Pa. Senate panel to take up oil and gas bills tomorrow

natural gas well drilling - AP

**UPDATE – SB147 was amended and released. SB148 and SB279 both released without changes**

The Pennsylvania State Senate’s Resources and Energy Committee will consider the following three bills when it meets tomorrow, January 21, at 10:30 a.m. in Room 8E-A
in the Capitol’s East Wing:


SB147 and SB 148 Sponsored by Republican Senator Gene Yaw. The first bill in this two-bill package allows natural gas royalty interest owners the opportunity to inspect records of the gas company to verify proper payment.  All information provided by the gas company will be confidential in nature and cannot be disclosed to any other person.  In addition, the bill requires that proceeds from production of oil and gas shall be paid within 60 days of production.

The second bill,SB 148, would prohibit a gas company from retaliating against a royalty interest owner by terminating the lease agreement or ceasing development because a landowner questions the accuracy of the royalty payments.

The sponsor says that the  package is meant to support leaseholders who seek more transparency and protection while engaging the gas industry on their lease agreements

SB279 Sponsored by Republican Senator Scott E. Hutchinson, the bill would establish the Penn Grade Crude Development Advisory Council, which would "study existing regulations and assist the Department of Environmental Protection in making changes that better address the differences between conventional and unconventional oil and gas production."

The Council would include membership by the Department of Community and Economic Development and be charged with "promoting Pennsylvania’s historic conventional oil and gas industry and advocating its future development."

The Council will be a public/private partnership modeled after the successful Pennsylvania Hardwoods Development Council established in 1988.

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BPU to decide on PSE&G upland switching station

Tom Johnson reports today in NJ Spotlight:
"The state Board of Public Utilities is expected to approve a settlement today that will let Public Service Electric & Gas build a new switching station in Newark’s West Ward, a project the utility says could prevent some of the widespread outages that left most of the city in the dark after Hurricane Sandy.
"The agreement between PSE&G and Newark may end a year-old dispute over the utility’s plans to build a $138 million switching station, a project required by the operator of the nation’s largest power grid to increase reliability and relieve congestion. The latter can spike power prices for both consumers and businesses." "At one point during Hurricane Sandy, 95 percent of Newark was without power for at least 24 hours, largely because enormous storm surges flooded switching stations and substations that were located closer to the water, according to Karen Johnson, a spokeswoman for PSE&G.

"The new switching station is located farther inland. If it had been built before the storm, it could have helped keep the lights on in Newark for thousands of customers, the utility said."

Full story: Approval expected for upland PSEG switching station in Newark

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Recent Blog Posts:
Pa. Senate panel to take up oil and gas bills tomorrow
Will anti-frackers wreck Gov. Wolf’s inauguration? 
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Will anti-frackers wreck Gov. Wolf's inauguration?

Groups demanding that fracking be banned plan a protest
at incoming Pa. Governor Tom Wolf’s inauguration today
in Harrisburg.

One of the groups is urging their members to ‘disrupt’ the event.

We have that story plus a rundown of the new governor’s green team–and an interview with one of them.

Listen to it all in Episode 10 of EnviroPolitics Podcast.

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Divestment: A small but growing problem for fossil-fuel

 
"Inspired by global efforts to reduce carbon emissions, environmentally focused donors want institutions to divest themselves of investments in companies connected with fossil fuels like petroleum and coal," John F. Wasik reports in the New York Times.

"Momentum for divestment has been building for years, pushed primarily by the environmentalist Bill McKibben and his 350.org group. But the fossil-free campaign has attracted some prominent participants lately.

"In September, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the $860 million philanthropy built on John D. Rockefeller’s petroleum fortune, said it would join the divestment movement. It aligned with nearly 200 institutions, a number that has nearly doubled since the beginning of 2014, according to GoFossilFree.org, a divestment campaign.

"All told, groups managing an estimated $50 billion have joined the movement, and nearly $3 billion has been sold or pledged to be sold from individual portfolios. While that’s small change in the multitrillion-dollar world of institutional investing, the movement continues to grow.

“Fossil-free is the new apartheid,” says Thomas Nowak, a certified financial planner with Quantum Financial Planning who is based in Grayslake, Ill., and specializes in green investing. “This movement has legs. A large number of my clients are asking for fossil-free portfolios.”

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NJ Senate panel holds off vote on Gov.’s Pinelands pair

JPIPE27-F
                                           Inquirer photo: Akira Suwa
** Updated at 10:20 a.m. on Jan. 19, 2015**
** Updated at 1:20 p.m. on Jan. 17, 2015**

“Gov. Chris Christie’s nominees to the Pinelands Commission are in limbo after taking a hard line of questioning Thursday regarding a controversial pipeline proposal for the region.”

S. P. Sullivan reported for NJ.com that Dennis Roohr, the mayor of New Hanover Township, and Robert Barr, of Ocean City, were scrutinized by legislators during a two-hour hearing but did not receive an up or down vote from the state Senate Judiciary Committee.

The two men have been nominated by the Christie administration to replace Pinelands commissioners Robert Jackson and D’Arcy Rohan Green, both of whom voted against the pipeline proposal, which would allow South Jersey Gas to build a 22-mile natural gas pipeline through the region. It was rejected 7-7 with one abstention earlier this year, but could come up for a vote again.

Environmental advocates have accused Christie, who supports the pipeline, of attempting to pack the commission with allies who would give it the green light. Neither candidate would say for sure how they’d vote on the issue under repeated questioning. 

“To give an opinion on a hypothetical situation would be wrong,” Roohr told the committee, adding that he was not familiar with the particulars of the pipeline controversy, including the accusations that Christie’s office was seeking to replace its opponents on the commission. 

“Are there newspapers in your area?” state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) asked Roohr, alluding to the high-profile debate that has played out in the press over the proposal. 

Roohr, a Burlington County farmer whose property sits at the edge of the Pinelands, said if appointed, he would thoroughly research the topic and reach a decision “made on facts.”

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Range Resources hit with second big fine by PA's DEP

The drilling company, Range Resources, has agreed to a $1.75 million settlement over concerns that the firm didn’t properly record how much water it drew from waterways to use when creating natural gas wells, Pennsylvania environmental officials said today.

It was the second massive fine in two years for Range which entered into a $4.15 million agreement with the PADEP in September, 2014. That fine was described by DEP as "the largest against an oil and gas operator in the state’s shale drilling era."

Under today’s deal, Canonsburg-based Range Resources-Appalachia will be fined $800,000 and will spend roughly $950,000 to help the state expand, repair and operate an abandoned mine-drainage (AMD) treatment project in Findlay Township, near Pittsburgh.  The project is unrelated to Range’s operations.

The DEP and Range both said the company has fixed procedural problems in how the company records its water usage.
DEP said it had approved the Hamilton AMD project in lieu of receiving additional penalties because the project will provide a substantial benefit to public health and the environment. The project also has strong local support
Record fine paid in 2014

In September, 2014, Range Resources agreed to pay $4.15 million to settle violations at six impoundments, or holding ponds, in Pennsylvania’s Washington County. The DEP ordered the company to shut down some sites and do repair and upgrade work at others.
The charges against Range Resources at that time included improper monitoring of leaks from a wastewater containment pond as well as releases of contaminants, such as leaking flow back, that has affected soil and groundwater.
Then DEP Secretary E. Christopher Abruzzo said that Range Resources had signed a consent order stipulating, among other things, that the company perform soil and groundwater investigations at each of the closed impoundments.
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