Nuke the Nukes: Harrisburg Battle to Prop Up Failing Nuke Energy
As MDN reported last week, the battle lines have been drawn and both sides have come out swinging in a battle over whether ratepayers should bail out economically failing nuclear power plants (see Battle Lines Drawn in PA to Prevent Nuke Energy Special Treatment). Five nuclear power plants in PA provide 37.5% of all electricity used in the state. There are no “greenhouse gas” emissions from nuclear power, making it attractive for some green radicals–but nuclear waste is a big problem because it never goes away, at least not for thousands of years. You have to store it. The biggest problem with nuclear energy today is that it costs more to produce electricity from nukes than it does from cheap natural gas-fired plants. Nukes can no longer compete. So in a couple of corrupt states–New York and Illinois–the nuke lobby convinced regulatory bodies and the legislatures to pass laws favoring nukes–forcing ratepayers to pay more to keep the nukes going. That battle has now come to Pennsylvania. One of the lobbyists hired by the nuke industry is John Hanger–former Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) under Ed “fast Eddie” Rendell. Hanger briefly ran in the Democrat primary for governor (losing out to Tom Wolf). Hanger ran on a platform of legalizing marijuana–hence our moniker of “pass a joint for John” (see Pass One Last Joint for John Hanger). After he dropped out, Hanger went to work in the Wolf Administration for a period of time, as Wolf’s Secretary of Policy and Planning. But after a year of that Hanger quit and moved out of PA–to be with his wife and daughter in Massachusetts (see John “Severance Tax” Hanger Quits Tom Wolf Administration – Why?). Hanger is back–“advising” (i.e. lobbying) for the nuclear industry in Harrisburg…
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Duke Energy Ohio, an LDC or “local distribution company” serves some half a million customers with natural gas in Ohio. The company has a 12-mile pipeline to flow the gas it needs, to move it from one point to another in Hamilton County (Cincinnati), in the southwest corner of the state. The Duke pipeline has been in service since the 1950s. Duke needs to replace that pipe or some of those half million Duke customers won’t get natural gas any more. Because anything to do with “fracking” or “pipelines” has been so thoroughly bastardized by the media and anti-fossil fuel protesters, there has been, of course, opposition to Duke’s plan. So Duke “listened” and has scaled back their plans. Instead of building a 30-inch gas pipeline running at 600 psi (pounds per square inch), the revised plan calls for a 20-inch pipeline running at 400 psi (see 
Nuverra Environmental Solutions is one of the largest companies in the United States that handles transportation and disposal of shale drilling wastewater and leftover rock and dirt from drilling. The company has major operations in the Marcellus/Utica region. In January the company, going through tough economic times, was de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange (see 
Late last week the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released its annual “State of the Markets Report” for 2016 (full copy below). Among the choice tidbits we found this statement: “Natural gas production from the Marcellus and Utica shales accounted for 30 percent of the U.S. total in 2016, due to the prolific nature of these formations, relatively low production costs, and proximity to the large Northeast markets. In addition, new pipeline infrastructure reduced bottlenecks allowing additional gas to reach the demand centers.” We also spotted this interesting factoid: “In 2016, 7.1 Bcf of FERC jurisdictional pipeline capacity went into service, with 43 percent designed to move natural gas from Appalachia to markets in the Northeast and Midwest. Staff expects the new natural gas pipeline capacity to continue contributing towards shrinking price differentials between regions throughout the U.S., and help keep natural gas prices relatively low.” Translation: hang in there Marcellus/Utica drillers–prices are going to rise soon because of these new pipelines. Here’s the update from FERC…
Lately we’ve noticed a plethora of stories in mainstream media about the oil and gas industry spending more money this year. That certainly seems to jibe with our own anecdotal observations. In reporting 2016 results and drillers’ comments about what to expect in 2017, almost all of the companies we’ve reported on have said their spending this year will go up. And that’s a good thing. We now have something better than just anecdotal evidence. Energy law firm Haynes and Boone recently completed a survey of oil and gas borrowers and lenders–drillers, service companies, and banks–to gauge their predictions about “borrowing base redeterminations” and spending in 2017. What is a borrowing base? A company’s borrowing base is the value of its assets. In the case of drillers, it is the value of the leases and oil/gas wells they own. Those assets are used as collateral to back up loans and IOUs. A lower borrowing base means they must borrow less money, and they will pay more in interest for the money they do borrow. Lower borrowing base = bad, higher borrowing base = good. Each spring and fall (twice a year) banks take a look and “redetermine” or reevaluate the value of those assets. What did the Haynes and Boone survey find about bankers’ and drillers’ predictions on spring redeterminations of borrowing bases? That the borrowing base for most drillers will either stay the same, or increase slightly. The survey also found a vast majority of drillers plan to spend more money this year (89%). Here’s the encouraging results…
Big Green is a big business. Radical enviros have worked hard over the eight years of Obama’s reign of terror to build and expand the Environmental Protection Agency far beyond its originally intended purpose. The Obamadroids’ abuses via the EPA were breathtaking–many of which were chronicled here on MDN. Things like the odious and misnamed Clean Power Plan, the fruity Waters of the United States (WOTUS) regulation. Capturing every last molecule of so-called fugitive methane from oil and gas operations. The EPA became the modern day environmental equivalent of the Gestapo. So no wonder the environuts are apoplectic over President Trump’s mission to put the EPA on a diet and shrink it back to its pre-regulatory-obese size. But don’t think for a minute that the radicals will just stand by and watch it happen. They are fighting and fighting hard to prevent the enormously bloated agency from shedding budget, people, and regulations. We stumbled across their game plan for how they intend to fight Trump every inch of the way…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: PA rig count stays same in April; Amercian Rivers “most endangered” scam; natgas buses coming in Florida; GE debuts first battery-gas turbine hybrid; soaring sand costs; USGS latest gas resource estimates decimates notion of “peak gas”; natgas to hit $4 this summer?; turning green grass into green gas; and more!
This is maddening, angering, and so far out of line we hope the “teachers” involved are summarily fired. NOW. Today. A group of 3 to 5 year-olds at the Little Dreamers, Big Believers day-care center in Columbus, OH–precious, innocent children who can’t comprehend much beyond when their next meal or nap is coming–have been manipulated into drawing pictures and making comments about the supposed horrors fracking in the Wayne National Forest (WNF). The tots’ pictures and comments against fracking were filed with the Bureau of Land Management as a form of protest. The way the “teachers” (we use that term VERY loosely) got the kiddies’ compliance was to stoke them by reading Dr. Seuss’ “The Lorax” to them, then filling their heads (i.e. brainwashing them) with ideas that fracking will kill trees in WNF. One area resident called this naked brainwashing “disgusting.” We agree–it is…
“You never let a serious crisis go to waste.” That sentiment was famously mouthed by Rahm Emaneul, first chief of staff during Barack Hussein Obama’s reign of terror, later (and still) the highly unpopular mayor of Chicago. That philosophy also applies to other leftists, like anti-driller Ray Kemble, who lives in Dimock Township, PA. Kemble has been trying to shake down Cabot Oil & Gas for big bucks for years. Kemble, whose property has multiple junk cars on it, claims after Cabot began drilling (in 2008) his water well began producing black water. He blamed Cabot–even though junkyards are notorious for leaking nasty chemicals. Years ago Kemble, who has been seen at just about every anti-fracking rally from here to Timbuktu carrying a little brown jug of supposedly tainted well water, settled with Cabot. But a couple of Kemble’s neighbors did not settle. They sued and, in a sham trial, won a jury award of $4.2 million (see 
It seems the controversy in Pennsylvania over the Snyder Brothers’ strippers isn’t going to end any time soon. No, not those kinds of strippers, silly! We’re talking about stripper wells, which are defined in PA as wells that produce less than 90 thousand cubic feet (Mcf) for a one month period. Stripper wells are vertical wells that don’t produce nearly as much gas as horizontal shale wells. In 2012 PA passed the Act 13 law that includes a fee on wells targeting shale layers, including the Marcellus. And here’s where it gets a little complicated. Snyder Brothers drills mostly conventional (vertical only) wells. In 2011-2012 they drilled 45 vertical-only wells, but targeting the Marcellus (all of them fracked). Initially those wells produced more than 90 Mcf/month, but by December of the year they were drilled, they produced less than 90 Mcf. The way the 2012 Act 13 law is written, if a well produces less than 90 Mcf/month for “any” month it is considered a stripper well and exempt from paying the impact fee. The state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC) assessed the fee anyway because for 11 months the wells produced more than 90 Mcf. The argument back and forth is whether the intent was “any single month” or not as the trigger to exempt a well from paying the fee. Snyder Brothers went to court and in March, they won, exempting those wells from impact fees (see 
We’ve previously reported on the story of two Pennsylvania towns that were either hoodwinked, or perhaps willing led astray, by the radical Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) into passing (now overturned) bans on fracking and injection wells in their towns–Highland Twp (Elk County) and Grant Twp (Indiana County). The two townships thought they would do an end-run around the state’s authority to issue permits for two injection wells–one in each township, by re-incorporating under so-called home rule charters. The towns essentially declared themselves independent of the state for a variety of matters, including oil and gas permits–which the PA state constitution clearly says is a function of ONLY the state Dept. of Environmental Protection. In March, the DEP issued final permits to each town, and at the same time sued each town to get those portions of their home rule charters, dealing with oil and gas, overturned (see 
Select Energy Services, headquartered in Gainesville, Texas, offers water solutions, accommodations and rentals, and wellsite completion and construction services in every major shale play in the U.S., including the Marcellus/Utica. Founded in 2008, Select has a regional office in Washington, PA. Company-wide, Select employs almost 2,000 people. The last (and only) time we’ve covered Select was back in 2012, when they jilted Carroll County, Ohio out of building a new facility there (see Select Energy Reneges on Deal with Carroll County, OH). The reason Select has come across our radar screen again is because the company is launching an initial public offering (IPO) of 10.6 million shares of stock, hoping to raise $159-$190 million…
New York Gov. Cuomo has now blocked the Constitution Pipeline from getting built (see 
Last June MDN shared with you the news that Munroe Falls (Summit County), OH had filed yet another frivolous lawsuit against Beck Energy to prevent drilling–after already losing a similar case before the Ohio Supreme Court (see