SRBC Approves Water Withdrawals for 7 PA Shale-Related Projects
The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its completely dysfunctional and irresponsible cousin, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), continues to support the shale energy industry by approving water withdrawals for responsible and safe shale drilling. Last Thursday, the SRBC approved 19 new water withdrawal requests within the basin, six of them for water used in drilling and fracking shale wells in Pennsylvania (and one for a gas-fired power plant). The Marcellus/Utica shale drillers receiving a green light from SRBC included EQT, Pennsylvania General Energy, Repsol (two requests), and Seneca Resources (two requests).
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This is one of those little gems we delight in unearthing for MDN readers — especially for our landowner/rights owner readers. Researchers from the University of Rochester and the University of Pittsburgh assembled a dataset of lease deals used in the Pennsylvania Marcellus (some 60,000 of them!) and analyzed the leases for compensation and clauses that may protect landowner health and the enjoyment of their properties. The researchers used the data to produce three main findings…
The slight rise in the national rig count, with the count going up by one or two rigs a week over the past five weeks (what we call a “dead cat bounce”), is over. The Baker Hughes U.S. rig count lost ground again last week. The count went from 626 active rigs two weeks ago down to 623 last week. The Marcellus/Utica stayed even at 41 active rigs last week.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan used a considerable amount of fossil energy and emitted billows of carbon dioxide to jet over to Dubai to participate in the COP28 confab. At that event, Regan released his agency’s latest attempt to illegally regulate the oil and gas industry (see 
Pennsylvania assesses an impact fee (PA’s version of a severance tax) on shale drillers, raising revenues that are paid to local municipalities and to the black hole of Harrisburg politicians. Yesterday, the PA Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) issued an estimate for how much the impact tax will raise this year, to be distributed next year. The IFO says it thinks, based on the price of low natural gas and number of new and existing wells, that PA will generate $174.0 million from the impact tax in 2023, a decrease of $104.8 million (38%) from 2022. What the heck happened?
The Energy Workforce & Technology Council, based in Houston, TX, is the national trade association for the global energy technology and services sector. The Council reports jobs in the O&G sector increased in November, adding 1,286 jobs. The O&G industry employs 652,398 jobs across the country, just 54,130 jobs away from returning to pre-pandemic levels. And how much do those jobs pay? The average hourly earnings for frontline oil-and-gas workers rose 1.3% in October from the previous month to $44.11, according to a Labor Department report released last week.
Yesterday, the Republicans who sit on the Pennsylvania Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee got work done while the Democrats tried to block work. The committee advanced legislation to establish an Independent Energy Information Office by a party-line vote, with Republicans supporting. There was also a party-line vote advancing Paul Bruder, an environmental attorney nominated by Gov. Shapiro for the Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) after Democrats failed to table the nomination. That’s right, the Dems tried to block a Shapiro (one of their own) nominee!
The Baker Hughes U.S. rig count hit a new low for 2023 five weeks ago (see 
In August, University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) researchers released three studies commissioned by the State Dept. of Health supposedly investigating whether or not there is a connection between shale drilling and childhood diseases, including cancer (see 
In May, MDN told you that since taking office in January, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has been a major dud — someone who doesn’t know how to lead (see 
On August 17, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) posted an Interim Final Environmental Justice Policy to guide DEP’s permit application reviews and outreach efforts in environmental justice areas throughout the Commonwealth (see 
Last week, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced that he will appeal a decision by the Commonwealth Court that blocks PA’s entrance into the obscene Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme (see