- Pennsylvania has withheld two quarterly payments to the Delaware River Basin Commission, the arbiter of whether natural gas drilling will occur in the watershed. Meanwhile, New York has steadily shrunk its payments over the last few years as the panel has debated whether to allow the industry to drill. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

- More speculation on Shell's ethane cracker, this time from MarketWatch, which updates the timetable for the company's location announcement to "the end of the first quarter."

- Jan Jarrett has resigned from leading the environmental group, Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, and has been replaced by George Jugovic Jr., formerly of the DEP's southwestern office. Jarrett came under fire late last year when the Patriot-News reported that the group was forced to repay a state grant that was not properly spent. 

- A $1 billion natural gas pipeline has been proposed to run from Lycoming County south through the midstate. If built as proposed, the 200-mile pipeline would go south to the Baltimore and Washington markets. (Harrisburg Patriot-News)

- Buy your tickets now for "FrackNation," a documentary slated for summer release that wants to counter the narrative seen in Josh Fox's "Gasland." The documentarians behind the movie have a track record of anti-environmentalist films, and talked to the Post-Gazette's Erich Schwartzel about how they want the whole story of gas drilling to be included in this latest film. 

- The Associated Press has a piece out this morning on the EPA tightening regulation of the state's Marcellus Shale. Of note: 

The heightened federal scrutiny rankles the industry and politicians in the state capital, where the administration of pro-drilling Gov. Tom Corbett insists that Pennsylvania regulators are best suited to oversee the gas industry. The complaints echo those in Texas and in Wyoming, where EPA's preliminary finding that fracking chemicals contaminated water supplies is forcefully disputed by state officials and energy executives.

- WTAE-TV of Pittsburgh has a story on a group of workers who say they were promised shale jobs, only to arrive here and be cut from the payroll one month later. 

- The New York Times editorial board says plans to drill as a way to lower gas prices are misguided. Meanwhile, the paper's newsroom says deepwater oil drilling has resumed now that backlash from the BP oil spill has quieted down. 

- And Chrysler is planning a natural gas pick-up truck, says the Wall Street Journal. 

- More than 75 people marched to the downtown Butler office of Rex Energy Inc. to protest the company's decision to stop providing replacement water to the McIntyres and 10 other families in the Connoquenessing Township community, 30 miles north of Pittsburgh. (Post-Gazette)

- Washington County on Thursday became the second county in the Pittsburgh area to approve a fee on shale drillers, and most of its western Pennsylvania neighbors are right on its heels: Lawrence County passed the fee on Tuesday, and Westmoreland, Butler, Armstrong, Fayette and Beaver counties have votes planned this month. Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald plans to introduce a fee bill as well. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

- A partnership of three companies on Thursday proposed building a $1 billion pipeline that would transport fuel from Northern Pennsylvania to markets in Central and Eastern Pennsylvania, as well as Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

- A federal court has lifted an order that briefly halted construction and tree clearing on a natural gas pipeline in northern Pennsylvania's Endless Mountains. (Associated Press)

- And Rolling Stone has this look at Chesapeake Energy's shale operations, portraying CEO Aubrey McClendon as focused on "flipping" properties to shore up profits for his company. (Former DEP Secretary John Hanger already has this rebuttal posted on his personal blog, saying the piece "regurgitates" the Ponzi scheme comparison that drew criticism in an earlier New York Times article.)

- South Fayette has joined other municipalities in considering legal action against House Bill 1950, the new shale law signed last month. (Post-Gazette)

- Washington County has shrugged off the nation's sluggish economy in recent years, mostly due to the surge of the Marcellus Shale, according to county commissioners. (Post-Gazette)

- A Donegal couple is suing Range Resources, asserting that the company improperly claimed it possesses drilling and production rights to oil and gas beneath 151 acres they own as a result of a lease dating more than five decades. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

- And in the latest impact fee implementation news, Blair county commissioners are moving forward with plans to impose that new fee. (WRTA)