Last summer MDN brought you the news that the Sierra Club lost a lawsuit aimed at blocking a landfill in New York State from accepting oil and gas drill cuttings from Pennsylvania (see Sierra Club Loses Court Case to Block Drill Cuttings in NY Landfill). The C&D Hakes Landfill in Painted Post, NY (near Elmira,
Read More...There is finally movement in Ohio to repeal an odious law passed by Ohio’s Republican-controlled legislature called House Bill 6, which funnels over $1 billion from Ohio ratepayers to FirstEnergy Corporation in order to keep the company’s unprofitable nuclear power plants running (while disadvantaging other power sources, like gas-fired plants). FirstEnergy is accused of bribing
Read More...Whether or not you agree with Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s idiotic plan to join something called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax that will force PA residents to pay $2.36 billion in higher electric costs over a 10-year period (and shut down coal and gas-fired power plants), there is one thing we
Read More...The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), a quasi-governmental organization composed of four states (NY, PA, DE, NJ) plus the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, voted yesterday to permanently ban fracking within the boundaries of the DRBC’s jurisdiction, which includes Wayne and Pike counties in Pennsylvania where there is abundant Marcellus Shale deposits. But don’t despair.
Read More...Remember the statement, uttered by then-candidate Joe Biden as he stood in Bucks County, PA (which sits in the Delaware River Basin) when he emphatically promised PA residents and union workers, “I’m not banning fracking in Pennsylvania or anywhere else!”? It took him slightly less than five weeks to break that promise. Yesterday the Biden
Read More...Some good news to share on this Friday. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has given National Fuel Gas Company (NFG) the green light to begin construction on its FM100 pipeline project. The FM100 Project will beef up and extend an existing pipeline network in northwestern Pennsylvania to flow an extra 330 million cubic feet
Read More...The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is sticking its sticky fingers into the pocket of Energy Transfer/Sunoco one more time, and this time drawing out nearly half a million dollars to pay for a series of small spills of nontoxic drilling mud in Snitz Creek in Lebanon County. It isn’t the first time the
Read More...Last fall Mountaineer NGL Storage, a $500 million project in Monroe County, OH to build underground storage for ethane and other NGLs, asked Ohio regulators to cancel a key permit for the project (see Mountaineer Asks Ohio to Cancel NGL Storage Hub Permits). Our understanding was that until PTT Global Chemical makes a final investment
Read More...In December MDN brought you the news that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is proposing and seeking comments on changes to the state’s Chapter 105 (water obstructions and encroachments) permit (see PA DEP Proposes Changes to Ch. 105 Water Permits). It’s a fundamental permit almost all outdoor construction projects in PA are required
Read More...Pennsylvania’s Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) has just thrown up a huge roadblock to Democrat/autocrat PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s attempt to railroad through a proposal to force PA to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a $2.6 billion carbon tax aimed at killing coal and gas-fired power plants. The IRRC told the rule-adopting Environmental
Read More...WV mountains Equitrans Midstream’s Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which stretches 303 miles from Wetzel County, WV to Pittsylvania County, VA, is backed into a corner by anti-fossil fuelers. The project is 92% complete and in the ground, yet somehow antis have successfully blocked an Army Corps of Engineers Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP12) that allows the
Read More...What is it with the recalcitrant members of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC)? As we told you a few weeks ago, the DRBC is being sued by a Wayne County, PA landowner–who stands an excellent chance of winning (see DRBC Frack Ban Heading for Defeat in October Trial). The lawsuit argues DRBC does NOT
Read More...The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is once again spinning an error by a major Marcellus driller, Range Resources, as some sort of evil plot to avoid and defraud the DEP. Due to a mistake by a former employee, Range misclassified 42 old conventional wells on acreage it owns and did not plug the
Read More...A new attack against the Marcellus Shale industry in Pennsylvania comes from fossil fuel haters attempting to dispute permits reissued for existing (NOT new) shale wastewater storage and recycling facilities scattered across the state. Antis seek to shut down pipelines, rail shipments, recycling facilities, injection wells–anything they can to stop to prevent drillers from extracting
Read More...Last June MDN told you about a plan by McCandless, a township in Allegheny County, PA (near Pittsburgh), to block any and all shale drilling within its borders by getting creative (see McCandless Twp Tries to Block Shale Drilling with New Zoning Law). McCandless cooked up changes to its zoning laws that make it illegal
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