Statewide PA

Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

No More “Acting” for Abruzzo – Nominated as Secretary PA DEP
September 23, 2013September 23, 2013

Congratulations to Chris Abruzzo, Acting Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). Gov. Tom Corbett has just nominated Abruzzo to permanently fill the role as Secretary of the DEP. Abruzzo had big shoes to fill after the departure of Michael Krancer (see Developing… PA DEP Sec. Krancer Resigns).

When Abruzzo was appointed Acting Secretary this past spring, former DEP Sec. John Hanger, a Democrat, blasted his appointment by Corbett as “bizarre and irresponsible” (see Former PA DEP Sec. Hanger Blasts Interim Replacement for Krancer). Undeterred by such criticism, Abruzzo has done an outstanding job over the past six months (see PA Acting Sec of DEP Making his Agency a “Problem-Solver”). Abruzzo’s problem-solving approach has now been duly rewarded with a promotion…
Read More “No More “Acting” for Abruzzo – Nominated as Secretary PA DEP”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

3 New Bills Would Change PA’s 1979 Oil & Gas Lease Act
September 20, 2013September 20, 2013

On Monday, three new bills were introduced into the Pennsylvania House of Representatives that, if passed, will update the state’s 1979 Oil and Gas Lease Act. Two of the new bills were introduced by anti-drilling Rep. Jesse White–he of fake ID shame (see PA Rep. White Says Fake IDs were “Error in Judgment”).

A quick run-down on the proposed new bills and what they do:
Read More “3 New Bills Would Change PA’s 1979 Oil & Gas Lease Act”
Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | UGI Energy Services

UGI to Invest $1.2B to Upgrade Pipelines in PA to Deliver NatGas
September 20, 2013September 20, 2013

UGI is Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas distributing utility serving more than 586,000 natural gas customers in 45 counties. Along with that many customers comes a lot of underground pipelines–some of which need to be replaced. So UGI is on a quest to hire at least 100 new full-time workers to help replace them. They plan to spend $1.2 billion on the project to upgrade their infrastructure in PA.

So what does UGI’s new pipeline replacement project have to do with the Marcellus Shale?…
Read More “UGI to Invest $1.2B to Upgrade Pipelines in PA to Deliver NatGas”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Dems Go Over the Cliff – Introduce Statewide Frack Ban Bill
September 19, 2013September 19, 2013

Stupendously stupid and truly amazing, some Pennsylvania Democrats continue to push a statewide “open-ended” moratorium on shale drilling (in essence a ban). The party voted to adopt a ban as their official position at the statewide meeting in June (see PA Democrat Party Votes to End Marcellus Shale Drilling Statewide). Now, Democrat elected representatives have introduced a bill to do just that.

PA State Senator Jim Ferlo (D-Allegheny) has just introduced Senate Bill 1100 which would institute an immediate ban (they call it a moratorium) on issuing new permits to drill until a 7-member panel can study it for “at least three to four years” and make a pronouncement about whether or not fracking is safe. Talk about insanity…
Read More “PA Dems Go Over the Cliff – Introduce Statewide Frack Ban Bill”
Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA Game Comm. Head Not Afraid of Gas Leasing Ethics Investigation
September 19, 2013September 19, 2013

A month ago MDN highlighted the story of potential double-dipping by the director for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, William A. Capouillez, who moonlights as a consultant for landowners leasing their land for oil and gas development–sometimes signing deals with the same companies who do business with his agency (see PA Director of Game Commission Double-Dipping with Gas Leases?).

The pressure on Capouillez continues. An article in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer announces that State Rep. Daryl D. Metcalfe (Republican from Butler, PA), who is the chairman of the House Committee on State Government, has asked the State Ethics Commission to investigate his activities. Capouillez’s response? Bring it on. He says he hasn’t taken on new clients for his moonlighting job in three years and has done nothing wrong…
Read More “PA Game Comm. Head Not Afraid of Gas Leasing Ethics Investigation”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Coming Soon: PA Drillers to Pay 56% More for Marcellus Permits
September 18, 2013September 18, 2013

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”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Wildlife

PA Endangered Species List New Flash Point in Drilling Debate
September 17, 2013September 17, 2013

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”
Energy Companies | Energy Services | EQT Corp | Green Field Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

EQT First Driller to Frack a Marcellus Well Using 100% Field Gas
September 16, 2013September 16, 2013

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”
Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Southwestern Energy | Statewide PA

Southwestern Energy Details Marcellus Update/Plans
September 13, 2013September 13, 2013

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”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

TU: Just Eyeball Those Streams, You Know What Shouldn’t Be There
September 12, 2013September 12, 2013

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”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Wastewater

MDN Processes its Own Frack Wastewater Comments
September 10, 2013September 10, 2013

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”
Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Susquehanna County

A Few Dimock Families Who Sued Cabot Endorse Hanger for PA Gov
September 10, 2013September 10, 2013

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”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA | Wastewater

USGS Study Says Drilling Wastewater Not Fully Treated by Plants
September 9, 2013September 9, 2013

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”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Auditor General Spreads Rumor of Problems at DEP
September 6, 2013September 6, 2013

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”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Partisan PA Budget & Policy Center Pushes Extreme Tax on Marcellus
September 6, 2013September 6, 2013

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”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Chesapeake Settles PA Royalty Lawsuit for Pittance: $7.5M
September 3, 2013September 3, 2013

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”