Shale Gas News – October 5, 2019

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 and Sundays on YesFM, talked about property taxes, National Grid, Wolf’s climate plan and much more last week.

The Shale Gas News has grown again; welcome Gem 104 as our FOURTH station! Gem 104 helps to solidify the Shale Gas News coverage in an important Marcellus region, PA’s northern tier. 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. The Shale Gas News is aired on Saturday or Sunday depending on the station.

Every Saturday Rusty Fender and I host a morning radio show to discuss all things natural gas. This week we replayed part of the audio from last week’s ribbon cutting at the GDS Lenox facility with Susquehanna County Commissioner Alan Hall and Chad Gorman, GDS operations manager.

In this week’s Shale Directories meet a member segment we were joined by Jamie Bailey, manager of West Virginia & Ohio operations with ACF Environmental.

The Shale Gas News, typically, is broadcast live. On the October 5th show (click above), we covered the following new territory (see news excerpts below):

• WV Property Taxes on Shale Jump 40% from 2018 to 2019. West Virginia shale producers pay a 5% severance tax on all natural gas produced–you knew that, right? And in 2018 WV’s oil and gas producers (mostly shale) paid $138 million in severance taxes. But did you know that producers (i.e. drillers) also pay property taxes, on top of severance taxes? That’s right! And in 2019 WV’s drillers will pay an extra $123 million in property tax on top of the severance tax they pay this year–up 40% from last year.
• “Don Corleone” Cuomo Calls Out Utility for Denying Gas Service. New York Gov. Andrew “Don Corleone” Cuomo continues his sleazy vendetta against National Grid, the New York City/Long Island gas utility company that is refusing to connect *new* customers to their natural gas system because Cuomo has denied new sources of natural gas for that system. So far NY media is licking Cuomo’s boots on this issue, publishing sob stories that blame National Grid for the hardships now faced in the region. But residents in NYC and Long Island are not fooled. They see what’s really happening.
• XNG Compressed Gas Truck Overturns Near Binghamton, Driver Killed. What is arguably the worst-case scenario for a virtual pipeline company has happened–and it happened not more than 10 miles as the crow flies from MDN HQ. Early Monday morning a compressed natural gas (CNG) truck from Xpress Natural Gas (XNG) was traveling up Interstate 88 near Binghamton (Chenango Bridge area) at 1 am when the driver noticed two dear on the road. He swerved to miss the deer, tipping over the truck which held full canisters of CNG. The truck and trailer crashed into the concrete barrier between the east- and west-bound lanes, ejecting the driver and, sadly, killing him. Both deer were killed as well. One of the canisters in the trailer was punctured and released its gas. Some 80 nearby homes were evacuated as a precaution.
• PA Gov. Wolf Threatens to Issue Order on Power Plants. In April, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, along with a number of Senate and House Democrats (and a few Philadelphia RINOs), announced updated changes to the state’s so-called “climate” plan–changes that will doom the state economically. Among other things, Wolf plans to implement a cap-and-trade plan to control every aspect of Pennsylvanian’s lives by controlling how much and where they get energy from. And now Wolf is saying if the PA legislature won’t help him do it, he’ll just seize power and do it via Executive Order.
• Antero Idles WV Frack Wastewater Plant Launched 2 Years Ago. Ace reporter Paul Gough at the Pittsburgh Business Times is reporting an exclusive: Antero Resources, which built and launched an innovative frack wastewater recycling facility in Doddridge County, WV less than two years ago at a cost of $300 million, has idled the plant and is considering selling it. Say what?

The Shale Gas News sponsored by Linde Corporation