A federal judge this week dealt a major blow to the Sierra Club’s efforts to use a backdoor tactics as a means to ban wastewater injection in Oklahoma. U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Friot on Tuesday dismissed a Sierra Club lawsuit that attempted to impose federal rules on wastewater disposal and earthquake monitoring in Oklahoma…
It was the Marcellus Shale that initially drew IMG Midstream to southwestern Pennsylvania, but it’s the infrastructure that’s being built up around the shale that’s enabling the company to continue growing here. IMG, a builder of small-scale, natural gas-fueled power plants that generate electricity, moved its corporate offices to the North Shore last year and…
At a Longmont City Council meeting yesterday evening, the sponsor of a statewide bill seeking to expand setback requirements for oil and natural gas development near schools admitted that the bill will likely be killed. Given the widespread opposition to the bill from local elected officials, state representatives, and business leaders across the state, his…
When researchers at Johns Hopkins University released a study last July that suggested that fracking causes asthma attacks, EID noted that it was a bit odd that the researchers didn’t include county-by-county comparisons between areas in Pennsylvania with and without shale development – which presumably would have been a slam dunk if their conclusions were…
Metaphorically speaking–Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s finger was on the trigger of a loaded pistol, pointed at the head of the once-great State of Maryland. And now, Hogan pulled the trigger, assassinating any hope of new jobs, new wealth for some of the state’s poorest people (farmers and landowners in western Maryland), and new tax revenue…
Carbon Natural Gas Company, an independent oil and gas exploration and production company, owns, operates and develops oil and gas properties in the Appalachian, Illinois and Ventura Basin areas of the U.S. Most of the wells they own and operate are conventional. However, the company is dipping its toe into unconventional shale as well. Yesterday…
The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. The project, which filed an official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in October 2015, is being built by EQT, NextEra Energy and several other partners. The project…
On Monday Pennsylvania House Republicans released their version of a state budget, and yesterday (Tuesday) they voted to pass it. Ba-boom! The budget is noteworthy for many reasons. Of prime interest to MDN is that the budget does NOT include PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s insane 6.5% severance tax (see PA Gov Wolf’s 6.5% Severance Tax…
Luuucy! You have some ‘splainin’ to do! Somebody at the Scranton Times-Tribune, a reliably anti-drilling rag in the heart of Marcellus country, will have some explaining to do about an editorial that just ran in the Times-Tribune’s sister publication the Wilkes-Barre Citizens’ Voice. We can’t remember the last time we read a positive editorial about the…
Pssst. Hey buddy. Got a spare power plant you want to sell? Consumers Energy is Michigan’s largest utility, providing natural gas and electricity to 6.7 million of the state’s 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties. Consumers is canceling an existing contract with Entergy’s Palisades nuclear plant in 2018 and needs to replace…
As we do every month, MDN tracks how many rigs oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy reports operating–as a proxy for when/if the drop in rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica will turn around. Patterson operates a number of rigs in the northeast, as well as other areas of the continental United States (and Canada). Patterson was…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: US natgas storage capacity increased in 2016; US coal companies ask Trump to stay in Paris climate deal (huh?); the rigs just keep on a comin’; is natgas in the midsts of a boom and bust cycle;…
N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) and Senate President Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) joined 16 legislative leaders from North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia to call for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval of $5.1 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Five N.C. legislative leaders signed on to the letter to FERC Tuesday expressing support for the project designed…
Tom Shepstone Shepstone Management Company, Inc. The reaction of Atlantic Sunrise opponents to a simple move by Conestoga Township to enforce its ordinances illustrates they’re really just bullies at heart. There was an interesting little dust-up in Consetoga Township, Lancaster County, last month over the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project. What makes it interesting is…
K.J. Rodgers Crownsville, Maryland …. …. Too many environmental groups call for fracking bans not thinking or, more importantly, caring what it would cost Americans. It would be hugely expensive. I had an elementary teacher who would refuse to answer a question if you prefaced it with “what if…” and it taught me to be…