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35 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV May 26 – Jun 1
For the week of May 26 – Jun 1, the number of permits issued to drill new wells in the Marcellus/Utica increased significantly from the previous week. There were 35 new permits issued across the three M-U states last week, up 11 from 24 two weeks ago. A whopping 27 new permits were issued in the Keystone State (PA) after issuing only four permits two weeks ago. EQT and its drilling subsidiary Rice Drilling received 10 permits, all of them in Greene County, spread across two pads. Spain-based Repsol received the second most permits, five, for a single pad in Tioga County. Read More “35 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV May 26 – Jun 1”
The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its less functional and irresponsible counterpart, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), continues to support the shale energy industry by approving water withdrawals and consumptive use for responsible and safe shale drilling. The SRBC published a notice in the May 31 Pennsylvania Bulletin that the Executive Director of the SRBC renewed 45 general water use permits in April for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Blair, Bradford, Lycoming, Potter, Sullivan, Susquehanna, and Tioga counties in Pennsylvania. The director also approved new water withdrawals for the 146-megawatt gas-fired Hunlock Creek power plant in Luzerne County. 
In December 2022, MDN brought you the great news that Coterra Energy (formerly Cabot Oil & Gas) would be allowed to restart drilling in a nine-square-mile area in Dimock, PA (Susquehanna County) following a “no contest” plea deal with PA’s then-Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, on a misdemeanor charge (see 
Coterra Energy, formed by the merger of Cabot Oil & Gas (drills for natural gas in the Marcellus) and Cimarex Energy (drills for oil in the Permian and Anadarko basins), issued its first quarter 2025 update last week. There was a lot of news coming from the update. However, two things stood out for us: (1) Coterra confirmed that talks to revive the Constitution Pipeline project are underway now, and (2) the company is drilling again in the PA Marcellus and may add another $50 million to 2025’s planned $300 million budget for the Marcellus. 
We spotted a couple of stories, one by PBS and another by the financial publication Barron’s, covering the “groundswell” of opposition to resurrecting the 124-mile Pennsylvania-to-New York Constitution Pipeline project. According to a letter signed by “233 environmental and community groups,” the proposed pipeline poses “a serious threat to state sovereignty.” Here’s the first thing to note: Enviro-lefties file paperwork to form a “group” of one or two people. It looks great on letterhead to list hundreds of organizations, implying thousands of people. However, it would be more accurate to say “233 individuals” instead of 233 groups of people. At any rate, we will repeat an observation we have made almost since beginning to write the MDN site in 2009: Many in the anti-fracking and anti-pipeline movement are old (sometimes young) hippies looking to relive the glory days of Vietnam protests. 
Ray Kemble and his lawyers are in for a tough court fight. The Susquehanna County (PA) Court of Common Pleas has set a date of October 6, 2025, to hear a “Dimock” case between Kemble (and his lawyers) and Coterra Energy (originally Cabot Oil & Gas), in a case that stretches back to 2017. In a damning decision against Kemble’s lawyers in 2023, the judge found they repeatedly refused to provide documents in the case even though ordered to by the judge (see 
In January 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in THE most consequential lawsuit for Marcellus Shale drilling we’ve seen, a case called Briggs v Southwestern Energy (see 
On March 27, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) online Hydrologic Conditions Monitor showed low stream flows have triggered restrictions on 18 shale gas water withdrawal points in Bradford, Potter, Susquehanna, Tioga, and Wyoming counties. Another 17 shale gas withdrawals are approaching restrictions. Of the water withdrawal points regulated by SRBC, only shale gas development water withdrawals currently have restrictions because they take water from smaller streams. 
President Trump was 100% correct in calling the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Biden’s “green new scam.” Here is a perfect example. The heart of Marcellus Shale country is the highest-producing natural gas county in Pennsylvania, Susquehanna County (not far from where MDN sits). Anyone who lives in our region knows this: It is one of the cloudiest regions of the country. Binghamton, NY (where MDN resides) averages 212 cloudy days per year! Yes, we’re nuts for living here. About 25 minutes south of Binghamton down Interstate 81 sits Clifford Township, PA, in Susquehanna County. It’s just as cloudy as Binghamton. Yet Biden’s IRA (“green new scam”) is paying to build a….wait for it….solar farm in Clifford Township! In a place that is cloudy 58% of the time. Taxpayers are paying for this insanity. Meanwhile, natural gas (more reliable, easier to produce, and almost as clean as solar) keeps chugging away in Clifford and other locations around Susquehanna County. 
Epsilon Energy issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2024 update yesterday. Epsilon, a relatively small company, used to concentrate most of its effort on developing Marcellus Shale wells. However, over the past few years, the company has expanded into other plays and now owns assets in the Anadarko (Oklahoma and Texas), the Permian (Texas and New Mexico), and most recently, the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (in Alberta, Canada). Epsilon typically does not do its own drilling. The company joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Expand Energy in the Marcellus, and the other company does the drilling. Epsilon’s CFO, Andrew Williamson, began his comments on a conference call with investors by saying, “The tides have shifted in the Marcellus, and we’re off to a great start there in 2025.”