Dela. Riverkeeper Loses Court Case to Block Martian Drilling
It seems the door *does* swing both ways when it comes to Pennsylvania municipalities and the Act 13 lawsuit decision that allows municipalities to have a say in zoning in, or zoning out, shale drilling. In 2013 seven selfish PA towns won the right, from the PA Supreme Court, to impose their own zoning rules on oil and gas drilling (see PA Supreme Court Rules Against State/Drillers in Act 13 Case). Since that time, Big Green groups have asked the court to rule the door only swings one way–that zoning can keep shale drilling out, but never allow *more* of it. That notion has now been put to rest. The door swings both ways.
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Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) finally broke ground and began to build a new Marcellus gas-fired power plant in Cambria County, PA in October 2017 (see
In late June, MDN brought you the sad news that Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES), which operates the East Coast’s largest refinery on the banks of the Delaware River, has decided to close, throwing 1,020 people out of work following a recent fire (see
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Westmoreland municipalities count on windfall from natural gas impact fee; Utilities commission announces revenue; They’ve drilled a well on my property, but never finished it. Why?; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Port of Virginia becomes first U.S. port to join SEA\LNG; TVA’s IRP foresees natural gas growth climbing 2-17 GW over next 20 years; Why build an ethane steam cracker in a time of low ethylene margins?; Wisconsin utility regulators decline to consider climate impact of proposed natural gas plant; NATIONAL: How the US shale revolution changed the face of geopolitics; The U.S. is overflowing with natural gas. Not everyone can get it.; Senators to review global LNG export landscape; 2020 Democrats want to turn our energy independence into submission; INTERNATIONAL: Biased attack on natural gas leaves out key facts.
Events related (or of interest) to the Marcellus, Utica and other Appalachian shales happening in the next 90 or so days. Send your calendar items (listed for free!) to: jim (at) marcellusdrilling.com.
Exactly three years ago, TransCanada Corporation (now renamed TC Energy) completed a deal to buy out and merge in Columbia Pipeline Group for $10 billion (see
Global warming fundamentalists certainly are a persistent lot. They can’t win elections, and they can’t force state or federal legislatures to pass laws banning pipelines (and shale drilling), so they do the next best thing. They twist our own court system against us in an attempt to block pipelines. Which has worked to some degree, at least in the northeast. The aim is to block all pipelines everywhere, eventually. Even in Texas. One of the ways antis attack the ability to build pipelines is by challenging what they pejoratively call “quick take” eminent domain–the right for a pipeline company to access and build a pipeline on property ahead of actually settling how much money the landowner will receive (in the case of landowners who refuse to negotiate).

In May the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a draft report titled “Study of Oil and Gas Extraction Wastewater Management Under the Clean Water Act” (see 
Two weeks ago at the Northeast Petrochemical Conference in Pittsburgh, a panel of speakers from West Virginia, including former Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette, addressed the topic of Advanced Manufacturing and Petrochemicals related to the shale industry. At the end of the prepared talks, the session was opened to questions from the audience. MDN asked the first question, which was this: “The $83.7 billion question is, what’s going on with the proposed investment in shale and petchem promised by China?”
PennEnergy Resources, a Pittsburgh based independent oil and gas company focused on the Marcellus/Utica Shale, is getting ready to drill new wells on a pad in Economy (Beaver County), PA. The plan is facing stiff opposition from local residents because it’s located near a housing development in a residential (albeit rural) area, and will use a local road for access.