In January 2016, Invenergy announced its intention to build a natural gas-powered electric plant in rural Elizabeth Township, in Allegheny County, PA (see Invenergy Eyes SWPA for Second Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant). It took a few years, a lawsuit, and a new location, but eventually, Elizabeth commissioners approved Invenergy’s plan in December 2018 (see Elizabeth Twp…
Read More...Glenn O. Hawbaker, Inc., long known for providing stone quarries and asphalt plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio, also provides civil construction services for shale well sites. In August 2021, Pennsylvania’s then-Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, announced a plea deal with Hawbaker to pay back $20 million in alleged “stolen wages” from over 1,000 Hawbaker employees (see…
Read More...The dead cat bounce bounced a little higher last week (i.e., the slight bounce a dead cat makes when it hits the ground). The rig count hit a new low for 2023 three weeks ago (see U.S. Rig Count Hits New 2023 Low – Loses 2 @ 616, M-U Even @ 40). Two weeks ago,…
Read More...We’ll say it right up front: We told you so. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced yesterday that he will appeal a decision by the Commonwealth Court that blocks PA’s entrance into the obscene Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme. Are you surprised? Shocked? We certainly aren’t. Shapiro has just revived a huge threat…
Read More...Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) drills in the Greater Pittsburgh region, in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. Olympus owns a pipeline subsidiary called Hyperion Midstream that builds gathering lines to the company’s wells. Hyperion applied to build a compressor station on a recently approved Olympus well pad in rural West Deer Township (Allegheny County). The…
Read More...Pennsylvania’s Pipeline Investment Program (PIPE) issues grants covering part of the cost of building new natural gas pipelines to connect homes and businesses, typically in rural parts of the state, to homegrown Marcellus Shale gas supplies. We’ve written about many PIPE grant projects in the past (see our PIPE stories here). Another PIPE grant was…
Read More...The environmental left is on the march in Pennsylvania, and nothing, including building trade unions, is going to stop it. Both constituencies (environmentalists and trade unions) traditionally make their political home in the Democrat Party. The problem for PA’s Democrat politicians is how to balance the ever-wacko leftward tilt of environmentalism and its jobs-killing policies…
Read More...Last week, the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County (MAWC) issued a water conservation warning asking more than 56,000 MAWC customers to conserve water due to the lack of rainfall and the low level of the Beaver Run Reservoir. MAWC provides water to more than 122,000 customers in Westmoreland, Allegheny, Armstrong, Fayette, and Indiana counties. When…
Read More...In December, Murrysville (PA) Council members will make a decision about leasing land for shale drilling under Duff Park (234 acres) and Murrysville Community Park (305 acres). Murrysville is located in Westmoreland County in the southwestern part of the state. Olympus Energy is interested and has pitched proposals to lease under both parks, using their…
Read More...An undetermined amount of fracking wastewater spilled at the Eureka Resources wastewater recycling facility in Williamsport (Lycoming County), PA, at about 9:10 a.m. yesterday. The incident prompted a response by city firefighters and police. The water came from a valve on a tank inside the facility, where oil, chemicals and other substances are removed from…
Read More...Grab the popcorn! It’s fun to sit back and watch the other side eat its own for a change. We’re talking about the civil war that has erupted on the Democrat Left over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s “bold” agreement signed with CNX Resources to “move the ball forward” on “environmental progress” in PA (see Civil…
Read More...In July, MDN compared the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection to an organized crime mob with its ongoing shakedowns in assessing “fines” on the Mariner East pipeline project (see PA DEP Squeezes Another $660,000 from ME2 Pipe for “Violations”). At that time, we were aware that over $30 million had been extorted (er, a, extracted)…
Read More...Ever ridden on an Amtrak train? We have, a number of times. Including the route from New York to Philadelphia, pulling into the 30th Street Station in downtown Philly. Amtrak, the national passenger railroad company of the United States operating in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. states and three Canadian provinces, is openly admitting…
Read More...New shale permits issued for Nov 6 – 12 in the Marcellus/Utica slipped but still turned in a respectable number. There were 22 new permits issued last week, versus 37 issued the week before. Last week’s permit tally included 6 new permits in Pennsylvania, 16 new permits in Ohio, and no new permits in West…
Read More...WhiteHawk Energy, headquartered in Philadelphia with ownership of mineral and royalty interests for 850,000 gross unit acres and over 2,500 producing horizontal shale wells between the Marcellus and the Haynesville, announced yesterday the acquisition of additional Marcellus Shale natural gas mineral and royalty assets for a total purchase price of $54 million. WhiteHawk owns mineral…
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