4-Wk FREE Training Program Helps Unemployed Get M-U Pipeline Jobs
If you are unemployed–particularly if you once worked in the coal industry–and you’re interested in getting your foot in the door of a rewarding job in the Marcellus/Utica industry, LISTEN UP! For those who live in southwestern PA and eastern OH, the Washington Greene County Job Training Agency and the Gas Technology Institute have teamed up to provide a FREE 4-week training program just for you (details here). Called “From Black to Blue,” the program includes classroom and hands-on training so you will understand how the natural gas industry works, with an emphasis on natgas utilities and the pipeline industry. Starting salaries for pipeline-related jobs often exceed $50,000 per year, and eventually you may make in excess of $100,000 per year. These are awesome jobs, and this is an awesome opportunity to get trained for it. The first round of classes start Nov. 30 and Jan. 8 in Freeport, PA. Training in Ohio begins Jan. 15 in St. Clairsville. Below are the details, along with an application for the program. DO NOT DELAY, fill it out today and send it in…
Read More “4-Wk FREE Training Program Helps Unemployed Get M-U Pipeline Jobs”
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 
MDN has closely followed the effort to pass a dreadful bill in Pennsylvania known as House Bill (HB) 1401, which would tack a 3.2% severance tax on top of the existing ~5% impact tax (called a “fee”) already levied on Marcellus drillers, thereby effectively killing any new Marcellus drilling in the state. Last week, just ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, the House debated the bill for two days–then left town “abruptly” without taking any further action (see 
Yesterday Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (liberal Democrat) issued a press release to take credit for/crow about handing out another $1 million of taxpayer money. This time the money is part of the state’s Alternative Fuel Incentive Grants (AFIG) program–a program aimed at replacing gasoline and diesel fuel. At least replacing a little bit of it–a token gesture. The state issued grants totaling more than $1.1 million in their effort to replace fossil fuels as the fuel that powers vehicles. And what “alternative” will replace those nasty fossil fuels? What clean-burning, good-for-the-environment option did PA deign to fund for over $1 million? Was the money used to purchase new electric charging stations for Chevy Volts, Nissan Leafs, and Teslas? Nope. The superior option to replace those nasty fossil fuels is…other fossil fuels! The grants will buy buses that run on propane, and build compressed natural gas (CNG) refueling stations for vehicles that run on CNG. No electric outlets in sight. By using propane and CNG, Wolf says PA will replace “hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel” (meaning gasoline and diesel), making PA’s air cleaner. We think it’s kind of funny that Wolf’s enviro left hates natural gas, yet Wolf calls it clean and green and hands out money to make it more widely available…
There are a number of important pipeline projects, key to moving Marcellus/Utica gas either out of our region, or to places in our region that urgently need it. Some projects we’ve been writing about for years–like the stalled Constitution Pipeline from Susquehanna County, PA into New York State. Others are relatively recent, like the Valley Lateral Pipeline, a short pipeline to feed a power plant being built in Orange County, NY. Some projects like PennEast Pipeline are not yet fully approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and now face an uphill battle in New Jersey where an ultralib just got elected governor–saying he’ll do his best to hassle the project. What we need is a scorecard! What’s the status of all these important projects? Fortunately the sharp writers at E&E News (Energy & Environment Publishing) has just issued such a scorecard, chronicling 10 important, we’d call them vital, pipeline projects in the East: Constitution, Northern Access, Valley Lateral, PennEast, Atlantic Sunrise, NEXUS, Rover, Mountain Valley, Atlantic Coast, and Sabal Trail. Here’s a status report for each project…
We live in a different world here in New York State–MDN’s beloved, lifelong home state. We suppose it’s like living in East Germany just after The Wall was built. Our wall is not physical but political. Even so, it’s just as real. Our state has become something of a socialist/Communist dictatorship. Our Constitutional property rights have been stripped away. Some private companies are actively opposed and frustrated by our governor, who then turns around and doles out taxpayer money to other private companies who are his cronies. We have no shale drilling, and no prospect of it until Cuomo is voted out of office. He’s even taken to stopping pipelines. Fortunately some pipelines, like the Millennium, were built before Cuomo caught the green fever. However, if you try to expand existing pipelines, say by running a 7.8 mile spur to an electric power generating plant that’s almost built, Cuomo will try and stop you. He’s like a hostile war lord in a third-world country. A tinpot dictator. Operating a pipeline in such a climate is not easy. It brings to mind stories of missionaries who put their own lives at risk to travel to hostile lands to bring religion to the heathen–whoops, to the indigenous population. One such pipeline missionary operating in New York is Michelle Hook, director of public relations for the Millennium Pipeline Company. How does Michelle do it, without going crazy?…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: How will Upstate NY survive Cuomo’s anti-gas corruption; Shell cracker plant impact on Erie, PA; Sandridge adopts poison pill after corp raider Icahn becomes largest shareholder; US shale renews challenge to OPEC; oil majors bet big on shale tech; Clean Energy combines compressor biz with Italian co; LNG exports will slow in 2018, says Rusty Braziel; Scott Pruitt changing the culture at EPA; McIntyre & Glick to take FERC seats this week; and more!
Who says you can’t buy a court decision–at least a temporary one? Back in May MDN told you about the antis running the City of Green, Ohio hellbent on stopping the NEXUS Pipeline, all of it (see 
The FBI has been drawn into what was once a civil case in Ohio. EnerVest once owned nearly one million acres in the Ohio Utica Shale. It was unintentional. Most of the acreage came from owning old conventional/vertical oil and gas wells in the state. Belmont County, OH landowner, Matt Crislip, says EnerVest perpetrated a fraud on him by pretending his long inactive/dead conventional well was once again producing. The practice is known as “back-fed”–running gas from a pipeline back to the well, so it appears the well is still producing gas. Why do something crazy like that? So the driller can claim the well is producing and is “held by production”–allowing that driller to turn around and sell the lease to someone else (Ascent Resources, in this case) for “millions” according to Crislip. The result is Crislip didn’t see a penny in new lease-signing bonuses, and he didn’t get the opportunity to negotiate a new royalty rate. EnerVest flatly denies the back-fed charge and said they will defend themselves “vigorously.” So far the FBI has only investigated Crislip’s claim, and no charges have been filed. Yet. Here’s a look at Crislip’s claim and the FBI’s ongoing investigation, which may expand beyond Belmont County…
Energy Solutions Consortium, based in Buffalo, NY, has been trying to build a number of gas-fired electric plant projects in West Virginia for years (see 
Earlier this month we shared the exciting news that an old oil pipeline stretching from Northampton County, PA through Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties, terminating in Delaware County at Marcus Hook had been purchased by a subsidiary of New Jersey Resources will get converted to flow more Marcellus natural gas to the greater Philadelphia region (see 
The tax-and-spend liberals in Pennsylvania and those who oppose fossil fuels (almost always one-and-the-same) are still pushing a dreadful, devastating severance tax bill proffered by RINOsaur (i.e. ancient RINO) State Rep. Gene DiGirolamo known as House Bill (HB) 1401. The bill, if passed into law, would tack a 3.2% severance tax on top of the existing ~5% impact tax (called a “fee”) already levied on Marcellus drillers, thereby effectively killing any new Marcellus drilling in the state (see 
In Pennsylvania, the “Office of Environmental Justice” (sounds like a comic book thing) is nothing more than a way for po’ folk and minorities to sue the Marcellus industry over non-existent transgressions. In 2015, then-Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), John Quigley, “reactivated” the Office of Environmental Justice (see 
Events related (or of interest) to the Marcellus and Utica Shale, primarily pro-drilling events.