DRBC has No Power to Stop Shale Drilling in Delaware River Basin
You’ve heard the phrase, “The Emperor has no clothes.” A lawsuit against the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) by a Wayne County, PA landowner over the DRBC’s ongoing moratorium of shale gas drilling, is exposing the DRBC as having “no clothes” when it comes to their authority over shale drilling (see Wayne County, PA Landowner Sues DRBC Over Fracking Ban). In fact, the DRBC has no authority to stop shale drilling, as they are now being forced to admit in response to the lawsuit. That fact has the DRBC, and radical environmentalists like THE Delaware Riverkeeper, petrified. MDN friend Tom Shepstone, author of the always-excellent Natural Gas Now website, writes about the DRBC’s lack of authority and the need for Pennsylvania to immediately defund the DRBC–until the agency stops their sham pretense of blocking shale drilling…
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On Monday, MDN wrote about a new bill introduced in the West Virginia legislature that would exempt storage tanks used by the oil and gas industry from a 2014 law passed following a coal industry storage tank failure that temporarily polluted the drinking water for 300,000 WV residents (see 
Yesterday MDN reported on a new West Virginia bill (Senate Bill 576) that aims to bring both the drilling industry and rights owners together to support co-tenancy and joint development–which are stripped down pieces of previous forced pooling bills that failed in the past (see 
Last week MDN published a letter to the editor (Philadelphia Inquirer) from Dennis Davin, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED), supporting his boss’ desire for a new, very high Marcellus Shale severance tax (see 
Last June, MDN quasi-predicted that natural gas prices may spike during the 2016-2017 winter season in New England, due to a coming shortage of LNG from Tinidad (see 
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: NY AG colluded with Big Green, tries to deflect with fake news about Exxon; ODRN issues 13 permits in OH Utica; anti-pipeliners recruit spies; Michigan’s future depends on pipelines; natgas prices could plunge below $2; top natgas stocks to buy in 2017 (all related to the Marcellus/Utica); Food & Water Watch caught on tape admitting goal to ban fracking “everywhere”; OPEC and US shale at the brink of war; and more!
Yesterday MDN’s favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), issued our favorite monthly report–the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). The DPR is the EIA’s best guess, based on expert data crunchers, as to how much each of the U.S.’s seven major shale plays will produce for both oil and natural gas in the coming month. For the past five reports, estimating production for November, December, January, February, and March, Marcellus natgas has increased. The trend continues in this latest report, which forecasts production for the coming month of April. In fact, EIA says natgas production for all seven major shale plays will go up–the first time we can remember that happening in more than a year. Last month EIA predicted the combined output of the seven major shale plays would hit 49.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), a new record (see 
As MDN previously reported, perhaps the biggest energy-related issue for this year’s session of the West Virginia 60-day legislative session will not be a bill on forced pooling. Instead, the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association (WVONGA) is pushing a legislation on co-tenancy and joint development (see 
TransCanada, one of Canada’s leading midstream/pipeline companies, cooked up a deal last year to pipe natural gas from Canada’s West Coast to the East Coast in order to fend off cheap supplies of Marcellus/Utica gas that will flow into Canada when/if the NEXUS and Rover pipelines get built (see 
That was fast. Last Friday MDN reported that New Jersey’s largest utility, Public Service Enterprise Group (PSE&G), is shopping its ownership stake in the $1 billion PennEast Pipeline project (see 
A group of anti-fossil fuel nutters from the Philadelphia suburb of Middletown, PA (Delaware County) spent good money to buy themselves a report from an “independent” consultant that they say proves the Mariner East 2 Pipeline is too dangerous to build through their township. We don’t know how much the Middletown Coalition for Community Safety blew on the study, but we do know that Middletown Township is blowing $45,000 of taxpayer’s hard-earned money for a similar study (see 
CONE Midstream, a joint venture between CONSOL Energy and Noble Energy (CO from CONSOL and NE from Noble Energy) was formed in summer 2014 (see 
In August 2015, MDN told you about a lawsuit brought by a group of left coast radicalized children who want to force the federal government to become communist and “force action” on mythical climate change (see 
President Trump has issued a number of Executive Orders to overturn some of the egregious over-regulation that popped up during the reign of terror known as the Obama Administration. Some of the orders encourage new pipeline development (Keystone XL and Dakota Access). Some “require” American-made pipelines to be used when building new pipeline projects. Some roll back truly onerous regulations like Waters of the United States (WOTUS)–which puts all bodies of water down to the size of mud puddles under EPA authority. Trump has been going great guns. But, those orders may not be a slam dunk, given our court system populated with Obamadroids. Here’s four things to consider, to be aware of, when it comes to Trump’s Executive Orders and directives aimed at the energy industry…