The Real Costs of PA Gov. Wolf’s Carbon Tax by Joining RGGI
Opposition to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to have PA join with northeastern states in the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) continues. Big opposition. Earlier this month Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf went completely off his rocker with a power-grab to force PA into a regional alliance to tax natural gas-fired electric plants out of existence (see Gov. Wolf Goes Bonkers: EO Destroying Gas-Fired Elec, Carbon Tax). The reaction was swift–on both sides of the issue (see Reaction to Gov. Wolf’s Bonkers Plan to Strangle NatGas Elec Plants). Reaction against the plan continues. The Indiana County, PA Board of Commissioners recently adopted a unanimous resolution against Wolf’s foolish plan, laying out in dollars and cents the very high cost such a plan will have on the county (in lost taxes and lost jobs).
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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo followed a blindly stupid political philosophy of anti-fossil fuelism by blocking the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline, with tragic consequences–thousands of potential natgas customers who cannot connect to the local utility. Is New Jersey heading for the same scenario under Gov. Phil Murphy? If the state rejects the PennEast Pipeline, that answer is a resounding YES. We’ve seen this movie before.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Trout Unlimited attacks Mariner East pipe in bid to block Constitution, PennEast; President Trump’s remarks at Shale Insight Conference in Pittsburgh (video); Marcellus fracking means farewell to Dems in 2020; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: More propane-consuming PDH plants are on the way; NATIONAL: Jane Fonda and her new ‘trainee’ Ted Danson are arrested in climate protests; Production up, emissions down (video); Freefall in U.S. oil, gas patch picks up speed as 21 rigs exit; Small oil-and-gas companies get cold shoulder from large banks; Shale Slump: Patterson-UTI pulls 36 rigs from service; Flowing shale wells sooner would add billions to sector cash flow; Why is the United States importing natural gas from Russia?; Quantifying the impact of a fracking ban on U.S. gas production; INTERNATIONAL: China’s bid for commodity price clout extends to natural gas.
The stakes are about as high as it gets: “The immediate disruption of the natural gas industry,” says PennEast Pipeline. We’re referring to a terrible decision in September by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that disallows PennEast from using the delegated power of eminent domain to cross properties either owned by, or with easements granted to, the state of New Jersey (see 
American Electric Power (AEP) recently sealed a deal to sell more than 31,000 acres of land in eastern Ohio to the state of Ohio for $47 million. The state will use it for a state park. However, subsurface rights are not part of the deal. AEP will wisely hold on those rights. At some point AEP may want to drill and frack the land, and that has antis in a tizzy.
All we can say is, shame on FirstEnergy. They hired people to block petition gatherers trying to get signatures for a referendum for the November ballot. The tactics used can only be described as bullying–sometimes physical. Workers are trying to get enough signatures on a petition to place a referendum on the November ballot. The referendum, if adopted, would overturn House Bill 6 which grants a $1 billion bailout to FirstEnergy’s economically failing nuclear power plants (see 
In September 2018 MDN brought you the news that Southwestern Energy had, for the first time anywhere, sold natural gas to a customer (utility company New Jersey Resources) that has been certified as “responsible gas.” The certification comes from Independent Energy Standards Corporation (IES) and they call it their TrustWell™ Responsible Gas Program certification (see 
Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York, is not only pathetic, he’s transparent. Over the past few weeks multiple people have criticized Cuomo for his no-new-pipeline policies that have lead to pain and suffering for some New York City and Long Island residents who cannot connect to natural gas because of a coming shortage. The New York Post, Wall Street Journal and other media outlets have piled on. So too have President Trump and EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. All in the past seven days! What does little Andy do? Blame shift.
MDN is on the road in beautiful Pittsburgh, covering the Shale Insight 2019 event, so today’s lineup of stories is all about yesterday’s opening day. We will return with full strength MDN news on Friday. Meanwhile, tag along with MDN and be a virtual attendee at our industry’s marquee event!
President Trump was in rare form as he addressed several thousand people at the 2019 Shale Insight event. He was the closing keynote speaker of the first day of the conference. MDN editor Jim Willis was there to capture the speech for our readers. After acknowledging and praising three cabinet officials who came along with Trump–Dept. of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, Dept. of Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler (all of whom Trump had high praise for)–Trump opened his remarks this way: “I was here three years ago and you’re much happier now. You’re much wealthier now.” Trademark Trump!
We snapped a number of pictures of President Trump’s speech yesterday. Unfortunately the camera on our phone isn’t the greatest, and we were sitting far back, so the shots are a bit blurry. We snapped quite a few of the big monitor to improve the images. We’re not sure it helped. At any rate, come along to virtually attend the rally!
