The City That Banned Gas Drilling

Anecdotal impressions of Pittsburgh may be changing, and we have City Council to thank for that.

I was in Buffalo, New York over the weekend where most people I talked to hadn't been to Pittsburgh yet and didn't seem to have many impressions of this city 3 1/2 hours South.

Yet shopping in a local fashion store, I heard something new to me. "You're the city that banned gas drilling." Well, yeah, back in November, the city of Pittsburgh did ban gas drilling within the city limits, dismissed as a token effort by most around these parts. But up in Buffalo, one business proprietor says that inspired other cities to realize they could do the same thing. Buffalo enacted their ban last month after Pittsburgh paved the way.

Now that's a legacy we can be proud of.

Full of Gas in Harrisburg

If there's one thing I've learned in my time in Pennsylvania, it's that you can rely on our State Legislators in Harrisburg to drag their feet. This is the same Legislature which in 2009 didn't pass its annual budget until almost 3 months after it was due.

Marcellus Shale (the huge rock formation containing huge amounts of hard-to-extract natural gas covering most of Western Pennsylvania) has been in the news for years. Companies have been ramping up operations to build wells and extract the lucrative gas since 2008. Now in the middle of a budget crisis in 2010 where our roads and public transportation options are facing severe cuts, the Legislators are finally proposing a tax on this process which is harmful to the environment and has already put billions of dollars in the pockets of investors.

Today, the State House is finally voting on a bill to tax the shale deposits. The only questions are: how much and how? Do you tax on the quantity of the gas as it is extracted from the ground or on the market value once the gas is sold or a combination of the two (as Governor Rendell supports). The current bill will only tax the gas as it is extracted, but it is set to be one of the highest rates in the nation. Of course, this is in front of the House. Once (and if) the bill reaches the Republican-controlled Senate, they will inevitably compromise and lower the rate and/or change the methodology.

Finally, once they can agree on the tax, they need to agree where the money should go - a combination of State general fund and an environmental fund to counteract the damages imposed by drilling.

Needless to say the drilling companies have predicted doom and gloom if the bill is passed in Pennsylvania. And Legislators are hesitant to pass a law so close to an important mid-term election. Will they pass the law before they leave for campaigning break in mid-October? I'll wager my bus fare because if they don't pass the law, I won't be taking the bus anymore anyways.

As a note, all other 24 Marcellus Shale states have already passed a tax. Pennsylvania is dead last.

Fat Wednesday

While paczki are a foreign delight to me, the fish-on-fridays and 40-days-of-resolutions all leading up to chocolate-bunny-day are all very familiar to me and my very Catholic Massachusetts hometown. I met my first Jewish person in high school and was under the impression that Catholics were the vast majority of this country until college. Catholicism and I have since parted ways but I still have a soft spot for the various festivities it offers.

In light of being thankful that Jesus hallucinated in the desert for 40 days without food and water, I offer the following news articles that made my day.

1) Abstinence-only education in Pittsburgh schools has been eliminated. One can only hope that some of the millions that Obama is cutting out in his upcoming budget is the sickening Federal governments grants for nationwide abstinence-only education. Needless to say, I have strong feelings on this issue. This is not one of those fond memories of Catholicism for me.

2) The Mon Wharf re-construction actually begins very shortly. One more piece of the city's bike path puzzle is being worked on, and we are one step closer to having one of the most bad-ass city bike trail in the country.

3) Natural Gas prices have dropped for my local supplier. Every time I attempt to wrap my head around commodity charges and gas cost adjustments and distribution charges, my head hurts and some wonk says that it's all good because Pennsylvania gas companies aren't allowed to make a profit while my gas bill edges higher and natural gas prices plummet. This time it still hurts my head, but I double-checked my gas bill for the month, and my rate did actually drop to relatively close to what it was a year ago.

So today, I'm a content blogger - or at least this morning. Hopefully Luke and Onorato and all their friends and enemies can hold off on stupidity for the rest of the day or till Easter. Perhaps it can be their Lenten resolution? Is that too much to hope? Maybe then I can find something positive to say about Pittsburgh politics every day of Lent.

F****ing Equitable - or why my gas bill is going up 7% this winter.

The price of natural gas has plummeted. I've been over-paying through the nose for my natural gas rate which has not plummeted on my gas bill. Where is this extra money going?

Dominion has dropped their gas rates significantly.

Equitable is trying to raise their extraneous rates. Do they want people to freeze to death this winter?? Don't they know dead people don't pay bills??

Now I know why my neighbor opted to heat his house by wood burning stoves... in the city.

Ahh... state-approved and managed pseudo-monopolies. Gotta love them.

Gas Prices Dropping?

Both Equitable and Dominion have announced natural gas price drops. I personally am in Equitable territory, and I couldn't help but notice that Dominion's new price is significantly lower than Equitable's new price.

What do I think to myself?

Sweet, we live in the age of "Energy Choice". I can't pick my distributor, but I can pick my supplier. I'm going to save 20% on my gas this winter by choosing Dominion as my supplier instead of Equitable.

The reality?

I call up Dominion, and they inform that their pricing for Equitable customers is completely different than for customers they supply gas for. In fact, instead of the $9.63/MCF commodity charge, I would be charged $14/MCF - about the same as I am charged with Equitable. The $14 may or may not include the extra $1.61/MCF gas cost adjustment. I didn't get a clear answer on that one. If it doesn't, it's higher than I'm paying with Equitable.

I sure wish someone would explain to me how this travesty came to occur. If the utility companies are forced to "not make a profit" and need to adjust their prices quarterly to do so, how come Equitable is so much more expensive than Dominion? And how come Dominion can charge me more than they charge the customers they supply? These are the questions I'll be asking myself when my already high gas bill is 22% higher this winter than last winter and also coincidentally 22% higher than it would be if Dominion was my supplier. That's a few hundred dollars that I would have preferred to use for something else.

The latest news for Equitable? They're moving to downtown Pittsburgh. How did they get the money for it? Are they using the 22% profit they're making on me and thousands of other Pittsburgh residents? No, they're getting state and local subsidies for the move. Oh, well. Maybe some day I'll understand how this trickle-down economy works, but this winter, I'll be lowering the thermostat and putting on a sweater.

(reference: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08275/916393-28.stm)