New York Landfill Accepting Pa. Drill Cuttings Plans Expansion
Last summer MDN brought you the news that the Sierra Club lost a lawsuit aimed at blocking a landfill in New York State from accepting oil and gas drill cuttings from Pennsylvania (see Sierra Club Loses Court Case to Block Drill Cuttings in NY Landfill). The C&D Hakes Landfill in Painted Post, NY (near Elmira, located in Steuben County) continues to accept PA drill cuttings, although we’re not sure if those cuttings come from Marcellus drillers. At any rate, Hakes has filed a request to expand the landfill by another 43 acres (to 122 acres), to continue accepting PA drill cuttings for an extra 8-10 years.
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For the week ending March 3, the Enverus U.S. rig count soared by another 30 rigs, an indicator that activity is picking up in the oil and gas sector. The vast majority of the rigs (27) were brought online in oil-focused plays (12 of them in the Permian alone). Just 3 net rigs were brought online in gas-focused plays. The Utica Shale increased by 2 active rigs, while the M-U’s chief rival for rigs, the gassy Haynesville, added 3 rigs. (Obviously, some gas rigs were idled in other plays if there were +5 brought online in the Utica and Haynesville.)
There is finally movement in Ohio to repeal an odious law passed by Ohio’s Republican-controlled legislature called House Bill 6, which funnels over $1 billion from Ohio ratepayers to FirstEnergy Corporation in order to keep the company’s unprofitable nuclear power plants running (while disadvantaging other power sources, like gas-fired plants). FirstEnergy is accused of bribing legislators to pass, and keep passed, HB 6 by paying out $60 million in bribes (see 
Whether or not you agree with Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s idiotic plan to join something called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax that will force PA residents to pay $2.36 billion in higher electric costs over a 10-year period (and shut down coal and gas-fired power plants), there is one thing we can all agree on: The way Wolf is attempting to enroll the state in RGGI is wrong. Wolf is denying the state legislature (controlled by Republicans) a role in approving whether or not this new carbon tax will be assessed on PA citizens.
Duke Energy has plans to build multiple new clean-burning natural gas-fired power plants to supply its grid over the next 15 years–some 4.7 gigawatts of new gas-fired plants (see 
Just two weeks ago we reported on the historical, insanely high natural gas spot prices being paid across the country (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Peregrine acquires producing royalties in West Virginia; Can the U.S. meet its electricity demand with 100 percent renewable energy?; NATIONAL: EIA: US weekly LNG exports rise another week; Lower-paying labor awaits oil and gas crews in the green energy transition; Biden told union leaders ‘I’m all for natural gas’; No ‘one-trick pony’ as Enterprise considers switching up US pipeline infrastructure; Energy secretary says oil industry must embrace green transition; INTERNATIONAL: China’s pursuit of natural gas jolts markets and drains neighbors; Iran accused of eco-terrorism as oil spill washes up on Israeli beaches.
This week is IHS Markit’s CERAWeek conference. Normally it’s a huge event with over 5,000 attendees gathered in Houston, TX. Because of the pandemic, this year’s event is virtual. But still just as relevant and important. During a session yesterday, Matthew Palmer, senior director at IHS Markit, expressed a sentiment and opinion we’ve seen expressed by others, including Williams CEO Alan Armstrong. Palmer said he doesn’t expect any new big interstate gas pipes to get built after Mountain Valley Pipeline (from West Virginia to Virginia) enters service. For the foreseeable future. What a shame.
On Monday PennEast Pipeline filed its opening brief in a case to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in April. The case appeals a lower court ruling that disallows PennEast from using eminent domain to build across land owned or controlled by the State of New Jersey. PennEast calls the previous ruling by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals “deeply flawed” and “seriously misunderstands both eminent domain and sovereign immunity.” What are PennEast’s chances of winning, and if they do win, when will PennEast get built?
Banpu is Thailand’s largest coal mining company. But Banpu is far more than just a coal company. It has multiple subsidiaries in various energy industries scattered around the globe. For example, here in the U.S. Banpu partners with Kalnin Ventures and operates BKV Corporation, the American shale drilling arm of Banpu. We spotted an article in today’s Bangkok Post that says Banpu is about to enter the U.S. power generation market by purchasing a gas-fired power plant–this year.
Although we’ve heard about ESG (environment, social, governance) efforts by shale companies for years, it seems as though Marcellus/Utica drillers have only recently begun to get the ESG religion. In December we told you about an ESG panel discussion at Hart Energy’s DUG East event, normally held in Pittsburgh but virtual this year (see 
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released their latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for October through December 2020 (full copy below). There are two exciting bits of news coming from this report that (so far) nobody else is reporting: (1) After eight consecutive quarters (two years) of declining natgas production from shale (comparing the current quarter to the same quarter from the previous year), the trend reversed in 4Q20; and (2) even with all of the curtailments from Marcellus producers in PA last year, the state still produced a record high volume of natural gas–an all-time high record!
The pandemic did its best to shut the world down, and maybe it succeeded in shutting down other countries–but not here in the US of A. Against an onslaught of shutdowns (particularly in “blue” states), people staying home, businesses closing, anarchy and chaos in large Democrat cities…and against an onslaught against fossil fuels by environmental Nazis seeking to destroy the economies of the world via bans of oil and natural gas and coal…U.S. natural gas production decreased by just 1 percent last year. Can you believe it? That’s a victory in our book!