Shale Insight 2015: Opening Panel on Philadelphia as Energy Hub
At last week’s Shale Insight conference, MDN editor Jim Willis sat in on a few of the main sessions. One of those sessions was the opener on Wednesday–a panel discussion moderated by the inimitable and always interesting Michael Krancer, a partner at the Philadelphia-based Blank Rome law firm and formerly the Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection during Tom Cobett’s administration. The panel discussion was titled “Philadelphia – The New Northeast Energy Hub” and featured an all-star lineup: Joe Colella, senior VP at Sunoco Logistics; Phil Rinaldi, Chairman and CEO at Philadelphia Energy Solutions; and John Walsh, President and CEO of UGI Corporation. Mike Krancer kicked off the session with a bold statement: He believes Philly will rival and soon pass Houston, Texas as the dominant energy hub in the United States…
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As we have been reporting for months, Pennsylvania’s anti-drilling Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, committed perjury (a felony) by lying under oath about leaking grand jury information to a reporter in an attempt to smear a political “enemy” and she should have resigned and left office long ago–but she’s too obstinate to do that. In PA the AG is required to have a license to practice law. Her license has just been suspended (not yet revoked) by the PA Supreme Court, which raises an interesting constitutional question: Can Kane be forced from office because she can’t practice law, the thing she was elected to do? Everybody, including American’s most liberal governor, PA Gov. Tom Wolf, wants her gone. But she refuses to leave and continues to stammer and yammer about porno emails and conspiracies by old men out to get her…
Listen up everyone who has an interest in Pennsylvania’s midstream–pipelines and processing plants. Billions of dollars are being spent in Pennsylvania as the gas industry builds out its pipelines to all parts of the northeast, Middle Atlantic, southeast and Midwest regions of the U.S. The two questions everyone wants to know: (1) Who is spending the money? and (2) Where is the money being spent? The answer to those two questions and more will be answered at the 
Below are articles written by others who attended this year’s Shale Insight event in Philadelphia. MDN editor Jim Willis sat in on some of the general sessions and took notes. He’ll share his own notes and insights on Shale Insight next week. In the meantime, here’s what mainstream media said about the sessions happening on Day Two…
The Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) has been at the forefront in opposing an industry-killing severance tax proposed by new governor Tom Wolf (see 
Fresh back from Shale Insight in Philadelphia, MDN editor Jim Willis is always pumped after hearing about the technology and safeguards and careful treatment the shale energy industry uses in extracting shale gas. These people are true professionals who care about the work they do–and they want to do it right. They care about the environment. They want to protect the land and our natural resources. They live in the communities where fracking is done. On the other hand, the people who profess to care about such things, anti-drillers, repeatedly prove themselves to be a) mind-numbed robots who believe whatever their movement leaders tell them, b) stark raving mad. Example: A group of extremists who happen to be “religious” have penned a letter to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf asking him to stop all fracking in the state because they fervently believe (wrongly) that fracking contributes to the mythological existence of man-made global warming. Mainstream media picks this garbage up and repeat it, like it’s a real news story…
Let’s be honest, shall we? The Catholic Church has a Marxist as its leader in Pope Francis–which is a truly sad thing for a great and significant denomination. Pope Francis, nee Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is from Argentina and he supports Marxism, as many do in South America. Pope Francis hates capitalism and appears to be more interested in advancing socialist political policies here on earth than he does in serving Jesus Christ and saving souls. The current situation with Pope Francis distresses many Catholics we personally know. The Pope has thrown in his lot with climate change liars–those who say mankind is causing the earth to warm up–because the so-called climate change movement is the new home of anti-capitalists (i.e. Marxists, i.e. Communists). Scientific fact: global average temperatures haven’t risen now for 18 years. Yesterday, The Heartland Institute participated in a Constitution Day event in Philadelphia to call attention to the Pope’s coming visit to Philly (a visit made possible via fossil fuels) and the Pope’s error-filled teachings against fossil fuels and capitalism…
MDN is proud to be supporting this year’s Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) Eastern Oil & Gas Conference and Trade Show, which will take place Oct 27-28 at the Monroeville Convention Center just outside Pittsburgh. The event features a conference, trade show and networking events–a “must attend” event for those involved with oil and gas drilling in the PA (and associated industries). Below is the just-announced line-up for conference presentations. Oh! And be sure you don’t miss the Halloween-themed mixer Tuesday evening!…
On Tuesday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection held it’s first “listening session” to consider which creative ways they will cut the economic throat of the state by attempting to comply with nonsensical carbon standards set by our Dear Leader, Barack H. Obama, via his so-called Clean Power Plan (see 
An interesting article in the Philadelphia Inquirer provides some of the history, and an update, for the Marcus Hook refinery in the Philly area. You may recall that Sunoco Logistics Partners purchased the refinery and is in the process of turning it into an NGL export facility–to send ethane, propane and other NGLs to locations along the U.S. coastline and internationally to Europe. What you may not know (what we sure didn’t know) is that Sunoco LP hopes to one day build a propane cracker at the site–a facility that will convert propane into propylene, the raw material used to make plastics. Who knew?! This would be yet another cracker plant that would compete, in a small way, with the proposed Shell cracker plant planned for the Pittsburgh area…
A major defeat for Pennsylvania’s anti-drilling groups, including THE Delaware Riverkeeper, was just handed down by the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court in a Lycoming County zoning case. In Gorsline v. Board of Supervisors of Fairfield Township, anti-drilling neighbors, including Brian and Dawn Gorsline, Paul and Michele Batkowski and others (collectively “Gorsline”) sued to stop a conditional use permit granted by Fairfield Township to allow Inflection Energy to construct a well pad on the property of Donald and Eleanor Shaheen. The case was weak, but the lowest court in the PA court system–the Court of Common Pleas (i.e. county court)–said the ninny nanny neighbors had a right to strip away the Shaheen’s property rights to allow drilling on their own property. The PA Commonwealth Court obliterated the faulty reasoning of the lower court and has, significantly, redefined how courts should interpret the results of the Act 13 zoning lawsuit that allows local municipalities the right to restrict shale drilling. The Commonwealth Court decision (full copy below) has kicked the legal legs out from under those seeking to use an amicus brief filed by THE Delaware Riverkeeper in the Act 13 case…
Pennsylvania’s shale drilling industry is pushing back against the last minute changes made to PA’s oil and gas regulations commonly known as Article 78. In April the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) turned up the heat on newly-elected Gov. Tom Wolf and PennFuture Dept. of Environmental Protection Secretary John Quigley with a scorching hot letter (see