Statewide PA

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Judge Tells PA Drillers They Can’t Join Act 13 Lawsuit
April 23, 2012April 23, 2012

At the end of March, seven Pennsylvania municipalities along with the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and a handful of individuals filed a lawsuit against the state of Pennsylvania over a newly enacted Marcellus drilling law called Act 13 (see this MDN story). The lawsuit specifically targets a measure in the new law that supersedes local zoning of oil and gas drilling with state-mandated rules. The Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association, the Marcellus Shale Coalition and some state lawmakers filed to join the lawsuit on the side of the state, to help defend the new legislation (see this MDN story).

On Friday, the judge in the case denied the application to join the lawsuit:

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Medical Society Admits Act 13 Won’t “Gag” Doctors
April 20, 2012April 20, 2012

Yet another straw man argument from anti-drillers has been knocked down in Pennsylvania. Anti-drillers were trying to fabricate a tale that under Pennsylvania’s new drilling law, Act 13, doctors and health care workers would be “gagged” and prevented from talking about the chemicals used in fracking with their patients should those patients somehow be exposed to said chemicals. It’s been a running headline for over a month.

On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Medical Society said the matter had been cleared up:

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Wastewater

PennFuture Targets Entire Oil & Gas Industry in PA
April 16, 2012April 16, 2012

Anti-drilling “environmental” group PennFuture’s newly appointed President and CEO George Jugovic, formerly the PA Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) southwest regional director, is wasting no time in going after the oil and gas industry. Current DEP Secretary Michael Krancer got the drilling industry to stop using municipal sewage treatment plants to process Marcellus drilling wastewater without so much as an edict or lawsuit. Conventional (non-Marcellus) gas drillers have now come under the scrutiny by PennFuture and other anti-drilling groups. They want conventional drillers to stop processing their drilling wastewater via treatment plants that discharge into rivers and waterways.

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

PA Act 13 Author Responds to Charge “Doctors Will be Gagged”
April 13, 2012April 13, 2012

Anti-drillers who oppose the new Act 13 drilling legislation in Pennsylvania have focused on a provision in the law that they claim “gags” doctors and health care workers, preventing them from sharing information about the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing if they learn what those chemicals are in the course of treating a patient. Yes, the anti-drilling claims are convoluted and trumped up, but its all about the headlines, and the headlines (courtesy AP and others) almost all manifestly read that “Act 13 gags doctors and enforces secrecy” or some such. The legislative author of Act 13, PA Speaker of the House Sam Smith, called the allegations “outrageous” and issued the following statement yesterday:

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

PA Judge Grants Injunction for Zoning Portion of Act 13 Law
April 12, 2012April 12, 2012

Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Senior Judge Keith Quigley issued a 120-day injunction yesterday to stop a small but important portion of the newly passed Act 13 Marcellus drilling law. Seven PA townships had filed a lawsuit to overturn Act 13 (see this MDN story). As part of their lawsuit, they filed a petition seeking an injunction from stopping the law from going into effect this Saturday, April 14. Judge Quigley’s injunction only deals with the provisions in the law that deal with changes to zoning regulations—the part that would replace local zoning laws with a “one size fits all” state law. Everything else in Act 13, including collection of an impact fee, will go into effect on Saturday.

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

New PA Bill Would Require Real-Time Monitoring of Gas Wells
April 11, 2012April 11, 2012

On Monday, Pennsylvania State Representative Duane Milne, a Republican from Chester, PA (near Philly) held a press conference in his district to announce new Marcellus Shale legislation he will soon introduce. The legislation would require all natural gas wells—wells yet to be drilled and wells already drilled—to install real-time safety monitoring using technology called a wireless mesh network (WMN). The bill will also include real-time monitoring of natural gas pipelines using WMN.

WMN is a series (or network) of wireless transmitters that doesn’t need the Internet in order to “talk” with each other. The transmitters would automatically alert the Department of Environmental Protection and county emergency management organizations if it detects a problem.

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Economic Impact | Education | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

The Economic Impact of Marcellus Drilling on PA Schools
April 11, 2012April 11, 2012

Penn State Cooperative Extension and Penn State University researchers continue their research into how the Marcellus Shale gas drilling boom affects the state. Recently they issued findings from a survey of 940 school districts across PA (see this MDN story). Earlier this week, they issued another report in their Marcellus Education Fact Sheet series, titled: “Marcellus Shale Gas Development and Pennsylvania School Districts: What Are the Implications for School Expenditures and Tax Revenues?” (full report embedded below).

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Commodity Price | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Statewide NY | Statewide PA | Steuben County

NY Customers See 50% Price Decrease from PA Marcellus Gas
April 10, 2012April 10, 2012

Utility customers of Corning Natural Gas Corp. in New York State’s Finger Lakes region can thank their neighbors south of the border in Pennsylvania that they are now paying 50 percent less for their natural gas than they paid just one year ago. And they can also thank the energy companies who use hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale.

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Act 13 Lawsuit and its “Supporters”
April 10, 2012April 10, 2012

The Pittsburgh newspapers want us to believe there is a huge surge of support behind a lawsuit recently filed against what is known as Act 13—a new law passed just a few months ago in Pennsylvania that updates Marcellus oil and gas drilling rules in the state. Although the law brought much-needed new regulations to the Commonwealth, it also contained two measures that have particularly irked those who oppose drilling: an impact fee instead of a severance tax, and preemption of local oil and gas zoning ordinances with a “one size fits all” set of ordinances from the state. MDN will not recount the arguments for and against, you can read them by doing a search for “Act 13 lawsuit” in our search box (upper right corner).

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Chief Gathering | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | PVR Partners | Statewide PA

PVR Buys Chief Gathering/Marcellus Pipelines for $1B
April 10, 2012April 10, 2012

Calling it a “transformational transaction” for the company, Penn Virginia Resource Partners (PVR) today announced they are buying Chief Gathering for $1 billion in cash and stock. Chief Gathering is a midstream pipeline company with assets (pipelines) located mostly in northeastern Pennsylvania in the Marcellus Shale. The deal includes existing pipeline agreements with drilling heavyweights like Chesapeake, Anadarko, Statoil, Exxon Mobil and others. PVR CEO William Shea says the new combined pipeline operation for PVR will represent 75 percent of its business by the end of next year (it’s currently 40-45 percent of their business).

From the PVR press release:

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Drillers, Industry Groups File to Join Act 13 Lawsuit
April 9, 2012April 9, 2012

The oil and gas industry in Pennsylvania is not sitting on the sidelines idly while a group of municipalities attempts to temporarily halt, and eventually overturn the new Act 13 drilling legislation passed earlier this year. Seven municipalities along with an enviro-leftist group and a doctor are suing the state to stop Act 13 (see this MDN story for background, and this guest post from one of the litigants).

The Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association and the Marcellus Shale Coalition have filed a petition seeking to join the lawsuit—on the other side, trying to stop the lawsuit by the municipalities.

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CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Wildlife

Drillers, Ecologists Work Together to Protect Wildlife
April 9, 2012April 9, 2012

An interesting article in yesterday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette explores how drilling firms and wildlife groups are working together to protect endangered species and reviving long-gone habitats for other species. It begins this way:

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Susquehanna County

PA Supreme Court to Consider Shale Gas Mineral Rights Case
April 5, 2012April 5, 2012

An update on what could be a very important case for many landowners in Pennsylvania: On Tuesday, April 3, the PA Supreme Court agreed to hear a Susquehanna County case called Butler v Powers estate. The case concerns whether or not natural gas rights are a part of “mineral rights” in old leases where it’s not specifically spelled out. PA law precedent since 1882 known as the “Dunham rule” is that natural gas is not part of mineral rights unless specifically stated as such. If the Supreme Court overturns that precedent, it would threaten hundreds of drilling leases now in place throughout PA.

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

Act 13 Lawsuit Plaintiffs Seek Injunction to Stop Law Now
April 4, 2012April 4, 2012

The plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed last week seeking to overturn PA’s newly adopted Act 13 law that overrides local municipal zoning ordinances of the oil and gas industry, filed a motion yesterday asking the court for an injunction to prevent the new law from going into effect on April 14.

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Pittsburgh Cheerleads (but doesn’t join) Act 13 Lawsuit
April 4, 2012April 4, 2012

Pittsburgh City Council, long-time opponents of the Marcellus Shale drilling industry, passed a resolution called a “Will of Council” yesterday supporting the lawsuit filed by seven municipalities, the Delaware Riverkeepers and others against the State of Pennsylvania’s newly adopted Act 13 law. The Act 13 law replaces local zoning ordinances with a state ordinance when it comes to oil and gas drilling (see this MDN article about the lawsuit). Council President Darlene Harris sponsored the measure and all nine city council members signed it. A full copy of the resolution and a letter signed by all council members is embedded below.

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Commodity Price | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Low NatGas Prices Translate to Electricity Rate Cut by Peco
April 4, 2012April 4, 2012

Yet another Pennsylvania utility is lowering rates customers pay—this time it’s a rate cut for electricity by Peco Energy which supplies the Philadelphia area. Low cost natural gas is being used in electrical generating plants and the utility is passing along the lower cost to produce electricity to its customers, thanks in part to an abundant supply of Marcellus Shale natural gas.

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