WV Bill Passes to Shut Off Banks Refusing to Fund Fossil Energy
In January a new Senate bill was introduced in the West Virginia Senate requiring the entire state government, all of the various state agencies and governmental departments, to stop doing business with any bank or investment firm that refuses to support coal, oil, and natural gas companies (see WV Bill Bans Using Banks, Investment Cos that Divest Fossil Fuels). We are delighted to report that Senate Bill (SB) 262 passed both the WV Senate and the House and now sits on Gov. Jim Justices’ desk, waiting for his signature (almost certain to happen).
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It’s been fun watching the enviro-left soil themselves over the sudden and dramatic shift in public favorable attitudes toward fossil energy. There is no disputing that if the U.S. was energy independent, as it was under Donald Trump, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine would not be having the impact on oil and gas prices that it has had. Republicans (even a few Democrats) are loudly proclaiming we need to ramp up American oil and natural gas drilling once again. This has the lefties doing all sorts of mental gymnastics to try and explain how increasing oil and gas drilling here would be a bad thing. It’s actually quite funny!
Yesterday the U.S. Dept. of Energy issued two long-term orders authorizing liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from two current operating LNG export projects: Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass facility in Louisiana, and Cheniere’s Corpus Christi facility in Texas. The order allows the two facilities together to ship an extra 0.72 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of LNG over and above the amounts previously authorized. Wait a minute…aren’t all LNG export facilities exporting at their maximum capacity? Yes they are, but…
BofA (Bank of America) Global Research recently issued a research report stating that natural gas production in both the Marcellus/Utica and the Permian Basin faces constraints in 2023 and likely will have to dial back on production. Both regions will hit capacity with existing pipelines in 2023 and there are no new pipes coming online. Also, one of the largest growing customers for our natgas supplies has been LNG exports. No new LNG facilities will come online in 2023, says BofA, which hasn’t happened since we began exporting LNG in 2016.
In his first two days in office, Joe Biden declared war on the oil and gas industry. One of the first things he did was to revive an interagency working group on the “social cost” of greenhouse gas emissions and directed the issuance of an “interim” cost (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PA Senate resolution offers hope for developing a rare earth minerals industry; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Driftwood LNG nears FID, backed by 10-year contracts in break from norm; Texas asks 19 finance firms for fossil fuel stance; NATIONAL: ‘C’mon Man’ stop sabotaging American energy; Waive the Jones Act to get the supply chain flowing again.