IFO Projects 2020 PA Impact Fee Revenue Fell by $55.9M (28%)
In early 2020 Pennsylvania raised $198.2 million from its version of a severance tax, called an impact fee, based on drilling activity from 2019, which was down from the previous year (see IFO Projects 2019 PA Impact Fee Revenue Fell by $53.6M (21%)). The state’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) is out with projections for how much revenue will be raised this year (based on drilling in 2020). Given the pandemic and a crash in natural gas prices early in the year, you won’t be surprised to learn the impact fee will drop another $55.5 million, to $144.85 million. That’s a drop in the impact fee of 42% over the past two years. Ouch.
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Anti-fossil fuel zealots including THE Delaware Riverkeeper are attempting to convince the Biden administration to block the now fully permitted and authorized LNG export terminal New Fortress plans to build on the New Jersey shore of the Delaware River in Gibbstown. They’re hoping they can appeal to Biden’s parochial concerns for his home state of Delaware, hoping to scare an old man with dementia into blocking LNG ships from transiting the Delaware River by lying about safety issues.
Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 303-mile, 2 Bcf/d pipeline to move Marcellus/Utica gas from West Virginia to southern Virginia, has been hounded by radicals from Big Green groups including the Sierra Club for years. Big Green apparently has the clown judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in its back pocket because the clowns keep overturning legal and legitimately issued permits by government agencies including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (see 
We’re catching up the permits issued over the past two weeks (prior to this week). Pennsylvania issued 11 permits during that time, and West Virginia issued 3 permits. Ohio issued no new shale drilling permits over the past two weeks.
A member of the PA Senate, Sen. Wayne Langerholc (R), and a member of the PA House, Rep. Jim Rigby (R), together penned a response to an 
Last year dozens of contracted U.S. LNG export cargoes got canceled during the pandemic (see 
David Blackmon is an independent energy analyst/consultant based in Mansfield, TX. Blackmon is a Forbes contributor and has a 39-year career in the oil and gas industry, most of it in public policy and managing regulatory and legislative issues for various companies, including Burlington Resources, Shell, El Paso Corporation, FTI Consulting and LINN Energy. Blackmon has been around the block a few times and understands not only the technical aspects of our industry, but the politics as well. He recently peered into his crystal ball and predicted what lies ahead (i.e. challenges) for the O&G industry in 2021, including a “regulatory onslaught” from Joe Biden…
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Southwestern Energy issues statement on untimely passing of Julian Bott; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: California is closing the door to gas in new homes; NATIONAL: Liberty and Schlumberger close North American pressure pumping transaction; EIA releases new U.S. Energy Atlas with updated maps and enhanced navigation; The electric vehicle revolution: why the death of natural gas is greatly overstated; INTERNATIONAL: OPEC+ deliberations ongoing; Should oil markets brace for a U.S. shale comeback?
UGI Corporation, one of Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas utility companies, is buying Mountaineer Gas Company, one of West Virginia’s largest natural gas utility companies, for $540 million. UGI serves 700,000 customers across PA (and one county in Maryland). Mountaineer serves 215,000 customers across WV. Both companies are big buyers of Marcellus/Utica shale gas.
FirstEnergy is up to its metaphorical rear-end in alligators. Not only has the Ohio Supreme Court blocked (for now) the collection of annual $150 million payments from the residents of Ohio given to FirstEnergy to prop up its uneconomic nuclear power plants, but multiple (over a dozen) lawsuits have been filed against the company by some of FirstEnergy’s biggest investors alleging fraud that has caused the company’s stock price to plummet.
The five voting members of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) met in early December and voted 4-0 (one abstention) to approve a 1,300-foot-long pier in Gibbstown, NJ which will be used to load LNG tankers (see 
In an effort to flow more natural gas to a starving New York City, Kinder Morgan cut a deal with utility company Consolidated Edison in 2019 to provide more gas by beefing up capacity along its Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) that feeds NYC, allowing Con Ed to avoid cutting customers off from natgas hookups (see