Statewide PA

Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Research | Statewide PA

PA Gas Outlook Report 2015 – Electric Plants Changing to Natgas
June 29, 2015June 29, 2015

Last week the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) released its annual Pennsylvania Gas Outlook Report, which provides insight into trends in the natural gas market, both nationwide and within Pennsylvania (full copy below). The report summarizes the financial and supply data for PA’s natural gas distribution companies (NGDCs) and looks at changes and trends in the natural gas market, including usage, financial status of utilities, and market pricing. The report is prepared to provide data about the regulated gas industry in Pennsylvania and the broader natural gas markets in the region and nationally. There’s lots of good information in the report. In particular we like the EIA list of pipelines due to be “in service” sometime in 2015 in the Marcellus/Utica region, included on page 6 of the report. The big news in the report is the dramatic increase in the change from coal to natgas for electric power generation–a trend that will continue to expand into the foreseeable future…
Read More “PA Gas Outlook Report 2015 – Electric Plants Changing to Natgas”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Partisan Gov Wolf Says He’ll Veto Any Budget Republicans Send Him
June 26, 2015June 26, 2015

Earlier this week Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget and policy secretary, John Hanger, said this with regard to Republicans refusing to go along with Wolf’s Marcellus-killing severance tax: “Frankly, the Republican leadership is saying it’s our way or the highway” (see PA Republicans Say No Severance Tax in Budget Heading to Gov. Wolf). Yet yesterday top Democrat lawmakers let slip that when the Republicans send a budget to Wolf today or tomorrow, Wolf says he will automatically veto it–without having seen or read it. Tell us John, who’s really saying “my way or the highway” when it comes to the budget?…
Read More “Partisan Gov Wolf Says He’ll Veto Any Budget Republicans Send Him”
Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

Syracuse U Prof to Defend Methane Migration Research (Sun. Night)
June 25, 2015June 25, 2015

The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) and JLC United will air another live session of the Good News Table Talk Radio Show this Sunday, June 28 from 7-8 pm on WNBF Radio 1290 in Binghamton (listen online at: www.wnbf.com). Bob Williams, JLCNY Vice President and an environmental consultant with over 40 years experience, along with JLCNY board member Rob Rano, will interview and chat with acclaimed Syracuse University Earth Science professor, Dr. Donald I. Siegel. Dr. Siegel is the lead author of a Syracuse University study published earlier this year that found, after evaluating data from over 11,000 well water tests (34,000 samples) in Pennsylvania, that a water well’s proximity to fracking operations has no bearing on whether or not methane is found in that water well. In other words, fracking does not cause methane migration into water wells (see Syracuse U Study: Fracking Doesn’t Cause Methane in PA Water Wells). Radicalized environmentalists brook no dissent from their religious-like claims that fracking is the ultimate evil, so they immediately launched a smear campaign and personal attack against Dr. Siegel (see Syracuse Prof Targeted in Effort to Discredit Drilling Research). Tune in Sunday night to learn the truth–about water quality, methane migration, fracking fluids, and (yes) even about Dimock, PA…
Read More “Syracuse U Prof to Defend Methane Migration Research (Sun. Night)”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Republicans Say No Severance Tax in Budget Heading to Gov. Wolf
June 25, 2015June 25, 2015

Good news for Pennsylvanians. The PA legislature is moving forward with passing a budget bill that does not include a Marcellus-killing severance tax. The Gov. Tom Wolf administration has been obstinate and unyielding in their demand for a 17.3% severance tax (often mischaracterized by Wolf and the media as a “5%” severance tax). The Republicans in both the House and Senate have (amazingly) held firm in their position of no new severance tax since Marcellus drillers already pay an impact fee (i.e., a tax) equivalent to a 3.2% severance tax now. Wolf’s claim that his tax is 5% is a flat out, 100% lie. He bases the tax on the assumption that drillers will get $2.97 per thousand cubic feet when selling natural gas. In many places (especially the northeastern part of the state) drillers are getting less than half of that. The difference between what drillers actually get and what Wolf pretends they get, plus the “little extra” 4.7 cents per Mcf added to the “5%” tax, pushes the effective rate, according to the PA Independent Fiscal Office, to 17.3% (see PA Official Admits Wolf Severance Tax Highest in Nation @ 17.3%). Wolf’s chief budget negotiator, John Hanger, has stooped to a new low, even for him, by saying Republicans have put drillers ahead of PA’s school children. Hanger presumes the money EARNED by companies that risk their own capital somehow belongs to life’s TAKERS–teachers’ unions. The question now is, will Wolf sign the Republican budget that is about to land on his desk without the big increase in “education funding” he demands because he promised it to union members who voted him into office (i.e., political payola)…
Read More “PA Republicans Say No Severance Tax in Budget Heading to Gov. Wolf”
Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

New Bill HB 1391 Will Guarantee PA Landowners 12.5% Royalties
June 25, 2015June 25, 2015

Last week MDN told you that a new royalty bill would be introduced in the Pennsylvania legislature to guarantee landowners get a minimum 12.5% royalty (see New Bill Pushes 12.5% Guaranteed Minimum Royalty for PA Landowners). The new bill, House Bill (HB) 1391 is, according to the bill’s main sponsor State Rep. Garth Everett, more narrowly focused than the previous bill introduced in 2013 (HB 1684). Gareth and a group of supporters from the PA chapter of the National Association of Royalty Owners gathered in the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg on Tuesday in a bill launch rally. We don’t (yet) have the language of the new bill, but we do have Everett’s description of what’s in the bill, a brief video interview of Everett from Tuesday’s launch rally, and a newspaper write-up from the event…
Read More “New Bill HB 1391 Will Guarantee PA Landowners 12.5% Royalties”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Sunoco Logistics

The Landman Cometh – Sunoco Seeks Easements for Mariner East 2
June 24, 2015June 24, 2015

Landmen for Sunoco Logistics have begun knocking on doors and talking to residents in nine municipalities in Chester County and six in Delaware County (Philadelphia area) to sign easements to allow the Mariner East 2 pipeline to be built through their property. Sunoco wants to begin construction in early 2016. Meetings have cropped up for landowners to hear information about the project, and get information about what their rights are and what terms they should seek before signing an easement. What is Sunoco offering in the way of compensation? It varies from landowner to landowner, depending on where the land is located and how much land they must cross. We do know how much the company offered one resident, in Uwchlan Township (Chester County)…
Read More “The Landman Cometh – Sunoco Seeks Easements for Mariner East 2”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Dauphin County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Dueling Rallies in Harrisburg, PA Over Severance Tax Turn Nasty
June 24, 2015June 24, 2015

An interesting contrast in rallies yesterday in Harrisburg, PA. As the July 1 deadline quickly approaches for Pennsylvania to approve a budget, there were two rallies at the state Capitol. The first was held by life’s producers–the people who actually create wealth in this country. It was populated by business leaders and those who work for businesses that support the Marcellus Shale industry. They were there to protest against PA Gov. Wolf’s 17.3% severance tax (often mischaracterized by Wolf and a sycophantic press as a “5% tax” on Marcellus gas). Businesses know that such a tax will effectively kill the industry and the jobs and economic impact that go with it, in the Keystone State. Then there was a second rally that followed the business/anti-tax rally. The second rally was held by the life’s takers–those who suck money from the producers. That is, teachers’ unions and their flacks who bleat and blat that stealing money from businesses “is for the children”–to justify their voracious appetite for other people’s money. The second group was there to protest in favor of a money-sucking, Marcellus-killing severance tax. Guess which crowd behaved like adults, and which crowd behaved like ill-tempered and undisciplined children, shouting down the other rally? No, you don’t really have to guess, do you?…
Read More “Dueling Rallies in Harrisburg, PA Over Severance Tax Turn Nasty”
Air Quality | Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Regulation | Shell | Statewide PA

Shell Receives Air Quality Permit from PA DEP for Cracker Plant
June 23, 2015June 23, 2015

Finally, after months and months of waiting, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has granted an air quality permit that allows Shell to operate a proposed ethane cracker plant in Monaca (Beaver County), PA. MDN told you the DEP signaled they would approve the air quality permit back in March (see PA DEP Signals Approval for Shell Ethane Cracker Air Quality Plan). Three months later the DEP finally issued the permit–no small miracle given the agency is now run by PennFuture DEP Sec. John Quigley. Shell had stated getting the permit would be a “critical” step in the process to moving forward. Now that they have the permit, what kinds of encouraging words do we have from Shell? The permit “does not mean we have made a final decision to build the project.” Which is the same standard line they’ve delivered since 2011 when this whole process began (see Shell Commits to Building a Billion Dollar Chemical Plant in the Marcellus Region of U.S.). Four years of being teased with this project has led us to think we’ve contracted post traumatic cracker disorder (PTCD)…
Read More “Shell Receives Air Quality Permit from PA DEP for Cracker Plant”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

More on PIOGA Request to Keep DEP in its Regulatory Box
June 23, 2015June 23, 2015

Yesterday MDN brought you the story of the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association’s (PIOGA) third request to intervene in the Act 13 lawsuit decided by the PA Supreme Court (see PIOGA Asks Supreme Court to Stop DEP Denying Permits Using Act 13). The point of PIOGA’s request is to make the DEP follow PA law when it comes to granting shale drilling permits. Our headline and some of the language we used in that article was not completely accurate–we’d like to admit that right up front (although our inaccuracy was not intentional). The headline states that the DEP has denied permits based on portions of the Act 13 lawsuit tossed out by the PA Supreme Court. In researching the issue and speaking with those knowledgeable about PIOGA’s request to the Supreme Court, we’ve not found a specific instance where the DEP has denied a permit based on the tossed out Section 3215(b)-(e). But while denying permits based on rejected portions of Act 13 is not taking place, something far more subtle and insidious IS going on–with the same result as if the DEP were denying permits based on tossed-out portions of Act 13. Let us explain…
Read More “More on PIOGA Request to Keep DEP in its Regulatory Box”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PIOGA Asks Supreme Court to Stop DEP Denying Permits Using Act 13
June 22, 2015June 23, 2015

Please see this MDN follow-up story for an important clarification/update: More on PIOGA Request to Keep DEP in its Regulatory Box

This story is why you pay MDN the “big bucks”–to break down complex issues into an easy-to-understand report. Last Friday the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) filed paperwork with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court asking for permission to, once again, intervene in the Act 13 lawsuit brought by seven selfish PA townships that resulted in portions of the Act 13 oil and gas drilling law to be struck down. Twice before PIOGA, which represents the companies directly affected by the Act 13 law, has filed to intervene and both times it was (incredibly) prevented from doing so. Apparently the people most affected by a lawsuit don’t have “standing” to defend themselves in PA courts–such is their system of “justice.” At any rate, PIOGA’s third attempt may succeed where the first two attempts failed, and that has the anti-drilling selfish towns, along with the Wolf administration, nervous. Why might PIOGA succeed this time? That’s where it gets complicated. In a nutshell, the zoning portions of the Act 13 law (Section 3304) were not the only sections to be struck down by the PA Supremes…
Read More “PIOGA Asks Supreme Court to Stop DEP Denying Permits Using Act 13”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Taxation

Philly Area Dem State Senator Introduces Plan to Tax Pipelines
June 19, 2015June 19, 2015

State Senator Andy Dinniman, Democrat from Chester (Delaware County), PA, has just introduced a new bill in the PA Senate that would require natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) pipelines to pay local and school property taxes in the Keystone State. His rationale is that pipelines should be required to help the communities that they affect (by traversing) in the same way the impact fee helps communities where drilling takes place. Good idea, or bad?…
Read More “Philly Area Dem State Senator Introduces Plan to Tax Pipelines”
Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

How the Wolf Administration is Cooking the Marcellus Jobs Numbers
June 19, 2015June 19, 2015

Wow, did MDN peg it right or what? Yesterday we told you that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration/gang had politically, arbitrarily, rejiggered the Marcellus Shale industry employment numbers, dumping 151,000 jobs credited to the industry, in an attempt to smear the “brand” of the Marcellus as a jobs creator in the minds of Pennsylvanians (see Gov Wolf & Co Wipes Away 151K PA Jobs by Changing Formula). Our view was confirmed by a former Corbett administration official who exposes this numbers change-up for what it is: 100% political and 100% the work of the Wolf administration. Writing in the Harrisburg Patriot-News, Dennis Roddy calls out the Dept. of Labor and Industry for bowing to political pressure from the Wolf gang and arbitrarily changing the formula used to track direct, indirect and induced jobs from the Marcellus–a jobs formula accepted by economists across the country and a formula the Dept. of Labor and Industry themselves devised–not one devised by the Corbett administration…
Read More “How the Wolf Administration is Cooking the Marcellus Jobs Numbers”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA DEP Sec Quigley Creating His Own FracFocus; SRBC in Crosshairs
June 19, 2015June 19, 2015

More antagonism for the oil and gas industry, and more radical environmentalist philosophy, from the new PennFuture Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection in Pennsylvania, John Quigley. (Once again, you have these Republicans to “thank” for his appointment: List of Republican Senators Who Voted to Confirm Quigley @ DEP). Last night Quigley announced at a radical enviro dinner in Philadelphia, hosted by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, that although under the Act 13 law all Marcellus drillers must file a list of the chemicals used at each well site with the national registry FracFocus.org, that’s not good enough for Quigley. The Act 13 law also requires drillers to file the info with the PA DEP, so Quigley has decided the DEP will create it’s own online database/website to show the information (wasting taxpayer’s money). It’s all about being more “transparent” according to Quigley. We’d say it’s all about being a control freak, but we digress. Quigley also reiterated his absolute faith in the man-made global warming fairy tale, and he has ominously set his sites on the SRBC in northeastern PA…
Read More “PA DEP Sec Quigley Creating His Own FracFocus; SRBC in Crosshairs”
Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Gov Wolf & Co Wipes Away 151K PA Jobs by Changing Formula
June 18, 2015June 18, 2015

Poof! Some 151,000 jobs that had been created by the Marcellus Shale industry, according to Pennsylvania officials, disappeared overnight. PA Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration (Republican), voted out of office last November, used to say (based on numbers from the PA Dept. of Labor and Industry) that the Marcellus Shale industry is responsible for creating 240,000 jobs in the state (see Hundreds of Thousands of Marcellus Drilling Jobs in PA). That number includes people in other industries that serve the Marcellus industry. PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration (Democrat) now comes along to say that number is bunkum. Wolf and his minions want to lower the public’s perception that the Mighty Marcellus is a jobs-creating engine like nothing ever seen in the state–so they’ve just arbitrarily wiped off 151,000 of those jobs by saying the way the number was originally calculated was wrong. They say the “real” number is more like 89,000. Welcome to Wonderland where you have your truth and I have my truth and the only casualty is THE truth…
Read More “Gov Wolf & Co Wipes Away 151K PA Jobs by Changing Formula”
Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

New Bill Pushes 12.5% Guaranteed Minimum Royalty for PA Landowners
June 18, 2015June 18, 2015

One of the big disappointments last year, for landowners, was the failure to pass House Bill (HB) 1684 which would clear up language from the Guaranteed Minimum Royalty Act of 1979. The GMRA of 1979 says landowners are supposed to get 12.5% minimum in royalties. Chesapeake (perhaps other drillers too) found loopholes and drove a truck through them, claiming marketing and pipeline transportation expenses that they deducted from royalties–leaving some landowners with checks for (literally) a few dollars (see Bradford County, PA Landowners Sue Chesapeake over Royalties). HB 1684 would have cleared up the language and ensured landowners get 12.5% as a minimum–but the bill was met with opposition from the drilling industry (see Rare Schism Between Landowners & Drillers over PA Royalty Law). The bill ultimately failed to get to the floor for a vote. But 2015 is a new year, and PA State Rep. Garth Everett, with the backing of the PA National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO), will introduce a brand new bill next week that is largely a reconstituted HB 1684. So far 35 members have signed on as co-sponsors. Everett and NARO are planning a “bill launch party” in the Capitol Rotunda for next Tuesday, June 23 at 1:30 pm. They want every single landowner who can to show up as a sign of support…
Read More “New Bill Pushes 12.5% Guaranteed Minimum Royalty for PA Landowners”
Delaware County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Washington County

Business & Labor Unions Join Forces to Promote Pipelines in PA
June 18, 2015June 18, 2015

You don’t normally think of local Chambers of Commerce (business owners) and labor unions (rank and file workers) as breaking bread together. And they NEVER commingle their membership roles in order to lobby local, state and federal authorities on policy and regulation. Until now, that is. In Pennsylvania, two Chambers of Commerce on opposite sides of the state, the Delaware County Chamber and the Washington County Chamber, along with two labor unions, the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) with 25,000 members and the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 66 with 7,000 members, have all joined forces. And what has the power to cause management and labor to join forces? The Marcellus Shale. The four organizations together have formed the Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance, a “broad-based coalition in support of timely approval for critical energy infrastructure in the Commonwealth.” The main focus of the Alliance is to promote the benefits and building of pipelines…
Read More “Business & Labor Unions Join Forces to Promote Pipelines in PA”