PA Gets Butt in Gear, Plugged 100 Orphan Wells This Yr Using Fed $
In the fall of 2021, President Biden signed into law the so-called Infrastructure bill, some $1.2 trillion in pork barrel spending, passed with the help of turncoat Republicans (see Biden So-Called $1.2T Infrastructure Bill Passes Thanks to RINOs). Only about 9% of the $1.2 trillion goes to infrastructure projects like roads and bridges. One of the line items in the bill (so small it’s a rounding error) is money to plug orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells. A small amount of money was distributed last fall, a year after the bill became law (see PA DEP Solicits Bids to Plug First 50 Orphaned Wells Using Fed $$). Wonder of wonders, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) used that money (and another tranche from earlier this year) to plug 100 orphaned wells in 2023. Hats off to the DEP, which somehow did not screw this one up.
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Rich Negrin, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), was supposed to be Gov. Josh Shapiro’s guy who could magically make the trains run on time at the DEP. He was the White Knight bureaucrat who could crack the code on getting simple permits for construction — things like Chapter 102 erosion and sediment control permits — back to being issued in two weeks (instead of months), as is required under PA law (see 
In August 2022, Seneca Resources, a subsidiary and the drilling arm of National Fuel Gas Company, announced it had achieved an “A” certification grade under the MiQ Standard for Methane Emissions Performance (MiQ Standard), the highest available certification level MiQ awards, for all of the company’s 1+ billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas production in the Marcellus/Utica (see 
Two radical Big Green groups have brazenly announced they are spending more than a quarter of a million dollars in an attempt to help buy an open seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Conservation Voters of PA Victory Fund, in partnership with Earthjustice Action, are attempting to convince Pennsylvanians who are inclined to believe Big Green clap-trap that they should vote for the far-left candidate Dan McCaffery (Democrat) in this November’s contest for the PA Supreme Court. Why? Because McCaffery is in the back pocket of the environmental lobby. He’ll vote any way they tell him to.
In May, the PHMSA issued a proposed new rule that would slap onerous and costly new requirements on pretty much all natural gas pipelines in the country, including 2.7 million miles of gas transmission, distribution, and gathering pipelines; 400+ underground natural gas storage facilities; and 165 liquefied natural gas facilities (see 
NATIONAL: The next phase of the U.S. shale revolution; Devon Energy mulls M&A options with Marathon, CrownRock; Hydrogen is our best bet to decarbonize heavy industry, says Energy Secretary.
Oh boy, here we go again. The rumor mill is in overdrive. Reuters (which is pretty reliable with these kinds of reports) is reporting that Chesapeake Energy Corporation is sniffing around Southwestern Energy, looking to buy out and merge in its closest O&G peer. Both Chesapeake and Southwestern have significant, long-time Marcellus assets (in Pennsylvania), and both have added new assets in the Louisiana Haynesville in recent years. They are on parallel tracks with their strategy of using Marcellus assets as a cash cow to fund more drilling in Haynesville, with an eye on grabbing higher prices in foreign markets by exporting Haynesville gas as LNG. It certainly makes sense that one company would be interested in combining with the other. If the two do combine, it would become the #1 shale gas driller in the U.S., surpassing EQT (in market value).
Last Friday in Philadelphia, President Joe Biden tried to sell the line that Pennsylvania was a big winner in the Hydrogen Hub Hunger Games (see 
Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee held an informational briefing on Project Canary, a company that measures, analyzes, and reports on methane emissions from natural gas production and distribution infrastructure. Many Marcellus/Utica drillers use Project Canary’s services in their programs to produce “responsibly sourced gas” (RSG). It appears the aim of the session was to bring PA State Senators up-to-speed on Project Canary and the larger issue of cutting back on fugitive methane emissions. Companies that track and reduce methane can charge more for their gas, so the theory goes. As for whether or not that is happening (are they getting more money for their gas?), it is an open question.
American Energy Partners, Inc. (AEPT), based in Allentown, PA, is a small but diversified company. They have their fingers in a number of different oil and gas pies, including subsidiaries in drilling, remediation, water, and more. We’ve written a number of posts about AEPT, the most recent in July 2022 when the company purchased Austin Master Services, a company that services the Marcellus/Utica industry (and other industries) with radiological waste management solutions, including remediation, decontamination & decommissioning (D&D), and transport (see 
New York State has made no bones about the fact that it HATES fossil energy — particularly natural gas. The state has banned fracking, permanently (for all time), preventing abundant supplies of natgas from being extracted within the state, dooming counties in Upstate to economic poverty. The state has blocked multiple gas pipelines from Pennsylvania into NY. It has banned new residences and businesses across the state from connecting to and using natural gas beginning in 2025. And lately, the state has begun to force natural gas-fired power plants to close. Yet sitting on the stage in Morgantown, WV, on Monday with West Virginia and Ohio officials and politicians there to commemorate and brag about WV’s big win in attracting a grant for a hydrogen hub, was the CEO of a New York company — a company that will play a key role in (and get gobs of money from) the WV hydrogen hub.
On Monday, MDN alerted you that Shell’s new CEO, Wael Sawan, would address the entire company (yesterday) in an attempt to talk some of the Millennial snowflakes that work for him off the climate change ledge (see 
The radical left has successfully funneled foreign money (from Russia and China) to Big Green groups that hire lawyers to file a blizzard of lawsuits against oil and gas pipeline projects, blocking those projects. That strategy has worked so well that the radical left has turned its attention to a new target (same tactic but new target): LNG export facilities. The first stage in a new war is to “soften the target” with aerial bombing. In this case, the bombings are the lies coming from paid Big Green shills like Bill McKibben. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is expected to approve (soon) Venture Global’s CP2 LNG terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. In a Tuesday conference call with reporters, McKibben (being paid by Big Green) let loose with a volley of lie bombs, calling the project an “enormous carbon and methane bomb” that will further drive climate change. He also called it “an inflation machine” because exporting gas will (goes the lie) raise prices here at home.
According to an article in Ohio Country Journal, interest and activity in eastern Ohio’s oil and gas leasing has been growing in some new areas. Those areas include, says Clif Little, Ohio State University Extension educator in Guernsey County, portions of Guernsey and Noble counties where there hadn’t been interest in the past. Little specializes in, among other things, oil and gas leases. He’s the author of “Important aspects of an oil and gas lease” (copy below), chock full of good tips for landowners either leasing for the first time or looking to re-lease.
Yesterday, we brought you the great news that the Marcellus/Utica region scored one of seven major hydrogen hub project grants being dished out by the Bidenistas (see