Invoking the words “coronavirus” and “COVID-19” like a magical talisman, Pennsylvania’s far-left, bumbling governor, Tom Wolf, has for the seventh year in a row issued a budget proposal that won’t pass because it includes a Marcellus-killing severance tax on top of the existing severance tax (called an impact “fee”). Every year the urgent/critical reason changes
Read More...It was exactly one year ago that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in THE most consequential lawsuit for Marcellus Shale drilling we’ve seen, a case called Briggs v Southwestern Energy (see HUGE NEWS: PA Supreme Court Keeps ‘Rule of Capture’ for Fracking). Now that the dust has settled, it’s a good time to take a
Read More...Every now and again we happen across information we think is kind of cool–things that others miss. This is one of those times. In many areas of shale drilling in Pennsylvania the drillers recycle 100% (or near 100%) of shale wastewater, both flowback (from fracking) and brine (naturally-occurring water from the depths comes out long
Read More...Yesterday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) held a virtual hearing to accept public comment on the topic of issuing water crossing and sediment/erosion permits for the PennEast Pipeline project. The hearing lasted over three hours with some 70+ people speaking (for up to 3 minutes each). Much to the consternation of anti-fossil fuelers,
Read More...In a brilliant move aimed at boxing in the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), two northeastern Pennsylvania State Senators–Gene Yaw and Lisa Baker–along with members of the PA Senate Republican Caucus, filed a lawsuit yesterday against the DRBC, accusing the quasi-governmental agency of “taking” the property rights of PA residents without just compensation under the
Read More...The 105th Pennsylvania Farm Show kicked off on Saturday, Jan. 9 and runs through this Saturday, Jan. 16. Sadly, this year the farm show is all virtual due to the coronavirus. In honor of this year’s Farm Show, the Marcellus Shale Coalition published a post on their blog site chronicling how the Marcellus Shale industry
Read More...UGI Corporation, one of Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas utility companies, is buying Mountaineer Gas Company, one of West Virginia’s largest natural gas utility companies, for $540 million. UGI serves 700,000 customers across PA (and one county in Maryland). Mountaineer serves 215,000 customers across WV. Both companies are big buyers of Marcellus/Utica shale gas.This post appeared
Read More...What if we gave the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) a $2.5 million grant to study a link between peanut butter and childhood cancer. Researchers could only use the money to study any potential link between peanut butter and kids getting rare cancers. Sounds absurd, right? What if there is NO link between peanut butter and
Read More...Brenda Matias-Falco Week after week and month after month anti-fossil fuel “environmental” groups, aided and abetted by their willing accomplices in mainstream “media”, bash away at Energy Transfer’s Mariner East (ME) pipeline projects, particularly in the southeast PA region near Philadelphia. What you don’t hear are stories of how ME has transformed and benefited individuals
Read More...The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) over the weekend published a final (revised) version of its Waste General Permit which governs how wastewater from shale fracking and produced water can be processed and reused for more drilling and fracking.This post appeared first on Marcellus Drilling News.
Read More...Leftists, like Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, always have to learn lessons the hard way. In August, Wolf’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) finalized and put into effect a massive increase in the permit fee to drill new shale wells, going from $5,000 per well to $12,500 (see Permit Fee to Drill PA Shale Well Officially
Read More...In Pennsylvania, there are two permits required by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) for nearly every shale well drilling project: A Chapter 102 (erosion and sediment control) and a Chapter 105 (water obstructions and encroachments). The DEP has proposed and is seeking comments on wide-ranging amendments to its Chapter 105 regulations.This post appeared first
Read More...Big Green groups conducted a highly coordinated effort to pack Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB) virtual hearings on Gov. Tom Wolf’s $2.36 billion carbon tax scheme. Big Green claims 95% of those blabbering on during the hearings supported the tax, which would kill the gas-fired power generation industry in the state. There’s still time for
Read More...Do political, agenda-driven “researchers” never tire of spinning false narratives around fracking? When Michael Bloomberg pays your salary (as he does for researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health), apparently not. Back in 2016, Brian Schwartz, a fellow at the Post Carbon Institute (virulent anti-fossil fuel group) was among a group of
Read More...Yesterday MDN brought you a post about the dramatic increase in natural gas-fired electric plants in the Marcellus/Utica, particularly Pennsylvania (see NatGas-Fired Power Plants in M-U See Dramatic Increase 2015-2019). Today we have another post (also from the U.S. Energy Information Administration) about gas-fired electric power. Gas-fracking giant Pennsylvania was the largest net exporter of
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