Appalachia Resist Strikes Again – Nutjob Blocks Traffic in Columbus
In 2012 a group of what some call “aggressive” anti-drilling zealots flying under the name of Appalachia Resist ran a training camp in Athens County, OH to incite impressionable young idiots into criminal acts under the guise of saving the planet (see Anti-Drillers in Ohio Learn to Break the Law at Special Camp). They taught their lessons well. Three months later a small mob of 100 or so stormed a shale wastewater treatment facility in Washington County, OH, vandalizing equipment and terrorizing the workers (see Protesters Get Violent, Shut Down OH Frack Water Plant). These are not “peaceful acts of civil disobedience” as is claimed by some biased media reports. These are criminals acting and behaving like criminals. In 2014 they temporarily shut down an Ohio injection well (see Anti-Drilling Protesters Shut Down OH Injection Well – 1 Arrested), and in 2015 they vandalized a pipeline construction site (see Radicalized Ohio U Students Vandalize Pipeline Construction Site). With the recent total defeat of their cause in Ohio (community after community voting down so-called Community Bill of Rights resolutions), Appalachia Resist has run out of things to protest. So on Tuesday they decided to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline–in front of Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s office in Columbus, OH. We know we know–the Dakota Access Pipeline is some 1,200 miles (and 20 hours by car) from Columbus. But that didn’t stop a small group of a dozen or so from making horses rear-ends of themselves. One in particular decided to chain himself to the axle of his van, blocking traffic for an hour while law enforcement saved him from himself. Here’s the latest antics from Appalachia Resist…
Continue reading
In true environmental Nazi fashion, a group of profoundly stupid people have pledged to “swarm” and shut down a SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) meeting where a vote will be taken to build a Marcellus gas-powered electric plant that would provide electricity to SEPTA’s northern Regional Rail lines–a win/win for all Pennsylvanians. The reason the enviro Nazis want to shut down the meeting is to stop the vote because the clean-burning plant would burn a “fossil fuel” and these poor, lost souls grew up watching Captain Planet cartoons and believe burning natgas will toast Mom Earth. That is, they were brainwashed children who grew up to be maladjusted adults…
As MDN reported in September, the Maryland Dept. of the Environment (MDE) beat the Oct. 1 deadline to release onerous new fracking regulations (see 
Last month MDN wrote a post outlining an initiative to begin regulating small, low-pressure gathering pipelines–something not now done (see 
Companies in the oil and gas sector often split the ownership of assets into different companies (on paper) for various reasons: tax purposes…to attract investment…to give us laypeople headaches. CONE Midstream, a joint venture between CONSOL Energy and Noble Energy (CO from CONSOL and NE from Noble Energy) was formed in summer 2014 (see 
Somehow or other MDN wound up on the distribution list for Deutsche Bank’s Equity Research (North America) updates. Which we like! Germany-based Deutsche Bank (DB) is the world’s 11th largest bank. They have some sharp analysts who keep tabs on multiple industries, one of those industries being oil and gas. Given the recent happenings with the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), and the happenings with the Ohio Rover pipeline–both pipelines projects of Energy Transfer Equity–DB decided to do a quick update on both projects, giving us the investor/trader view of what will happen over the next 2-3 months. We found the update interesting and think you will too…
One of the most important choices before President-elect Trump is who he will select to run the rogue, out-of-control Environmental Protection Agency. Who will Trump pick to, as he calls it, “drain the swamp”? It’s an important choice. We need someone who will dismantle the wild, lawbreaking regulations of an agency operating unchecked for the past eight years. If you believe Reuters (and we’re not sure we do), Trump is looking at two people to head the EPA. Both would, it seems to us, do a good job of draining the EPA swamp…
MDN’s favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, has just published a brief article denoting a milestone: the amount of natural gas in storage has reached a new, record high of 4.017 trillion cubic feet (Tcf). Our country does not use as much natural gas as we produce during the months of April through October–which is the time when we store the extra gas in (mostly) underground salt caverns. From November to March, when it’s cold, we withdraw gas from storage because we’re using more than we produce. Over the past few years we have produced, and stored, far more gas than we can use–leading to a crash in natgas prices. A buildup in storage is a signal to the market that once again we have too much supply and not enough demand. Which furthermore is a signal that the recent rise in prices for natgas (over $3/Mcf) isn’t likely to last. In fact, the price of gas over the past month has gone from $3.25/Mcf to (today) $2.75/Mcf–a $0.50 drop. Storage is a big part of the reason why. Here’s what the EIA had to say…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: A first look at Shell’s ethane cracker site; USGS finds biggest onshore oil find ever in West Texas; America on track to export record volume of shale gas this month; still too early to feel effects of US LNG exports; will Trump slow down coal-to-gas switching?; financial markets fall in love with The Donald; and more!