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Lawless EPA Issues New Methane Rule to Cripple U.S. O&G Drilling

lawlessThe gloves are now off and everything is out in the open: President Barack Hussein Obama wants to destroy the oil and gas industry in the United States of America. Yesterday Obama’s preferred tool of destruction, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), released a plan that brings the jackboots of the federal government down on the necks of the industry–forcing them to “reduce” methane emissions by 40-45%. Methane, you may recall, is what drillers actually extract from the ground and sell. Methane is what they get paid for–the very thing they are incentivized to capture so they can sell it. Drillers have reduced their methane emissions–the stuff leaking out around the edges–by at least 40-45% over the past few years. In other words, the industry is already doing what the EPA wants them to do. Which means this action is a blatant attempt at stifling drilling in this country. Let us be crystal clear: This action by the EPA is illegal. This is an outright attempt to regulate the oil and gas industry, contrary to the U.S. Constitution which reserves such regulation to the individual states. Just have a look at the so-called “rule” the EPA has published (all 591 pages of it). It is a top to bottom set of unlegislated regulations that will put all oil an gas drilling in the regulatory hands of the EPA.

This is a big and important story, so we’ve broken it into several posts. Below, in this post, is the EPA press release–a masterful propaganda spin job–along with a copy of the 591-page “rule” the EPA will first publish in the Federal Register, and then, 60 days later, adopt as an unlegislated law that will become of the law of the land governing oil and gas drilling. All done through the back door of trying to reduce methane emissions as a way of controlling mythical global warming.
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Pro-Drilling Groups Weigh in on Lawless EPA Methane Rule

white hatAs for the good guys, the guys in the white hats who support clean-burning natural gas and fossil fuels, they also weighed in on the EPA’s lawless new methane reduction rule, otherwise known as 40 CFR Part. Here’s what the good guys from ANGA, API, Marcellus Shale Coalition, WVONGA and even what three U.S. Senators had to say…
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Anti-Drilling Groups Weigh in on Lawless EPA Methane Rule

black hatIf you wonder whether or not a new regulation is good or bad, you can always tell by who supports it and who doesn’t. In the case of the EPA and their lawless new methane reduction rule, otherwise known as 40 CFR Part 60, national radical environmental groups like Earthjustice and the Sierra Club, along with regional and local radical groups like the Ohio Environmental Council and the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council, are applauding the action taken by the Obama EPA…
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The One Graph that Exposes the EPA Lie re Methane Regulation

The graph below puts to rest the lie that the EPA’s action in trying to control oil and gas drilling via the back door of controlling methane emissions will do anything to help so-called global warming. It won’t. Not a thing. Why? One-third of all methane emissions are naturally occurring–coming from “wetlands” (i.e. swamps, representing 22%), the ocean (3%) and yes, termites (4%). Who knew termites fart that much? But wait, there’s even more farting. Of all “man-caused” methane emissions, cow farts, otherwise referred to as “enteric fermentation” represent 16% of all methane emissions, and “animal waste” (i.e. cow manure) represents another 5% of all methane emissions. That is, agriculture is responsible for 21% of all “fugitive” methane emissions. Oil & gas and coal extraction? That represents 19%. So the EPA is focusing on 19% of the problem and ignoring the other 81% of the problem, claiming that will magically reduce global warming. What utter cow manure…
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Has Aubrey McClendon Finally Hung Himself with High Debt?

An article on Bloomberg takes aim at famed wildcatter Aubrey McClendon, calling his move into the Marcellus Shale a “misadventure” that has left investors holding an empty bag. According to the article (excerpts below), McClendon’s strategy after leaving Chesapeake Energy was to get a bunch of money from investors (load up on debt) and then work off the debt over time as production ramps up. Problem is, the price of natural gas and oil collapsed after he loaded up on debt, and consequently there’s been very little production, and the money that comes from production is tiny. The debt hangs around Aubrey’s neck like a millstone. The question now is, has Aubrey finally hung himself with high debt? Can Ascent Resources–the one-time American Energy Partners subsidiary that broke away–survive the mountain of debt it carries long enough for prices to turn around?…
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More Suitors Line Up to Buy Williams – Spectra Energy Makes a Bid

Early in the year, midstream giant Energy Transfer Equity began an attempt to woo another midstream giant Williams into a buyout. Williams resisted and the whole thing went public in June when ETE announced they would pursue a hostile takeover (see Energy Transfer Makes “Indecent Proposal” to Buy Williams for $48B). Williams has continued to spurn the overtures of ETE and has instead gone shopping for another suitor (see Williams Continues to Resist ET Offer, Talks with Other Suitors). We now know of one serious alternative suitor to ETE. Reuters published an exclusive, insider story revealing that Spectra Energy is now bidding to merge with/takeover Williams. Kinder Morgan is also interested and sniffing around, but at this point Spectra seems to be in the lead…
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Anti-Pipeline “Hands Across Our Land” Protest in VA & WV a Bust

Hands Across Our Land, a minuscule gathering in three locations in Virginia and one location in West Virginia organized by the far left Sierra Club and the extremists of 350.org, held “protests” so small yesterday that if it weren’t for local media looking for any story to report during the summer doldrums, nobody would have noticed there even was a protest. Casual observers would have thought, “Oh, there’s a small group, perhaps a (nutty looking) family out for a stroll.” The “protesters” were there to object to two necessary, innocuous, safe natural gas pipelines from being buried in the ground–Dominion’s 550-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline which is due to run from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina; and EQT/NextEra US Gas Assets’ 330-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline from West Virginia into southern Virginia. As is typically the case, most of the protesters were in their 50s and 60s, former hippies who have found a new cause (anti-fossil fuels) to rejuvinate their otherwise meaningless lives…
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A Strong Case for Exporting Marcellus/Utica Shale Gas

Yesterday the price of natural gas trading at the benchmark Henry Hub delivery point in southern Louisiana traded for $2.71 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf). At the Algonquin Citygate (Boston), where the price is known to spike due to pipeline shortages, the price was $2.59/Mcf. At Dominion South in southwestern Pennsylvania, the price was trading at $1.33/Mcf. And at the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Zone 4 Marcellus in northeastern Pennsylvania, gas traded at (don’t cry): $0.70/Mcf. A lousy 70 cents. (All prices are from the top notch NGI Daily Gas Price Index reporting service.) We are awash in natural gas in this country–a good thing. But we need exports and we need exports desperately or production will go down and prices won’t recover all that much. MDN spotted a press release from Platts touting their Japan/Korea Marker (JKM) service. In that release, they report the average price being fetched for natural gas trading in northeast Asia. You know how much they get for gas there? $8.01/Mcf. That’s 3x what gas is fetching on the Henry Hub, and 11x what it’s fetching at Tennessee Zone 4. Can we possibly make a stronger case that we need to export our cheap, abundant and clean-burning natural gas to other countries? Is it not a good thing to become a net exporter once again, instead of being indebted to the other countries of the world, countries that are gradually buying our country one piece at a time?…
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Marcellus/Utica Tied to $43.8B in New NE Industrial Projects

How much of an impact does Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling (and its associated activities) impact the northeast economically? We now have a pretty good idea, thanks to research done by Industrial Info Resources, a research company based in Sugarland, TX. Industrial Info is tracking more than $43.8 billion in industrial capital and maintenance projects that are set to kick off from now through 2016 in the Northeastern U.S. and New England. Industrial Info says, “Abundant natural gas from Marcellus Shale wells in Pennsylvania are responsible for much of the activity”…
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