Webasto – Saving Marcellus/Utica Trucks Big Money and Time
Winter has arrived here in the Marcellus/Utica. Keeping a truck idled for hours at a time–just to keep it warm or to get it warmed up before driving–is a waste of money. It’s also harmful to the environment (lots of nasty diesel emissions). There is a better way–the Webasto way. Webasto designed and manufactures an ingenious solution, a tiny little device like a motor, that will heat up the fluids in a truck, meaning you don’t have to start it minutes and hours ahead of time just to warm it up. They even have a device that will keep the cabin warm–without running the truck’s engine! How clever is that? MDN is delighted to bring our audience a new sponsor/advertiser: Webasto. Never heard of it? You may actually have one of their systems in your equipment and not even realize it. They’re responsible for the technology behind Engine-Off heating solutions–improving driver comfort and engine performance for all types of vehicles. Webasto was founded in 1901 in Germany and remains headquartered there. However, it is truly an international company, with operations around the world, including here in the U.S. There are a number of subsidiaries and divisions within the company. The part of the company that has become an MDN sponsor manufactures technologies, like heaters, used in big trucks (see it here).
Obviously not all MDN readers are interested in technology that keeps trucks warm in the winter. But there are a number of trucking companies, and fleet managers, who subscribe to and read MDN. Companies that work in the Marcellus/Utica region. We have some information you need–information that will (a) save you BIG money, (b) improve your environmental record, and (c) lower maintenance costs for your trucks…
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Hey Lancaster Against Pipelines–you might want to rethink your opposition to the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline that flows fracked Marcellus gas from northeast PA to places like Lancaster. Why? Because you’re own hospital is powered by a new electric plant that uses Marcellus gas to generate electricity. Hospitals are known as “critical infrastructure” in PA–facilities that “deliver essential services and functions during natural disasters, emergency events, or grid outages.” Lancaster General Hospital, critical infrastructure in the Lancaster area, now produces almost all of its own electricity from a new 6.6 megawatt power plant it built right on the hospital campus (gasp!). Lancaster General uses a “combined heat and power” (CHP) system. Here’s the cool part: There are a dozen other hospitals across the Keystone State that already use natgas-powered CHP systems to generate their own electricity too. So tell us again, Lancaster Against Pipelines, how filthy fracked gas is destroying Mom Earth and poisoning the air. Quite the contrary: Natgas and the pipelines that deliver it are saving lives in hospitals across the state, including Lancaster County…
Advocating for anarchy (a doing away of laws and letting the mob rule) is not unique to radical environmentalists in the United States. Such anarchy is alive and well in the Canadian environmental movement too. The Utica Shale, which underlies much of the Marcellus Shale, also underlies part of Canada’s Quebec province. From time to time we highlight news concerning the Utica in Canada. There hasn’t been much news to highlight over the years since Quebec has had a moratorium on fracking since 2012. But as we reported in December 2016, something of a minor miracle happened–the Quebec National Assembly voted to pass Bill 106, ostensibly to support Quebec’s “clean power plan” (see 
Washington State is a strange place. Yes, the state has given us world-changing companies like Microsoft and Boeing. It’s also changed our coffee drinking habits by giving us Starbucks. But Washington State is also home to some seriously demented and dangerous people. We spotted a story in the Washington (DC) Post that confirms what MDN has been saying for years (not that we need confirming): anarchists are some of the core members of the anti-fossil fuel movement. An anarchist, in case you need a definition, is “a person who rebels against any authority, established order, or ruling power” (Merriam Webster). In other words, lawless. A law unto themselves. Gangs of bullies. Lord of the Flies. You get the picture. The WashPo story, using flowery and laudatory language, reports that a group of anarchists in Washington State have set up a tent village on top of railroad tracks that come out of the Port of Olympia. Ceramic proppants–artificial beads that are used in place of frac sand–are shipped to the Port and from there, loaded onto rail cars and hauled cross country, mostly to the Bakken Shale play in North Dakota, where they are used to frack shale wells. An encampment was set up on Nov. 17 to block those shipments and it’s still there–because local Police Chief Ronnie Roberts (hired to uphold the law), doesn’t like fracking and won’t arrest these whack jobs and eject them. That’s why we say Washington State is a strange place…
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) is an organization you may not have heard much about. NARUC is a non-profit organization representing state public service commissions who regulate the utilities that provide essential services such as energy, telecommunications, power, water, and transportation. NARUC has just done us all a favor. On Monday NARUC released a new report on best practices and recommendations for state regulators to promote and support the expansion of natural gas service in unserved and underserved areas, including rural areas. “Report of the NARUC Task Force on Natural Gas Access and Expansion” (full copy below) is a 57-page report for state public utility/service commissions that includes eight recommended ways states can grow natural gas use to those not currently served by it…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: NY Gov. Cuomo’s bizarre reasons for banning fracking; ODNR issues 6 new Utica permits; well completion company rents space in Washington County, PA; EPA greenhouse gas rule hearing in WV draws big crowd; Marcellus industry helps deer hunters; Bakken gas flaring flaring up again; Democrat FERC Commissioner seated, still waiting on final Republican; Big Green groups want lawsuit against them (for racketeering) dismissed; would you bet your paycheck on a weather forecast?; and more!
In December 2016, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) unveiled new regulations to clamp down on methane emissions and other other air pollution that allegedly comes from shale drilling sites (see 
PennEast Pipeline is a $1 billion, 120-mile primarily 36-inch natural gas pipeline that will stretch from Dallas (Luzerne County), PA to Transco’s pipeline interconnection near Pennington (Mercer County), NJ. The pipeline is an important conduit to move gas from the prolific gas fields of northeastern PA to markets in southeast PA and New Jersey. From the beginning of the project there have been a collection of so-called environmental organizations opposing it–including THE Delaware Riverkeeper, NJ Sierra Club, and the NJ Conservation Foundation. All radical groups, far far out of the mainstream. They also share something else besides an irrational hatred of fossil fuels–they’re part of a conspiracy to defeat PennEast funded by the William Penn Foundation. William Penn funds the aforementioned groups, as well as buying their own “media” in news outlets by funding StateImpact Pennsylvania and a news site called NJ Spotlight. William Penn sits in the background, pretending to be apart and aloof (to protect their IRS non-profit status) while pulling the strings and directing the opposition. Why the IRS turns a blind eye, we can’t say. At any rate, William Penn pulled another string this week–prompting their serfs at the NJ Conservation Foundation to file a lawsuit against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The cockamamie claim is that IF FERC approves PennEast, the pipeline will then be able to invoke eminent domain to allow it to enter properties and complete route mapping for the pipeline. Right now some hardened antis who live along the route refuse to allow PennEast to step one foot on their property. So NJ Conservation Foundation has filed a lawsuit (copy below) to prevent FERC from issuing a final certificate for PennEast because PennEast will then gain the right of eminent domain. The lawsuit claims PennEast using eminent domain to build the pipeline would be an improper “taking” of private property under the Constitution. The only problem (for the William Penn-backed NJ Conservation Foundation) is that no “taking” has actually happened until FERC approves the project. That is, the lawsuit anticipates a harm that hasn’t happened. We expect that little fact will not escape the judge’s notice and that the lawsuit will be tossed in short order…
A month ago MDN brought you the news that the U.S. District Court in Akron, OH had made a major ruling that affects all Utica landowners and drillers (see 
On Monday MDN brought you the news that Captain Ahab, er, a, Ohio EPA director Craig Butler, had demanded Rover Pipeline stop all horizontal directional drilling (HDD) work now under way in the state because another (tiny, 200 gallon) drilling mud spill happened on November 16th (see 
Buckle up while we explain the background for this story. In October 2014, the DEP fined EQT a whopping $4.53 million for a leaky wastewater impoundment in Tioga County, PA (see 
We’re not sure when this happened, but the dreadful severance tax bill in the Pennsylvania House, House Bill (HB) 1401 went from being a 3.2% tax to now a 1.5% tax on Marcellus production. Even with the lower rate, as we pointed out in a post yesterday, liberal Democrats are already voicing disgust and laying blame in anticipation that the bill will not pass (see 
Each year (for the 11th year running) the Canadian-based Fraser Institute surveys petroleum industry executives and managers (333 of them for 2017) asking them their opinions on the barriers to investing in exploration and production in various geographies across the globe. That is, what makes them more likely or less likely to spend money drilling in a particular location? The Global Petroleum Survey (full copy below), tallies the survey responses and ranks each geography from most desirable place to invest, to least desirable. The rankings for this year are interesting and illustrative that politicians’ words and regulatory environment have a direct bearing on where, and how much, drilling companies are willing to spend. No money spent, no drilling. The barriers to spending in a given geography include: high tax rates, costly regulatory schemes, uncertainty over environmental regulations and the interpretation and administration of regulations governing the petroleum industry, and security threats. Only one state in the Marcellus/Utica ranked in the Top 10 “most attractive” jurisdictions for oil and gas investment–West Virginia…
In July 2017, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a favorable final environmental impact statement (EIS) for both the Mountaineer XPress and Gulf XPress projects (see 
Why are we not surprised that antis are NEVER happy. EVER. Sunoco Logistics Partners has, after experiencing problems using underground horizontal direction drilling (HDD) at a couple of locations near Philadelphia while building the Mariner East 2 NGL pipeline, decided to abandon HDD and instead switch to another method to get the pipeline installed. Even with the change in methodology, antis are still fussing and moaning. The only outcome that will make them “happy” is for Sunoco to abandon building the pipeline, which isn’t going to happen. Even if Sunoco did quit building ME2, we doubt the antis would really be happy. Have you ever noticed they’re perpetual sourpusses?…