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    EPA Officials Illegally Use Private Email Servers for EPA Business

    Recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for correspondence to and from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) prove out what we’ve been yelling for years: The EPA is a lawless organization, out of control and drunk on its own power. This latest FOIA request, made by the Energy & Environment Legal Institute, finds that EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy is guilty of the same federal crimes as Hillary Clinton is–using a private email server for government business in order to avoid having to disclose secret communication back and forth with (in the case of McCarthy) Big Green groups. McCarthy should be indicted–immediately–and removed from office…
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    PA Gov. Wolf Caves on Budget Deal After 9 Mo. of Temper Tantrums

    In the end, the recalcitrant and rabidly partisan Tom Wolf, governor of Pennsylvania, delayed his state’s budget for nine months…for nothing. He didn’t get his precious high Marcellus (or state income) tax hikes. He didn’t get pretty much anything he demanded. Like a petulant child stomping his feet and blaming every Republican he could find–in the end everyone saw Wolf for what he is: inept, inexperienced, and unprepared to govern the Keystone State. Like leadership-deficient people throughout history, he’s surrounded himself with suck-ups who won’t give him much-needed counsel that goes against his childish demands. They just tell him he’s right and to stick with it. Which has resulted in a disaster for PA. It was PA’s Democrats, in the end, that forced Wolf’s hand. Those in his own party. (Et tu, Brute?) PA’s Democrat legislators told Wolf if he didn’t allow the latest budget proposal to pass, they would vote with Republicans to override his threatened veto. And that would completely unmask him for the leaderless chump he is. So Wolf won’t veto the latest proposal–which contains no new taxes–allowing it to become law. Thank you to PA Republicans for standing firm and WINNING! The media can’t spin it, the Dems can’t spin it–Wolf lost and the Republicans won. Every citizen in PA is a winner because of it…
    Read More “PA Gov. Wolf Caves on Budget Deal After 9 Mo. of Temper Tantrums”

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    Columbia Gas of PA Asks PUC for Permission to Raise Rates

    Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania, a division of NiSource, has filed a request with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) to raise rates so it can recuperate costs spent in upgrading its natural gas delivery system for customers. Columbia Gas has spent $1.1 billion from 2007 to 2015. However, they’re only asking for a mere $55 million rate increase…
    Read More “Columbia Gas of PA Asks PUC for Permission to Raise Rates”

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    Which Energy Source Added the Most Electric Generation in 2015?

    Question: Which power source added the most megawatts of electric generating capacity in 2015? If you answered, “Natural Gas!”, you would be wrong. The #1 source of new electric generation last year was wind. The #2 source last year was natural gas. And the #3 source of new electric power last year was solar. Important distinction: This is new capacity added. If you look at how much electricity is today produced by each source, natural gas is #1 at around 33%, coal is #2 at around 32%. Down at the bottom are sources like wind, which produces around 5% of our total electricity needs, and solar producing about 1%. So while the headlines may read that wind was #1 in new electric capacity last year, put into context, it’s a thimbleful compared to natural gas and coal–evil fossil fuels. Which is why it’s folly to think that so-called renewables will replace fossil fuels within the next two generations. Ain’t gonna happen. Here’s the EIA’s report on new electric capacity coming online in 2015…
    Read More “Which Energy Source Added the Most Electric Generation in 2015?”

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    Wind Turbines Killing Bats by the Millions – Shut Them All Down?

    We’ve said this many times before: Every single energy source has its positives and its negatives. Even so-called renewable energy sources are not perfect. Take wind energy, for example. Today we ran a story from the EIA that points out the #1 source of new electric generating capacity in the U.S. in 2015 was from wind (see Which Energy Source Added the Most Electric Generation in 2015?). Cool. We like wind. We like solar. We like natural gas. We say, let the free market determine the best energy source–not some sniveling climate changer who thinks he or she knows best which energy source you should use. We find it kind of humorous that fossil fuel haters who promote renewables like wind as the perfect solution tend to gloss over some huge negatives. For example, Dominion recently changed the route of a natural gas pipeline in order to avoid killing a threatened species of salamanders (see Dominion Files Pipeline Route Change to Avoid Salamanders, Swamp). The change was demanded by Big Green proponents. Yet windmills each year are killing millions of bats–some of them endangered species–and we don’t hear a PEEP from Big Greeners. Why is that? Are they now in the business of picking favorite mammals? They like salamanders but hate bats? Are they bat bigots? Here’s the story of how giant windmills are killing literally millions of bats around the world–and some of the bat species being killed are threatened…
    Read More “Wind Turbines Killing Bats by the Millions – Shut Them All Down?”

  • MDN Off on Good Friday

    MDN will take off Good Friday for the Easter holiday. We hope you enjoy this blessed time of year! We’ll be back on Monday to catch you up on any stories breaking on Friday.

    – Jim Willis, Editor

  • Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Mar 24, 2016

    The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: OH college gets grant for oil & gas training; third cargo ship heading to Cheniere’s Sabine Pass LNG facility; Kentucky’s natgas electric plants; next election “significant” for o&g industry; Bill McKibben’s fracking whoppers; EPA chief fact-challenged; and more!
    Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Mar 24, 2016”

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    New Marcellus/Utica Driller Quietly Launches w/$800M Investment

    APP logoDetails are just now coming to light of a new E&P (exploration and production, or drilling) company headquartered in Pittsburgh and focused totally on the Marcellus and Utica region. Until now the company has flown under our radar. The company is American Petroleum Partners (APP)–not to be confused with Aubrey McClendon’s American Energy Partners (AEP)–and is headed by Rice Energy alumnus Varun Mishra, who is the founder and CEO. The big news is that last September Mishra’s new company, founded in 2014, received a major injection of investment capital. Apollo Global Management invested $411 million in APP with the option to double it up to $800 million. MDN has it on very good authority that although APP quietly issued a press release about this last September (see it below), the company has intentionally kept the news quiet. Not any more! Big mouth MDN is blabbing it to the world. Below are the bits and pieces we’ve been able to put together about this newest Utica/Marcellus driller…
    Read More “New Marcellus/Utica Driller Quietly Launches w/$800M Investment”

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    MHR Wiggles Out of One Midstream Contract, Sues to End Another

    Two weeks ago Magnum Hunter Resources (MHR), a driller focused almost exclusively on the Marcellus/Utica and going through bankruptcy protection proceedings, struck a deal with pipeline company Texas Gas Transmission Inc. to terminate four existing contracts with company to use its pipelines. MHR was pressuring Texas Gas to cancel the contracts it has with MHR subsidiary Triad Hunter, but Texas Gas was resisting. In the end Texas Gas agreed to cancel the contracts provided they get a $15 million “unsecured claim” which grants Texas Gas the right to be near the front of the line to get paid $15M when MHR is either sold or emerges from bankruptcy proceedings. MHR isn’t, however, having as much success with canceling signed contracts for another of its subsidiaries in the Bakken Shale region. Bakken Hunter has an existing, signed contract with Oklahoma midstream company Oneok. Citing the recent Sabine Oil & Gas ruling in which that company was allowed to cancel midstream contracts during bankruptcy (see Midstream Nightmare Comes True: Judge Lets Driller Cancel Contracts), MHR is asking a Delaware bankruptcy court to allow them to wiggle out of the Oneok deal. In addition to updates on these two situations, we also have news that the Securities and Exchange Commission is at least partially blaming two former Magnum Hunter employees–a chief financial officer and chief account officer–for the company’s financial predicament…
    Read More “MHR Wiggles Out of One Midstream Contract, Sues to End Another”

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    MarkWest Hazardous Spill at Mobley Plant Now Cleaned Up

    One month ago there was an accidental release of a hazardous chemical at the MarkWest Energy cryogenic processing plant in Mobley (Wetzel County), WV (see MarkWest’s Mobley Processing Plant Spills Hazardous Oil into Creek). The fluid in question is DOWTHERM™ MX Heat Transfer Fluid, a chemical used as as a heat transfer fluid meant for closed-loop systems. An estimated 3,000 gallons of the fluid spilled, some of it reaching the North Fork of Fishing Creek and some of that entered the water intake for the community of Pine Grove, WV. However, the plant (Pine Grove Water Works) was closed before any of the water was used by local residents–so there was no harm done. MarkWest has reported they are done cleaning up the spill and the Pine Grove Water Works is back up and running…
    Read More “MarkWest Hazardous Spill at Mobley Plant Now Cleaned Up”

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    Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline Makes Major Strides

    Some very good news for the $5 billion, 594-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline–a natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina. Dominion, the main sponsor of the project, reports they have agreements for 96% of the capacity along the 1.5 billion cubic feet per day pipeline. Not only that, but 90% of the landowners along the pipeline’s proposed route have granted Dominion survey access, and some 500 landowners (representing 18% of all landowners) have already signed contracts to allow the pipeline. The antis are desperately trying to stop this project–and they’re failing…
    Read More “Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline Makes Major Strides”

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    US NatGas Production Hits Record High in February – 73.3 Bcf/d

    Something historic has happened. Natural gas production in the lower 48 states hit the highest-ever production levels. Which may seem strange since the U.S. Energy Information Administration has been telling us month after month about decreases in natgas production in the seven major shale plays they track. Bentek Energy, the analytics reporting unit of Platts, closely tracks production and has been since 2005. When you include all sources of natgas production (offshore, conventional onshore, etc.), the U.S. hit a record high in February of 73.3 billion cubic feet per day of production. February usually sees a decrease in production–so why the increase this year? The Marcellus/Utica is the big reason. But the reason behind the reason is that because the winter months were warmer than usual, it led to less “freeze-offs” or wells freezing up and stopping production due to cold temps. With fewer freeze-offs, more gas flowed, and a new record was hit…
    Read More “US NatGas Production Hits Record High in February – 73.3 Bcf/d”

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    Rex Energy Extends & Sweetens Offer to Refi Outstanding IOUs

    Earlier this month Rex Energy offered to refinance its notes (i.e. IOUs) so the notes expire later, meaning they don’t have to cough up cash sooner to pay off the debt (see Rex Energy Offers to Refinance Outstanding IOUs). It pushes repayment out further, after (presumably) the market has turned and Rex is once again making a profit. Apparently Rex isn’t having much luck convincing its note holders to go for the deal–so they’ve decided to extend the time and sweeten the deal…
    Read More “Rex Energy Extends & Sweetens Offer to Refi Outstanding IOUs”

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    Shale Companies Keep Giving to PA Charities, Even During Downturn

    Shale companies in Pennsylvania have been hammered hard. The prices they get for natural gas in PA are already among the lowest in the country (in the world!); they’ve cut back their budgets by 50-80% on average; they’ve laid off thousands of employees. In fact, things right now are fairly bleak in Marcellus-land. And yet….and yet these same companies continue to fund charities and non-profits at the same level they previously funded them when times were good. Which amazes and disappoints anti-drillers, both at the same time…
    Read More “Shale Companies Keep Giving to PA Charities, Even During Downturn”

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    Who Pays for Abandoned O&G Wells in PA?

    Pennsylvania state officials estimate there are as many as 200,000 abandoned oil and gas wells in the state–the vast majority of them conventional wells drilled over 50 years ago. Most of them are not mapped or known. Some of them are hazards for shale drillers who stumble across them when drilling new wells. If you drill horizontally and clip an old/abandoned well, it becomes like an elevator pumping fluids and gas to the surface. Not good. Everyone is committed to finding and marking and capping these old wells–the question is, how do you pay for it? The shale industry says it’s not fair to put the economic burden solely on the shoulders of the Marcellus industry. The PA Environment Protection Agency (DEP) Abandoned and Orphan Well program attempts to find an owner of the well first, before committing public money to plug it. However, there’s a second way to get public money to plug an old well…
    Read More “Who Pays for Abandoned O&G Wells in PA?”

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    Oil Company Uses IBM’s Watson to Beat Anti-Frackers on Twitter

    We found this story fascinating. A “big oil company” was tired of being trashed by anti fossil fuelers–especially in social media circles. So they’re fighting back by using insights gleaned from IBM’s Watson super computer. Watson is able to analyze millions of tweets (messages on the Twitter social media platform) to determine which messages are likely to be popular, or “go viral” in the parlance of social media. And that foreknowledge lets the oil company respond to, and in some cases preempt it, with its own messaging on Twitter…
    Read More “Oil Company Uses IBM’s Watson to Beat Anti-Frackers on Twitter”