New York Governor Kathy Hochul recently doubled down on the Empire State’s refusal to allow fracking by signing a bill that would ban the technique outright using carbon dioxide instead of water. The ban extends the...more
1/10/2025
/ Energy Policy ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Policies ,
Fracking ,
Infrastructure ,
Marcellus Shale ,
Natural Gas ,
New Legislation ,
New York ,
Oil & Gas ,
Renewable Energy ,
State Bans ,
State Legislatures
Blasts were heard at the Nord Stream 1 pipeline last week, and damage to the pipeline itself was detected underwater shortly thereafter. Russian sources indicated that the damage would further delay the delivery of natural...more
10/6/2022
/ Climate Change ,
Energy Sector ,
EU ,
Exports ,
Germany ,
Green Energy ,
Marcellus Shale ,
National Security ,
Natural Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Russia
Pennsylvania is rapidly becoming the ultimate battleground state in American politics. Famously described by Democratic political operative James Carville as “Philadelphia in the East, Pittsburgh in the West, and Alabama in...more
In 2008, then acting New York Governor David Patterson ordered a temporary ban on hydraulic fracturing in New York State. His successor, Andrew Cuomo, promised to study the issue. For nearly six years, Cuomo reiterated that...more
Shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday, February 23, President Biden reinstated the sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that he had waived only last year. Depending on what side of the political divide you...more
3/14/2022
/ China ,
Climate Change ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Energy Policy ,
Energy Sector ,
Fracking ,
Germany ,
Joe Biden ,
Marcellus Shale ,
NATO ,
Oil & Gas ,
Paris Agreement ,
Pipelines ,
Russia ,
Ukraine
When Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine to go conquer that democracy, all of the abstract concepts about energy ended. While not quite a Pearl Harbor moment in terms of instantaneous ideological shift, Putin's...more
3/14/2022
/ Bad Actors ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Energy Sector ,
Exports ,
Fossil Fuel ,
Marcellus Shale ,
Natural Gas ,
Nuclear Weapons ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Russia ,
Ukraine
Last week, President Joe Biden warned Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky that a Russian invasion of Ukraine might be imminent. While Zelensky does not seem to share that assessment, full scale war in Eastern Europe seems...more
1/31/2022
/ Energy Policy ,
Energy Sector ,
Fracking ,
Germany ,
Marcellus Shale ,
NATO ,
Natural Gas ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pennsylvania ,
Russia ,
Ukraine
The first warning sign that opposition to fracking and fossil fuels might not play well for the Democrats in the 2020 election came in June, when Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro released what he described as a...more
Later this year, it is likely that the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) will vote on whether to approve a new natural gas export terminal to be located on the Delaware River in Gibbstown, New Jersey, just southeast of...more
10/29/2020
/ Appeals ,
Delaware ,
Fracking Bans ,
Governor Murphy ,
Land-Use Permits ,
Liquid Natural Gas ,
Marcellus Shale ,
New Regulations ,
PHMSA ,
Pipelines ,
US Army Corps of Engineers
Earlier in June, while trying to locate the successor to a longtime employee at Chesapeake Energy on behalf of a client, I asked a friend at another energy company if he knew whom I should contact. “I don’t know,” he...more
Norislk spill, Oil spill Russia, Thawing permafrost , Lake pyasino, Pyasina river, Artic oil spill, Fossil fuels, Fossil fuel companies, Renewable energy, Energy attorney, Daniel markind, Gas, pipelines, Shale gas, Marcellus...more
Following days of rioting that frightened even those of us who remember the 1960’s, a dazed America wakes up in a very different place than before. Still in the midst of civic unrest and a global pandemic, the country also...more
March 2020 will be the month the western world changed. As March began, there was relative normalcy except in China and isolated places in east Asia. By month’s end, much of the west – indeed, the entire world – was in...more
General Qassem Soleimani, the Commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC), was killed by a United States drone strike this morning in Baghdad. Soleimani was the second most powerful man in Iran,...more
2019 was the year in which reality smacked the Marcellus Shale Basin in the face. Long held assumptions about asset valuation and infrastructure development fell apart. By year’s end, some of the most famous names in the...more
Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) announced this week that it is establishing a microgrid to supply power at the airport, connected to the main electrical power grid in case of emergency but otherwise separate from...more
11/6/2019
/ Airports ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Climate Change ,
Electronically Stored Information ,
Fossil Fuel ,
Marcellus Shale ,
Microgrids ,
National Security ,
Natural Gas ,
Oil & Gas ,
Renewable Energy ,
Solar Panels ,
Sustainability ,
Sustainable Projects ,
Utilities Sector
Two attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz have sent the energy world, and the world at large, on edge. It also shows the folly of the unilateral energy disarmament being practiced on the West Coast and in New...more
6/17/2019
/ Exports ,
Global Disputes ,
Imports ,
Iran ,
Liquid Natural Gas ,
Marcellus Shale ,
Oil & Gas ,
Oman ,
Saudi Arabia ,
Trump Administration ,
Yemen
By a vote of 17-11, the Oregon State Senate last week just passed a five-year moratorium on fracking in that State. The Senate bill cut in half a 10-year moratorium passed in March by the Oregon House of Representatives, but...more
At 8:30 p.m. yesterday, the State of New York Department of Environmental Conservation rejected Williams Corporation’s proposal for the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) natural gas pipeline. Citing potential water...more
While little noticed outside of the energy industry, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is about to make one of the seminal decisions of his tenure. Before May 16, 2019, Governor Cuomo must decide whether to allow the New York...more
5/1/2019
/ Certifications ,
Department of Environmental Conservation ,
Energy Projects ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Policies ,
FERC ,
Fracking ,
Governor Cuomo ,
Marcellus Shale ,
Natural Gas ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice made one of the most curious gubernatorial moves in recent years recently, when he vetoed a bill that would have directed money to plug the Mountain State’s approximately 4,000 abandoned gas...more
Residents of the Siberian town of Pervouralsk have been horrified by a sight they never expected – green colored snow. Vladimir Putin’s Russia, in the same way as the Communist Soviet Union, industrializes with little regard...more
3/11/2019
/ Canada ,
Eminent Domain ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Policies ,
Hydropower ,
Marcellus Shale ,
Natural Gas ,
Offshore Wind ,
Oil & Gas ,
Private Property ,
Russia
To nobody’s surprise, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf began his second term by calling for a mineral extraction tax to be layered upon the State’s local impact fee. Of course, the Governor never mentioned the impact fee in...more
2/11/2019
/ Economic Downturn ,
Energy Policy ,
Environmental Policies ,
Governor Cuomo ,
Governor Wolf ,
Impact Fees ,
Industry Consolidation ,
Infrastructure Financing ,
Marcellus Shale ,
Mineral Extraction ,
Natural Gas ,
Pipelines ,
State Taxes
Last week, New York City area utility Consolidated Edison notified regulators that, as of March 15, it would accept no new natural gas customers in Westchester County due to supply shortages. It is possible that cutoffs in...more
1/23/2019
/ Carbon Emissions ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Policies ,
Gas Prices ,
Governor Brown ,
Governor Cuomo ,
Local Ordinance ,
Marcellus Shale ,
Natural Gas ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Political Parties ,
Renewable Energy ,
Shale Gas ,
Venezuela
2018 began with the United States producing immense amounts of oil and natural gas; pipeline companies struggling to build out the national pipeline system but not being transparent about how they are doing it; Europe, led by...more
12/28/2018
/ Coal ,
Energy Costs ,
EU ,
Explosions ,
FERC ,
Gas Royalties ,
Germany ,
Governor Cuomo ,
Governor Wolf ,
Land Owners ,
Land-Use Permits ,
Marcellus Shale ,
Natural Gas ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Political Parties ,
Renewable Energy ,
Russia ,
Severance Tax ,
Solar Energy ,
State Legislatures ,
Transparency ,
Wind Power ,
WV Supreme Court