Caught on Video: Frack Sand Train Goes Off Rails Near Scranton
Around noon yesterday, a train moving slowly, at 10 miles per hour, was hauling lumber and frack sand from Scranton to nearby Carbondale, when a video surveillance camera caught the train leaving the rails. Ten cars derailed, with three tipping over completely (spilling sand) and one teetering on the brink. The video, taken from a police station across the street, is amazing.
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Pennsylvania State Senators Camera Bartolotta (Washington County) and Pat Stefano (Fayette County) have just beaten PA Gov. Tom Wolf at his own game. Wolf has been gallivanting around the state like Santa Claus promoting a plan called Restore PA, a plan that will get rid of lead paint in schools, fix flooding, repair old roads, give rural residents internet access, and just about any other goody you can think of. Wolf wants to pay for it by slapping a severance tax on the Marcellus industry. Bartolotta and Stefano are introducing two bills that would fund Wolf’s folly–but do so by allowing new shale drilling on state land. Game, set, and match!
There is an ongoing question of whether or not the Ohio Marketable Titles Act (MTA), which impacts Utica shale rights, can be used to return previously severed mineral rights back to a surface landowner, or whether the MTA is superseded by Ohio Dormant Minerals Act (DMA). In February, Ohio’s Seventh District Court of Appeals said the MTA *does* still apply to mineral rights (see 
A group of radical leftist groups filed briefs in federal court last Friday asking the court to overturn the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s decision from 2017 that approves and allows the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). The court case, before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, is the next phase of the battle over ACP. We name names below for which non-profit agencies should have their tax exemption ripped away because of their overt political activities in opposing ACP.
You may recall MDN covering the story of the compressor station in Michigan that caught fire and exploded in January (see 
Natural gas was front and center at the ninth annual Marcellus and Manufacturing Development Conference, an event of the West Virginia Manufacturers Association, held yesterday in Morgantown, WV. Among the speakers was Steve Winberg, U.S. Department of Energy assistant secretary for fossil energy. He mouthed strong support for the Appalachian Basin ethane “hub” saying the region can easily support up to five ethane crackers, and that could lead to $35 billion of investment and 100,000 jobs in the region.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: The deadbeat billionaire – The inside story of how West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice ducks taxes and slow-pays his bills; Eight new permits issued in Utica Shale; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: New England curtails amid world natural gas boom; NATIONAL: Video: Green Signaling; U.S. crude oil production grew 17% in 2018, surpassing the previous record in 1970; Strong natural gas output holding Henry Hub to $2.82 this year, $2.77 in ‘20, says EIA; ‘No way’ for natural gas to stay above $3 for long, says analyst; Pipe constraints, crude economics take gas markets on a wild ride; U.S. natural gas liquids production continues to drive global supply growth.
We spotted some interesting comments made by Rick Simmers, chief of Ohio’s Division of Oil and Gas Resources (part of Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources, or ODNR), at the recent Utica Midstream conference in North Canton. Rick recounted the rapid, recent history of Utica drilling in the state, coming from nothing less than a decade ago to now having over 2,500 Utica wells drilled and producing. He also pulled out the crystal ball for a prediction of how many new Utica wells will get drilled both this year and next.
Last week Enbridge, owners of the Texas Eastern Transmission Company (Tetco) pipeline, filed documents with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission showing that Phase II of its Texas Eastern Appalachian Lease (TEAL) Project began service on April 1st. The TEAL project connects to and feeds Utica Shale gas to the NEXUS pipeline.
A joint announcement between Kendra II LLC and De Nora says a new wastewater recycling facility aimed at the shale industry will go online in late May providing drillers in the “heart of the Marcellus Shale” (in Susquehanna County, PA) a new option to recycle and reuse produced water…up to 18,000 barrels a day.
What will Pennsylvania’s future with respect to energy look like 25 years from now? What role will shale gas play? And how will that role affect the state? A group of 35 people began to study that question in the summer of 2017 and the end result, a new study, has just been released (full copy below). According to the study’s results, there are two distinct paths PA can take, resulting in two very different outcomes.
