Other Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, Apr 9, 2018
The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: Pittsburgh lawyer co-founds software co aimed at Marcellus; EQT interim CEO making $850,000/yr; court approves PES bankruptcy plan; climate lawsuit suffers another blow in federal court; CO2 emissions from power plants at lowest levels since 1988–thx to shale; corp raiders forcing smaller shale players to consider M&A; 7% of all fossil fuels never burned; Kinder Morgan threatens to scrap Trans Mountain pipe project in Canada; and more!
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It’s OK to be a blithering idiot and oppose important pipeline infrastructure projects like the Mariner East 2 Pipeline because you believe in the fairy tale of man-made global warming. It’s OK to march and protest and write and name-call, and yes, it’s even OK to launch frivolous lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit. Knock yourselves out. It’s your right as a citizen in the greatest country on Mom Earth, a country we call America. What is NOT OK is to vandalize construction equipment used to build the pipeline, causing thousands of dollars in damage, simply because you’re demented and delude yourself that you are somehow saving “the environment” with your criminal action. That is precisely what Sunoco is alleging after someone(s) damaged the engines, fuel systems and hydraulic lines of two pieces of heavy equipment on April 2 & 3 in Chester County, PA (near Philadelphia). Sunoco is offering $10,000 for information leading to an arrest. We certainly hope that happens…
Here’s one we didn’t see coming–a potential way to fix the ongoing disaster that is the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) and their illegal attempt to regulate hydraulic fracturing within the Delaware River Basin under the claim they have the right to regulate anything that impacts groundwater. A Pennsylvania House of Representatives member, Dan Moul (Republican from Gettysburg), is about to introduce a bill that would replace the DRBC’s authority to regulate groundwater by vesting that authority solely in the hands of the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). The problem is, the bill appears to be targeted more at the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) than DRBC. The bill will affect both organizations. Last time we checked, the SRBC does a fine job of regulating water withdrawals for fracking AND makes no attempt to regulate fracking, which the DRBC is attempting to do. But then, we don’t think this bill has the DRBC’s frack ban, nor fracking at all, in mind. It likely has more to do with farming and other water uses and some perceived shortcomings at the SRBC…
Monroeville, PA (Allegheny County, suburb of Pittsburgh) is hostile toward the shale industry. In September, Monroeville Council voted to enact a super-restrictive seismic testing ordinance (see 
Propane is one of the NGLs (natural gas liquids) that come out of the ground along with natural gas and oil–especially in “wet gas” areas like southwestern PA, eastern OH, and the northern panhandle area of WV. Ethane and propane have been flowing through the converted Mariner East 1 (ME1) pipeline for more than year–hauling propane (and ethane) from southwest PA all the way to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. At Marcus Hook, the propane is loaded onto ships and sent around the world. The world is an important market for our propane. However, ME1 was suddenly switched off on March 3 by order of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) after a sinkhole opened up under the pipeline, exposing some of the bare steel to the open air (see 
In September, MDN told you that the obsequious members of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) had slavishly obeyed their radical environmental masters by voting to move forward with a permanent ban on fracking in the Delaware River Basin (see 
Attendees at yesterday’s Utica Midstream conference at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio got an earful about pipelines and processing plants. Perhaps the biggest news coming from the event (for us, anyway), is that MarkWest Energy, now part of Marathon Petroleum, plans to build another six natural gas processing plants and another three fractionation plants in the Marcellus/Utica THIS YEAR. MarkWest plans to spend a whopping $2 billion in the region this year! That’s in addition to building two new processing plants and three fractionation plants last year. A processing plant accepts raw hydrocarbons coming out of shale wells and separates out the methane from everything else–“cleaning up” the methane so it’s pipeline-ready. Fractionation takes what’s left after the methane is removed and separates those other hydrocarbons into their discrete molecules–ethane, propane, pentane, butane, etc. According to MarkWest, M-U moving butane to new markets will be a major focus this year. We also learn that MarkWest’s Sherwood facility (in WV) is now the fourth largest gas processing plant in the U.S.–and by the end of this year, it will be #1! In addition to MarkWest, there were a number of other top notch speakers at yesterday’s event, including Rick Simmers from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources. Rick mentioned in passing there’s a shale well pad in southeast Ohio with a whopping 28 wells on it. Below is a summary of what was said at yesterday’s event…
Two days ago MDN revealed which rock layers Cabot Oil & Gas is targeting with new test wells in central Ohio (see 
Rex Energy filed two regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this week that don’t bode well for the company. In a Form 8-K filing (a form used to notify investors of events that may be important to investors), Rex let it be known they could not make an interest payment due on senior notes, a semi-annual payment due on April 2nd. Rex said in the filing that the noteholders to whom payment is due (Angelo, Gordon & Co.) have signed a temporary “forbearance” agreement that gives Rex a little breathing room–precious little. The forbearance agreement gives Rex until April 16 to pay up. Angelo, Gordon & Co. have promised not to take any action until that date. The second filing, a Form 12b-25, says that Rex will not be able to file its annual 2017 report on time. In February we reported that it looked like, at that time, that Rex was getting ready to file for bankruptcy (see 
In the middle of March, MDN warned readers that EV Energy Partners (EVEP), a subsidiary company of EnerVest, would soon be filing for bankruptcy (see 
The gloves have finally come off. Typically the Marcellus industry, as represented by the Marcellus Shale Coalition, has used restrained language when talking about Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. Hey, the industry has to work with the guy because the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP)–the agency that regulates shale drilling–is part of the executive branch (under Wolf’s thumb). The industry often can’t say what it really thinks. No more. Wolf, who pretends to be a friend of the Marcellus industry and mouths words of support, recently launched a vicious, lying attack against the industry over the severance tax issue (as part of his re-election campaign). The gloves are now off and the MSC is punching back. MSC president Dave Spigelmyer published an editorial in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer pointing out the difference between Wolf’s words and his deeds. In a bout of political schizophrenia (some would say hypocrisy), Wolf says shale gas in PA represents “enormous economic opportunity.” He then turns around and claims high-paid Marcellus lobbyists have spread money around Harrisburg like candy, bribing legislators to block a severance tax. What Wolf doesn’t tell you is that he himself has received millions of dollars from the teacher’s unions he’s promised to give severance tax money to…
The Commonwealth Foundation is Pennsylvania’s premier free-market think tank. The aim of the Foundation is to “transform free-market ideas into public policies so all Pennsylvanians can flourish.” We’ve highlighted their excellent work over the years. They’ve just done it again. The Commonwealth Foundation has just published a report called “The State of Natural Gas in Pennsylvania” (full copy below). The opening begins this way: “Pennsylvania’s regulatory and tax environment is stunting job growth and deterring investment. A decade after the Marcellus Shale boom, lawmakers are still debating how to tax the industry instead of fixing the policies contributing to Pennsylvania’s increasingly uncompetitive energy market.” At the end of the report the Foundation shows a severance tax comparison of existing severance taxes in other states that PA competes against, like Ohio, West Virginia, Texas, Colorado, and Oklahoma. The chart shows that the existing impact fee (in essence a severance tax) runs around 1.1%. The severance tax in Ohio is running around 0.7%, and in West Virginia 3.5%. In places like Texas, which increasingly competes against PA with prodigious quantities of natural gas production, the severance tax is 4.2%. However, Gov. Wolf’s proposed severance tax would be 5%–the highest in the nation except for New Mexico’s 7.9% (which doesn’t compete with PA). The report shows how PA is restricting Marcellus activity with over-regulation and a high corporate income tax…