Philly’s Former Mayor (Democrat) Says PA Cities NEED Natural Gas
Oh, for the days when there were at least *some* Democrat politicians who were reasonable (able to be reasoned with). Those days are now long gone. The party is populated almost exclusively with leaders who are either leftist Communists or those afraid to stand up to them. There are a few exceptions, such as U.S. Senator John Fetterman from Pennsylvania. But he’s rare, like a unicorn in the wild. Here’s a Democrat politician we wish were still in office: Michael Nutter, former Mayor of Philadelphia from 2008 to 2016. These days, Nutter co-hosts “How To Really Run A City” podcast with former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, and he serves on the leadership council and is an advisor to Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future. Nutter recently published an op-ed titled, “PA Cities Can’t Get Smarter Without Natural Gas.” Read More “Philly’s Former Mayor (Democrat) Says PA Cities NEED Natural Gas”
Representatives from Clean Air Council, Earthworks, Environmental Health Project, Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), and Protect PT, some of the worst of the worst radical “green” groups in the Keystone State, rallied at the Pennsylvania State Capitol yesterday to demand (they always demand) that Pennsylvania’s Environmental Quality Board (EQB) accept their petition to consider drafting a new setback regulation in the state that would effectively ban all new shale drilling. 
The Penn State Extension has developed a helpful reference guide listing common water testing parameters for well owners. This resource helps owners determine if contamination from oil and gas drilling, pipelines, and related infrastructure is affecting their water quality. Key parameters include: alkalinity, arsenic, barium, bromide, BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene), chloride, gross alpha radiation, methane/ethane, and strontium. The reference also provides sources for additional information. 
The current king of U.S. data centers is Virginia. As we wrote about earlier this month, Pennsylvania has the opportunity to grab that title away from Virginia, IF PA doesn’t screw it up (see 
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro oscillates between acting like an adult and a petulant child regarding rising electricity costs in his state, costs that are due in part to his own policies (see 
The Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) has approved a resolution to become the sole, controlling member of the Pennsylvania Independent Petroleum Producers Association, Inc. (PIPP), effectively making PIPP a subsidiary. This unification, approved by both boards in October, aims to strengthen the unified voice of the state’s oil and natural gas industry. According to PIOGA Board Chairman Michael Hillebrand and PIOGA President Dan Weaver, the move ensures independent producers speak with “one voice, one vision, and one future,” allowing the associations to operate more efficiently and amplify their advocacy efforts in Harrisburg and beyond. 
Something remarkable has happened in the Pennsylvania State Senate, where Republicans hold a slim majority with 27 members and Democrats have 23 members. In an unusual act of bipartisanship, six of the Democrat Senators (26% of all PA Democrat Senators, more than one-quarter) voted with all 27 Republicans to pass a bill that would erase Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) regulations from Pennsylvania’s books. RGGI is a carbon tax on coal- and gas-fired power plants in the state. 
The Pennsylvania Energy Ecosystem Conference was held yesterday at Washington & Jefferson College’s Center for Energy Policy and Management in conjunction with the Central Appalachian Partnership for Carbon Storage Deployment. The event featured industry leaders, policymakers, and other experts. We’re not sure what the focus of the event was last year, but the star of this year’s conference was natural gas, and, to a lesser extent, coal. In other words, fossil fuels took center stage. 
In two weeks, all Pennsylvania voters will have the opportunity to vote on whether to “retain” (elect for another 10 years) three radical-left Democrat State Supreme Court justices. Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty, and David Wecht were all elected as Democrats in 2015, and their party has held a majority on the state’s high court since. They have made many decisions that are activist and favor the Democrat Party at the expense of ordinary residents of the state. It’s time for them to go. We have a couple of very good reasons why you (if you live in PA) should vote “no” on retention: Their votes in two cases have fundamentally damaged the Marcellus industry in the state. 
How many articles have we written about the connection between Pennsylvania’s ill-advised quest to become a member of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and the high cost of electricity? Dozens of articles, for sure. Former PA Governor Tom Wolf attempted to force the state to join the RGGI carbon tax scheme unilaterally. Republicans in the Senate sued to block it, as the legislature is the proper branch of government with the power to tax, not the executive. Wolf’s successor, Josh Shapiro, appealed a Commonwealth Court decision in favor of the Republicans to the PA Supreme Court, where the case now sits, waiting for a decision (after the election). 
On September 29, some 105 Democrat state legislators from 10 states across the PJM Interconnection region released a joint letter urging PJM to take immediate action to accelerate the deployment of unreliable renewable energy projects—to favor unreliable renewables over fossil fuels. The letter, organized by the partisan left-wing National Caucus of Environmental Legislators (NCEL), highlights urgent concerns about grid reliability, rising energy costs, and recent federal actions against renewable energy. A group of Pennsylvania Republican legislators responded with their own letter asking PJM to disregard the lunatic letter from NCEL. 
Pennsylvania is aggressively positioning itself as a leader in the AI data center race with an ambitious $92 billion, state-level initiative (see 
Earlier this week, a seven-member, all-Democrat group of Pennsylvania House of Representatives members announced a six-bill legislative package aimed at regulating the “responsible development” of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in the state. “Responsible development” is code for “no development” of new AI data centers. The proposed onerous legislation focuses on environmental and community impacts related to the centers’ water and energy use, emergency preparedness, community standards, and transparency. Don’t be fooled. This is an attempt to throttle new data centers to prevent more natural gas from being used to power them. 
Pennsylvania state Rep. Greg Vitali, a radical Democrat and the majority chairman of the state House Environmental & Natural Resource Protection Committee, introduced legislation (H.B. 1946) this week that would increase the current setback distances for unconventional oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania from 500 feet to 2,500 feet, effectively banning all new shale drilling in the state. Period. End of sentence. And Vitali (and the other radicals who have signed on to the bill) know it. The bill doesn’t stand a chance in the Republican-controlled Senate, but that’s not the point. The point is (a) fundraising, and (b) there is no other reason, except fundraising. 