Regulation

Radical Green Groups Sue PA to Overturn Well Plugging Law

Last summer, Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 2644 was passed into law, becoming Act 96 of 2022 (see New PA Act 96 Helps Boost Plugging Orphan Wells – Left Goes Nuts). Part of the new law keeps the power to raise bonding amounts for conventional wells with the legislature rather than allowing PA’s unelected Democrat bureaucrats…

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Olympus Applies to Build Compressor Stn at West Deer Well Pad Site

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…

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SWPA Republican Rep. Sells Out, Turns Against Marcellus Industry

We’re naming names. Pennsylvania State Rep. Charity Grimm Krupa (Republican from Fayette County) has turned against the Marcellus industry. She is introducing legislation that would ban drilling new wastewater injection wells in the state, making it much harder to drill new shale wells. Companies end up drilling fewer wells without a place to dispose of…

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PA PUC Hires Lib Dem Retread from Wolf Admin as Executive Director

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) is the public utility commission in Pennsylvania. The PUC has five commissioners appointed by the Governor with the consent of the state Senate. The PUC oversees public utility and services operations in the Commonwealth, in sectors including water, energy, telecommunications, and transportation. The decisions made by the PUC impact…

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Potential Ethics Violations at FERC Spur Court Orders, Hearings

The stench coming from inside the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is growing. Since early this year, Kevin Mooney, an investigative reporter with the PA-based Commonwealth Foundation and D.C.-based Heritage Foundation, has been digging into potential ethics (and legal) violations by FERC commissioners. His work has focused on FERC Commissioner Allison Clements, a former attorney…

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Major Pipeline Associations File Comments Against New PHMSA Regs

Last week, the heaviest of the heavy hitters representing U.S. pipelines, including the American Gas Association (AGA), filed comments opposing the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s (PHMSA) new methane rules for all pipelines. The gas associations said extensive changes need to be made to PHMSA’s proposal for it to be technically and economically feasible….

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Gov. Shapiro Plans to Use Fake Pitt Studies to Push BIG Setbacks

This is so frustrating. Last week Pittsburgh University (Pitt) issued fake research reports that supposedly link proximity to shale wells with a minuscule (less than one-tenth of one percent) rise in one type of childhood cancer (see Pitt Releases Fake Research, Claims PA Fracking Linked to Kid Cancer). The so-called research has been destroyed by…

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PA DEP Issues Interim “Final” Shale-Drilling-is-Racist Regulation

On August 17, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) posted an Interim Final Environmental Justice Policy to guide DEP’s permit application reviews and outreach efforts in environmental justice areas throughout the Commonwealth. New Environmental Justice (or EJ) policies are a euphemism for regulations that prohibit drilling and pipelines built in neighborhoods of color or…

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PA Gov. Shapiro’s Anti-Marcellus Views Reflected in New DEP Regs

In 2018, Pennsylvania’s then-Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, assembled a grand jury to “investigate” Marcellus drillers. He lied to them for over two years and eventually got them to indict a number of Marcellus companies on trumped-up charges. The so-called grand jury issued a report (which was actually authored by Shapiro and his minions) in June…

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Bidenistas at FTC Clear EQT to Complete Buyout of Tug Hill & XcL

Last September, EQT Corporation announced it was buying privately-owned Tug Hill Operating’s West Virginia shale assets for $5.2 billion (see Confirmed: EQT Buys Tug Hill’s THQ Appalachia for $5.2 Billion). However, the Bidenistas at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) got involved slowing down the deal. Because of the FTC dragging its feet, EQT and Tug…

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Plum, PA House Explosion Investigation Expands to Local O&G Wells

Last Saturday, a house exploded in Plum, PA, causing two neighboring houses to burn to the ground. Plum is located in Allegheny County near Pittsburgh. Five people died in the blast and fires. However, a sixth person died yesterday from his injuries. We grieve with the families and friends of those who died or were…

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Inflation Reduction Act’s Provisions for Clean Hydrogen a Failure

We have U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (lib Dem from WV) to thank for passing the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) one year ago (see Tragedy: Joe Manchin Caves & Agrees to Big Green Build Back Better). The IRA is a huge pork barrel of government spending on so-called green energy schemes. (The IRA also targets…

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PHMSA Orders Safety Inspections of Buried & Unburied MVP Pipe

Yesterday we told you the liars of the left are doing their best to sew disinformation and fear about Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and the installation of the remaining 6% of the pipeline that’s not already in the ground (see MVP Antis Spread Lies About Pipes Sitting in the Sun Too Long). The fearmongering has…

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Louisville Gas & Elec & KY Utilities Propose 2 New Gas-Fired Plants

Last December, PPL Corporation subsidiaries Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities Company (KU) announced a plan to replace 1,500 megawatts of aging coal-fired generation (nearly one-third of Kentucky’s coal fleet!) with two 621-megawatt natural gas combined-cycle units along with several unreliable, intermittent solar projects (see PPL Replacing Coal-Fired Power Plants with NatGas…

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NJ & 7 Other States File Challenge to FERC Approval of Transco REAE

The Williams Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project is a plan to beef up the Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to deliver an extra 829 MMcf/d of Marcellus gas to PA, NJ, and Maryland. The project is Williams’ alternative to the PennEast Pipeline that got canceled in September 2021 (see PennEast Pipeline Throws…

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