PA Severance Tax Bills Intro’d in House & Senate w/Strong Support
It looks like Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s “promise them anything and everything” Santa Claus routine is working. We’re referring to Wolf’s so-called Restore PA plan that will provide (over a number of years) $4.5 BILLION worth of goodies to Pennsylvanians by slapping a Marcellus-killing severance tax on the already impact taxed shale industry. Legislation was introduced yesterday in the PA House to create Restore PA (House Bill 1585) and fund it with a severance tax, and we’ll be darned if there weren’t 99 House members who signed up to sponsor it (16 of them traitorous Republicans).
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A lawsuit brought by greedy lawyers (ab)using a group of 21 ignorant children against the United States for not doing enough about mythical man-made global warming is once again in the news. The lawsuit aims to force the end of using all fossil fuels in the United States, to address so called man-made global warming.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PA Senate confirms Patrick McDonnell as Secretary of DEP; Pittsburgh Mayor Peduto wants pension funds divested from fossil fuels; One of Pittsburgh’s biggest law firms enters Houston; Gillibrand backs ambitious New York climate plan; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Massachusetts Attorney General sued over use of Bloomberg-funded attorneys; Natural gas flaring hits record high in first quarter in U.S. Permian Basin; Flash fire injures 3 at natural gas plant in northern Colorado; NATIONAL: EIA tool compares individual power plants’ generation, cooling water use, and emissions; US FERC’s Chatterjee rekindles grid resilience debate; Animated chart: Annual US natural gas production by US state from 1967 to 2018.
Three families who lived near a former drill site and frack wastewater impoundment in Washington County, PA sued Range Resources in May 2012 claiming the air they breathe and the water they drink had been contaminated by Range’s operations at the site (see 
On May 15 New York’s Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), under the direction of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, denied a permit for the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) natural gas pipeline (see 
Since 2013 so-called environmentalists have protested, agitated and lobbied to prevent the Cayuga Power Plant in Lansing (Ithaca suburb) from switching from burning coal to burning clean natural gas–because they irrationally hate fossil fuels (see 
Ever notice how leftists force their will on the American people via leftist judges–because they can’t win at the ballot box? It’s frustrating that we elected President Trump to do a job, and his administration is doing their darnedest, and at every turn there’s a lib Dem judge waiting to make life miserable. Such is the case with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which just rendered a decision (by three Dem-appointed leftist judges) in an Appalachian pipeline lawsuit that is actually a win for the pipeline–but also a warning shot that the lib Dem judges want the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to bow to their demands that FERC consider mythical man-made global warming when evaluating future pipeline projects.
If you’re heading to college (or know someone who is), or maybe in college right now, or considering a career change and you have the time and money to get another college degree…we have a suggestion. Take a look at petroleum engineering as your major. Those with a petroleum engineering degree earn the highest average salaries in the country! A survey looked at college degrees and salaries for those in the workforce between the ages of 29-31 and found the highest average salary ($169,680 per year) belongs to petroleum engineer grads!
Yesterday Toby and Derek Rice issued another (new) letter to EQT shareholders in the quest to make a case that the existing EQT board and management must be thrown out. A few hours later EQT responded with its own letter to shareholders. Here’s the latest in the proxy war to control EQT.
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issued first quarter 2019 numbers for Utica shale oil and gas production last Friday. Both natural gas and oil production increased over last year’s 1Q. Natgas production was up 14.5% over the same period last year, to 609.5 billion cubic feet (Bcf). However, 1Q19 production is down from Ohio’s all-time high of 663.5 Bcf in 4Q18. Oil production was 5.1 million barrels, up 29% over last year’s 1Q, but down from 4Q18’s 5.8 million barrels. So, 1Q19 numbers are up from last year’s 1Q, but down from the previous quarter (4Q18). A mixed bag.
In March MDN brought readers a pair of posts about a new bill in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, HB 247, which would allow fully leased parcels that are part of one drilling “unit” to be combined with parcels in a different unit–“cross-unit drilling” if you will (see 
“Quit playing that @#$% video game!” How often have young people heard that refrain from a parent? Hey parents, you may want to lighten up a bit on the video game thang. The eye-hand coordination and quick thinking skills built by long hours of playing video games are helping youngsters who grow up and enter the work force get jobs operating seriously big pieces of construction equipment used in the Marcellus/Utica, like cranes and earthmovers.