A SECOND Ethane Cracker Coming to Pennsylvania? Maybe!
Last week MDN reported that Dennis Davin, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) had gone on a roadshow to three counties that will be most affected by Shell’s ethane cracker plant planned for Beaver County (see PA Econ Dev Secretary Hits Road to Promote Shell Cracker). Of course one of those counties was Beaver. Davin addressed a forum in Beaver last Tuesday. What we’re just learning now is that, at the Beaver forum, there was brief talk about a SECOND ethane cracker for Pennsylvania. You read that right. There are no concrete plans as yet, but the scuttlebutt is that an unnamed company is scouting PA for a second cracker plant. According to Davin, his agency has “heard rumblings” but “nothing more.” However, following Davin’s appearance in Beaver and the talk of a second cracker, the DCED issued a statement clearly meant to stoke those rumors…
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A banker, a real estate developer and a natural gas drilling company rep walk into a bar… No wait! This isn’t a joke! A banker, a real estate developer and a natgas drilling rep were panelists at seminar held yesterday, organized by the Pittsburgh Business Times. Even though there has been a major slowdown in Marcellus/Utica drilling, all three panelists were upbeat and optimistic–in no small part because of the coming Shell ethane cracker in nearby Beaver County. One comment made about the Shell cracker: “We’re not just building a facility; we’re building an industry.” That’s just how major the Shell project will be in the greater Pittsburgh area. Another comment: “The Marcellus Shale is not in the tank…It has slowed down, which is typical of industries that are sensitive to price cycles, [but] it’s consistent, affordable and is stable.” More interesting tidbits from the PBT soiree…
Gene Barr is the president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry. The PA Chamber is a big supporter of the Marcellus industry. Writing a column that appears in a recent edition of the York Dispatch, Barr gives full-throated support to three pipelines “critical” to PA’s future: Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise; Sunoco Logistics’ Mariner East 2; and UGI Energy Services’ PennEast. We really liked Barr’s column (read it below). However, we would add a fourth pipeline to his list of critically important pipelines for PA drillers: the Williams Constitution Pipeline. While the three projects Barr names will be mostly built in PA, the Constitution Pipeline will be mostly built in New York State. We suppose that’s all we have to say for you to know why that project is in trouble. At any rate, here’s the reasons Barr offers for supporting the three pipelines he mentions in his column, reasons that equally apply to the much-needed Constitution Pipeline too…
Pennsylvania, like all states, is on a mission to combat the fairy tale of man-made global warming by reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions (the stuff you exhale with every breath), and by reducing methane (i.e. natural gas) that escapes into the atmosphere. Global warmists have talked themselves into the belief that a little methane leaking here and there is worse than a supernova. Whatever. The Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) in PA is tasked with developing a plan to reduce CO2 and methane emissions in the Keystone State. They’ve just released a final version of their 2015 Climate Change Action Plan Update (full copy below). Among the suggestions from the brainiacs at the DEP is dressing up trucks in skirts (don’t ask)…
The Pennsylvania State Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) keeps track of emissions from various sources–including the shale industry. When drillers drill and pipeline companies pipe, the equipment used leaks nasty stuff into the air. Frankly it’s no different for any industrial activity or business. Even homes. We all emit stuff into the air. The question is, how much do we emit and does it rise to the level of being harmful? Yesterday the DEP released air emissions numbers for the shale industry for 2014–the most recent year in which they have completed data. What does it show? In 2014 the industry was still in an upswing–there were more wells drilled, more pipelines being added, etc. than in 2013. So it’s no surprise to learn that the shale industry as a whole emitted more emissions in 2014 than in 2013. What will be interesting is to see the 2015 numbers when they get released a year from now (the downturn began in 2015). With less drilling and piping, will air emissions go down? Stands to reason. At any rate, here’s what the DEP said yesterday about an increase in emitting nasty stuff by the drilling industry…
We’re sorry to beat a dead horse (or goat, in this case) to death, but we can’t help it. We have another shining example of far-left environmental radicals who are bleating about the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) change-up in the way they accepted public comments on the PennEast Pipeline project. We first reported the antis are up-in-arms two days ago (see 
The Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD) has fought stiff headwinds from the beginning. The organization was founded by a group of Pennsylvania shale industry people and environmentalists reaching across the isle to forge strict new standards both sides can live with. Environmental leftists, like Mamma Teresa Heinz Kerry and her Heniz Endowments, pulled support and have actively worked against the CSSD (see 
Pennsylvania residents: It’s time to (once again) show your support for the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project, a $3 billion, 198-mile project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County. It is a much-needed pipeline to move more Marcellus gas south, to new markets. In the past MDN has asked you to sign letters going to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and to the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). And you, our dear readers, have been the most responsive audience to get behind the effort to support this project. Thank you! We’re coming to you again with a new request. 
Last December Pennsylvania’s felony-indicted Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, brought a lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy, Anadarko and Williams accusing them of, among other things, royalty fraud (see 
All the way back in February 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 
While the number of permits issued to drill new wells in Ohio and Pennsylvania was down in July 2016 compared with July 2015, permit activity has picked up from earlier in the year. Finally. The question is, where are the new permits being issued? You have to have a permit before you have drilling. Permits are the best indicator of where drilling (and economic) activity is about to pick up. Below is a rundown of which counties are likely to soon see drilling–and which drillers will be doing the drilling…
It has been a loooooong road to adopting new drilling regulations in Pennsylvania–for both conventional and unconventional (shale) oil and gas drilling. The process is rumored to have begun during the Jurassic Period, when dinosaurs were still dying to produce current oil and natural gas supplies, picking up steam following the 2012 Act 13 legislation that called for an update to drilling regs (under then Gov. Tom Corbett). More recently, with the prospect of starting the process over again for both shale and conventional regs, Gov. Tom Wolf cut a deal to accept “half a loaf”–accept new regs for the shale industry and start over again with conventional drilling regs (see