The Pennsylvania Senate voted yesterday to confirm Rich Negrin as the Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). No more “Acting” in front of his title. The vote was 48 to 1 to confirm, with the lone holdout being Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Adams). As we reported yesterday, Sen. Gene Yaw gave Negrin a grilling…
Read More...Yesterday, the Pennsylvania State Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee interviewed and unanimously voted to recommend the nomination of Richard Negrin as Secretary of Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) be approved. But not before Sen. Gene Yaw put Negrin on the hot seat, asking him some VERY pointed questions about the department and Negin’s own…
Read More...On Saturday, June 3, President Biden signed the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) of 2023, also known as the “debt ceiling” bill, into law. Part of the new law is a provision that forces government agencies (on every level) to finish granting any outstanding permits to the long-stalled, 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. The new…
Read More...Just two weeks ago, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) told all water users in the basin that have withdrawal permits, including shale drillers, they should review those permits, and if there are restrictions for withdrawals during low streamflow conditions, they need to make alternative plans (see SRBC Advises Water Permit Holders to Consider Alternative…
Read More...Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) drills in the Greater Pittsburgh region, in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. In 2021, Olympus applied to build a new well pad in a rural part of Allegheny County, in West Deer Township. So-called “concerned citizens” got amped up to oppose the project. They succeeded when town supervisors rejected the…
Read More...National Fuel Gas Company (NFG) and its pipeline subsidiary Empire Pipeline have worked on a plan to build the Northern Access Pipeline since 2016. Northern Access is a 97-mile project from McKean County in Pennsylvania into and through Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Erie counties in New York that will flow Marcellus gas into New York State….
Read More...In May, after years of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) provided closure on what is and what is not considered “waters of the United States”–or WOTUS (see U.S. Supreme Court Permanently Restricts EPA WOTUS Rule). SCOTUS ruled unanimously on WOTUS. The court came down on the side of rationality and common sense. However, we’re…
Read More...In the future, when everyone’s favorite groundhog Punxsutawney Phil pokes his head out of his hole in February to tell us whether or not there are another six weeks of winter, he may be looking at shale wastewater trucks coming and going on their way to a new underground injection well just outside of town….
Read More...Far-left environmentalist wackos have learned how to abuse the legal system in the U.S. in their attempts to block fossil energy. One of the places they excel in abusing the system is in Pennsylvania. When the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issues a new permit for a project the left opposes, they appeal the…
Read More...The great state of Pennsylvania has an Independent Fiscal Office (IFO), created by Act 120 of 2010 and Act 100 of 2016. The IFO analyzes fiscal proposals made by state agencies and is nonpartisan with its analyses. PA State Senator Gene Yaw, from Lycoming County, introduced a bill earlier this week to create an Independent…
Read More...Early last week, we published a post about the possibility that Equitrans would revive its moribund project to build the 75-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) Southgate project from the current MVP terminus in Pittsylvania County, VA, to Alamance County, NC (see MVP Completion in 2023 Gives New Hope for MVP Southgate in NC). We told
Read More...An article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tackles the issues of permit reform, environmental justice, and the intersection of the two. The article asks and attempts to answer the question, “How does one shape the other?” Based on quotes and comments in the story coming from the Shapiro administration, particularly from Acting Secretary of the Dept.
Read More...Even as the Bidenistas at the Dept. of Energy are deciding which regional hydrogen hub proposals to fund, and even though Pennsylvania, with its parochial application that competes against a much better application from West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, the Democrats in the PA House are attempting to force any new hydrogen projects in the
Read More...The Bidenistas have put their anti-freedom, pro-tyranny agenda into overdrive. On Tuesday, the administration released its semi-annual Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, a report on the actions administrative agencies (part of the Executive Branch of government) plan to issue in the near- and long-term. Both the Interior and Energy departments are moving full
Read More...At the end of May, MDN told you about water withdrawal restrictions from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) affecting 42 Pennsylvania oil and gas operators due to ongoing drought conditions (see SRBC Water Withdrawal Restrictions Hit 42 PA Oil & Gas Operators). Earlier this week, the SRBC notified all water users in the basin
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