Leftwing Radicals Ask PA Gov. Shapiro to Veto Carbon Capture Bill

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That appears to be the philosophy of a group of radicalized “environmental” groups attempting to pressure Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to veto a new bill sitting on his desk, Senate Bill (SB) 831, the Carbon Capture & Sequestration (CCS) Act. Last week, a strong bipartisan majority…

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New PA Bill Gives Shale Landowners Same Tax Breaks as Investors

Pennsylvania mineral rights owners (i.e., landowners) are about to get a well-deserved tax break. Thanks to a bill recently passed by the PA legislature, Senate Bill (SB) 654, individual landowners will receive the same tax benefits afforded to investors. If a company buys mineral rights and the right to receive royalty payments from oil and…

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PA House RINO in Fayette Co. Continues NIMBYism re Carbon Capture

Last fall, MDN shared the sad news that Pennsylvania State Rep. Charity Grimm Krupa (Republican In Name Only from Fayette County) had turned against the Marcellus industry (see Anti-Marcellus RINO Intros Bill to Block All PA Injection Wells). Krupa introduced legislation that would ban the drilling of new wastewater injection wells in the state, making…

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PA Senate Candidate David McCormick Addresses GOP Convention

David McCormick made his case for election to the U.S. Senate at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night, telling the audience gathered in Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum that the election this year is “the most important election of our lifetimes.” He also said, “My friends, the choice this November is clear. It’s a choice between strength…

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New PA State Budget Includes Third-Party Review of DEP Permits

A MAJOR victory for Pennsylvania Republicans that is not getting the attention it should. For years, PA State Sen. Gene Yaw and others have lobbied for review by qualified third parties to speed up the turnaround time to approve relatively simple permits issued by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), including earth disturbance/erosion permits, known…

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BKV Sells Non-Operated PA Marcellus Assets for $132 Million

Over the past seven-plus years, BKV Corporation (Banpu Kalnin Ventures), the American arm of Banpu (96% owned by Banpu, Thailand’s largest coal mining company), has become one of the top 20 gas-weighted natural gas producers in the U.S. BKV originally entered the American shale sector by investing $500 million in 2016-2017 to buy existing Marcellus…

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Butler County, PA Man Killed at Trump Rally in Assassination Attempt

We’re still coming to terms with the surreal scenes from Saturday’s attempted assassination of President Trump at his rally in Butler, PA. A fraction of an inch closer and the assassin’s bullet would have killed Donald Trump. We firmly believe it was Divine Providence (i.e., God) that kept President Trump alive. However, one brave man…

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PA Finally Has a State Budget For 2024/25 — Is It a Good One?

We’ve covered the Pennsylvania state budget negotiations and passage in years gone by when PA’s then-Gov. Tom Wolf (far-left Democrat) requested a Marcellus-killing severance tax every year he was in office (eight loooong years). We’ve largely ignored the PA budget this time around under PA’s do-nothing dud of a governor, Josh Shapiro, as his proposed…

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Marcellus Sees Soaring Costs, Lower Production – Ranking Decreased

Operators and investors are more concerned than ever about the remaining inventory of drillable locations. Who has it? Where is it? Will it be economic? The North American inventory rankings by shale play are always of interest. Enverus Intelligence Research (EIR), a subsidiary of Enverus, recently issued a report that ranks the plays by the…

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PA Legislature Rejects Radical Antis, Passes CCS Bill, Sends to Gov

A civil war in the Pennsylvania environmental movement is not getting any attention from mainstream media. Why are we not surprised? We told you about the civil war earlier this week (see PA Antis Split Over Issue of Carbon Capture & Sequestration). One set of environmentalist wacko groups, including the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, Environmental Defense…

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PA DEP Claims it Reduced Permits Backlog by Half Since 2023

Permitting in Pennsylvania overseen by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has been a hot mess for years. A Chapter 102 Erosion and Sedimentation permit sometimes takes two, three, or even six to eight months for approval — instead of the law-mandated 14 days. It got so bad that in the fall of 2019, PA…

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Heinz Endowments Spends $9.3M to Support Groups Attacking PA Shale

The Heinz Endowments, the “legacy” of former Senator and Heinz ketchup baron John Heinz (a Republican!), continues to fund virulent, wildly left anti-fossil fuel groups. Two days ago, Heinz announced another $9.3 million in grants. The vast majority of the money was given to groups that actively attack the Marcellus industry, including PennFuture ($400,000), PennEnvironment…

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18 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jul 1 – 7

We noticed that permit data has already been updated for last week, so we’re bringing you our weekly permit report a day early. For the week of July 1 – 7, a total of 18 permits were issued to drill new shale wells in Marcellus/Utica. There were six new permits issued in Pennsylvania, with four…

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Marcellus Shale Testing Lab in PA Sells Itself to Minneapolis Co.

Incorporated in 1988, Environmental Service Laboratories, Inc. (ESL) is an environmental testing laboratory based in Indiana, PA, providing various analytical testing, consulting, and field sampling services. ESL customers include Marcellus/Utica natural gas drilling companies, industrial facilities, municipalities, engineering firms, local/state/federal government, and the general public. ESL is accredited to test drinking water, wastewater, soil, solid…

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PA DEP to Host Virtual Hearing for Lycoming County Gathering Pipe

Last week, MDN told you that two Big Green groups in Pennsylvania, Trout Unlimited and the Mid State Trail Association, are attempting to block a project by Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) to install a tiny 3.7-mile gathering pipeline to connect several PGE wells to the Transco pipeline system, along with two 8-inch water pipelines of…

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