PA’s High-Tax Gov. Wolf Lays Claim to Lowering Corporate Income Tax
Every single year Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf proposed a budget (all eight years of his ignominious occupation of the office), he insisted on raising taxes on the Marcellus industry by adding a high severance tax to an already-high impact tax. Every. Single. Year. In addition to an impact (i.e. severance) tax in PA, Marcellus drillers must pay an insanely high corporate net income tax (CNIT) of 9.99%. All businesses in the state are subject to the CNIT. Because of the high tax burden (the impact tax and the CNIT added together), many drillers have decided to expand elsewhere, like West Virginia, Ohio, and Louisiana. Now that he’s leaving office, Wolf has signed on to a reduction of the CNIT, claiming he never liked that nasty ole tax anyway.
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One of the unforeseen “benefits” of the Manchin-Schumer “Make Inflation Higher” bill is that it will empower the jackbooted thugs who control the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by empowering them to enforce onerous regulations that require expensive technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS) to be used by the oil and gas industry. Welcome to Amerika. The U.S. Supreme Court recently clipped EPA’s wings with respect to limiting the agency’s misinterpretation of the Clean Air Act in order to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power plants (see 
BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest investment firm with $10 trillion in assets under management, is beginning to feel the heat of its anti-fossil fuel strategy. BlackRock is, without question, anti-fossil fuel energy. Yet the company and its representatives object when being outed as what they are, claiming they still love love love oil and gas companies. It’s not true. BlackRock pressures investors and investment funds to divest from fossil energy companies on the premise those companies are harming the planet. BlackRock itself is now being “harmed” by states like West Virginia, which has decided to end doing business with the company (see 
Two weeks ago, MDN brought you the news that a small amount of natural gas–roughly 22 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day)–is once again flowing into the closed Freeport LNG export facility (see 
NATIONAL: What Democrats get wrong about climate change; Shale companies prepare for their best quarter ever; The impacts of banning U.S. exports of crude oil and refined products; U.S. oil rig count falls by the most since September; INTERNATIONAL: Baker Hughes adds to e-LNG offering by acquiring unit of BRUSH.
Loathsome and disgusting shale energy hater Josh Shapiro, Attorney General for Pennsylvania (running for governor), announced on Friday that he finally bullied Energy Transfer into pleading “no contest” (meaning they don’t admit to a darned thing) in a so-called criminal case against the company for a series of accidents affecting construction for both the Revolution and Mariner East pipelines. Shapiro brought the case–a case that converts accidents into crimes–in order to burnish his credibility with the wacko left in his own party. Now he has a “victory” to run on–and everyone in Pennsylvania is the poorer because of it.
Southwestern Energy, which along with EQT and Chesapeake Energy, is one of the three leading producers of natural gas in the U.S., issued its second quarter update last Friday. The company reported total net production of 438 Bcfe (billion cubic feet equivalent), or 4.8 Bcfe/d, including 4.2 Bcf/d of natural gas and 100,000 barrels per day (Bbls/d) of liquids. Southwestern invested $585 million of capital during 2Q and placed 42 wells to sales, including 23 in the Marcellus/Utica and 19 in Haynesville. The company made $1.2 billion in profit during 2Q22, versus losing $609 million in the same quarter a year ago.
On July 1, just as everyone was heading out the door for summer vacation, Ascent Resources announced it is buying another 26,800 acres in the Ohio Utica for $270 million (see 
PennEnergy Resources LLC, which according to the Pittsburgh Business Times is the 11th largest shale driller in Pennsylvania (with 405 active shale wells), achieved responsibly sourced natural gas certification from Project Canary on nearly all of its wells in January of this year (see 
During pipeline giant Williams’ 2Q22 update last week, company officials talked about expansion projects in the Marcellus/Utica region (see 
Make no mistake: The Manchin-Schumer “Soar Inflation Higher” bill is bad for the country in EVERY way, including bad for the fossil energy industry via an industry-killing methane tax (see 
As we point out in a companion story today, some in the oil and gas industry have sold out and are supporting the Manchin-Schumer methane tax. It’s sad (and angering). As we point out in that post, those companies believe they are insulated from the effects of the methane tax because they have already deployed technology to reduce methane emissions from their operations. But what happens when the federal government changes the rules by telling them their technology is junk and they have to replace it with new government-blessed technology? Right on cue, the Dept. of Energy announced it will spend $32 million on “research” to figure out what kind of technology can lower methane emissions.
Earlier this week, Energy Transfer (ET), the builder of the mighty Mariner East pipelines and owner/expander of the Marcus Hook refinery, issued its second quarter update. The company had plenty of positive news to report, including net income of $1.33 billion, a $700 million increase from the same period last year. In July, the company hit a new record high for the amount of NGLs flowing through the Mariner East pipeline system. It has also found a way to squeeze another roughly 10,000 barrels per day of NGL exports out of Marcus Hook.
Gulfport Energy, the third-largest driller in the Ohio Utica Shale (by the number of wells drilled), emerged from bankruptcy in May 2021 with a new board and new top management. By September of last year, the rumors began circulating that the company was shopping itself for sale (see