Jul. 10—Pennsylvania had a record year for natural gas production in 2018, the state Department of Environmental Protection said on Wednesday.

Unconventional well operators produced 6.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2018 — an increase of .8 trillion cubic feet over 2017 and the largest volume of natural gas produced in Pennsylvania in a single year, according to DEP’s 2018 Oil & Gas Annual Report.

Pennsylvania is the second-largest natural gas producer in the United States, after Texas.

Unconventional wells are those that access large reservoirs of underground natural gas through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The first unconventional natural gas well was drilled in Pennsylvania in 2004, according to DEP.

Since then, production levels have steadily risen, requiring more permitting and inspection activities from DEP.

DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell said Wednesday that the agency’s internal restructuring and continued expansion of electronic tools has increased permitting and inspection efficiency, shortened waiting periods and improved oversight of natural gas producers.

“Gov. (Tom) Wolf and DEP have made permitting and inspection efficiency a priority — reducing overall permit backlog by more than 90% since 2016 and improving inspection efficiency while ensuring compliance with our environmental regulations,” McDonnell said.

According to the 2018 report, DEP:

— Issued 1,868 unconventional well permits — 160 fewer than in 2017.

— Conducted 36,873 compliance inspections at conventional and unconventional well sites — 585 more than in 2017.

— Found 1,043 unconventional well violations — a 27% increase from 2017. (Conventional well violations declined.)

— Collected $4.1 million in fines and penalties for noncompliance at oil and gas sites.

The report also noted that:

— 917 oil and gas wells were drilled in Pennsylvania in 2018.

— DEP has documented 12,164 orphan and abandoned wells in Pennsylvania.

— About 200,000 abandoned oil and gas wells remain unaccounted for.

The interactive, multimedia annual report offers several levels of data: the year in review; deeper detail and historical data; and educational overviews of drilling and the regulatory process statewide.

Stephen Huba is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Stephen at 724-850-1280, [email protected] or via Twitter .

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Jul. 10–Shares of WSFS Financial Corp. dropped more than 4 percent in morning trading, slipping below $40 for the first time in a month, after the bank, the biggest based in the Philadelphia area, said it faced millions in losses from bad loans to an oil refinery and a nursing home operator.

WSFS, which next month plans to finish combining Beneficial Bank of Philadelphia into WSFS Bank of Wilmington to create a 90-branch network across the city, its suburbs and Delaware, says it has had to write down a total of $11.6 million in bad loans due to events “occurring within the last 30 days.”

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, WSFS did not name the borrowers. The bad loans included:

— a $5.7 million loan “related to a refinery that experienced an isolated event which impacted the facility’s operations”

— a $5.9 million loan “to a managed health care facility that was recently placed into receivership by state authorities.”

The total is slightly less than the $13 million in net income WSFS reported for the first three months of 2019. WSFS acquired Beneficial in March.

WSFS had identified both credits as “nonperforming loans for an extended period,” and said the company had been “actively working toward resolution” to get some of its money back, before the borrowers’ recent crises.

Which refinery, and which managed-care facility?

The Philadelphia economy suffered a major blow last month when Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES), the oil refinery complex in Southwest Philadelphia, suffered an explosion and fire. The creditors who own the complex are closing the refinery and putting it up for sale while labor leaders and public officials are scrambling to find a savior. If no buyer is found, PES has told employees that their jobs will be terminated on Aug. 25 (60 days after the closure announcement).

Bankruptcy filings list both WSFS and Beneficial as PES creditors. It is “reasonable to assume” WSFS’ refinery losses are due to the PES fire, wrote analyst Frank Schiraldi in a report to clients at New York investment bank Sandler O’Neill + Partners.

There is no shortage of financially troubled healthcare facilities in the region. For example, last year, the state of Pennsylvania took over nine nursing homes operated by Skyline Healthcare LLC and owned by Joseph Schwartz of Brooklyn, among other facilities, and began seeking new operators; Massachusetts put the company’s nursing homes there in receivership in April.

Last week, Hahnemann University Hospital and its affiliates declared bankruptcy; its creditors have moved to close the hospital and sell its assets, for what people involved in the sale expect may be steep discounts.

Schiraldi says he expects other banks will be reporting similar credit problems. He cut his earnings estimates for WSFS but said he expects the company will remain profitable and growing.

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Jul. 3–Gas prices continue to rise in Michigan as thousands prepare to take to the road if they haven’t yet already on Wednesday, July 3.

As of 11:30 a.m., GasBuddy reports that the average cost for a self-serve gallon of gasoline is going for $2.88 in Michigan. This is about 14 cents higher than the national average, and represents an increase of about 5 cents in the last 24 hours.

The national average is up by 6 cents in the last week after six consecutive weeks of declining prices.

GasBuddy reports that the cheapest gas in the state can currently be found at $2.29 at two stations in Holland and one in Hamilton.

This spike in prices at the pumps comes after several warnings from GasBuddy and its head of petroleum analysis Patrick DeHaan.

“The stage was set for a nearly perfect holiday — gas prices hit their 7th straight weekly decline, oil prices had dropped as low as $51, every state had seen notable declines at the pump, it really couldn’t get a whole lot better as we approach July 4,” DeHaan wrote in a blog post.

“But then Iran attacked two oil tankers and shot down a U.S. drone and markets panicked, sending oil prices higher and now we’re suddenly under the threat of rising gas prices again amid escalating tensions with Iran and talks with China on trade, leading to higher gas prices just as millions hit the road to celebrate the holiday.”

AAA pointed to crude oil prices, supply, demand, Philadelphia Energy Solutions and organization within the Petroleum Exporting Countries as the cause for rising prices.

Jeanette Casselano, spokesperson with the auto club, added in a statement that prices could continue to rise throughout the month due to refinery interruptions.

“For the more than 41 million motorists hitting the road this week to celebrate the Independence Day holiday, they will find gas prices cheaper than Memorial Day weekend, but more expensive than they’ve been paying the last few weeks,” Casselano said in a AAA news release.

See below for a rundown of prices from around Michigan as of Wednesday morning, courtesy of AAA:

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Jul. 3—JACKSON, Mich. — Consumers Energy has been ordered to take a deeper look into its procedures, in wake of the January fire at the Ray Natural Gas Compressor Station in Macomb County that put the utility in danger of a natural gas shortage.

The Michigan Public Service Commission ordered Tuesday, July 2, that Consumers study its gas release methods and create a plan for future incidents, evaluate and make recommendations for incident management, file reports on the timeline of what’s happened at the compressor station and further detail costs of the incident.

Record-low temperatures across the state in late January led to record-high demand for natural gas. The Macomb County station where the fire occurred holds 64 percent of Consumers’ supply.

“We are reviewing the order from the MPSC and are already underway with modifications to our Ray Compressor Station ahead of the fall heating season,” Katie Carey, Consumers’ director of media relations, said in a statement. “We continue to work with the commission and other stakeholders on this issue.”

Consumers filed a report in April with initial findings from the incident. An automatic release of natural gas combined with high winds and hot equipment caused the fire at Consumers’ largest natural gas storage site.

The estimated total cost for the incident is $25.5 million, including $18 million for repairs to the facility and more than $7 million in emergency natural gas purchases.

Consumers’ net earnings in the first quarter was $213 million — which is $28 million shy of the first quarter earnings in 2018.

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Gas prices went up three cents in Rhode Island this week, the first increase since early May, AAA Northeast says.

The average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline is $2.709 at self-service pumps in the Ocean State, according to AAA’s weekly survey.

AAA blames the increase on high crude-oil prices, strong demand and shrinking supply, along with the closing of a major Northeast refinery in Philadelphia.

“For the more than 41 million motorists hitting the road this week to celebrate the Independence Day holiday, they will find gas prices cheaper than Memorial Day weekend, but more expensive than they’ve been paying the last few weeks,” said Diana Imondi, AAA Northeast manager of public affairs & traffic safety. “It’s typical to see increases at the pump ahead of the holiday, but we may see prices continue to jump throughout the month due to refinery interruptions on the East Coast, increasing demand and fluctuations in crude oil price.”

A year ago at this time, the average price in Rhode Island was 22 cents higher, at $2.929.

The current price in Rhode Island is four cents higher than in Massachusetts, where the average is $2.679. The average price in Connecticut is $2.861. The national average for regular unleaded of $2.719.

AAA’s survey found a 44-cent range in price, from a low of $2.559 to a high of $2.999.

AAA also found the following prices for other grades of gasoline or types of fuel: $2.929 for midgrade unleaded; $3.139 for premium unleaded and $3.039 for diesel fuel.

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Jul. 1–3

Colorado health officials have taken a first step toward penalizing operators of the Suncor oil refinery north of Denver for polluting metro air with hydrogen cyanide, a toxic gas — and the state may toughen its overall enforcement.

No decision has been made on Suncor’s request for a permit adjustment to allow more hydrogen cyanide. Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment director Jill Hunsaker Ryan on Sunday indicated her agency’s in no hurry to approve that.

“The department has not granted the refinery any change in its HCN (hydrogen cyanide) permit and no change is imminent,” Hunsaker Ryan said in an emailed response to Denver Post queries.

“More broadly, as a department, we are reviewing our enforcement policies and strategies to make sure we are maximizing compliance with new and amended regulations toward attaining ozone standards, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting the public’s health,” Hunsaker Ryan said.

Gov. Jared Polis has prioritized improving air quality.

CDPHE air pollution control officials last week issued Suncor a compliance advisory, a formal notice that under the state’s current approach initiates enforcement for emitting hydrogen cyanide at a level of 14.1 tons per year. That level of pollution, detected in a company test and reported to the CDPHE in July 2018, exceeded the existing permit that limits hydrogen cyanide pollution to a level of 12.8 tons a year.

Separately last week, Colorado air pollution control officials finalized a legal settlement agreement with Suncor for a previous air pollution violation in 2017. Suncor consented to a compliance order for the company to pay penalties of $26,800 for violations and $142,100 in “administrative” penalties.

Rather than pay the money, CDPHE agreed to let Suncor hire a group called Groundwork Denver to perform CDPHE-approved projects worth $113,680, state officials said. The projects are designed to increase energy efficiency for people in low-income housing and try to increase access to fresh local food.

The fines and projects were imposed under existing enforcement policies, Garry Kaufman, the air pollution control division director, said in a statement sent to the Post.

The household energy efficiency work “will immediately benefit residents near the refinery,” Kaufman said, calling it an important step in carrying out CDPHE’s commitment to “ensure environmental equity.”

Suncor has a history of violating Colorado’s pollution limits.

The Denver Post reported in May that the oil refinery north of Denver, which emits more than 800,000 tons of air pollution a year, broke a 12.8-ton limit for hydrogen cyanide, an invisible toxic gas. Neither Suncor nor state health officials alerted nearby residents or county emergency managers after the July test found elevated hydrogen cyanide emissions.

A byproduct of processing crude oil at the nation’s 135 refineries, hydrogen cyanide can be deadly. It is a colorless gas that smells faintly of almonds. In concentrated form, it’s what the Nazis used to exterminate prisoners in death camps during World War II and it has been used in the United States for death-penalty executions.

Exposure at high levels leads to rapid breathing, followed by convulsions, loss of consciousness and death, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Low-level exposure causes trouble breathing, chest pain, vomiting, headaches and enlargement of the thyroid gland. Scientists don’t know about the cumulative impacts on people who inhale multiple pollutants.

In Denver, people in the lower-income neighborhoods of Globeville, Elyria and Swansea have suffered from asthma, cancer and heart-lung ailments — possibly related to air pollution.

The Suncor oil refinery ranks among the state’s largest polluters. It releases 886,000 tons of heat-trapping greenhouse gases annually, along with 24 tons of sulfur dioxide, 12.5 tons of hydrogen sulfide, 25 tons of ozone-forming volatile organic compounds, 4 tons of carbon monoxide, 49 tons of nitrogen oxide and 55 tons of particulates, state and federal data show.

Some pollutants are regulated but hydrogen cyanide is not. State health officials say specifying the gas in a permit gives some control.

Suncor has asked the CDPHE to raise its hydrogen-cyanide permit limit upward to 19.9 tons a year, giving a greater buffer.

No direct measuring of hydrogen cyanide or exposure studies have been done.

Health officials said that the hydrogen cyanide at current levels is safe.

“Even with the emissions violation, the levels of HCN (hydrogen cyanide) are well below levels that would effect human health and do not pose a health risk,” Hunsaker Ryan said.

“We take the emissions violation very seriously. It is why, in the absence of a federal standard, the department created the permit limit in the first place.”

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A team of journalists from The Dallas Morning News has won one of the most prestigious national awards for business reporting for an investigation into Atmos Energy and a series of deadly natural- gas explosions in North Texas homes.

The series, titled “Time Bomb: How Atmos Energy’s Natural Gas Keeps Blowing Up Texas Homes,” received a Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished business and financial journalism in the local category.

Cary Aspinwall accepted the award Thursday in New York City on behalf of her co-authors Holly K. Hacker and Allan James Vestal.

“‘Time Bomb’ is the kind of public service journalism communities depend on — deeply researched, illuminating and extremely important, given that lives are at stake,” said Mike Wilson, editor of The News. “We were honored to do the work and we’re pleased that it has been recognized.”

“Time Bomb” competed with three other finalists for the award: investigative pieces from the Los Angeles Times, the Tampa Bay Times and a partnership between ProPublica and The New York Times.

The News investigation was published after 12-year-old Linda “Michellita” Rogers died in a natural-gas explosion at her home in February 2018. That prompted Gov. Greg Abbott to sign into law a bill by state Rep. Rafael Anchia (D-Dallas) requiring natural gas pipeline operators to remove dangerous, leak-prone cast-iron pipes by the end of 2021.

In the two-part investigation, reporters explored how Atmos had neglected its aging infrastructure, shifted the blame for explosions and confidentially settled lawsuits when it couldn’t do so.

Gerald Loeb, a founding partner of the brokerage firm E.F. Hutton & Co., established his namesake awards in 1957, and the University of California, Los Angeles, began administering them in 1973. The recognition is intended to “encourage and support reporting on business and finance that would inform and protect the private investor and the general public,” according to its website.

Thursday’s award banquet took place at the Capitale in New York, where journalists from around the world gathered to recognize the contributions of business journalists.

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Jun. 28—The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled Dane County cannot require a Canadian pipeline company to carry special insurance.

In a 4-1 decision — with two liberal justices, Rebecca Dallet and Shirley Abrahamson, abstaining — the court reversed an appeals court decision, striking insurance clauses the county included in a permit allowing Enbridge Energy to triple the volume of crude oil moving through a Wisconsin pipeline.

The conservative majority — Chief Justice Patience Roggensack and Justices Annette Ziegler, Rebecca Bradley and Daniel Kelly — ruled the 2015 permit must stand without insurance requirements the Legislature barred during the permitting process, rejecting arguments from the county and a group of landowners who said the county should have a chance to reconsider the permit application.

In 2017, Enbridge completed a $1.5 billion upgrade to its Line 61, which cuts across Wisconsin from Superior to the Illinois border, including a 12-mile stretch in northeastern Dane County.

As part of the project, the company needed a conditional-use permit to build a pumping station, which Dane County granted on the condition that Enbridge carry extra spill insurance.

But state lawmakers intervened on behalf of the company, passing a law that banned counties from requiring special insurance if an interstate pipeline operator carries comprehensive general liability insurance that includes coverage for “sudden and accidental pollution liability.”

The county ultimately kept the insurance conditions, but added language signaling that the law made them unenforceable.

The case has been tied up in the courts ever since, with Enbridge seeking to strike the insurance requirement, the county fighting for local powers and a group of pipeline neighbors seeking an injunction to enforce the permit conditions who assert the company has never provided proof it is insured for sudden and accidental pollution liability.

“The Zoning Committee had authority to attach conditions to the (permit) to ensure compliance with Dane County’s zoning ordinances and standards,” Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote in the majority opinion, “but not conditions violative of Wisconsin law.”

The county has an obligation to ensure its standards are met and the authority to include conditions, the court wrote, but neither preclude a judge from striking unlawful conditions.

The court also rejected the landowners’ argument that Enbridge failed to show it carried insurance as well as their assertion that Enbridge must “maintain” insurance in perpetuity — saying the law simply required that they had the insurance when the permit was granted.

“We decline to add words to the statute, as the Landowner’s argument would necessitate,” the court stated.

Justice Ann Walsh Bradley dissented, saying the majority misinterpreted certain key terms.

“Enbridge did not demonstrate that it ‘carries’ insurance that includes ‘sudden and accidental’ coverage,” she wrote. “The condition precedent to trigger the preemptive provisions of (the statutes) are therefore not fulfilled.”

Upstream delays

The 42-inch pipe went into operation in 2009 and is one of three Enbridge lines carrying Canadian tar sands oil from Superior to a terminal in Illinois.

In 2014, Enbridge sought a conditional-use permit for a new pumping station in the town of Medina as part of the project to triple capacity to 1.2 million barrels per day.

The county’s Zoning and Land Regulations committee granted the permit but said Enbridge must carry a $25 million environmental liability policy to cover cleanup in the event of a spill like the one in 2010 that caused $1.2 billion in damage when an Enbridge pipeline ruptured in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Enbridge appealed, but before the county could reconsider, Republican lawmakers passed a last-minute budget provision barring additional insurance requirements.

The county ultimately kept the insurance language, which Enbridge challenged in court. Meanwhile, a group of neighboring landowners filed their own case asking the court to enforce the insurance condition.

While the expansion work is completed, upstream permitting delays have so far limited the flow to about 990,000 barrels per day.

Earlier this month a Minnesota appeals court reversed a decision by state regulators who last year had approved an environmental review for Enbridge’s proposed replacement of its aging Line 3, which links up to Line 61 in Superior. Enbridge had earlier announced a year-long delay of that multibillion-dollar project because of permitting issues.

‘Critical infrastructure’

Enbridge spokeswoman Jennifer Smith said the company was pleased with the decision.

“The Waterloo pump station is critical infrastructure for the state of Wisconsin and for the region, helping to ensure a reliable source of energy for decades to come,” Smith said.

David Gault, assistant corporation counsel for Dane County, said the case stems from “a really badly written law” that was anonymously slipped into the budget specifically to benefit Enbridge. He questioned the court’s interpretation that the law doesn’t require a pipeline operator to maintain insurance.

“It is inconceivable that the legislature did not intend to impose an ongoing insurance requirement on pipeline operators,” Gault said. “The Wisconsin Legislature and Supreme Court have effectively given pipeline operators permission to operate in Wisconsin with no insurance.”

Noting that Enbridge’s attorney said the company is willing to provide proof of insurance, Gault suggested that the zoning committee request it once a year.

More reaction

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, which filed a court brief siding with Enbridge, praised the decision.

“Businesses need to be able to operate in Wisconsin with the understanding that local governments will follow the law and operate within their authority,” said Scott Manley, WMC’s vice president of government relations. “In this case, Dane County blatantly ignored state law in an attempt to stop a commercial project it disagreed with.”

Patricia Hammel, who represented the landowners, said the conservative justices who control the court are beholden to the state’s business lobby.

“Today the Wisconsin Supreme Court again ignored established precedent and the plain meaning of words to reach a 4-1 result favoring a multinational oil corporation,” Hammel said. “This is an activist court and the majority will do as Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce directs.”

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