American Electric Power (AEP) recently sealed a deal to sell more than 31,000 acres of land in eastern Ohio to the state of Ohio for $47 million. The state will use it for a state park. However, subsurface rights are not part of the deal. AEP will wisely hold on those rights. At some point
Read More...All we can say is, shame on FirstEnergy. They hired people to block petition gatherers trying to get signatures for a referendum for the November ballot. The tactics used can only be described as bullying–sometimes physical. Workers are trying to get enough signatures on a petition to place a referendum on the November ballot. The
Read More...The effort to overturn nuclear bailout legislation in Ohio is now in the hands of a federal judge, Kallanish Energy reports. Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts, the group that had been circulating petitions against House Bill 6 that would aid two nuclear power plants in Ohio owned by FirstEnergy Solutions, filed a lawsuit seeking more time
Read More...Jim WillisEditor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN) ExxonMobil is looking to do a cracker in Western Pennsylvania or environs and it could be in the same vicinity as Shell’s. Pennsylvania is still rising! Leave it to ace reporter Paul Gough from the Pittsburgh Business Times to unearth some earth-shattering news–that ExxonMobil is actively looking at locations in Beaver
Read More...There is an ongoing question of whether or not the Ohio Marketable Titles Act (MTA), which impacts Utica shale rights, can be used to return previously severed mineral rights back to a surface landowner, or whether the MTA is superseded by Ohio Dormant Minerals Act (DMA). In February, Ohio’s Seventh District Court of Appeals said
Read More...U.S. coal giant Murray Energy Corp., led by the outspoken industry promoter Robert Murray, is nearing default, Kallanish Energy reports. Murray, which bills itself as the U.S.’s largest privately-held coal company, failed to make multiple payments to lenders last week, the Ohio-based company said, in a statement. Creditors have agreed not to take legal action until
Read More...Tom ShepstoneShepstone Management Company, Inc. … … Natural Gas NOW readers pass along a lot of stuff every week about natural gas, fractivist antics, emissions, renewables, and other news relating to energy. As usual, emphasis is added. Disingenuous Daylin Leach Proposes PA Fracking Ban I’ve met Senator Pennsylvania Senator Daylin Leach. Indeed, I have testified
Read More...Ohio’s major newspapers continue to push back against phony commercials being run by FirstEnergy in a desperate attempt to block a referendum to overturn House Bill (HB) 6 (see FirstEnergy Runs Attack Ad, Claims China Controls OH NatGas Plants). HB 6, a corporate welfare bill, was recently passed to prop up two FirstEnergy bankrupt nuclear
Read More...During the second quarter of 2019, natural gas and oil production from Ohio’s horizontal wells saw increases, according to data released by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Horizontal natural gas wells produced over 614 billion cubic feet from the beginning of March through the end of June — an increase of .78% from the first
Read More...Voters, taxpayers and lawyers in the city of Youngstown, OH will be spared from a ninth iteration of an anti-fracking charter amendment this year, as backers of the “Community Bill of Rights” failed to submit required documents to the local board of elections to have the measure placed on the ballot. Despite repeated failures at
Read More...The Sierra Club, along with some lesser-known but equally radical enviro groups, filed a court challenge to an air quality permit granted by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency for the PTT Global Chemical ethane cracker plant project in Belmont County, OH back in January (see Radical Green Groups Appeal Ohio Cracker Plant Air Permit). Yesterday
Read More...You may recall news from last year that an Ohio Supreme Court ruling requires landmen to have a real estate license in order to get paid–IF they are compensated via a commission and/or royalties for the deals they broker (see OH Supreme Court Rules Independent Landmen Need Real Estate License). However, IF a landman is
Read More...Artist rendering of Guernsey Power Plant (click for larger version) Construction on what we believe to be the country’s largest natural gas-fired electric plant, the Guernsey Power Station (being built in Guernsey County, Ohio), is set to begin “immediately” according to the company hired to do the engineering, procurement and construction activities (EPC). Last week
Read More...“Bizarre” is the only word that comes to mind to describe a despicable, lowest-of-the-low, lying attack ad being run in Ohio by a front group for FirstEnergy meant to defend and preserve a horrible corporate welfare bailout law passed to prop up FirstEnergy’s economically dying nuclear (and coal) power plants. The $1 million ad campaign
Read More...Credit: Erie Times-News (click for larger version) The Risberg Line, a 60-mile pipeline from Crawford County, PA to Erie County, PA, and from there across the border into Ashtabula County, OH, began construction in February (see Construction Begins on “Massive” PA to OH Risberg Pipeline). As the project nears completion, Ashtabula is already seeing the
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