PA DEP Acting Secretary McDonnell Will Soon Drop “Acting” from Title
It won’t be long now and Acting Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection won’t have to “act” any more. In May 2016, DEP Secretary John Quigley was fired for using a PRIVATE email account to collude with his Big Green friends to try and bully PA’s legislators into supporting his onerous proposed regulations (see Smoking Gun: Copy of the Email that Got John Quigley Fired). Richly deserved. The man who took his place as Acting Secretary is Patrick McDonnell, a 19-year veteran of the DEP. Pat made it clear from the beginning he’d like to move from “acting” to full Secretary. It took Wolf long enough, but finally in September he put Pat’s name forward as permanent DEP Secretary (see Gov. Wolf Nominates Pat McDonnell to Head PA DEP, Finally). We’re not sure what the holdup has been, but the PA Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee finally held a hearing and grilled McDonnell yesterday, after which the panel voted to recommend he be confirmed. The full Senate has until May 23rd to cast that vote, which we expect they will do… Read More “PA DEP Acting Secretary McDonnell Will Soon Drop “Acting” from Title”
The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the Obama/McCarthy reign of terror, far overstepped its charter by seizing power that doesn’t belong to it. Last May the EPA issued new methane rules in a back-door way to try and regulate the oil and gas industry (see 
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Cove Point and the Atlantic Seaboard – in search of gas; Rice Energy considers selling part of midstream unit; legal battles continue in OH over oil & gas rights; five pipe projects in the mix in southeast OH; three reasons to invest in OH gas-fired power; CONSOL sees potential in the Utica where others don’t; officials should put added focus on WV cracker project; 18 protesters arrested for blocking pipeline project in Mass.; shale drillers are outspending the world by $84B; idiotic cities voting to cut their nose off by adopting resolutions to use 100% renewable energy; EOG uses science to boost production; and more! 
Last week MDN was contacted by a vendor working in the oil and gas business who is owed money by Fairmont Brine. The vendor’s question to MDN: What have you heard about Fairmont? Are they heading for bankruptcy? We’ve had our eye on Fairmont Brine Processing, headquartered in Fairmont, WV, for a number of years. We originally started writing about the company in 2010 when it was AOP Clearwater (see 
Every now and again a gift lands in our lap, unexpectedly. Such is the case today. A third year law student at the University of Buffalo School of Law, Kelsey Hanson, has researched and written a masterful paper on the potential for LPG (liquefied propane) fracking in, yes, New York State. The paper, titled “Hey New York, You Can Frack: An Examination of How Liquefied Petroleum Gas Sidesteps New York’s Fracking Ban to Provide a Legal and Practical Approach for Horizontal Drilling in New York’s Marcellus Shale” (full copy below) has just been published in the Buffalo Law Review (how did that happen?!). In the paper, Hanson first gives a background of traditional fracking, then zeros in and explores LPG fracking–its benefits and its pitfalls. She concludes that the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has left the door open, legally, for shale LPG fracking in the Empire State. She also gives us a much-needed update on the question MDN gets asked frequently: Whatever happened to LPG fracking in Tioga County, NY? The article is eminently readable, full of great information, and worth your time…
Once upon a time, during the Obama reign of terror, the out-of-control Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as headed by the odious Gina McCarthy, blasted the PennEast Pipeline project (see 
Very good news for Spectra Energy’s Atlantic Bridge project in (of all places) New York State. In January the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave its final stamp of approval for Atlantic Bridge (see 
Talen Energy was birthed in June 2015–a combination of PPL Energy Supply and certain assets of Riverstone Holdings. The company, headquartered in Allentown, PA, is one of the largest competitive energy and power generation companies in North America. Talen owns or controls 16,000 megawatts of generating capacity in wholesale power markets, primarily in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Southwest regions of the U.S. Talen has gotten into converting and building natural gas-fired electric plants, stories we’ve covered over the past few years (
Generally speaking, the western side of Ohio is seeing a lot of activity with new solar and wind installations. And the eastern side of the state is seeing a lot of activity with shale drilling and natural gas pipelines. But there is one county, Seneca County (slightly left of center, in the northern part of the state) where both renewable projects like solar and wind, and fossil fuel projects like pipelines, are both active. And that means landowners in Seneca County are being bombarded with offers from solar, wind, pipelines and electric lines. Some sage advice from the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation for landowners: hire a lawyer before you sign anything… 
In April, MDN brought you news of an effort underway in Ohio to tax Ohio ratepayers $5.4 billion and give that money to FirstEnergy to prevent some of its nuclear power plants from closing (see 
In February, MDN told you that Titan Energy, which used to be known as Atlas Energy/Resource Partners, was listing what appeared to be the rest of the acreage they still own on the Appalachian basin–some 494,229 acres–including rights for drilling in the Marcellus (see 
PDC Energy, a driller in the Wattenberg Field in Colorado and the Utica in Ohio, paused their Utica drilling program in 2015 (see 
National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), headquartered in Western New York State, is making noises (threats) that Gov. Andrew Cuomo should be very concerned about. NFG covers the full span of the oil and gas business–from upstream (with its wholly-owned drilling subsidiary Seneca Resources), to the midstream (with wholly-owned subsidiary Empire Pipeline) to downstream (NFG’s natural gas utility service to 740,000 customers in NY and PA). It’s a big company that generates a lot of jobs and revenue for New York State. Yet NY is metaphorically crapping all over NFG–and the company is signaling its willingness to retaliate by leaving. No, not move the company HQ, or sell off its gigantic utility business. Nothing of that sort (yet, anyway). But NFG CEO Ronald Tanski said on an earnings call last Friday that NFG is “getting lousy regulatory treatment in New York State” and that “Given this type of regulatory treatment in the state, we have to take a serious look at our ability to achieve any reasonable growth in New York.” Translation: We’ll stop launching new projects that invest billions in the Empire State, and instead invest that money and the jobs it creates in PA and other states. The “lousy treatment” NFG is getting is related to NY’s corrupt Dept. of Environmental Conservation decision to deny it permits to build the Northern Access Pipeline (see 
Two announcements from Rex Energy, one from Thursday and one from Friday, show the company is working hard to reassure investors that the company once again has momentum and that it’s safe to buy the company’s stock. On Thursday, Rex–a driller focused mainly on the Marcellus/Utica (headquartered in State College, PA)–released an updated two-year operational and financial plan. It is an update to the plan originally released in January (see