Thorny Issue of Who Owns O&G Rights Under PA Roads – Strip & Gore

For years we’ve railed against what we consider the theft of royalties and bonus payments by the state of Pennsylvania from landowners with creeks and rivers running through their leased (for shale drilling) property. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) claims that under a centuries-old law, the state of PA “owns” the…

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Radical Sierra Club Tries to Block Driftwood LNG in 5th Circuit

Driftwood LNG, a 27.6 million tonnes of LNG per year facility that will cost on the order of $16.8 billion to build, has not made an official final investment decision (FID) to proceed with building the FERC-approved project. However, construction began on the project in March 2022 (see Tellurian Begins Construction of Driftwood LNG with…

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All Construction of MVP Stopped as 4th Circuit Stays Second Permit

Yesterday MDN told you that on Monday, the clown judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (i.e., the 4th Circus) illegally stayed a THIRD permit issued by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) for Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to traverse a piddly 3.5 miles of the federally-owned Jefferson National Forest (see Colluding…

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Colluding 4th Circuit Judges Do It Again – MVP Halted in Jeff Forest

Three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (i.e., clown judges from 4th Circus) yesterday Congress, the President, and the entire country the judicial equivalent of the double-barrel middle finger by illegally ruling to block the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) through 3.5 miles of Jefferson National Forest–for a…

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Olympus Drops W Deer Well Pad Case After 2nd Pad is OK’d by Town

Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) drills in the Greater Pittsburgh region, in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. In 2021, Olympus applied to build a new well pad in a rural part of Allegheny County, in West Deer Township. So-called “concerned citizens” got amped up to oppose the project. They succeeded when town supervisors rejected the…

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Court: Columbia Pipe Shareholders Shafted in Sale, TC Energy Liable

TransCanada Corporation, which renamed itself TC Energy in 2019, made a play for and bought out/merged in U.S.-based Columbia Pipeline Group in 2016 (see TransCanada and Columbia Pipeline Tie the Knot Today). TransCanada paid $13 billion for Columbia, including the assumption of $2.8 billion of debt. TransCanada paid Columbia shareholders $25.50 per share in cash….

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Former OH House Speaker Gets 20-Yrs in Prison for Nuke Bribe Scandal

Here’s the sad end of a sad chapter in Ohio’s history–the conclusion to the largest bribery scandal in the state’s history. We’re referring to Ohio House Bill (HB) 6, a law granting billions (plural) of dollars to FirstEnergy to prop up the company’s economically failing nuclear power plants. FirstEnergy bribed state legislators to pass, and…

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FERC Issues Order Allowing MVP to Restart ALL Construction

Finally! On Monday, Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) builder Equitrans asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to restart all remaining construction to install the final 6% of MVP in West Virginia and Virginia. Yesterday, FERC issued that permission. Ladies and gentlemen, start your bulldozers! Company spokeswoman Natalie Cox said crews will begin work “shortly”…

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Fed Court Nixes Chesapeake Royalty Settlement with PA Landowners

In 2021, U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal, Chief Judge for the Southern District of Texas, approved deals for Chesapeake Energy to pay $6.25 million to class members of the three royalty lawsuits brought by Pennsylvania landowners (roughly 15,000 class members) and another $2.9 million to the lawyers involved (see Texas Judge OKs Chesapeake Royalty…

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Radicals File Lawsuit Response Challenging MVP Debt Ceiling Law

The left thought it had won the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) battle and had stopped this 94% completed pipeline project cold. But then Congress passed the “debt ceiling” bill that forces the completion of MVP (see Equitrans Announces Mountain Valley Pipe to Get Completed in 2023). Big Green’s favored approach to block MVP is to…

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Bidenistas Already Close to Reissuing WOTUS Following Court Ruling

In May, after years of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) provided closure on what is and what is not considered “waters of the United States”–or WOTUS (see U.S. Supreme Court Permanently Restricts EPA WOTUS Rule). SCOTUS ruled unanimously on WOTUS. The court came down on the side of rationality and common sense. However, we’re…

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PA Senate Passes 2 Important Bills Affecting EHB; Unfortunately DOA

Far-left environmentalist wackos have learned how to abuse the legal system in the U.S. in their attempts to block fossil energy. One of the places they excel in abusing the system is in Pennsylvania. When the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issues a new permit for a project the left opposes, they appeal the…

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Work Proceeds on NJNG Gas Regulator Station in Holmdel, NJ

In late December, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) voted to grant permission to New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) to build a pipeline regulator station in Holmdel, NJ. What does a regulator station do? It reduces pressure on the underground natural gas pipelines that already exist in the area, running underneath the ground…

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EPA Agrees to Sue-and-Settle with Sierra Club, EDF re Power Plants

We’ve written about the sleazy practice of “sue and settle” in the past–a practice whereby government agencies like the EPA get their friends in the radical environmental movement to sue them, then they quickly settle the case and say, “See, we HAVE to do this because the court is making us do it.” (See our

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Equitrans Files to Dismiss 2 Remaining Lawsuits Blocking MVP

Last week, the U.S. House and Senate voted to approve the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, to raise the debt… Continue reading The post Equitrans Files to Dismiss 2 Remaining Lawsuits Blocking MVP first appeared on Marcellus Drilling News. This post appeared first on Marcellus Drilling News.

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