The Ohio Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Ohio tax commissioner correctly charged Tallgrass Energy’s Rockie Express (REX) pipeline $2 million in excise tax (based on $699 million of income), for gas transported from and to (within) Ohio. REX claimed it did not owe the tax because the same law that exempts gas transported out
Read More...Columbia Gas of Ohio (NiSource) recently announced a new $135 million pipeline project to bring new supplies of Utica-sourced natural gas to homes and businesses located north and west of Columbus, in central Ohio. The project, called the Northern Loop Project, will file for regulatory approval with the Ohio Power Siting Board and hopes the
Read More...Jim WillisEditor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN) Cove Point celebrated loading its 100th container ship of Appalachian shale gas the other day. This facility is shipping our natural all over the globe. Seems like just yesterday that Dominion Energy’s Cove Point LNG export plant opened for business–in April 2018 (see First-Ever Shipment of Marcellus LNG Leaves Cove
Read More...Drilling is great for local counties when it arrives. Especially for the “supply chain” in those counties–companies that sell goods and services to drilling companies. Everything from retail to convenience stores to restaurants to hotels to trucking companies and more. But what about businesses in nearby counties without any drilling activity? Is there any way
Read More...We’re still feeling the fallout of FirstEnergy’s sleazy campaign to keep their $1 billion ratepayer bailout in Ohio. Last week we told you about FirstEnergy’s Mafia-like tactics in attempting to block petitioners from gathering signatures to overturn House Bill 6 that hands FirstEnergy $1 billion (see FirstEnergy Uses Questionable Tactics Against Referendum Workers). Part of
Read More...A recently-filed class action lawsuit claims Encino Energy and its affiliates underpaid landowners in Columbiana and Carroll counties in Ohio at least $5 million for oil and natural gas royalties, according to Farm and Dairy. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio on Oct. 18 by the
Read More...Landowners in Carroll and Columbiana counties (Ohio) have filed a class action lawsuit against Encino Energy claiming the company underpaid oil and natural gas royalties. Last November Encino Acquisition Partners (i.e. Encino Energy) completed its purchase of all of Chesapeake Energy’s Ohio Utica Shale assets for $2 billion (see Stop Press: Chesapeake Sells ALL of
Read More...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
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