Allegheny County | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation
Allegheny Co. Exec Vetoes Frack Ban Under Parks, Supports Alt Bill
As he promised to do, Allegheny County, PA County Executive Rich Fitzgerald vetoed a horrible bill passed by County Council that would prohibit drilling and fracking *under* county-owned parks (see Allegheny County Council Passes Frack Ban, Co. Exec Fitzgerald to Veto). In his veto message, Fitzgerald pointed out the single case of drilling that has happened under a county park–under Deer Lakes–resulted in no pollution or contamination and the inflow of some $7 million into county coffers from signing bonuses and royalties. Fitzgerald doesn’t want to hamstring future executives with a bad law that would prevent drilling under other parks, someday.
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Sometimes it’s hard not to despair when you see big investment firms aggressively trying to defund oil and gas companies (see 
Last November, Congressional Democrats (and a few RINO Republicans) passed the $1.2 trillion boondoggle referred to as the Biden infrastructure bill (see 
You know we’re not big fans of the American Petroleum Institute (API), an organization run by Big Oil companies (like Exxon and Chevron) that actively works against the best interests of smaller independent shale energy producers. API supports an oil and gas-killing carbon tax, as just one example of its fossil fuel heresy. Yet the API has suddenly grown a spine and is attacking President Biden’s pathetic begging trip to Saudi Arabia to ask OPEC to increase oil production. API even released a new video inviting Biden to visit American energy sites following his failed Middle East visit to learn how American energy companies can solve the problem of high gasoline prices.
Under orders from the White House, earlier this year Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick tried to permanently enshrine global warming considerations as a requirement to approve all new pipeline projects (see 
For the week of July 4-10, the three Marcellus/Utica states issued 37 permits to drill new shale wells. Pennsylvania led the way, as it typically does, by issuing 25 new permits. Three PA drillers tied with six permits each, all six (in each case) on the same pad: Olympus Energy in Allegheny County, Repsol in Bradford County, and Clean Energy Exploration in Tioga County. Ohio issued five new permits, with four going to Encino Energy for a single pad in Carroll County. West Virginia issued seven new permits, all of them to Antero Resources in Doddridge County but spread across three pads.
NATIONAL: U.S. natgas futures jump 9% on output drop, hotter forecasts; U.S. weekly LNG exports increase by four LNG carriers; US oil, gas producers join UN-backed methane emissions reporting program; U.S. efforts to punish Russia echo response to 1973 oil embargo; US working natural gas in underground storage increases by 58 Bcf.
Wow! What a difference two years can make. At the dawn of the pandemic, the share price for publicly traded oil and gas stocks (in particular Marcellus/Utica drillers) was in the basement. With the pandemic now in the rearview mirror (we hope), and demand increasing for both oil and natural gas, the price of oil and gas has skyrocketed, and along with it, O&G companies are raking in the cash. How are M-U drillers using their newfound piles of cash to compensate investors?
We’ve been keeping an eye on articles that appear with increasing regularity from the D.C. swamp hinting that West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin is talking with New York Senator Chuck “the schmuck” Schumer about Biden’s harebrained New Green Deal bill that would shut down even more fossil energy and soar inflation above the currently unbelievable level of 9.1%. The Washington Post, in particular, is pressuring Manchin to go along and pass a bill hoping it will help the Democrats win in November. Since appealing to Manchin’s loyalty to the Democrat Party is going nowhere, the Dems have decided to bribe Manchin by promising him the moon–including a fast track to finish the 94% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. Will Joe Manchin cave and trade away the country’s future in return for completing an important M-U pipeline? Will Washington Dems torpedo MVP if Manchin doesn’t play along? He’s on the horns of a dilemma.
Each month the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) issues a monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). In May, the STEO made the startling prediction that the average Henry Hub price for natural gas (the national benchmark) would average $8.59 for the entire second half of this year (see 
Although we understand self-interest and wanting to protect one’s profit margin, we continue to be distressed that some of the biggest chemical companies in the world (meaning in the U.S.) are actively trying to block LNG exports. Why? They want the natural gas they buy (in very large quantities) to be as cheap as possible. In 2017, Big Chemical–companies like Dow Corning, BASF, Eastman Chemical, and others–via their trade association Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA), launched an effort to try and persuade Energy Secretary Rick Perry and the Trump Administration to create barriers to exports of natural gas (see 
In 2012, fossil fuels accounted for roughly 82% of total U.S. energy consumption. We have seen an incredibly aggressive pro-renewable push since then, with countries (including the U.S.) pledging to hit net-zero emissions by 2050 as part of the 2015 Paris Agreement. Not a day goes by without an article in Big Media about renewables like wind and solar taking over “any day now.” Fossil fuels are passe, the past, almost gone, on the way out, killing the planet, etc. etc. And yet, renewables ARE NOT taking over. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), fossil fuels accounted for 79% of total U.S. energy consumption in 2021–a drop of 3% in 10 years.
Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) contracted with Project Canary last December to monitor methane emissions from both the company’s drilling operations and the company’s pipeline operations (see