Commonwealth Court Judge Bows to Fractivist Pressure to Recuse
In May 2017, Murrysville Township (Westmoreland County) struck a zoning compromise with local drillers on the distance of setbacks (see Murrysville, PA Drilling Ordinance – Anatomy of a Compromise). The far-too-restrictive ordinance (in our opinion) allows drilling wells on only 5% of the land in the town. That wasn’t good enough for local antis who want to block all shale drilling. Antis appealed the ordinance and a county judge ruled against them and in favor of the town in May 2020 (see SWPA Judge Rejects Anti Lawsuit re Murrysville Fracking Ordinance).
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Two of three Marcellus/Utica states received permits to drill new shale wells last week, and boy did they open the floodgates! Pennsylvania issued 30 new permits, the majority of which are located on three well pads operated by EQT, Chesapeake Energy, and Range Resources. Ohio issued no new permits. After getting skunked for two weeks in a row, West Virginia issued 16 new permits–to just two drillers: Antero Resources and EQT. All of the WV permits were issued in the same county.
This Wednesday the radicals of “Protect PT” (Penn Township)–a group funded with shadowy Big Green money–will try to convince the Democrats sitting on Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court to overturn legal and safe shale drilling at well pads in Penn Township (Westmoreland County, PA). Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) previously submitted plans to drill multiple wells on two new well pads in the township. The Zoning Hearing Board approved the plans.
Anecdotally it seems as though there has been less drilling activity in the Marcellus/Utica over the past year. Some say it’s due to the coronavirus pandemic. Others say there’s more to it than that. If you’ve tracked public announcements by drilling companies, they claim to have pulled back on drilling and won’t increase current levels of drilling even when/if the price of natural gas increases. Why? They must turn a profit, or investors leaving for greener pastures (pun intended). But is there really less drilling happening in the M-U today than say one year ago?
Olympus Energy, the renamed Huntley & Huntley Energy Exploration (HHEX), concentrates its drilling in the Pittsburgh suburbs, including Upper Burrell and Allegheny Townships in Westmoreland County, PA. Olympus has just cut a $1.2 million deal with the Municipal Authority of the City of New Kensington to extend three miles of waterlines near three Marcellus well sites in Upper Burrell and Allegheny Townships.
The Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill in Westmoreland County, PA (southwestern corner of the state, near Pittsburgh) was fined $24,000 earlier this year (see 
Only Pennsylvania issued permits to drill new shale wells last week in the Appalachian region. Neither Ohio nor West Virginia issued any new drilling permits from Oct. 5-9. In PA, some 20 permits were issued in both the northeast and southwest parts of the state.