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SRBC Stops Creek Water Withdrawals for 18 Shale Gas Projects
On March 27, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) online Hydrologic Conditions Monitor showed low stream flows have triggered restrictions on 18 shale gas water withdrawal points in Bradford, Potter, Susquehanna, Tioga, and Wyoming counties. Another 17 shale gas withdrawals are approaching restrictions. Of the water withdrawal points regulated by SRBC, only shale gas development water withdrawals currently have restrictions because they take water from smaller streams. Read More “SRBC Stops Creek Water Withdrawals for 18 Shale Gas Projects”
Donald Trump has taken significant actions to eliminate “environmental justice” programs within the federal government during his second term, which began on January 20, 2025. What is so-called environmental justice (EJ)? EJ is the leftist theory that energy projects like pipelines and well pads target locations where there are black, brown, or poor people who can’t fight back legally. They don’t want the projects, but they have no way ($$) to fight them. And so their populations suffer the negative environmental consequences of living near polluting energy projects. Energy projects are presumed to be inherently racist. It is a disgusting, loathsome political theory peddled mainly by the far-left of the Democrat Party. Although Donald Trump has quashed EJ on the federal level, the Josh Shapiro Department of Environment Protection’s EJ program keeps chugging along, oblivious that nobody wants it, nobody respects it, and it’s a “dead man walking.” 
Toby Rice, CEO of EQT Corporation, took part in a presentation by natural gas industry leaders at the West Virginia Capitol on Wednesday. The group was briefly joined by Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who was there to promote an expansion of electric microgrids in the state to power data centers. Morrisey is pushing legislature, House Bill 2014, to do just that (see 
From time to time, we like to check in on what the price of natural gas is doing, both the “futures” NYMEX price (front month) and the spot price at various points around the Marcellus/Utica. We’re certainly well off our highs over the past month from when the NYMEX price hit $4.49 on Monday, March 10, 2025. We like it above $4. Yesterday, the NYMEX price closed up 2.3% to $3.95, close to $4.00. Where will the price head next? Up or down? Will we go above the psychological $4 barrier again soon? 
On March 24, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from a group of kids pushing for federal action on climate change since filing their lawsuit, Juliana v. United States, in 2015. Represented by Our Children’s Trust, the 21 youths argued that the government’s energy policies violated their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and security by exacerbating climate change. The case faced repeated setbacks in federal courts, with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue, leading to a lower court’s dismissal of the case. The Supreme Court’s decision not to take up the appeal centered on this procedural issue of standing, effectively ending the long-running litigation. The nonprofit behind the suit had asked the Court to delay its decision pending another case on standing, but the justices proceeded, closing a significant chapter in youth-led climate activism. 
This story isn’t directly connected to the Marcellus/Utica. The “environmental” group in question, Just Stop Oil, has never (as far as we can tell) done any “direct actions” in the Marcellus/Utica. However, the groups’ unrealistic aim of blocking and stopping ALL new oil and gas projects, no matter where they are in the world, implicitly includes the M-U. We have written about this radicalized group many times before (
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PA PUC launches review of grid impacts from data center growth; Shapiro touts energy plan in Blair County; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: US oil producers face new challenges as top oilfield flags; US gas players refocus on Haynesville basin, buoyed by Trump LNG plans; Northeast gas demand springs upward at start of spring; NATIONAL: Shale-oil bosses slam Trump’s tariffs in anonymous survey; U.S. could see return of acid rain due to Trump’s rollbacks; The U.S. remained the world’s largest liquefied natural gas exporter in 2024; Secret Energy Department “hit list” targets renewable energy industry; The oil industry takes its critics to court; Could U.S. natural gas power AI revolution?; The crumbling of net zero in the U.S.; Climate change taken off America’s global threat list for the first time in over a decade; INTERNATIONAL: Jereh unveils AI-powered oil and gas innovations at cippe 2025; China’s falling LNG imports are a boon for Europe. 
Today, we introduce you to a new advertiser on Marcellus Drilling News: 
On Monday, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia (Roanoke Division) ruled in two of five cases before it in which Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which is now majority-owned by EQT Corporation, sued radical protesters who blocked the construction of the pipeline in Roanoke County, Virginia. The court dismissed one count in the two cases (count #4) against the protesters, which the media focused on. The media doesn’t want to talk about the fact that there are five other counts, far more serious than the dismissed count, that the court is allowing to advance. These protesters are in a world of legal hurt over their illegal blocking of MVP construction. 
Here’s an interesting lawsuit that never appeared on our radar. It involves a lease in Fayette County, West Virginia, and the right to establish an injection well in an old conventional well on the leased property. The party leasing and using the old injection well, Webb Construction, was later sued by the party leasing out the property, North Hills Group, after new board members over at North Hills. The lawsuit accused Webb of improperly using the old well as an injection well without first trying to see if the well could be rejuvenated as a productive gas well and building a pipeline to the well that leaked wastewater on North Hill’s property. A Fayette Circuit Court jury in 2022 found in favor of Webb and against North Hills, dismissing all claims against Webb. North Hills asked the judge to grant a new trial to overturn the jury verdict, which the judge did. North Hills won in the new trial. 
We are frequently critical of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) under the leadership of Governor Josh Shapiro. But our criticism is of the people who lead the department and the woke, leftist policies they’ve injected into the organization. Our criticism does not extend to the hardworking men and women who are the rank and file at DEP. They have demanding jobs, and they do a good job. Nowhere is that more evident than in the case of those who work in the Oil & Gas Program at DEP and the water supply/stray gas complaints they receive and must investigate. Getting a complaint that involves potential methane migration into a water supply is NOT a straightforward investigation, mainly because most of the time, that’s not how such issues are reported. Very few people contact the DEP using the words “I think my water has been contaminated with methane by a shale driller a half mile away.” It’s never that simple. 
On March 20, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) told the Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board (TAB) that the U.S. Department of the Interior has “withdrawn” the Orphan Oil and Gas Well Regulatory Improvement Act Grant Program designed to help states strengthen their programs, in particular to prevent future oil and gas well abandonment. Oh no! Trump is cutting federal money to plug old wells! He’s so mean!! He’s so cruel!!! Except that’s not what is happening… 
As we so often say, the left’s creativeness in their quest to destroy fossil energy (the thing that makes civilization possible) never ceases to amaze us. The left thought it could bully investors into divesting from fossil energy companies using ESG (environment, social, and governance) policies. That flamed out. They tried to force Big Banks to abandon loans for fossil energy companies. Yeah, that’s down the tubes, too. But, once again, they’re baaaaaack! This time, the left is pushing something called Sustainability-Linked Bonds (SLBs). The plan is to entice (force, coerce, bully) national oil companies (NOCs) and public development banks (PDBs) to use SLBs, which force NOCs to phase out fracking “transition” to the renewable energy business. Yeah, here we go again with the transitioning bullcrapus. 
The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin held hearings on Tuesday at the Oak Creek Community Center to listen to public comments on a proposed natural gas plant. Wisconsin Electric Gas Operations, doing business as We Energies, proposes to spend $1.2 billion at its Oak Creek Power Plant (Oak Creek is a suburb of Milwaukee) to convert the facility from a coal-fired power plant to a natural gas plant that will generate 1,100 megawatts (MW) of electricity on demand (a “peaker” facility). The aim is to start the gas turbines when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Legislation to define natural gas, propane as ‘clean energy’ heads to Indiana governor; Federal law bars Alaska from shipping its own natural gas within the state; NATIONAL: DOE withdraws, postpones multiple appliance energy efficiency rules; WTI nears $70 as supplies tighten; How AI data centers are reshaping America’s electric grid; Earth has limited natural resources to support the generation of electricity; INTERNATIONAL: Europe ready to return to Russian gas if sanctions end; Government bill to lift fracking moratorium in Nova Scotia clears third reading; Is Shell interested in buying out/merging with BP? 
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) continues to aid and abet radical environmental groups in circumventing the state legislature. In what amounts to a classic leftist “sue-and-settle” case, last year radical environmental groups (including the Clean Air Council and Environmental Integrity Project) petitioned the state Environmental Quality Board (EQB), asking the board to amend 25 Pa. Code Chapter 78a by increasing “setbacks” for oil and gas well drilling to a minimum of 3,281 feet from any building or water wells (5,280 feet from hospitals and schools), and 750 feet from any river, creek, or mud puddle (i.e., surface waters). Such an increase in setbacks would stop ALL new shale drilling in the state, which is the goal of these radicals. The DEP is recommending to the EQB that it should accept and consider the proposed rulemaking.