Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA
Energy Transfer Takes PA DEP to Court for Blocking Revolution Pipe
Energy Transfer (ET) has had enough stonewalling from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) with regard to its Revolution Pipeline project. Last month the DEP told ET it could not restart the now-repaired Revolution until the DEP got good and ready to allow it, with no specific timeline offered (see PA DEP Blocks Revolution Pipe Restart Even Though Repair is Done). On Tuesday ET filed a lawsuit with the PA Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) requesting the board (a special court set up to hear appeals of DEP decisions) overturn the DEP edict and allow Revolution to restart. Now.
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It seems pretty certain at this point that Joe Biden will seize control of the White House come Jan. 20 (although we still hold out hope for a Supreme Court intervention against the 
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and his Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) continue to push a plan that will raise Pennsylvania residents’ electric rates by 50% or more, a carbon tax scheme called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The DEP is in the midst of conducting virtual public hearings until Dec. 14. PA’s trade labor unions, dead set against RGGI, are participating to make sure Wolf knows of their opposition.
Capital expense (capex) investments made by drillers in the Marcellus/Utica during the third quarter of 2020 were the lowest in at least six years according to a new report (full copy below) from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). The report looks at nine of the top drillers in the M-U and finds collectively they cut capex investment by more than one-third in 3Q20 over 3Q19. And yet those same nine collectively spent a half-billion dollars more during 3Q on drilling and building projects than they earned in revenue from selling oil and gas. That’s troubling.
Over the years we’ve sometimes heard from readers, or read comments from trade associations, making the argument that by exporting our natural gas we are raising the price of natgas domestically. Shouldn’t we keep all the gas for ourselves and keep prices low (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: New York state pension fund sets 2040 goal of net zero carbon emissions; Equinor hosts Toys for Tots event; NATIONAL: Williams appoints Rose Robeson to board of directors; Western states with big budget holes will bear the brunt of Biden fracking ban; Cheniere sees Biden following Trump in support of LNG industry; INTERNATIONAL: Natural gas, propane are early winners in quest for clean ship fuels.
National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), the utility and midstream giant based in Buffalo, NY, remains committed to building it’s Northern Access Pipeline project, a $500 million project that includes building 97 miles of new pipeline along a power line corridor from northwestern Pennsylvania up to Erie County, NY. The project also calls for 3 miles of new pipeline further up, in Niagara County, along with a new compressor station in the Town of Pendleton.
Although in recent months a number of major Marcellus/Utica drillers have shut-in (or curtailed) some of their natural gas production, apparently those days are over. According to an analysis by S&P Global Platts, M-U gas production in December has (so far) averaged nearly 33.9 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day), making December’s month-to-date average the highest on record. In fact, on Dec. 7, two days ago, regional output in the M-U was estimated at 34 Bcf/d, less than 300 MMcf/d below its all-time, single-day record high. What’s going on?
On Monday MDN told you about a cool new website called LandGate that offers instant valuations for oil and gas rights sitting under a property, along with the location of wells drilled nearby (see 
Last week MDN told you that the judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit signaled they will overturn, for a second time, a permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that allows the 92% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from finishing its work by installing pipe under or through creeks and rivers (see 
Although we shared the good news today that production in the Marcellus/Utica is up in December (see Higher Regional Prices/Demand Leads to Record M-U Dec. Production), we now share the not-so-good news that the number of permits issued in November in Pennsylvania, the biggest M-U producing state, dropped 57% year-over-year.
Last week Pennsylvania issued just 3 new shale well drilling permits–all for Cabot Oil & Gas in Susquehanna County. Ohio issued 5 new permits, with 4 of the 5 issued to Ascent Resources. And West Virginia issued 3 new shale well permits.
Tomorrow the Harrison County Commission will consider (and most likely approve) an extension for an option to purchase property at the site of a proposed natural gas-fired power plant in Harrison County. Energy Solutions Consortium (ESC) currently has an option to buy the site of a proposed 550-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant, but the option expires on Dec. 31 of this year.
Do political, agenda-driven “researchers” never tire of spinning false narratives around fracking? When Michael Bloomberg pays your salary (as he does for researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health), apparently not. Back in 2016, Brian Schwartz, a fellow at the Post Carbon Institute (virulent anti-fossil fuel group) was among a group of researchers who published a junk science report claiming fracking in PA gives you headaches (see 
Yesterday MDN brought you a post about the dramatic increase in natural gas-fired electric plants in the Marcellus/Utica, particularly Pennsylvania (see