Natural Gas NOW Picks of the Week – June 23, 2018

Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

…

…

Natural Gas NOW readers pass along a lot of stuff every week about natural gas, fractivist antics, emissions, renewables, and other news relating to energy. As usual, emphasis is added.

How Is It “The Only State with No Severance Tax” Generates $1.5 Billion?

Pennsylvania State Rep. Jonathan Fritz just announced more than $16,058,972 in impact fees from the natural gas industry will be disbursed to his district’s counties. He also points out Susquehanna County will the bulk of the money and Wayne County, “because of the prohibition on natural gas drilling, will receive a much smaller amount.” That is the key point, but there’s also the direct contradiction of Gov. Tom Wolf’s false claim the Commonwealth is the only gas-producing state without a severance tax.

Under Act 13 of 2012, impact fees are generated by the extraction of natural gas with a portion of those fees being directed back to the communities that host natural gas development.

For 2017, total impact fee collections topped $209 million, which will be disbursed across the Commonwealth. Since 2012, impact fee revenues have totaled $1.5 billion, and the statewide figures for 2017 represent a 21 percent increase over the previous year’s distribution dollars.

“Susquehanna County is the second-largest county producer of natural gas in the state, with 1,386 wells,” said Fritz. “Because the county has such high production, it receives substantial revenue in the way of impact fees. Wayne County, comparatively, receives a very small amount of restricted-use funds.

Impact fee revenues for 2017 resulted in Susquehanna County and its eligible municipalities receiving over $16 million dollars while Wayne County received $45,162…

“The $209 million in impact fees collected statewide in Pennsylvania for 2017 is more than the drilling taxes collected by West Virginia, Ohio, Arkansas and Colorado combined” said Fritz. “This clearly highlights why Pennsylvania does not need to place an additional severance tax on the industry. The economy is improving and impact fee collections are up; we need to help, not hinder, business growth in our state. Additional taxes are not the way to economic prosperity.”

Amen!

A “Bridge” Too Far For Anti-Pipeline Movement In New Hampshire?

Renewables are chosen by consumers over oil and gas when they suppose someone else is paying the extra costs involved, but when those extra costs can’t be shielded and must be paid by consumers from their own wallets, it’s a different story. That story is told very nicely in this new must-read piece from the NH Journal by Michael Graham. Here are a few excerpts that will, I hope, tease you into reading the whole thing, because it’s worth it:

In May, all but two members of the New Hampshire state Senate—including all 10 Democrats–endorsed Liberty Utilities’ “Granite Bridge” pipeline project…

Though it’s years away from final approval, the broad, bipartisan support for Granite Bridge stands in stark contrast to the reaction to most of the energy infrastructure projects in the past few months…

It is also a cautionary tale for Green-action groups, showing how they can find themselves fighting alone out on the political fringe…

“During the two weeks of Arctic cold , New England generators burned through about 2 million barrels of oil. That’s about 84 million gallons. That’s more than twice as much as all the oil used by New England power plants during the entire year of 2016,” according to ISO New England CEO Gordon van Welie. Even worse, during that cold snap, energy from coal or oil shot up from about 2 percent of New England’s grid total to 33 percent.

All this is bad news for climate activists and energy customers. How can New Hampshire, which has committed to reducing its carbon footprint even as the state’s economy continues to grow, turn this around and still meet its energy needs? One potential solution is natural gas…

How did New England become America’s energy-grid basket case? “Political obstacles driven by environmental groups,”…

The strategy is simple: Oppose any expansion of the carbon-energy infrastructure and force New Hampshire to expand renewable energy to meet future needs.

‘I oppose any expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure,” Martin says. “If we want to transition away from fossil fuels, we need to stop expanding its usage as a first step. If you know there’s a stop sign coming up, do you step on the gas and then brake hard at the last moment?”

The reality is that New Hampshire businesses and homeowners aren’t going to sit in dark, unelectrified buildings and wait for wind and solar technology to catch up with current demand. The lights are going to come on, the stoves are going to be lit.  Opposing smart pipeline projects won’t stop that from happening. It just means the natural gas will get to New England in dumb ways…

Like tanker ships from Russia.

Wow! Graham puts it all together. His inclusion of the quotes from enviro groups only emphasizes the point; they don’t care a whit about the costs or the implications of their policies on others because they’re typically insulated from them by the fact they’re trust-funders or otherwise well off. They’re determined to impose their will regardless of impact because they’re true believers looking for the rewards of peer approval or perhaps investments in renewables. Meanwhile, reality is interceding and New Hampshire Governor Sununu has vetoed more solar subsidies. There’s hope for the Granite State!

The Delaware Riverkeeper Network Says It Doesn’t Lobby

The Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN) is an incorporated 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity, the activities of which, and donations to, are both tax-exempt, in contrast to a 501(c)(4) political organizations where only the former is true. Lobbying, either of the direct type or the “grass-roots” sort, is strictly limited by law. Grass-roots lobbying is defined by the IRS as follows:

Grass roots lobbying refers to attempts to influence legislation by attempting to affect the opinion of the public with respect to the legislation and encouraging the audience to take action with respect to the legislation.

Here is an excerpt from DRN’s latest (2016) return filed with the IRS, where it indicates it’s doing zero grass-roots lobbying:

Yes, they claim to have spent absolutely nothing on grass-roots lobbying and only $89 on direct lobbying in 2016. Yet, here is one of DRN’s most recent Facebook posts asking the public to rise up and oppose Senator Lisa Baker’s legislation to require compensation for landowners if a DRBC fracking ban is enacted:

So, this Facebook post didn’t cost anything? Of course it did. It cost, at a minimum, time on the part of some staffer to put it up. It may also have been advertised. There’s no doubt the Delaware Riverkeeper is doing grass-roots lobbying. It’s time to write your Congressman and ask for an investigation.

The post Natural Gas NOW Picks of the Week – June 23, 2018 appeared first on Natural Gas Now.

https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/natural-gas-now-picks-of-the-week-june-23-2018/