PA PUC Sues Snyder Bros to Collect $500K in Unpaid Impact Fees
CORRECTION: The PUC misspoke in the figures given to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Snyder Brothers were actually fined a total of $499,520 — $390,250 for impact and administrative fees, $11,707.50 in interest and a fine of $97,562.50. Our thanks to NGI’s Shale Daily for tracking down the mistake and alerting us to it!
Last year we brought you the interesting story of strippers in the Marcellus–stripper wells, that is (see High-Priced Strippers in PA: Semantic Gymnastics with Impact Fee). Synder Brothers is an oil/gas producer in Pennsylvania. Most of the wells they drill are vertical-only wells. Among them are 24 wells from 2011 and 21 wells from 2012 that are vertical only–but all targeting the Marcellus. According to the definition of a stripper well under the Act 13 law passed in 2012, a well qualifies as a stripper well if it doesn’t produce over 90 thousand cubic feet (Mcf) of natural gas per day. Synder Bros. says their wells don’t, ergo their wells are stripper wells and not liable to pay an impact fee. The PA Public Utility Commission (PUC), charged with evaluating what does and does not qualify, says nope–your wells target the Marcellus formation and produced above 90 Mcf for at least one month out of the year, therefore must pay the impact fee. So the PUC has sued Snyder Bros. and intends to collect $500,000 in unpaid fees in the next 20 days, PLUS a $50,000 fine for inconveniencing the PUC…
Read More “PA PUC Sues Snyder Bros to Collect $500K in Unpaid Impact Fees”
Surprisingly, a very perceptive article in the Harrisburg Patriot-News asks the question, Why hasn’t there been a peep on the part of anti-drillers over the nomination of EQT’s Andrew Place to become a member of the board for the state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC)? Indeed, it’s a great question. EQT is a major Marcellus Shale driller based in Pittsburgh. The PUC is charged with collecting impact fees from shale drillers. The author of the article says imagine this headline, if it were 2014: “Corbett administration taps shale industry exec for key regulatory post.” Mainstream (Democrat) media would have a field day! We would have been treated to nonstop exposés on how Tom Corbett is in the back pocket of the drilling industry…political payoff…political patronage…backroom dealing…conflict of interest…et cetera ad nauseam. A year later it’s a Democrat governor doing the appointing, so the obedient Democrat media hasn’t breathed a word questioning the appointment. We’ve seen wingnut groups disagree with Wolf when it comes to drilling–they’d rather have no drilling than tax it, given the option. So why are these same “environmental” groups, like PennFuture which is opposed to the drilling industry and anyone/anything connected to it, apparently OK with the nomination of Andrew Place?…
An edgy new pro-fracking website has sprung up that deserves your attention. It’s called FrackFeed.com and it’s designed along the lines of BuzzFeed, a news and entertainment site aimed at Millennials. FrackFeed, like BuzzFeed, contains short, “pithy” articles–but in FrackFeed’s case the articles respond to and expose the lies peddled by anti-drillers–using humor. The format is meant to be easily “consumed” on a smart phone–and shared with others. Of course the “cool, hipster” anti-drilling nutters are flustered that pro-drillers are turning one of their own tools against them–exposing them for the humorless mind-numbed robots they are. We love it when someone figures out how to get under their skin! Example: categories on the site include Quizzes, Memes and something called “Listicles”. FrackFeed uses the image of the fictional Ron Burgundy (actor Will Ferrell) of the Anchorman movies with the superimposed statement: “You Have Fracking Questions? I Have Fracking Answers!” Love it!…
There’s no denying that compressor stations located in populated neighborhoods create problems. We have two examples to share–one from Lawrence County, PA, and one from Broome County, NY (MDN’s backyard). The usual complaint about compressor stations–required to compress natural gas and send it on its way through a pipeline system–is the noise. Noise seems to be the chief issue with a compressor station in Lawrence County, PA where landowners, many of them (most? all?) have signed leases with Hilcorp, the company that owns the compressor station in Mahoning Township, a township that borders Ohio. Although noise has also been an issue at the compressor station in the Town of Windsor, NY (Windsor borders Pennsylvania)–about five miles from the border of the City of Binghamton–noise at the Williams compressor station is now largely mitigated. In the case of the Williams compressor, the concerns by those who live closest to it are regular releases of mercaptan and constant truck traffic to and from the station…