Townships and local municipalities in Pennsylvania are now beginning to deal with a new issue, particularly where there is active natural gas drilling. For years, local towns in PA have dealt with the issue of zoning and where to allow gas drilling. A recent (past few years) development is that cryptocurrency “miners” are beginning to…
Read More...Last summer, MDN told you that a new system to assess valuations of shale wells in West Virginia had turned into a royal mess (see WV NatGas Property Tax Rule Still a Mess, 303 Cases Appealed). In January, that mess got a whole lot messier — what we call a hot mess — when a…
Read More...Earlier this week, MDN reported on a bill making its way through West Virginia’s legislative sausage-making process (see WV Bill Triples Conventional Well Royalty Payments if Made Late). WV House Bill (HB) 4292 attempts to close a loophole affecting landowners and mineral rights owners with a conventional oil or gas well, some of whom suffer…
Read More...In 2021, PennEnergy Resources made a request to the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to withdraw up to 3 million gallons of water a day from Big Sewickley Creek and one of its tributaries for shale fracking (see Dem PA Lawmaker Wants to Block Use of Creek Water for Fracking). In March 2022, PennEnergy…
Read More...In 2018, Equitrans Midstream, the builder of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), proposed to extend MVP (when it’s done) by an extra 75 miles from the current terminus in Pittsylvania County, VA, to Alamance County, NC, to provide natural gas for heating and electric generation. The 75-mile extension is called MVP Southgate. Last year,…
Read More...West Virginia House Bill (HB) 4292 attempts to close a loophole affecting landowners and mineral rights owners with a conventional oil or gas well. Royalties from conventional O&G wells are typically small, as little as $40-$50 per month. Some energy companies (hopefully very few) that own the wells are intentionally late with royalty payments or…
Read More...Last Thursday, 29 far-left nutball groups wrote Mike Rolband, Director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), demanding that he issue a stop work order for the 99% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) due to “repeated and widespread violations and damage to waterbodies and private property.” This isn’t the first time these groups have…
Read More...Hyperion Midstream LLC, a subsidiary of Olympus Energy, is seeking a special exception to a Penn Township (Westmoreland County) zoning ordinance to build a six-generator compressor station along Wilderness Road over the next four years. In early January, Hyperion representatives and witnesses testified at a township zoning hearing in favor of the plan (see Olympus…
Read More...The Bidenistas at the White House kept Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Willie Phillips on a VERY short chain for a VERY long time. Phillips was named “Acting” Chairman of FERC in January 2023 when Richard “Dick” Glick exited stage left (see Willie Phillips Takes Over as Acting FERC Chairman, Dick Glick Gone). FERC…
Read More...The most radical Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) commissioner currently serving, Allison Clements (a former lawyer for the uber-radicals of the National Resources Defense Council), told her fellow Democrat leftists at POLITICO that she will not seek re-election to a second term at the commission when her term ends on June 30 of this year….
Read More...There is no doubt that recently issued regulations by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) aimed at reducing methane emissions are having a deleterious effect on the Marcellus industry in the Keystone State. The Bidenistas are proposing a huge tax on oil and gas drillers that will…
Read More...Dozens of conservative organizations have banded together to provide Trump a road map — known as Project 2025 — if he prevails in November. It outlines a series of steps that the former president could take to (among other things) reverse the climate actions taken by the Biden administration. The Washington-based Heritage Foundation (fantastic organization!)…
Read More...The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, Climate and Grid Security held a hearing on Tuesday to challenge Joe Biden’s so-called pause on new LNG permits to non-free-trade partners as it “studies the impacts,” including on climate change, of LNG use. Republicans blasted the Bidenistas for the havoc they have created with the…
Read More...Politicians on Capitol Hill aren’t the only people taking aim at Joe Biden’s pause on LNG export approvals (see today’s companion story, Repubs Attack, Dems Defend Biden LNG Pause at House Hearing). Some 23 “red” state Attorneys General wrote a letter to President Biden and the nutty Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, to inform them…
Read More...EPA Administrator Michael Regan used a considerable amount of fossil energy and emitted tons of carbon dioxide to jet over to Dubai in December to participate in the COP28 confab, where he released a final rule that was “two years in the making” to force the U.S. oil and gas industry to cut methane emissions…
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