Former NY AG Emasculates Current AG, ExxonMobil Not Like Tobacco
Let’s add some insult to injury, because New York’s corrupt Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, so richly deserves it. Today’s lead story on MDN is about the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rejecting a petition by AG Schneiderman–his request that FERC withdraw its approval of the Constitution Pipeline and investigate Williams over false allegations of premature tree clearing related to the project (see FERC Rejects NY AG’s Anti-Constitution Pipeline Petition). Schneiderman is a power-mad leftist, hellbent on shaking down so-called Big Oil companies like Exxon Mobil. Schneiderman himself has been caught in a collusion scandal with several other AGs and with Big Green groups to try and smear and extort Exxon (see NY AG, Others Served Congressional Subpoena re Exxon Witch Hunt). One of Schneiderman’s favorite (false) claims is that Exxon Mobil “knew” that mankind is causing mythical global warming by burning fossil fuels–and that they kept it secret–like Big Tobacco companies knew their product was causing cancer. Schneiderman hopes to sue Exxon and other Big Oil companies and extort gazillions of dollars from them. The Dems are rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect. Except…except none of their fairy tales are true and no one believes it. Into this mix, along has come a former New York Attorney General, Republican Dennis Vacco, who served as NY AG from 1995-1999. Vacco was part a group of AGs who successfully sued Big Tobacco, so he knows a thing or two about that case. Vacco says, writing in the Washington Post, that Schneiderman’s claims of a case against Exxon is NOTHING LIKE the case against Big Tobacco. Vacco emasculates Schneiderman and his claims of a case against Exxon…
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Anti-drilling zealots attempting to stop the Cove Point, Maryland LNG (liquefied natural gas) from going online have failed in court, again. And they failed big time. MDN reported in April that a group of Big Green groups, including the Sierra Club, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, the Patuxent Riverkeeper, EarthReports Inc. and Earthjustice colluded together to sue in federal appeals court to try and stop the project (see 
Fairmount Santrol, an Ohio-based sand producer that sells sand as a proppant for use in Utica and Marcellus Shale drilling, released their preliminary second quarter 2016 results last week. Although the company expects to lose between $91-$93 million for the quarter (compared to a profit of $14.1 million a year ago), things are not all bad. Yes, it’s been tough for Fairmount and other companies in the oil and gas industry. Really tough. But Fairmount’s CEO Jenniffer Deckard, said this: “…we are also encouraged by the early signs of improvement we are seeing in the proppant market.” In other words, a crack of light is peeking through the door and we’re beginning to see the great slowdown in drilling come to an end…
Last Friday MDN brought you the really big news that Sunoco Logistics Partners had won a major appeals court case that recognizes them as a public utility in Pennsylvania with the right to use eminent domain to build the Mariner East 2 NGL pipeline (see 
It’s hard to believe something as simple and uncomplicated and safe has a storage tank for liquefied natural gas (LNG) could be controversial. But if you irrationally believe all fossil fuels are evil, you’re against such a storage tank. That’s the battle now shaping up in Somerset, Massachusetts. Spectra Energy is looking to build “two giant storage tanks full of liquefied natural gas” at a site in town , near Walker Street. The town administrator is in favor because Spectra will pay the town $10 million in lieu of taxes. But anti-fossil fuel nutters are rising up to oppose the project–even though they do so using the very fossil fuels the abhor every single day of their pathetic lives–being wholly dependent on fossil fuels for their very existence…
Ever hear of a “wide economic moat?” No, we hadn’t either. That is, until we read a Morningstar analyst writing about mighty utility and midstream giant Dominion. A “wide economic moat,” according to Investopedia, is “A type of sustainable competitive advantage that a business possesses that makes it difficult for rivals to wear down its market share and profit. The term is derived from the water filled moats that surrounded medieval castles.” Makes sense. We’d call it being so far ahead of the pack no one else can catch up. Whatever metaphor floats your boat. The interesting part (for MDN) in the Morningstar analysis of Dominion is *why* they are head and shoulders above their midstream and utility peers. Why? “[N]otably the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Cove Point LNG facility.” That is, because of the Marcellus Shale. The analyst predicts Cove Point LNG will be the only LNG export facility on the East Coast. That would certainly qualify as a competitive advantage for Dominion…
Although we’ve begun to hear rumblings about jobs coming back to shale fields, like the Marcellus/Utica, this is the first time we’ve read about a massive comeback on the way. According to a news report, big investment bank Goldman Sachs is saying upward of 100,000 jobs are on the way back to oil and gas fields–after the industry lost 170,000 jobs since 2014. That’s still a 70,000-job deficit, but hey, we’ll take it. Here’s the good news that the job picture is about to turn around in our beloved industry…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Does pipeline age matter?; industry getting its DUCs in a row; Chart Industries names new president; UC launching yet another sham research study of fracking; why Dimock really really loves fracking; Chesapeake royalties settlement in TX; the biggest shale fracking companies; and more!
Yesterday Antero Resources, one of the largest Marcellus/Utica drillers, issued an operations (not financial) update for second quarter 2016. The big news in the update is that they’ve picked up another 13,000 net Marcellus acres, and with it 3 million cubic feet per day of production, for $108 million. This is related to Antero’s purchase of 55,000 acres from Southwestern that we reported in June (see 
Gulfport Energy, a driller in Ohio’s Utica Shale, reported their second quarter 2016 operations (not financial) update yesterday. Among the tidbits we pick up from the announcement: Production for Gulfport during 2Q16 was 664.7 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d), or 2/3 of a billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). Production during the quarter was up 40% over the same quarter last year, but was down 4% from 1Q16. Gulfport received an average of $1.44 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) for it’s production during the quarter. Here’s the update…
In the past we’ve been pretty critical of the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO). It claims to provide revenue projections for use in the state budget process along with “impartial and timely analysis of fiscal, economic and budgetary issues to assist Commonwealth residents and the General Assembly in their evaluation of policy decisions.” It’s been our observation the IFO is populated with partisan Democrats. However, we have to acknowledge their prediction of impact fee revenue from 2015 was spot on. Earlier this year the IFO predicted that when the dust had settled, the impact fee would generate $185.5 million (see “Independent” Fiscal Office Says PA Impact Fee Revenue Drops 17%). When the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) finally reported the actual numbers, it turned out to be $188 million (see 
This is somewhat old news, but still news for MDN as we’re just learning about it. You may recall back in March MDN reported on a truck crash that resulted in a spill of 5,000 or so gallons of frack wastewater from Utica drilling, some of which ended up in the Barnesville Reservoir #1 (see 