Statewide PA

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

Northeast PA Starting to Feel the Dry Gas Drilling Slowdown
February 20, 2012February 20, 2012

The decision by Chesapeake Energy and other drillers to reduce drilling in dry gas (methane only) areas and instead concentrate on wet gas (natural gas liquids) areas is already having an impact on Pennsylvania’s northeastern counties where drilling last year was extremely active. Rig counts are going down, and with them, the amount of drilling activity goes down. It ultimately impacts the local economy in those areas, as noted in a recent Scranton Times Tribune article.

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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Marcellus Shale Jobs in Southwestern PA
February 17, 2012February 17, 2012

Looking to land a job in the Marcellus Shale drilling industry? You’re not alone. According to Mike Forgione, a representative from the PA Institute of High Priority Occupations, there are a number of jobs available, including:

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

2012 PA Impact Fee Revenue of $180M – Where Will it Go?
February 16, 2012February 16, 2012

Pennsylvania finally passed new Marcellus Shale drilling legislation last week, and Gov. Corbett signed the new legislation into law on Monday of this week (see this MDN story). One of the key provisions, and certainly one of the most contentious, is a provision to collect a new impact fee. But let’s be honest among friends, it’s really just a tax (see this MDN story for why we call it a tax). Regardless of what it’s called, the new fee/tax will raise an estimated $180 million in new revenue for state and local coffers this year alone. So where will all that money go?

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

Gov. Corbett Signs New Marcellus Drilling Law
February 14, 2012April 16, 2026

No public ceremony for the signing of historic legislation to regulate Marcellus Shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania. Monday evening, Gov. Tom Corbett’s office announced he had privately signed the new legislation into law. A detailed summary of the legislation is embedded below.

Among the key provisions in the final bill:

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Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell | Statewide PA

PA Finally Joins the Cracker Plant Sweepstakes
February 14, 2012February 14, 2012

It seems that Pennsylvania has finally woken up to the fact that Shell is about to decide where they will invest some $2 billion and generate thousands of new jobs by building an ethane cracker plant. One of three bills signed into law by PA Gov. Tom Corbett on Monday was a bill that,

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA’s New Tax on Drilling (er Sorry, Impact Fee)
February 13, 2012February 13, 2012

The new Marcellus drilling legislation passed by the Pennsylvania House and Senate (both controlled by Republicans), and due to be signed by Gov. Tom Corbett (also a Republican) is a great milestone. It places new restrictions on drilling and makes regulation of drilling across the state more even-handed. There are many things to like about the new legislation.

But it’s also a disappointment. The so-called impact fee is really just a tax trying to fly under the radar as a fee. Why a tax? Because the fee as originally proposed would stay in the areas where drilling happens, where drilling is having an “impact.” If a municipality has to repair roads, or spend more on emergency services and policing, or hire extra workers in government offices—that extra expense should be reimbursed. That’s what an impact fee is supposed to do.

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Centre County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Pro & Anti Drilling Increasingly Divides Along Party Lines
February 10, 2012February 10, 2012

With the new Pennsylvania law to regulate Marcellus drilling about to be signed by Gov. Tom Corbett, counties are already gearing up to vote on whether or not to accept the new impact fee provided for in the legislation. Although support or lack of support for Marcellus and Utica drilling cuts across political party lines, increasingly it tends to be Republicans in favor of drilling, and Democrats against. Take Centre County (State College area, smack in the very middle of PA) as an example, where commissioners are already planning a vote.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Former PA DEP Head Says Fracking Doesn’t Contaminate Aquifers
February 9, 2012February 9, 2012

Former PA Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger has been known to be a sharp critic of the drilling industry. He minces no words. If he believes drillers have caused a problem, he calls them out. Equally, he doesn’t shy away from defending hydraulic fracturing as the best, and safest, way of mining natural gas. He states outright that Marcellus fracking has never, not once, contaminated a water aquifer with chemicals.

Hanger is quoted extensively in an article on fracking hysteria in today’s New York Post:

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

Key Dates/Events for New PA Impact Fee
February 9, 2012February 9, 2012

With the passage of the new Marcellus drilling law in Pennsylvania that establishes an impact fee, what happens next? The StateImpact website has a helpful timeline, which includes:

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

New Marcellus Drilling Law Passes PA House, Awaits Gov’s Sig
February 9, 2012February 9, 2012

New Marcellus drilling legislation passed the Pennsylvania House yesterday by a vote of 101-90. The same measure passed the PA Senate earlier this week by a vote of 31-19. The only thing left before it becomes law is a signature by Gov. Tom Corbett, who said he looks forward to signing it. The new law will establish, for the first time in PA, a per-well-drilled impact fee. The fee is assessed on a sliding scale from $40,000 to $60,000 for the first year, decreasing each year for a 15-year period after that. The new law also tightens environmental regulations.

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

PennEnvironment Says Ban PA Drilling Based on Violations Data
February 9, 2012February 9, 2012

PennEnvironment released a study yesterday of what they call “environmental violations” by Marcellus Shale drillers in Pennsylvania for the past four years (a copy of the study is embedded below). It is a skewed analysis of citations issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) from 2008 to 2011. By PennEnvironment’s own admission, about one-third of the 3,355 DEP violations over the past four years are paperwork-related.

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

Green Groups Split on Support for New PA Drilling Law
February 8, 2012February 8, 2012

New drilling legislation, including an impact fee, has passed the Pennsylvania Senate and debate began last night in the PA House. Debate will continue today. Passage is expected this week, perhaps as early as today. As MDN pointed out yesterday, the mostly anti-drilling organization Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) gave the new legislation a lukewarm, half-hearted endorsement as “the best thing we can get right now” (see this MDN story).

However, the mostly anti-drilling Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), which works closely with the PEC, gave the legislation a more positive endorsement, calling it “a tremendous step forward.” From the CBF press release:

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

PEC’s Lukewarm Statement of Support for New PA Drilling Law
February 7, 2012February 7, 2012

The mostly anti-drilling organization Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) issued an interesting statement yesterday, commenting on new Marcellus drilling legislation that will likely be passed and signed into law this week in PA. Here is the entire press release:

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

New Deal on Marcellus Shale Well Impact Fee in PA
February 6, 2012February 6, 2012

Pennsylvania legislators in both the PA House and Senate have debated for months on passage of new Marcellus drilling legislation. The main sticking point has been a local impact fee. Last week, Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican now in his second year in office, sent the Republican-controlled legislature a “hurry up and get it done” letter. Legislators were busy finalizing details over the weekend and a plan has now emerged. Likely to be voted on this week, the plan calls for the amount of the fee to vary depending on the rate of inflation and the commodity price of natural gas.

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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Waiting Game: Cracker Plants Talk to Property Owners
February 3, 2012February 3, 2012

West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio are all in the hunt to land an ethane cracker plant in their respective states (see the long list of MDN stories on a potential cracker plant in the Marcellus/Utica Shale region). According to WV Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette, Shell and another unnamed company are now in talks with private property owners. That is, the deals are now being negotiated, and it’s a waiting game to see the outcome.

All three states have offered huge tax incentives to land the plant. Shell originally set January for an announcement, but changed it a few weeks ago to be February.

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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NiSource | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

NiSource to Build New $145M Marcellus Pipeline in PA
February 2, 2012February 2, 2012

NiSource, which owns and operates over 15,000 miles of interstate natural gas pipelines, will build a new Marcellus Shale pipeline “through western Pennsylvania” they announced yesterday. Details, including the one driller signed on so far, are thin. Here is what we know:

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