“Protect Our Pennsylvania” Group Opposes Pipeline Eminent Domain
A new group called Protect Our Pennsylvania launched on Tuesday at a rally in Harrisburg–at the State Capitol. The purpose of the group is to oppose and reign in the currently legal right of pipeline companies to use eminent domain to force landowners to accept a pipeline across their land. This is a tough issue for us. We have often stated this philosophy: I won’t tell you that you must allow drilling, or a pipeline, and you don’t tell me I can’t allow it. We think that’s a consistent and fair philosophy. But what do you do with a pipeline when only one or two people are blocking its route? We’ve always said, make it worth their while to allow (pay them). We’ve also said there may be times when eminent domain must (very reluctantly) be used. It is an ongoing “wisdom of Solomon” kind of issue for us, with no clear answer. So is this new group, Protect Our Pennsylvania, a group of landowners honestly concerned about their property rights? Alas, we don’t think so. Their leader, Eric Friedman, has ties to the radical Sierra Club, which means this is just one more organization pretending to be something it is not. It is, we are convinced, populated with anti-fossil fuelers and not just mom and pop landowners…
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So often very small, loud-mouthed antis appear to be winning the battle that we sometimes forget about the silent majority. Case in point: In reading the typical mainstream media story about Dominion’s $5 billion, 594-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline–a natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina–you would assume the project is reviled and opposed by “everyone” and doomed to failure. But reality if far different from the false picture painted by the media. A poll conducted recently by the Tarrance Group for the Virginia Chamber of Commerce of Virginia residents shows that by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, Virginians support the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project. That would be a “landslide victory” if it were an election…
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, like many liberal Democrats, loves to pick winners and losers. Recently Cuomo launched an “ambitious” new Clean Energy Standard in which he puts his bets on nuclear energy. That is, he’s willing to transfer billions of New Yorker’s hard-earned taxpayer dollars out of their pockets and into the pockets of nuclear power companies. Why? In order to prop them up, make them “competitive” with much cheaper natural gas-powered electric plants. That is, Cuomo cheats. He wants to stack the deck. And New York’s natgas power generators are not having it. They’ve sued the state, challenging the Clean Energy Standard that steals money out of our pockets in order to prop up nuclear companies, all using the excuse of “global warming”…
The uber-arrogant Gina McCarthy, Administrator/Dictator of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, has a message for those of us who don’t believe in man-made global warming: drop dead. If you happen to disagree with Gina, don’t bother phoning her up or stopping her someplace on K Street to have a discussion about it, because she’s “not talking to climate deniers” any more. She thinks we’re part of the Flat Earth Society for not adhering to her climate orthodoxy. Gee Gina, I’m so hurt…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Anti-frack ballot measures in OH; PA Senate resolves to review enviro laws; Aussies go walk about in Clearfield, PA; America a better swing producer than Saudis; shale will pressure oil price “for years” says Exxon; Carnegie Mellon study says natgas good for health; and more!
It’s been 10 looooooong years, but finally the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has just posted a lease sale auction for 33 parcels in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest (WNF). Although there are some 18,000 acres under consideration for leasing by the BLM in WNF, this first batch amounts to about 1,600 acres–most of it in Monroe County, OH. Monroe is a prime location for Utica Shale drilling. WNF is the only national forest in Ohio and portions of it are found in Athens, Gallia, Hocking, Jackson, Monroe, Morgan, Noble, Lawrence, Perry, Scioto, Vinton, and Washington counties. WNF is a “patchwork” of public land scattered among private land. Some 60% of the mineral rights below WNF are privately owned. Those mineral rights owners have been denied the use of their property rights for a decade. The BLM controls drilling on federally-protected lands like WNF. Last November the BLM held a series of hearings about finally beginning to drill in WNF. With this auction, it appears that not only will public land get leased, but drilling on private land in WNF can go forward as well…
Anti-fossil fuel zealots have long attempted to scare the masses with false claims about fracked shale gas in the Marcellus. Early on radical environmental organizations tried to scare people in New York City, telling them they’ll get lung cancer from radon in Marcellus gas if they use it (see 
You just can’t get away from the Marcellus/Utica–even at a conference supposedly focused on the Western U.S. Natural gas infrastructure was a key topic at the recent LDC Gas Forum Rockies & West conference held in Denver, CO. ICF International vice president Kevin Petak was one of the speakers. He dropped what is (to us) a bombshell when he said he believes the Marcellus and Utica combined will pump out 40 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) by 2025–just 10 short years from now. The two plays combined today are pumping around 21 Bcf/d–so Petak is predicting our output will double! If that’s so, there will need to be a whole lotta drillin’ goin’ on between now and then. In addition to Petak, Crystal Heter, vice president for commercial operations at the Rockies Express (REX) pipeline, had some VERY interesting things to say about the REX pipeline reversal which sends Marcellus/Utica gas to the Midwest. It looks like even more gas is about to go from our area westward…
In December MDN wrote that Hilcorp Energy is making some magic happen in Lawrence County, PA–in the northern Utica Shale region (see 
We can’t say enough good things about Rusty Braziel and 
This one somehow slipped by us. Sometime last year EmberClear filed an application to build a new 488-megawatt natural gas-fired electric plant in Birdsboro (Berks County), PA–near Philadelphia. The new plant is called Birdsboro Power and requires various approvals before it can be built. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is involved. PJM Interconnection is involved. And the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection is involved. All three have issued various permits and edicts in connection with the project. What caught our attention is that DTE Midstream has just filed an application with FERC to build a 14-mile pipeline to feed the new plant. As part of that application, DTE says EmberClear plans to begin construction in 2018, with an in-service date of June 2019. Here’s what we’ve been able to scrounge up on the project…
In September MDN wrote about a new natural gas-fired electric plant being planned for Chesapeake, Virginia (see 
When drilling comes to town, it brings a lot of people with it. Some of them are roughnecks that do the dirty work on the rigs. Others are in associated jobs–like landmen, surveyors, welders, truckers. The list goes on. If those people are not from the local area and if they are staying for a while, they need a place to sleep. It tends to fill up hotels and B&Bs quickly. When they know they will be in an area for a while (months, even years) some of them rent apartments or houses. All of that renting activity tends to drive up the price of local apartment and house rentals, making renting hard for locals. It’s happened in a number of drilling areas in Pennsylvania. That’s why when the Act 13 law was passed, it contained funding from severance tax revenue to help. The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency recently announced they have approved another $6.2 million for 40 housing projects in Marcellus areas…
In February MDN brought you exclusive news that Shell had begun approaching landowners in Beaver County to get them to sign easements for two ethane pipelines to feed the mighty cracker plant they plan to build in the county (see 
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. In September, the EIA added a new tab of information for Drilled but UnCompleted wells (DUCs), which showed the number of DUCs dwindling (see