Statewide PA

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Another PA Senate Bill Seeks to Help Conventional O&G Drillers
June 30, 2014June 30, 2014

MDN recently reported on legislation making headway in Pennsylvania that would split regulations between conventional and unconventional oil and gas operators in the state (see PA Legislation to Split Conventional/Unconventional Regs Advances). A second PA Senate bill, SB1310, is also making its way through the legislative process. MDN views 1310 as a “helper bill” for SB1378. SB1310 would create a new group called the Pennsylvania Grade Crude Development Advisory Council that would be composed of 17 members (yes, it already sounds bloated) to “assist” the PA Secretary of the Dept. of Environment Protection. Assist the secretary with what?…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Corbett Still Says Marcellus Severance Tax a Possibility, if…
June 27, 2014June 27, 2014

We continue to be concerned about PA Gov. Tom Corbett’s resolve when it comes to slapping a Marcellus-killing severance tax on drillers in the state in order to fund a state budget that’s simply spends too much. Our latest concern is with comments he made to an AP reporter yesterday…
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Access Midstream Partners | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

2nd PA Class Action Lawsuit Against Chesapeake re Royalty Fraud
June 26, 2014June 26, 2014

We’ve only spotted this news in (so far) two legal publications, but last Friday the Suessenbach Family Limited Partnership, using a Wilkes-Barre, PA law firm, launched a “sprawling class action” lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy and Access Midstream accusing the two companies of a $5 billion scheme to defraud landowners out of royalties rightfully due to them. MDN previously covered how this scheme worked (see Chesapeake Shafting Landowners out of Royalties Mess Gets Messier). This is the second such class action against Chesapeake over royalties in PA we’re aware of (see Bad to Worse: PA Royalty Owner Asks Court for Chessy Class Action). There are all sorts of ramifications from this latest lawsuit…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Legislation to Split Conventional/Unconventional Regs Advances
June 26, 2014June 26, 2014

In early May three Pennsylvania Republican legislators said they would introduce new legislation to separate regulations for conventional (vertical only) and unconventional (shale) drilling in the state (see New PA Bill Would Separate Conventional/Unconventional Regulations). The intent is to plug some holes, they say exist, in the relatively new Act 13 law that makes small mom-and-pop drillers who sink only vertical wells adhere to regulations meant for big shale drillers. The bills were introduced and they’re now receiving attention and we’d say even likely to pass…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA’s PUC Pro-Drilling Chairman Powelson Leads Mid-Atlantic Group
June 26, 2014June 26, 2014

MDN told you a month ago that the anti-drilling StateImpact Pennsylvania (PBS “reporters”) had claimed another scalp in their anti-drilling campaign by forcing PA Public Utilities Commission chairman Rob Powelson to resign from the Greater Philadelphia Energy Action Team–a Chamber of Commerce organization aimed at promoting business and all forms of energy in the state (see StateImpact PA Claims Another Scalp for their Anti-Drilling Wall). We’re happy to report Powelson has come roaring back. He’s strongly pro-Marcellus drilling and he’s just been sworn in as President of the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners (MACRUC). It’s good to have a pro-driller in charge of MACRUC…
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Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Time to Enter Ben Franklin SGICC 2nd Annual EH&S Contest
June 26, 2014June 26, 2014

The Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation & Commercialization Center (SGICC) announces they are accepting applications for their second annual Shale Gas Environmental, Health, & Safety Award through August 1st. The award is aimed at Pennsylvania-based small businesses, entrepreneurs, or university researchers who have a proposed or commercially available new technological advancement in the EH&S area for the shale gas industry. The winner will be notified August 15th and receive a special award at this year’s Shale Insight event in Pittsburgh. You may recall the winner of the first EH&S award last September was HalenHardy and their very cool mobile silica air shower (see HalenHardy Wins Ben Franklin EHS Award for Silica Air Shower). Here’s the details for this year’s contest…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Brave PA House Republicans Propose Budget with No Severance Tax
June 25, 2014June 25, 2014

Why is it Democrats demand that Republicans cave on their principles and move in their direction and if they don’t, they holler and scream “you’re not being bipartisan!”? But when Republicans ask Democrats to be reasonable and move an inch in their direction, the Dems never do and yet the word “bipartisan” and lack of it is never uttered by the Democrat-controlled media? We’re speaking of the heated budget debate in Pennsylvania where Democrats are demanding a single industry–shale drilling–be taxed into oblivion in order to feed the hungry Democrat political machine that needs ever more money to spread around. To their credit, PA’s House Republicans have “laid their cards on the table” in the budget debate. They’ve done the hard work and have trimmed the budget–just a small bit off a $29.1 BILLION budget–and every single Democrat in very partisan fashion voted against the plan. Every-single-one…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

3 PA Drilling Assoc. Warn Politicans: Don’t Pass Severance Tax
June 23, 2014June 23, 2014

With Pennsylvania Republicans starting to get weak knees on the issue of a potential sky high severance tax on top of already-high corporate state income taxes, PA’s three big shale drilling industry groups have sent a letter to key state politicians warning them (in flowery language) that if they pass a severance tax, drillers WILL shift their rigs and drilling to Ohio and West Virginia. The letter (copy embedded below) tells House Speaker Sam Smith and Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati and nine other legislators, with a copy of the letter also going to Gov. Corbett, PA better think twice and thrice before passing a severance tax…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Gov. Corbett’s Re-election in Doubt if Severance Tax Passes
June 23, 2014June 23, 2014

Let’s speak very plainly. If Republican Gov. Tom Corbett signs a budget with a new high tax aimed at the drilling industry–he’s political toast. He will not win re-election and his political career will be over. Unfortunately it seems he is listening to the RINOs around him and his resolve is wavering. Don’t do it Tom. Don’t listen to them. The future of your state and this country is at stake…
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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Royalty Bill 1684 Off the Agenda, Likely for Rest of 2014
June 20, 2014June 20, 2014

Pennsylvania landowners can and should be angry with the Republican-controlled PA House of Representatives. Word has just come that an important royalty bill–HB 1684–is now on the “back burner” until fall. Fall is the height of the election season and you know darned well nothing will get done on the bill at that point–so for all intents the bill is dead for this year. Which is a shame. What is HB 1684? Our shorthand name for the bill is the “stop Chesapeake Energy from screwing landowners out of their royalties” bill…
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Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | UIL Holdings

Phila. Gas Works Deal in Jeopardy Due to Vacationing City Council
June 20, 2014June 20, 2014

In March, the Democrat mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, announced a deal to sell the city-owned Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) for $1.86 billion (see Phila. Gas Works Deal for $1.86B – Marcellus/Utica One of Keys). UIL Holdings Corporation, a Connecticut-based investor-owned gas and electric utility, is the potential buyer. However, it didn’t take long for the union and a former Enron executive to make a play to screw the deal (see Former Enron Exec Makes “Unethical” Play to Derail PGW Deal). City Council has had three months to review the deal put together by Nutter, but now they’re heading out of town on summer vacation and not coming back until September. Will UIL stick around that long?…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

RINO Introduces 4.9% Severance Tax Bill in PA House
June 20, 2014June 20, 2014

A Republican in Name Only (RINO) in the PA House, Gene DiGirolamo (greater Philadelphia area), yesterday introduced House Bill 2358 that would make it legal for the state to steal money from a single industry and give it away to groups of people who didn’t earn it. It’s called a severance tax and the money raised from such a tax would be used for anything and everything but the impacts that happen from mining natural gas and oil. The arrogant DiGirolamo is all proud of himself for introducing this abomination…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Grrr: Some Marcellus Industry Companies $upport PA Dem for Gov
June 18, 2014June 18, 2014

This is one of those stories that personally makes MDN editor Jim Willis very angry. We learn from an article in the Harrisburg Patriot-News, and from the odious anti-drilling group Food & Water Watch, that some of our own have given money–upwards of a quarter of a million dollars–to PA gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf. That just should not be. Wolf and his Democrat party will royally screw Marcellus drilling in Pennsylvania if they seize power in the next election. Enabling that outcome is the height of selfishness on the part of those companies and individuals contributing to his campaign. So let’s name some names of those who are donating to Wolf…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Public Opinion | Statewide PA

PA Residents Rank Gasland Dead Last in Trustworthy Info Sources
June 17, 2014June 17, 2014

Who do Pennsylvanians trust when it comes to information about Marcellus Shale drilling? A poll of PA residents in 21 counties–between June and October 2012–tried to answer that question. The results of that poll, and an analysis of the results, is published in the June 2014 Energy Research & Social Science journal. Titled “Hydraulic fracturing and the management, disposal, and reuse of frac flowback waters: Views from the public in the Marcellus Shale,” the poll shows that of the eight primary ways people were getting information about fracking, dead last in “trustworthiness” was Josh Fox’s fictional movie Gasland. What strikes MDN as odd is why it took a year and a half to publish the results…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Caving on PA Severance Tax Renamed as a “Pivot”
June 16, 2014June 16, 2014

Funny how we euphemize things so often–making up words and using alternative words instead of just saying the honest thing. You find it happening a lot in the political world–like right now in Pennsylvania where the media says PA is likely to “pivot” on the issue of a severance tax on Marcellus Shale gas. According to “insiders.” Pivot actually means “cave” or “throw in the towel” or “admit defeat.” If Republicans allow it to happen, that’s what they’re doing. “Insiders” means “rat-fink leakers”–people who don’t have the guts to go on the record. Some Republicans in Name Only (RINOs) like Sen. Edwin Erickson, R-Delaware County, want to steal the hard-earned money from shale drillers and give it away to those who haven’t earned it–teacher’s unions. No where in the PA budget debate do we see the option of doing with less–like what happens in the real world with real budgets. Instead, the philosophy of PA’s Dems and RINOs is tax a single industry that’s producing money and give it to another industry (Big Education) that vacuums up money like a Hoover…
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CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Noble Energy | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

CONSOL & Noble to Form New MLP Midstream Subsidiary
June 13, 2014June 13, 2014

In 2011 CONSOL Energy had amassed some 750,000 Marcellus Shale acres but didn’t have enough money to drill it all on their own. So they did what many energy companies do–they got a joint venture partner. CONSOL cut a deal with Noble Energy to split the proceeds 50/50, with CONSOL drilling in the dry gas areas and Noble drilling in the wet gas areas (see Noble Energy and CONSOL to Partner on Marcellus in $3.4B Deal). The two jv partners announced yesterday their intent to form a master limited partnership (MLP) that will form a new midstream company (pipelines) to service their vast drilling operations…
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