NJ Sierra Club Game Plan – Kill Pipelines by Slowing Approvals
An Associated Press article tackles the issue of the dozen plus natural gas pipelines planned to carry new supplies of Marcellus/Utica gas into New Jersey, and how/why those projects are moving along so slowly. Today is the final day for public comment on the much-needed PennEast Pipeline from the Wilkes-Barre, PA region southeast to the Trenton, NJ area. The next step is an environment study, to be done by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). THE Delaware Riverkeeper (aka Maya van Rossum) along with other virulent anti-fossil fuel nutters, like the NJ Sierra Club, are vigorously opposed–throwing as much horse manure and legal roadblocks at the project as they can. In other areas of the country it would take a project like PennEast about seven months to get approved. So far it’s been over two years for PennEast, with an end now in sight IF construction begins next year. The article is an update on the PennEast, with comments mostly against (a few for). The interesting part of the article is, for us, the very last sentence. We’ve told you for years that the game plan from antis is to delay and slow down approvals in hopes of getting projects canceled. We’ve had a front row seat of that (very effective) strategy here in New York State. The interesting final sentence in the AP article is an admission by the NJ Sierra Club that delay of PennEast is indeed their game plan, with the intent to “kill the pipeline”…
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What happens when you put a virulent anti-driller in charge of a state’s forestry service, a state that previously had a small, safe, healthy program to allow some shale drilling, giving taxpayers a break with a source of new revenue? Of course the anti-driller immediately tries to quash any more new drilling efforts. And that’s just what has happened with former PennFuture president and current Secretary of the PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), Cindy Dunn. We called for her firing back in June when she was caught using–we’d say misappropriating–taxpayer money to send her staff to Big Green reeducation events (see 
Getting a pre-packaged bankruptcy today is like ordering a McDonalds Happy Meal–just order and drive up to the window and pick it up. Simple. In July Halcon Resources, a Utica Shale driller that “guessed wrong” by leasing 140,000 Utica Shale acres in the northern part of the play (in Ohio) and currently doesn’t drill on any of that acreage, filed for a pre-packaged bankruptcy (see 
In June 2014 MDN broke the news that Moxie Energy was in the hunt to begin a third new Marcellus gas-powered electric plant project in Pennsylvania, near Wilkes-Barre (see 
Last Thursday Antero Midstream, the wholly-owned midstream subsidiary of powerhouse Marcellus/Utica driller Antero Resources, announced it is floating a round of “senior notes” (otherwise known as IOUs) to help the company pay off older debt. New debt for old debt. Not a game we enjoy playing, but Wall Streeters dig it. Antero Midstream first said they hoped to get $500 million for the notes, but later issued a second announcement “upsizing” the offering (like supersizing your fries at McDonalds) to $650 million. Such upsizing is typical (we’ve seen it dozens of times before). Here’s the announcements from Antero from last week…
Events related to drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, primarily pro-drilling.
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: PA county turns against industry over royalties; driller paying for road repairs in Ritchie County, WV; Halliburton & Baker Hughes say we’re on the road to recovery; how shale crippled offshore drilling; battle brewing in Toronto; and more!
The drama surrounding Williams and whether or not the company will sell itself continues. Energy Transfer Equity’s (ETE) billionaire CEO Kelsy Warren propositioned Williams for over six months before going public with his overtures last year (see 
For the past few days MDN has chronicled what we’ve named a royalties civil war happening between Pennsylvania landowners and the Marcellus drilling industry in the state–two groups usually on the same side. The war revolves around royalty checks–and how meager they are (see 
Two months ago when Baker Hughes released their venerable rig count numbers, we cracked a smile that things are beginning to turn around with an increase in U.S. rig counts (see 
David Hill is a geologist and a driller located in Ohio (David R. Hill Inc.). At a recent Coffee and Commerce meeting sponsored by the Cambridge Area Chamber of Commerce, Hill offered his insights into when oil drilling may return to Guernsey County and eastern Ohio. As MDN recently reported, much of the focus on drilling in the Utica has lately turned to dry gas, or methane only (see 
CONSOL Energy, which was once upon a time a coal company, is thanking its lucky stars it transitioned to being a mostly-natural gas drilling company instead. Yesterday the company’s stock hit a 52-week high. The reason? Because of CONSOL’s Marcellus/Utica drilling program. In a Zacks analyst note (below), we get an update on the aggressive moves CONSOL has been making in leasing new acreage. The company has now amassed 436,000 acres in the Marcellus and a whopping 622,000 acres in the Utica Shale. Here’s that update…