New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
A reported plan by New York State government to allow natural gas drilling in a handful of counties may represent an effective lifting of the state’s moratorium on fracking but increases the chances that energy companies will run into local opposition, analysts said. Keep reading →
Residents and businesses in the 13-state region covered by PJM Interconnect have now installed more than a gigawatt of solar power, enough to power between 800,000 and 1 million homes, and more than doubled solar capacity last year, the grid operator said.
The milestone, announced in mid-May, continues the trend of solar growth in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic territory in the last two years, and reflects a range of incentives offered by states that are striving to reach renewable-energy goals. Keep reading →
Plans to roll back parts of Pennsylvania’s controversial new law on natural gas development would make the state less attractive to energy companies seeking to develop the Marcellus Shale, one of America’s biggest gas fields, critics say.
Democratic lawmakers in the state House want to remove a measure in Act 13 that restricts the control of municipalities over gas development, and to cancel a section that requires doctors to sign a confidentiality agreement if gas companies disclose the identities of fracking chemicals to them. Keep reading →
For Pennsylvanians with natural gas wells on their land, chances are they won’t know if a safety violation occurs on their property. That’s because the state agency charged with regulating the wells — the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) — does not have to notify landowners if a violation is discovered. Even if landowners inquire about safety violations, DEP records are often too technical for the average person and incomplete. While some landowners would like more transparency around safety issues, as a group they are not pushing for stronger regulations. Landowners, who are paid royalties by the companies that drill on their property, generally want the drilling to proceed.
The natural gas industry in Pennsylvania is trying to disprove criticism of its fracking practices by preemptively issuing new voluntary guidelines even as the sector comes under greater scrutiny.
A group representing the natural gas industry in the Marcellus Shale issued its first recommendations on industry best practices in an effort improve its conservation ethic and deflect criticism that operators are damaging natural landscapes with wells, roads and compressor stations. Keep reading →
Natural gas industry calls for relying on statewide standards of regulation received a setback when a Pennsylvania court placed a temporary injunction on a new law that limits local control over the industry.
Commonwealth Court Senior Judge Keith Quigley ordered on April 11 that local ordinances over zoning for oil and gas installations must remain in place for the time being, placing a temporary hold on part of Pennsylvania’s new Act 13, a wide-ranging law governing development of the Marcellus Shale, one of America’s biggest natural gas fields. Keep reading →
Dallas Smith is saving $250 a month on his business’s electric bill thanks to increasing competition spurred by Pennsylvania’s ongoing market deregulation.
The president of Smith Village Home Furnishings, a family business in Jacobus, southern Pennsylvania, has signed up with NextEra Energy Services, one of dozens of new energy suppliers in the state, to get power at 8 cents a kilowatt hour for 24 months, saving him 8% compared with power from his old supplier, the utility Met-Ed. Keep reading →
Depending on who you ask, the impending closure of a major Philadelphia refinery will either increase U.S. vulnerability to a terrorist attack on its energy supply, or simply shift demand to other suppliers of petroleum products.
Senior officials from federal energy and homeland security departments debated the loss of U.S. refining capacity with industry representatives and politicians at a field hearing of a Congressional committee outside Philadelphia on Monday. Keep reading →
The skyline of downtown Pittsburgh.
Shell Chemical has signed an option to lease land in western Pennsylvania for a possible “world-scale” petrochemical complex including an ethane cracker that would use abundant natural gas from the Marcellus Shale field to make ethylene and other components for plastics. Keep reading →
A court battle over whether to build a natural gas pipeline in north-central Pennsylvania could have wider effects on gas industry regulation, attorneys for both sides said.
Central New York Oil and Gas wants to build the 39-mile MARC1 pipeline to connect three interstate pipelines carrying gas from the Gulf Coast, and to take locally produced gas to Northeastern markets. Keep reading →
