Franklin Park Tries to Block Fracking After Rejecting $1M+ Proposal
It appears the “leaders” of Franklin Park Borough in Allegheny County aren’t satisfied enough that they’ve rejected a free $1 million from PennEnergy Resources to drill under a town park (see Franklin Park Turns Down $1M+ to Drill Under Linbrook Park). Nope. Now they essentially want to ban fracking in the borough by passing an onerous new zoning ordinance.
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We’re following up on a post we made last Thursday about a coming moratorium on new customer hookups for natural gas in Westchester and New York City (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: DEP receives 2 proposed Good Samaritan gas well plugging project requests; DEP invites comments on Adelphia Pipeline Gateway Project in Delaware County; Ohio moves into top five for recoverable shale natural gas reserves; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Tellurian gets environmental clearance for Driftwood LNG; Houston company develops expertise in shallow horizontal wells; NATIONAL: DOE releases U.S. LNG export data through November 2018; Municipalities suing energy companies could get burned by their own lawyers; America’s communities will suffer if lawsuits against energy producers succeed; Huge backlog could trigger new wave of shale oil; U.S. oil-rig fleet shrinks the most in almost 3 years; Record production of natural gas to continue through 2020, Energy Department projects; Manchin’s focus on pipelines may equal his love of coal; The antithesis of green; INTERNATIONAL: An effort to bring fracking to Britain hits pause; U.S.-Qatar energy partnership has Russia on edge; Sinopec Capital calls for end to fossil-fuels vehicles.
Dear MDN Reader:
Events related (or of interest) to the Marcellus, Utica and other Appalachian shales happening in the next 90 days.
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Another situation is brewing with Gulfport Energy not unlike the situation at EQT. One of (we’re pretty sure THE) largest shareholders in Gulfport, investment firm Firefly Value Partners, is not happy with either the board of directors or current management, saying very publicly (via a letter, below) that the current board lacks “necessary skills and experience” to turn the company’s poorly performing stock around. Ba boom!
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) yesterday upheld an administrative law judge’s December decision against an “emergency” request by pipeline opponents to shut down both Mariner East 1 and 2 by claiming they are unsafe and need to be stopped. Can we FINALLY put this to rest and move on? ME1 and ME2 are both now online. There’s no going back.
Shell has calmed the troubled Ambridge waters–that is, the Ambridge Water Authority waters. Shell hit a snag with plans to build its Falcon Ethane Pipeline when the Ambridge Water Authority claimed construction of the pipeline under several streams feeding the Ambridge reservoir would endanger the drinking water for 30,000 people (see
Honest to God, we want to know, how do people get this stupid? Four adult men–three so-called farmers and one 38-year-old egghead student–chained themselves to a fossil fuel-belching farm tractor in the middle of a busy road in Connecticut to block a shipment of turbines on the way to a new natgas-fired electric plant under construction…in order to protest fossil fuels.
The political “leaders” in Franklin Park (Allegheny County, near Pittsburgh) have decided to reject a proposal to drill a shale well under (not on) the 80-acre Linbrook Park. With a signing bonus of $283,500 plus 18% royalties, the Franklin Park Borough would have seen revenue of *at least* $1 million. Talk about stupid.