Looks like permit fees for PA drillers are about to go up. The PA Environmental Quality Board proposed increasing the fee in a filing last week.
If adopted as proposed, the permit fee for an unconventional horizontal shale well will go from $3,200 to $5,000–a healthy 56% jump…
Read More “Coming Soon: PA Drillers to Pay 56% More for Marcellus Permits”
Ever hear of a rabbitsfoot mussel? Neither had we. It’s a small freshwater mollusk that lives in Pennsylvania streams. It’s also on PA’s (but not the federal EPA’s) endangered species list. The PA endangered species list is the target of proposed new legislation that would remove the rabbitsfoot mussel (indeed all species now on the list) from being on the list.
The endangered species list is the next flash point in the Marcellus Shale drilling debate in PA. The Marcellus Shale Coalition, the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) and other industry groups support the legislation which they say will speed up the review process for drilling in some areas without hurting threatened species (by removing some of the red tape). Conservationists and anti-drillers think otherwise…
Read More “PA Endangered Species List New Flash Point in Drilling Debate”
Marcellus Shale driller EQT was the first driller to use liquefied natural gas (LNG) to power a drilling rig starting in 2012 (see EQT Converts 2nd Drilling Rig in WV Marcellus to Run on LNG). EQT continues to be a trailblazer. They announced today that by using technology from Green Field Energy Services, they have just completed fracking a Marcellus well using 100% “field gas” or methane produced right at the well site.
They not only drill for the gas, but the gas they drill for, they turn around and use to drill a neighboring well which cuts down on emissions, truck traffic and cost. How cool is that?…
Read More “EQT First Driller to Frack a Marcellus Well Using 100% Field Gas”
Below is Southwestern Energy’s investor presentation/update for August 2013. Southwestern is a major driller in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale. Among the slides in the presentation are several that focus on their Marcellus work, including maps. Worth your time to review (we like slides #6-10 in particular)…
Read More “Southwestern Energy Details Marcellus Update/Plans”
Like a roomful of zombies, about 20 people who belong to the anti-drilling group Trout Unlimited (some of them fisherman) lapped up the lies from TU’s community organizer for eastern PA, Paula Piatt, at a meeting in the Pocono Mountain region last night. She told them, in essence, that they don’t need scientific testing to see if there’s anything bad going on (from fracking) in the streams they like to fish. Instead, just eyeball it: “Your eyes on the stream are priceless, as far as knowing what should be there and what shouldn’t.”
One zombie reports being “totally in awe” of Ms. Piatt and her work…
Read More “TU: Just Eyeball Those Streams, You Know What Shouldn’t Be There”
Apparently MDN left a wrong impression with an article we ran yesterday. We told you about a new study just released by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) that takes a look at discharges from wastewater plants in Pennsylvania and concludes they don’t do a good job of cleaning up fracking wastewaster (see USGS Study Says Drilling Wastewater Not Fully Treated by Plants). Our criticism of the study left the impression with one reader that we believe municipal sewage treatment plants are capable of processing fracking wastewater. Let us be clear: We do NOT believe that nor do we advocate for it! Just the opposite.
We want to clear up our viewpoint on frack wastewater treatment…
Read More “MDN Processes its Own Frack Wastewater Comments”
John Hanger was Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection from 2008 to 2011 under then Gov. Ed Rendell (both Democrats). In all that time Rendell and Hanger could not get a reasonable tax on drilling passed nor did they modernize PA’s decades-old drilling laws to account for shale drilling and provide new protections for the environment. It took Gov. Tom Corbett and new DEP Sec. Michael Krancer (both Republicans) to accomplish those things.
Today at 11 am at a press conference in Harrisburg, John Hanger, who is running in a primary for the Democrat nomination for Governor, will be endorsed by a few families from Dimock, PA–families who thought they could sue Cabot Oil & Gas for “contaminating” their water supplies and retire in style. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t happen. Those are the “brave” people who will endorse Hanger today. That tells you all you need to know about John Hanger and how he will govern if he wins…
Read More “A Few Dimock Families Who Sued Cabot Endorse Hanger for PA Gov”
In a bit of a scam, the U.S. Geological Survey has released the results of a new study that supposedly shows when conventional and unconventional wastewater (no distinction) is run through the local sewer plant for processing, it results in nasty stuff being dumped into local streams and rivers (study titled “Discharges of produced waters from oil and gas extraction via wastewater treatment plants are sources of disinfection by-products to receiving streams”). The scam is that U.S. taxpayer-paid researchers working for a U.S. government agency produced this report, but you can’t get a copy unless you pay Elsevier $41.95 for a copy. Excuse us, but reports and studies conducted by the government and paid for by us, taxpayers, are supposed to be free (we paid for it!)–not locked up in a private, for-profit business.
Therefore, we only have the abstract and summary on which to evaluate the study…
Read More “USGS Study Says Drilling Wastewater Not Fully Treated by Plants”
Pennsylvania’s Auditor General, Eugene DePasquale, is an anti-drilling Democrat who took office in January 2013. On his very first day on the job he targeted the Marcellus Shale industry and the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (see Newly Elected PA Auditor General Targets DEP First Day on Job). DePasquale wasted no time in issuing a letter to the DEP, telling them he was about to launch a year-long anal exam of the agency and its “protection” of PA’s water resources as relates to shale drilling. Mike Krancer was the Secretary of the DEP at the time and told DePasquale in so many words, “bring it on” (see PA Auditor General Targets State’s Marcellus Drilling Industry).
DePasquale has issued an–update? Guidance? Interim report? Helpful suggestions? Nope. He’s issued innuendo and unspecific rumors against the DEP to the reliably anti-drilling editorial board at the Scranton Times-Tribune. Here’s what he said to a group of sycophantic and unquestioning reporters yesterday–or rather what he didn’t say but insinuated…
Read More “PA Auditor General Spreads Rumor of Problems at DEP”
Look at this asinine headline from the Philadelphia Tribune: “Policy Center reports Marcellus Shale not beneficial.” And this equally asinine opening sentence: “Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center – a nonpartisan policy research that provides analytical data on a host of statewide initiatives – has waded into the controversial Marcellus Shale drilling in the state…” The PA Budget and Policy Center (PBPC) is anything but nonpartisan. It is an extreme leftist, partisan, liberal organization where anything that moves or breathes (and even if it doesn’t move or breathe) needs to be taxed so politicians can use the money for their own walking-around purposes. In keeping with their philosophy, the PBPC’s prescription for Marcellus Shale drilling in PA is to ramp up the tax on it–or it’s no good. No benefit at all for PA residents.
What utter absurdity. Did the PBPC even bother to visit places like Susquehanna County, PA before making such ludicrous pronouncements? We doubt it…
Read More “Partisan PA Budget & Policy Center Pushes Extreme Tax on Marcellus”
In July, MDN told you about a class action lawsuit by some Pennsylvania landowners against Chesapeake Energy over the issue of deducting certain costs from post-production when calculating royalties–costs that the landowners say are not listed in the original lease and for which Chessy does not have the right to deduct (see Some PA Landowners Mull Decision to Sue Chesapeake over Royalties). A number of landowners joined the class action lawsuit. The lawyers worked feverishly and both sides have now settled.
Chesapeake will pay $7.5 million to settle the lawsuit, to be share with the lawyers (of course) and then amongst the landowners. Apparently the settlement will benefit “several thousand leaseholders” who have the option to either accept the settlement or continue on their own by filing their own lawsuit…
Read More “Chesapeake Settles PA Royalty Lawsuit for Pittance: $7.5M”
Do you live in Pennsylvania, Ohio or West Virginia (or perhaps the Southern Tier of sad New York) and want a job working for the growing shale drilling industry? According to The Motley Fool, your chances of landing a job in the Marcellus/Utica industry have never been better. The Fool even has a few suggestions of companies looking to hire…
Read More “Marcellus/Utica Industry Looking to Hire More Locals”
Chief Oil & Gas announced yesterday they have crafted a deal to supply some of the Marcellus Shale gas they produce in PA to IMG Midstream. You may think IMG is a pipeline company because of the word “midstream” in its name–but you would be wrong. IMG Midstream (formerly known as Iron Mountain Generation) develops, owns, and operates small-scale electric generation plants powered by natural gas. As part of the new deal, Chief will use pipelines from Access Midstream and PVR Midstream to get the gas from their wells to IMG’s new electric plants (to be built) in northeastern PA.
With that explanation to clear up who the players are, here’s the (somewhat confusing) press release announcing the deal…
Read More “Chief Strikes Deal to Provide Marcellus Gas for Electric Plants”
It appears that Chesapeake CEO Doug Lawler’s massive firings throughout the company (no doubt demanded by corporate raider and Chessy board member Carl Ichan) have not only affected Chesapeake itself, but also the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC)–the premier group representing the drilling industry in Pennsylvania and the entire Marcellus region.
The chairman of the board of directors at the MSC had been David Spigelmyer, VP of government relations for Chesapeake. Spigelmyer is now gone from Chesapeake and gone from the board of the MSC. In his place, the board has appointed the current vice chairman, Randy Albert, COO of CNX Gas, to be chairman until Spigelmyer’s term was due to end in November…
Read More “Marcellus Shale Coalition Gets New Chairman of the Board”
A Pennsylvania state report on the impacts of the mythical concept of human-induced global warming on residents of the state is a year and a half late. Boo hoo. Big deal. Aren’t there enough of these kinds of “reports” circulating already? Why is another one needed? Apparently anti-drillers in PA and at the NPR reporters at StateImpact Pennsylvania want to see it published. They also want it to contain a reference to the totally debunked and discredited “study” by Cornell professors Robert Howarth and Anthony Ingraffea. You know, the study that laughably says burning coal is better for the environment than natural gas. MIT later put that whopper to rest (see New MIT Study on Fugitive Methane Discredits Cornell Study).
But let’s not let real science get in the way here! Anti-drilling groups like PennFuture want Howarth’s discredited “research” to be included in the final report. When someone from the PA DEP dared to say it ought to be removed, well, the antis had a cow. PennFuture went on a fishing expedition and obtained internal emails and drafts of the report and leaked it to sympathetic StateImpact reporters. It’s now time to crucify the DEP official who wanted the holy words of Bobby & Tony removed…
Read More “Anti-Drillers Smear PA DEP Over Delayed Global Warming Report”
In February 2012, Pennsylvania passed and Gov. Tom Corbett signed the Act 13 legislation into law–the first new legislation to address shale drilling in the state (see Gov. Corbett Signs New Marcellus Drilling Law). Among the provisions in the new law was an instruction (and permission) for the Environmental Quality Board (EQB), the rulemaking body of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, to craft new regulations for drilling. The EQB wasted no time in crafting new rules for the subsurface portion of drilling (see Rewrite of 1984 PA Oil and Gas Act Underway).
The second part of the EQB’s charge is now underway. Yesterday the EQB approved and released (for public comment) new regulations aimed at surface activities associated with natural gas drilling (a summary of the new rules is embedded below, along with the full text of the proposed regulations). This new round of regulations deals with protecting public resources like parks and forests, deals with orphaned and abandoned well identification, institutes new containment rules (for fresh water and wastewater), and firms up protection of water resources…
Read More “New Marcellus Surface Regulations Coming for PA Drillers”