PA DEP Revokes Beaver County Right to Issue Pipe, Drilling Permits
Here’s something we didn’t know: The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) does not do all of its own work to issue permits for things like erosion and sediment control. In some (many?) cases, the DEP delegates and farms out authority to issue and monitor/inspect permits for erosion and sediment control to county conservation districts. DEP is not happy with the way Beaver County has been performing those functions and has just snatched it back, revoking the county’s right to issue and monitor erosion and sediment control permits for projects like pipeline construction and building well pads and roads.
Read More “PA DEP Revokes Beaver County Right to Issue Pipe, Drilling Permits”
North Carolina is going bonkers. The state Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ), under the direction of Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper, released a plan last week to tax carbon dioxide (get ready to hold your breath because you breathe out CO2!). The plan ultimately takes direct aim at limiting the use of natural gas by taxing it to death–Democrats’ favorite play to cater to the leftists in their base. The DEQ plan is certifiably nuts, but less nuts than that of NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo. If that’s any consolation.
On those occasions when we engage in conversation with friends and family about what we do, and drop the little factoid that the U.S. (because of shale) is now the #1 producer of both natural gas (surpassing Russia) and oil (producing more oil than Saudi Arabia)–our friends and family look at us like we have two heads. Why does the general population not know this? Because mainstream (biased) media doesn’t want them to. Yet it’s the truth. We flew by Russia back in 2011 to produce the most natgas of any country on the planet, and we flew by the Saudis last year to produce the most oil. We also set another world record last year–the biggest one-year increase in energy production of any country on Mom Earth. Thanks to shale.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Cheers for what natural gas, energy independence can mean for region; Residents at Rockingham County hearing on proposed natural gas pipeline have questions, concerns; Addressing workforce shortages during an industry boom; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Freeport LNG celebrates start of Train 1 production; Texas shale towns grapple with growth as oil-bust fears fade; Calcasieu Pass LNG to move ahead; BHGE to build LNG liquefaction trains; NATIONAL: Walmart claims faulty Tesla solar panels are starting fires; INTERNATIONAL: OPEC net oil export revenues; Equinor, Gazprom lose European gas market share as LNG imports triple; Is wind power, which has inflated electric prices, done in Germany?; German H1 natural gas imports rise 20%, bill rises 14.8%; Saudi Arabia buys U.S. cracker plant in Texas; Shale gas developer frustrated by uncertainty surrounding fracking.
Last week MDN told you that EQT CEO Toby Rice is conducting a series of four “town hall” style meetings with landowners in regions where the company drills (see 
Kinder Morgan, the largest pipeline company in the U.S., has left a string of broken promises about the date for which the first Elba Island LNG export plant “mini-train” would begin producing and shipping LNG. We’ve chronicled the journey extensively. According to an official update from KM in July, Elba was “in advanced stages of the commissioning and start up process, including LNG production” (see 
If Jeff Bezos (Amazon CEO) and Tim Cook (Apple CEO) jump off a cliff, should you, as CEO of an energy company, jump off too? The CEOs of ExxonMobil, Chevron, Marathon Petroleum and several other big oil and gas companies have just answered that question in the affirmative. Splat. Perhaps they were caught up in the euphoria of the moment. Perhaps they were shamed. (A new disorder for the DSM V: “CEO shaming.”) For whatever reason, a group of CEOs from some of the largest U.S. companies now say the people who buy their company’s stock and fund them via infusions of investment capital are no longer the #1 priority for their companies. We wonder what investors in those companies think. Have they had a change of heart? “Here, take my money and pee it away with no returns. Please! I don’t need this money any more.” Hey Jeff and Tim, we have a bridge in Brooklyn we’d like to sell ya…
Last Thursday morning at 6:30 am Blue Racer Midstream’s Natrium (Marshall County, WV) natural gas processing plant received a phoned-in bomb threat. Plant personnel immediately contacted law enforcement (local, state and federal) who swept the plant with bomb-sniffing dogs. Nothing was found.
For years MDN has observed that Cabot Oil & Gas is one of the few Marcellus/Utica drilling companies that can “spin straw into gold”–meaning it makes money on selling natural gas even when the price of that gas is in the basement (see 
Some 77 miles of PennEast Pipeline’s $1 billion, 120-mile primarily 36-inch underground pipeline is slated to run through Pennsylvania. The rest runs through New Jersey. In February of this year the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) published draft versions of Erosion and Sediment Control Permits for the project. Just one teeny tiny problem: The DEP screwed up the application number in their official posting in the PA Bulletin. So the DEP has just republished their intent to issue the permits–very soon–in the latest PA Bulletin.