Virginia DEQ Draft Water Permit for MVP Signals Project Approval
Although some 92% of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is already built and in the ground, important segments remain unfinished, including pipeline built under or through rivers, streams, and wetlands. One of the key remaining segments for water crossings is in Virginia. Last Thursday the Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued a draft Section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act permit that would approve plans to let MVP finish its work in the state. The DEQ is now accepting comments on the plan. Anti-drilling zealots have gone nearly berserk with the news. Did they really think they would stop this $6 billion project?
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Olympus Energy, the renamed Huntley & Huntley Energy Exploration (HHEX), continues to make progress in Upper Burrell Township in Westmoreland County, PA. The company currently has two well pads (Zeus and Calliope) with multiple wells drilled in Upper Burrell. Now comes word of plans for a third well pad, named the Selene Well Pad by the company. Olympus will present plans for the new pad at a hearing on Wednesday.
Say a prayer for the folks in Louisiana. Hurricane Ida made landfall Sunday as a Category 4 storm near Port Fourchon, Louisiana. Gov. John Bel Edwards described it as “one of the strongest storms to make landfall here in modern times.” As the storm worked its way through the Gulf of Mexico, nearly all (95%) of the oil and natural gas platforms in the Gulf went offline and evacuated personnel in preparation. Given supplies going offline, and given the hurricane missed major LNG export facilities (meaning they will continue to operate), the price of natural gas skyrocketed, closing at $4.37 and (according to some analysts) on its way to a modern-era high of $4.50 or more.
Some interesting facts and figures from our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). In 2011 the U.S. had 317.6 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired electric generation capacity. About 88.7 GW (28%) of that capacity was retired from 2011 to 2020. The primary reason? Marcellus/Utica natural gas. Cheap, abundant, and clean-burning natural gas began to be used in electric generating plants. Another fun fact: Of the 93.5 GW of natural gas capacity built in the U.S. from 2011 to 2020, 14.3 GW (15%) is located in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
We believe there is a total lack of scientific proof that an increasing amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, put there by burning fossil fuels, is causing Mom Earth to catastrophically toast. In fact, we did our own quick analysis of temperatures in the Binghamton area over the past 70 years and found a total lack of proof that CO2 is causing global warming (see 
A number of big Marcellus/Utica drillers (i.e. producers) have gone whole hog on ESG (environmental, social, governance) programs in an attempt to prove to the world natural gas and the way we produce it is green too. One of the companies that popped up over a year ago to help M-U drillers (and drillers in other plays) prove they are clean and green was Independent Energy Standards Corporation (IES) TrustWell™ Responsible Gas Program (see 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: California wises up and chooses natural gas; Permian natural gas growth spurs more processing capacity; NATIONAL: Record plastic prices may go stratospheric; Biden’s infrastructure plan is Solyndra on steroids; Time to rethink Biden’s anti-American energy policies; INTERNATIONAL: OPEC+ seen sticking to plan.