Databook Vol. 2: List of 101 Infrastructure Projects Worth $83B!
MDN has just published Volume 2 of the 2015 Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook. In 90 jam-packed pages you will get the latest information on what’s happening (or not happening) with drilling in the Marcellus/Utica region. Much of the Databook is a series of county maps–one map for each county where there’s permit activity for Marcellus or Utica drilling. Each county maps shows a dot for where a permit was issued–along with the name of the driller next to it. The maps also show major natural gas pipelines and compressor stations. Each map offers you a quick, visual way of understanding where drilling is happening, and who’s doing the drilling. In addition, MDN editor Jim Willis spent several weeks compiling and completely revising a list of major pipeline and infrastructure projects happening throughout the northeast (and Midwest)–any project that affects takeaway capacity in the Marcellus/Utica. Jim found 101 projects in this updated list (sample below). If all projects get built, it represents a flabbergasting $83 billion worth of investment! The 3-volume series is just $350 (single volumes are $225). All three volumes are meant to work together. This is the PERFECT resource for drillers, pipeline companies, law firms, landmen and many others. Take a look at our sample pages below…
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“No, really, I don’t have a drinking problem,” says the alcoholic who believes just one more drink won’t hurt. Such is the power of denial. That’s the analogy that went through our heads when we read this headline: “Wolf Says Legislators In Denial.” Wolf, the taxaholoic, is the one who is in denial. He’s not listening–to Republicans or to people in his own Democrat Party. Pennsylvanians don’t want his high tax “fix” of the budget. But Wolf is, choose your adjective: obstinate…obtuse…clueless…desperate. That last one is the most likely–desperate to pay back the teachers’ unions that elected him. He can’t afford to not boost taxes–on everyone and everything (especially the Marcellus Shale)–in order to fork big money over to Big Education. Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats together are working on a bi-partisan budget that they intend to pass without Wolf–with a veto-proof majority. Wolf is toast. He can’t govern, and he’s proved it. Time to govern around him…
In a sit-down in September with the editors of the Washington Observer-Reporter (near Pittsburgh), the PennFuture Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley, was reported to have said the following: “He [Quigley] is proposing to create an office of environmental justice within the department and hire “the right individual” to advise him on policy” (see 
If landowners along the route of the PennEast Pipeline don’t sign a lease with the company, PennEast says they will be forced to (and will) use eminent domain to gain lease rights. The PennEast, as a reminder, is a proposed pipeline costing $1 billion that will run from Luzerne County, PA (near Wilkes-Barre) all the way to Mercer County, NJ (just outside of Trenton), flowing 1 billion cubic feet of clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas each and every day. Landowners along the pipeline’s route will still own the land, but there will be restrictions–you can’t erect a building over top of a pipeline, for example. PennEast looks at eminent domain as an absolute last resort. However, according to the radicals at the PA Sierra Club who are opposing the pipeline, around two-thirds of the landowners along the pipeline’s route have not yet signed a lease to allow the pipeline across their land. PennEast recently filed their official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see 
It seems like almost every day we read the “bad news” that more rigs are being laid down in the Marcellus/Utica, and jobs are being lost. We’re in the midst of a vicious down cycle right now in the industry, waiting for light to appear at the end of this long tunnel. So when we spot a story, or press release (in this case) about a company selling to the industry that’s actually expanding rather than contracting, we like to highlight that good news. A company we’d not previously heard of, Inspectorate (aka Bureau Veritas, a French company), announced yesterday they have expanded their offices and laboratories in Linden (NJ), Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. Inspectorate is a testing and inspection service for the oil and gas industry. The reason for their expansion in the northeast (and elsewhere in North America) is an uptick in demand for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) testing. Shale gas production drives increased market demand for propane, butane, and ethane, and along with it, the need to test it to ensure and verify quality…
Shhh. We have to whisper for this bit of news. Pennsylvania state budget talks began yesterday–“quietly” according to mainstream (Democrat) media. Staffers from no less than four House and Senate caucuses met yesterday, and will continue their meetings today and tomorrow, to see if they can hammer out a compromise budget. The dirty little secret is that no Gov. Wolf staffers are invited. Republicans and Democrats will work out the budget without Wolf and then let Wolf pretend it was all his idea in the first place. That’s how mainstream media covers for one of their own who’s gone off the rails as much as Wolf has. WORD IS (shhh! keep your voice down)…(oops, sorry)…word is that the budget negotiators will first agree how much extra spending they can get away with–put a number to it. After that they’ll figure out how they will raise insane amounts of new revenue to pay for it all. Yes, a potential severance tax is (unfortunately) still alive and kicking. We hope and trust Republicans will hold true and refuse any new taxes on the Marcellus Shale industry…
Even the election of judges for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is political, sadly. Extreme leftist environmental groups in PA, including Clean Water Action, the Pennsylvania Sierra Club, PennEnvironment, and Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania are engaging in political activities (in violation of their non-profit, tax-exempt status) by endorsing a slate of candidates and pushing their members to vote for those candidates. We know this will be a complete shock for you, but the three candidates running for three open seats on the Supreme Court being pushed by the enviro extremist groups are all (gasp) liberal Democrats who are likely to vote against the Marcellus Shale industry on cases that come before the high court…
More evidence of the insanity of well-funded Big Green groups like Food & Water Watch, THE (arrogant) Delaware Riverkeeper, Clean Air Council and others. Not getting enough traction on their own, 20 Big Green groups have decided to collude in violation of their non-profit status. The 20 groups held a “massive” joint rally yesterday in Philadelphia (pictures look like there’s maybe three dozen people present) to announce the formation of a new coalition called Green Justice Philly. The object of the coalition is to push back against the plan to make Philadelphia an energy hub in the northeast–like Houston is in the southwest. The gang of 20 have pledged to coordinate their lies and attacks on the fossil fuel industry, hoping to stop forward progress against fossil fuel companies, which they call “lawbreakers.” The gang of 20 is pressuring Philadelphia City Council to decline new permits for companies like Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES)–which operates the East Coast’s largest refinery on the banks of the Delaware River–hoping to prevent PES from building anything new or expanding their existing operation any further in Philadelphia. The gang of 20 wants to choke off new jobs and new investment if those jobs and investment comes from the evil, vile fossil fuel industry. Boggles the mind…
Sometimes it seems like the oil and gas industry, particularly in the Marcellus/Utica region, is some monolithic entity. It is not. Shale is all about people. The Marcellus Shale Coalition has just released a powerful new video called “The Faces of Shale” (watch it below). In the video average people talk about the shale industry and what it has meant to them–by providing jobs and income. It literally puts a face to what is sometimes a faceless entity. Who doesn’t love to hear someone else’s story?! Don’t listen to the lies Big Green pedals. Instead, listen to the people whose lives have been transformed by the miracle of fracking in the Marcellus Shale–people who thank God for the Marcellus…
A team of researchers led by Yale University have just published a new “peer reviewed” study that finds fracking does not contaminate water aquifers. Mainstream media’s response? Crickets. Nothing. Why is that? Here’s something even better: One of the researchers who participated in the study is none other than Avner Vengosh from Duke University, who, using Park Foundation money, previously published studies stating the opposite (see 
Quick: According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which three states are responsible for 85% of the increase in natural gas production since 2012? If you answered Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, you would be correct. The Marcellus/Utica Shale has been the number one economic stimulus and jobs creator in the northeast for the past three years. At times, PA, OH and WV have competed for the same investments, like ethane cracker plants. (All three states have a serious proposals for ethane crackers.) Realizing it may be better to work together rather that compete against each other, all three states have agreed to cooperate to develop shale gas in the Appalachian region. Yesterday political representatives from all three states–Gov. Tom Wolf from PA, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin from WV and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor from OH–signed a tri-state regional cooperation agreement at the Tri-State Shale Summit held in Morgantown, WV. There are four main areas the three states have pledged to work together on…
Wow. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is as stubborn about wanting to raise PA taxes as a jackass–his party’s mascot. Wolf’s latest proposed budget was voted down last week–with nine Democrats in the House voting against it (see 
Last week MDN reported on a new junk science study that claims to have discovered the closer you live to fracking in Pennsylvania, the more likely your baby will be born prematurely (see 
It’s a miracle! Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf actually did something right–he signed Senate Bill (SB) 875 into law yesterday. You may recall on Tuesday we told you that the PA Senate and House had passed SB875 and sent it on to Wolf for his signature (see 
In January 2014, anti-drilling “researchers” jumped the gun at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association in Philadelphia by announcing “preliminary” results of research in which they claim they can show a connection between shale drilling and low birth weights in newborn babies in Pennsylvania (see