Chesapeake Energy's offices in Athens, Bradford County.
Chesapeake Energy has been subpoenaed by the federal Department of Justice, seeking information on its royalty payment practices to mineral owners.
The company has been the subject of widespread complaints in Pennsylvania and other areas of the country where it operates. Landowners have accused Chesapeake of violating lease agreements and underpaying royalties.
In a regulatory filing today with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company disclosed it has received subpoenas from the DOJ and other states. Chesapeake says it has “engaged in discussions with the DOJ and state representatives” and continues to respond to demands for information.
The Mariner East 2 pipeline will run parallel to its predecessor, the Mariner East 1, and bring natural gas liquids to the Marcus Hook industrial complex in Southeast Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia-based Sunoco Logistics has announced a new $2.5 billion pipeline project to move natural gas liquids across the state.
“Mariner East 2” would start in Ohio, bringing ethane and propane through West Virginia and western Pennsylvania to an industrial complex on the Delaware River.
The 350-mile pipeline would run parallel to its predecessor, the Mariner East 1, but unlike that project,which involves reversing the flow of an existing line, this pipeline needs to be built from scratch.
Spokesman Jeff Shields says it would quadruple the amount of natural gas liquids flowing to Marcus Hook from 70,000 barrels a day to 275,000. Much of the ethane will be shipped overseas and some of the propane will feed markets on the East Coast.
State Rep. Jesse White (D- Allegheny) apologized for using fake online personas to bully shale gas supporters.
A Pittsburgh area Democrat and vocal fracking critic lost his state House seat last night. Rep. Jesse White (D- Allegheny) was caught last year in an online bullying scandal by Pittsburgh’s local CBS affiliate.
In May 2013 the TV station reported White had been using pseudonyms to bully online commenters who express support for shale gas development. He later apologized.
“This wasn’t a campaign; it was a character assassination. They dragged my name through the mud and it worked, this time,” White said. “We did everything we could have done. I’m proud of my campaign.”
Ortitay did not dispute the nastiness of the campaign, but said he’s ready to work for his new constituents as he learns the nuances of state government.
“From here on out, it’s about bringing people together,” Ortitay said. “If you have disagreements, I’m here to be reasonable and be fair and to help bridge the gap to bring people together to build a better 46th District.”
An icy view of Boston. New England electric rates are projected to spike by 30 to 50 percent this winter.
Residents in New England are looking at skyrocketing electricity prices this winter, largely due to an increased reliance on natural gas and pipeline constraints.
Utilities in the region are projecting rate hikes in the range of 30 to 50 percent, which will make the prices some of the highest in the United States.
Between the years of 2000 and 2013, New England went from getting 15 percent of its energy from natural gas to 46 percent. That’s dozens of power plants getting built.
But the pipelines to supply those power plants? Not so much.
At the same time, with the fracking boom just a few hundred miles west driving down gas prices, more and more homeowners were switching to natural gas for heating.
So now when it gets cold and everyone turns on their heat, the pipelines connecting New England to the Marcellus Shale are maxed out.
That’s an historic loss for Pennsylvania’s GOP, which has been supportive of the gas industry, so reaction to Wolf over Corbett broke down along predictable lines.
Lou D’Amico of the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association says Wolf’s policies could lead to job loss.
Cindy Dunn, director of PennFuture said, “For the environmental voters, it was a referendum of Gov. Corbett’s handling of the gas industry.”
Let’s take a look at what Wolf’s win might mean for energy and environment.
He says at current production levels this tax could bring in $1 billion, which is about $800,000 more each year than the current impact fee. He says he’ll use that money to help boost funding for the state’s failing public school systems.
But he’s got to contend with a Republican legislature. And ideas that poll well with voters during a campaign pre-election does not always translate well to momentum in Harrisburg post-election. Still, drillers are worried, and not so sure they’ve got the support in Harrisburg they need to head off a tax hike.
D’Amico, president of the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association, says some drillers are talking about leaving the state if Wolf succeeds in imposing a new severance tax. And although he says the industry does enjoy bipartisan support in Harrisburg, D’Amico worries about lawmakers from non-drilling areas like Philadelphia.
“If you’re not seeing your hotels full, if you’re not seeing the local Ford dealer selling trucks to drillers, then you’re not concerned as much in Philadelphia [with the potential slow-down of gas drilling] as you are in Bradford, Tioga, or Susquehanna counties where they are benefiting from us being here.” Continue Reading →
Officials said at a Northern Tier Regional Planning and Development Commission meeting Friday that each plant will cost about $20 million.
IMG Midstream, headquartered in Yardley, said nine sites are currently under development, including sites in Susquehanna and Wyoming County.
Company business development manager Matt Tripoli said most companies make power in large centralized plants and transport it long distances to be turned into electricity.
The proposed route of the PennEast pipeline. Click to enlarge the image.
Kristin McCarthy, a township committeewoman in Delaware, NJ, has one request for voters this Tuesday.
“I’m asking people not to vote for me,” she said.
McCarthy wants to step down from local government to devote more time to fighting the PennEast pipeline, which would bring natural gas from the Marcellus Shale in northeast Pennsylvania to customers in New Jersey.
The project, announced in August, would mainly supply gas to residential and commercial customers, but would also support electric generation facilities switching away from coal-fired power.
So far, it has attracted strong opposition on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River.
The proposed route would cut under the river, as well as through wetlands and preserved farmland.
“That is, we feel, like an assault on both our community as well as our tax dollars that we have saved for many years to preserve these lands,” said McCarthy.
One of the billboards along the Pennsylvania Turnpike that's part of the Big Green Radicals public relations campaign.
The New York Times reports a veteran lobbyist instructed the oil and gas industry to fight dirty against environmentalists who oppose expanding drilling operations.
According to the Times, the advice came from Richard Berman, who heads a Washington D.C.-based consulting firm that has solicited up to $3 million from the oil and gas industry for a PR campaign called Big Green Radicals.
The campaign includes billboards along the Pennsylvania Turnpike showcasing photos of celebrities who oppose the fossil fuel industry. One sign depicts anti-fracking activist Yoko Ono and reads, “Would you take energy advice from the woman who broke up the Beatles?”
Shell is planning two more public meetings about its proposed ethane cracker for western Pennsylvania.
Shell Chemicals is planning a pair of public meetings to discuss its proposed ethane cracker plant for western Pennsylvania.
If built, the multi-billion dollar plant would convert natural gas liquids from the Marcellus Shale into products used by the plastics industry.
Two identical meetings will be held Thursday, November 13th at the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center in Midland, Beaver County. Both will last approximately two hours. The first one will begin at 11am; the second begins at 5:30pm.
A drilling convoy heads through the Loyalsock State Forest.
An environmental group has filed a lawsuit challenging the Corbett administration’s plan to lease more state park and forest land for oil and gas development. The Corbett Administration lifted a moratorium on new leases in state parks and forests with an executive order last May to help plug a budget gap. The lawsuit filed by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network is the first to challenge that executive order directly, but is the second suit aimed at preventing more drilling on state lands.
The Delaware Riverkeeper Network’s challenge, filed Thursday in Commonwealth Court, is based on the state’s environmental rights amendment and is a direct result of the Riverkeeper’s successful challenge of Act 13. In that case, the Supreme Court invoked article 1, section 27 of the state constitution, also referred to as the environmental rights amendment, to strike down key aspects of the state’s new drilling law. The Riverkeeper’s latest challenge of Corbett’s executive order could serve as a test case for how the courts continue to interpret the state’s environmental rights amendment.
Riverkeeper Maya Van Rossum said Corbett’s executive order on opening up more state land to natural gas development “invites and encourages the frackers to come right up to the edge of our public parks, destroying the adjacent communities as well as destroying the park lands themselves.”
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