Shapiro DEP Tweaks Reg to Publish Frack Chemicals Before Drilling

Big, breathless news coming from the do-nothing Josh Shapiro gubernatorial operation last Friday. THE MAN has made an edict to those waskily Marcellus drillers: You WILL disclose the chemicals you will use to frack and drill any given well you receive a permit for. Lights! Fireworks! Loud claps of thunder (and an echo) as if…

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White House Makes it Official – Biden Declares War on LNG Exports

The White House has made official what we warned you about yesterday (see Biden Attacks NatGas by Blocking 17 U.S. LNG Export Terminals). This morning, the Biden administration announced it has put “a temporary pause on pending decisions of Liquefied Natural Gas exports.” The reason? The so-called “climate crisis” is “the existential threat of our…

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Biden Attacks NatGas by Blocking 17 U.S. LNG Export Terminals

Two weeks ago, MDN warned you that the Bidenistas were conducting a secret “review,” being led by the Department of Energy (DOE), to evaluate whether regulators should consider mythical “climate change” when deciding whether a proposed natural gas export project meets “the national interest” (see Bidenistas Look to Block Authorization of New LNG Export Projects)….

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PA DEP Approves Shale Wastewater Injection Well in McKean County

Here’s a story that escaped our radar…until now. Catalyst Energy, Inc., proposes converting an existing gas production well on Route 646 in Cyclone (Keating Township in McKean County, PA) into a shale wastewater injection well. The well would handle up to 30 truckloads of wastewater per day. The prospect of the traffic and location near…

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OH Supremes Revive Lawsuit Against ODNR for Closing Injection Well

Here’s a story we haven’t written about in over three years. American Water Management Services (AWMS) owns a wastewater injection well in Trumbull County that supposedly caused a low-level earthquake (that nobody could feel) in 2014. Actually, there are two injection wells located at the site, both operated by AWMS. They were both “temporarily” shut…

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2019 NY Enviro Law is Blocking New Oil & Gas Drilling, as Designed

In June 2019, the New York State legislature passed a horrific “energy” bill that was later signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (see New York Pulls the Trigger, Commits Energy Suicide with New Law). The new Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) law limits carbon dioxide emissions to zero (an impossibility) by 2050….

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PA Dem Senators Introduce Bill to Ban Most Marcellus Drilling

Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 170, introduced early last year, would increase setback distances for shale wells from 500 feet to 2,500 feet — effectively killing any new shale well drilling anywhere in the state (see PA House Bill 170 Kills New Marcellus Drilling Using Setbacks). In June, Democrat Party bosses shut down action on HB…

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WV Oil & Gas Inspector Shortage Continues One Year After New Law

In March 2023, the West Virginia legislature passed House Bill 3110, giving the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) extra funds to hire more oil and gas well inspectors. At that time, the state had just ten inspectors to oversee not only all of the state’s 75,000 documented/known wells but also the state’s estimated 15,000…

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Maine Debates Democrat Bill to Limit New Natural Gas Customers

In May 2023, MDN brought readers the sad news that New York State has fallen and is now under a Communist dictatorship, with the freedom to choose energy sources now gone (see NY State has Fallen – Gas Stoves & Peaker Plants Banned in Budget). Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Democrat legislature unilaterally voted to…

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PA Bill Mandates 30% of Electricity Come from Solar/Wind by 2030

Whenever the government mandates which energy sources residents can and cannot use, residents lose. The government’s micromanaging of energy is a prescription for high prices and supply chain failures (i.e., blackouts). Yet leftists like Pennsylvania Rep. Danielle Friel Otten (a radical Democrat from the Philadelphia area) never seem to learn. She introduced a bill, House…

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FERC Approves 32-Mile Cumberland Pipeline to TVA TN Power Plant

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is the sixth-largest power supplier and the largest public utility in the country. In 2021, MDN told you that TVA is spending over $1 billion to replace six coal-fired plants with natgas-fired turbines (see TVA Investing $1B to Build New Natgas-Fired Electric Plants). In late 2022, TVA recommended moving forward…

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XTO Begins to Plug 4 Shale Wells in Butler County Starting Today

XTO Energy began to drill four shale wells in Prospect Borough, Butler County, PA, in 2019. At least one of the wells was drilled down to a depth of nearly 2,000 feet. At some point since that time, XTO decided not to finish the wells and filed a request to plug the wells. A Pennsylvania…

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DC Circuit Dismisses Case Against TGP Brought by Antero & EQT

Shippers, including drillers, utility companies, and others that buy and sell natural gas, are now free to buy and sell producer-certified gas (PCG) or responsibly sourced gas (RSG) at all pooling points across the Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) system following a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (DC Circuit)….

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PA DEP Issues Final Guidance on Using HDD for Pipe Construction

Horizontal directional drilling (HDD) is a form of trenchless drilling to install pipelines, like natural gas pipelines, underground without digging a big trench first. It uses directional drilling, similar to drilling a horizontal shale well, in order to install the pipeline. In 2018, Energy Transfer’s Sunoco Logisitics unit, which was building the Mariner East 2…

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PA House Member Calls Shapiro DEP “Weaponized” and a “Jobs Killer”

During a Pennsylvania House Republican Policy Committee hearing on strengthening rural communities held on Wednesday, Rep. Bud Cook (R-Waynesburg) didn’t hold back when assigning blame for why the state’s rural communities are losing population and experiencing economic growth. Cook said, “The overriding impediment is Governor Shapiro’s DEP,” referring to the Dept. of Environmental Protection. One…

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