Shale Gas News – June 20, 2020

Bill desRosiers
External Affairs Coordinator, Cabot Oil & Gas

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The Shale Gas News, heard every Saturday at 10 AM on 94.3 FM, 1510 AM, 1600 AM, 104.1 FM and Sundays on YesFM, talked about Governor Tom Wolf, Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Range Resources and much more last week.

The Shale Gas News has grown again to the Williamsport area on stations WEJS 1600 AM & 104.1 FM. The Shale Gas News is now broadcasting in Bradford, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Luzerne, Lycoming, Pike, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga and Wayne Counties, as well as in greater central PA and now the Williamsport area. The Shale Gas News is aired on Saturday or Sunday depending on the station.

Every Saturday Rusty Fender, Matt Henderson and I host a morning radio show to discuss all things natural gas. This week, as guests, we had Matt Austin, President of Holcombe Energy and Eastern Freight Systems and Katie Klaber, managing partner at the Klaber Group.

The Shale Gas News, typically, is broadcast live. On the June 20th show (click above), we covered the following new territory (see news excerpts below):

• Impeachment of Tom Wolf! Resolution Introduced in House! Some 21 members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, including Jonathan Fritz, just introduced a resolution for impeachment of Governor Tom Wolf.  I’m standing and doing a long slow clap of hands for Representatives Darryl Metcalfe, Jonathan Fritz and 19 other co-sponsors of a Pennsylvania House Resolution calling for the impeachment of Governor Thomas Westerman Wolf. It’s nice to see elected officials with the courage to do the right thing and this is unequivocally the right thing to do, regardless where it goes. Someone needs to record for history just how badly Tom Wolf has managed the WuFlu response in our Commonwealth.
• Capitalism, Nor Cronyism, Is What We Need; Especially in Energy. A May 27, 2020, piece at EnergyWire (E&E News) reported the latest of how errant leadership, political correctness, and cronyism diminished a once proud, iconic company. “General Electric Co. cut one of the last remaining links to founder Thomas Edison, as the beleaguered manufacturer wrapped up a three-year process to sell its iconic lightbulb business,” reported Rick Clough. The buyer was the automated ‘smart home’ firm Savant Systems Inc.
• Land and Water Conservation Fund Being Financed by Oil and Gas. The American Petroleum Institute (API) represents all segments of America’s oil and natural gas industry. “Its more than 600 members produce, process, and distribute most of the nation’s energy. The industry supports 10.9 million U.S. jobs and is backed by a growing grassroots movement of millions of Americans. API was formed in 1919 as a standards-setting organization. In its first 100 years, API has developed more than 700 standards to enhance operational and environmental safety, efficiency and sustainability.” Today, though, it put out a rather important news release regarding the industry’s largely unknown role in financing the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
• Pipeline wins Appalachian Trail battle but may lose war. The Supreme Court yesterday removed one hurdle for developers of the Atlantic Coast pipeline, but the natural gas project remains in legal limbo as a host of other obstacles stand in the way of construction. In a 7-2 decision, the justices reversed a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling stating that the Forest Service could not authorize a permit for the pipeline to cross hundreds of feet beneath the scenic Appalachian Trail. The ruling was a win for pipeline developers Dominion Energy Inc. and Duke Energy Corp., as well as the Trump administration, but it did not resolve problems with other permits the 4th Circuit has scrapped.
• Analysis: Shale Crescent Region produces more natural gas than Texas. Since 2007, there has been a regional shift in liquefied natural gas (LNG) production in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania because of technological advances in drilling and delivery. According to an analysis by the publicly held company IHS Markit, these three states combined produce more natural gas than Texas. From 2008 to 2018, 85 percent of all natural gas growth in the U.S. has come from these three states because of the development of the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations.
• Victory! Atlantic Coast Pipeline Wins US Supreme Court Case. We finally have a major court victory over the forces of anti-fossil fuel evil, so let’s sit back and soak in the warmth and sunshine of this moment. Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a decision we expected, a decision that allows Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), a 600-mile project from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina, to cross under the Appalachian Trail. The decision is not only a victory for ACP, which is only about 6% built, but also a victory for the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline, which is 92% built. MVP also needs to pass under the Trail.
• Range Resources Forced to Cop to Environmental “Crimes” in SWPA. After spending years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to investigate Range Resources over a simple regulatory matter settled years ago by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection, PA’s leftist Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, announced on Friday he had finally bullied Range into pleading “no contest” to so-called environmental crimes (misdemeanors), forcing the company to pay $50,000 in fines and $100,000 to Shapiro’s favorite Big Green charities.

The Shale Gas News sponsored by Linde Corporation