
Across the Keystone State (i.e. Pennsylvania), the shale revolution is “boosting agriculture,” says a farm expert. How? By providing new sources of capital (cash) to buy new equipment, more livestock, fix buildings, etc. Shale is also lowering the cost of fuel and fertilizer for farmers. And it provides jobs for members of farming families–bringing in an important new income stream. It is not an overstatement to say that shale is literally saving the family farm in PA…
One of the big success stories about Marcellus drilling in Pennsylvania is the money generated from state land leased for oil and gas drilling. You may recall two governors ago Democrat Gov. Ed Rendell was hell bent for leather in leasing state-owned land for drilling ON said land. After his voracious appetite for money was sated and his Democrat cronies in the legislature spent (“blew”) all $444 million of it, Rendell tried to pretend that he’s an environmentalist by slapping an executive order–a moratorium–on any more leasing of state-owned land. Hypocrite. The next Governor, Tom Corbett, lifted that moratorium with an executive order of his own so that another $75 million of badly needed revenue could be raised by leases for drilling under (not on) state land. Then along came the disastrous Tom Wolf. He immediately signed a new executive order banning any new leases on state-owned land (see 
In December the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) unveiled new regulations to clamp down on methane emissions and other other air pollution that allegedly comes from shale drilling sites (see 
As we reported earlier this week, Sunoco Logistics Partners has begun active construction activities related to building the twin Mariner East 2 pipelines (see 
Each year Engineering News-Record (ENR) magazine publishes a list of its Top 25 construction projects that began to be built during the previous 12 months. ENR has just released the list for new starts in 2016, and as we looked over the list, we couldn’t help but notice that of the top 25–each project of which had to be worth at least $140 million to get on the list–many of the projects are related to Marcellus/Utica Shale and would not exist without abundant, cheap shale gas. Here is the list of the Top 25 projects begun last year in the states of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia…