PA EQB Advances Antis’ Request to Boost O&G Well Bonds
The Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB) is a division of the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). The EQB is one of the most powerful governmental agencies in the state, consisting of 20 members with the power to create new regulations. Some 11 of the EQB members are appointed by the governor, Tom Wolf in this case. The EQB yesterday voted 16-3 in favor of considering a petition to boost required bonds to drill new conventional wells by 1,500%, and bonds to drill new shale wells by 830%. The new bonds were proposed by virulent anti-fossil fuel groups with the aim to make it too costly to drill new wells. Wolf’s EQB-stacked board is cooperating with the antis.
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Anti-fossil fuelers at Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services and the FracTracker Alliance are asking Pennsylvania residents to report the road spreading of oil and gas wastewater. Bear in mind such spreading is legal (if it’s conventional oil and gas wastewater). Also bear in mind other sources of water are sometimes spread on dirt roads in PA, so there’s no practical way to tell if the water you see being spread came from a conventional well or a nearby creek. In essence, these anti groups want to turn PA residents into rats and snitches in hopes of…what? Proving that a legal activity is taking place?
The so-called Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF) lost a big court case in Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court in August (see 
We’ve seen the name a few times over the years, but Abarta Energy (aka Abarta Oil & Gas Co.) has not appeared on our radar often. The privately-owned company is based in Pittsburgh and owns (did own) assets, including wells and pipeline systems, in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky. On Sunday Abarta filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, reporting liabilities of $25.4 million and assets of $4.2 million. Abarta says it wants to liquidate/sell all of its remaining oil and gas assets.
What do you think of this one? The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is launching a “favorites” list for Marcellus drilling and pipeline companies. You can earn yourself onto the list to get special treatment if you go to the extraordinary (and very expensive) lengths to do things the DEP wants you to do–things *not* required under current law, like “plugging abandoned oil wells, powering equipment with renewable energy, improving water quality in historically polluted streams and planting trees to offset greenhouse gas emissions.” Your reward for landing on the attaboy list? Your application for building a well pad or pipeline corridor will move to the top of the stack for review, leapfrogging those in line for a standard review. In other words, you’ll get the treatment the law guarantees (14 days for an erosion permit review) instead of the months and months of delays (in violation of the law) you get now. What a deal.
Two out-of-state Members of Congress, Rep. Dan Newhouse (Washington-04) and Rep. Yvette Herrell (New Mexico-02), both members of the Congressional Western Caucus, recently took a field trip to northeastern Pennsylvania to get a firsthand look at how Marcellus drillers and midstream companies get the job done. They came away thoroughly impressed, to the point they penned an editorial for a local newspaper that begins with this sentence: “Pennsylvania’s natural gas producers are providing safe, reliable, and affordable energy for the United States and setting an example for states across the country.”
Chesapeake Energy released its third quarter update yesterday. The company has newfound energy (pun intended) since emerging from bankruptcy earlier this year and ejecting most (but not all) of its top management along with an entire refresh of the board. The company reports a net loss of $345 million during 3Q21, which is better than the $745 million net loss in 3Q20. There’s no one big reason for the loss. Revenues were down a bit ($890 million in 3Q21 vs. $960 million the year before), marketing costs were up a bit ($625 million vs. $450 million), etc. The financial loss didn’t phase investors as the stock price popped up by 3.3% from the day before.
Are labor unions so in-the-tank for *any* Democrat candidate that they can be lied to, to their faces, again and again, year after year, and still vote for the Democrat? Apparently yes. Pennsylvania’s Attorney General, the very corrupt Josh Shapiro, someone who has demonstrated a hatred for the Marcellus Shale industry (he’s prosecuting multiple Marcellus companies for “crimes” that are in fact accidents), is using the same tired playbook politicians always use–an outright lie-to-the-face. This time the lie is about his position on whether or not he supports Tom Wolf’s efforts to force the state to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a tax on carbon dioxide that’s meant to force coal and gas-fired power plants out of business.
Last week MDN told you about a clever play by Republicans in the Pennsylvania House and Senate to box in Democrat Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is running for governor next year, on the issue of whether or not it is legal for current Dem Gov. Tom Wolf to force the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), an obscene carbon tax meant to kill coal and gas-fired power plants in the state (see 
Everyone is scratching their heads trying to figure out why, given the price natural gas is fetching in both the futures and physical spot price market, natural gas drillers don’t drill more wells. The excuse given is that budgets are cast, plans made, and by gosh companies are finally showing fiscal discipline and sticking to their plans because if they don’t, investors will scream bloody murder. The last time we checked investors don’t mind spending a little more money to drill new wells if it puts more money in their pockets! That message finally seems to be getting through. Yesterday U.S. natural gas production surged to its highest level since late August (when Hurricane Ida struck, shutting down natgas production in the Gulf). Most of the gains came from more production in the Marcellus/Utica.
Last week America’s Rural Energy Coalition (AREC), a national organization created by rural community stakeholders and industry representatives from across the country to build sustainable rural communities by maximizing the opportunities and minimizing the challenges presented to them as a result of the development of their regional energy resources, held a regional meeting in Bradford County, PA. While AREC advocates for safe development of all forms of energy in rural America, front and center at last week’s meeting was the mighty Marcellus Shale and the critical role of oil and natural gas in the lives of every citizen on planet earth (and to the people of PA).