Peoples Gas & Pitt Team Up to Test Hydrogen/NatGas Mix
The natural gas industry is apparently not satisfied with being in the natural gas business anymore. Increasingly, local distribution companies (LDCs, or utilities) are investigating, and in some cases experimenting with, introducing highly explosive hydrogen into the natural gas stream they flow to homes and businesses. Peoples Gas in Pittsburgh is teaming up with the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) to figure out how to mix hydrogen with the natural gas it serves to its customers in Pennsylvania and beyond.
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On Monday, local business leaders in Jefferson County, OH, were treated to an update on the Utica Shale and how local manufacturers can benefit from the growth in the shale industry. According to Robert Naylor, executive director for the Jefferson County Port Authority, “the (purpose) of the workshop was to stress or demonstrate how the business community — vendors and manufacturers — could enter the energy supply chain to create jobs, workforce development and overall economic game for our region.” Two powerhouse speakers from 
We have a growing unease about ESG, or “environmental, social, governance” efforts that are popping up like dandelions in springtime. We’ve spoken about this before. While we applaud the efforts by Marcellus/Utica drillers and pipeline companies (and others in the M-U supply chain) to ensure their businesses are responsible stewards of Mom Earth. Slapping an ESG label on those efforts (as M-U companies tend to do) is NOT what the environmental left is talking about when they use the same term. We see a number of ESG-related stories as we scan the news each day. Over the past few months, we’ve seen an increase in stories questioning so-called ESG efforts being forced on us by the left. We have several recent stories that plumb the depths of how ESG (as defined by the left) is bad for the U.S.
An opinion column appearing in (of all places) Newsweek, a profoundly liberal publication, appears under the headline, “Environmentalism Is a Fundamentalist Religion.” That sure caught our attention! Written by Joel Kotkin, Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University, the column assumes that man-made global warming is happening (something we do not assume). But even operating with that assumption, Kotkin says what’s needed to combat so-called climate change is a “pragmatic approach based on adapting to real and verifiable dangers.” He goes on to say the left’s “war” against climate change is doomed to make things worse for most people. Kotkin is one of the few on the left who is refreshingly honest!
Last week the three states with active Marcellus/Utica drilling, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, issued a collective 21 new drilling permits, down from the 30 permits issued the week before, and down from the 40 permits issued the week before that. The trend is not our friend right now. PA issued 13 permits, and OH and WV issued four permits each.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: GO-WV leader recognized as first female WV O&G Person of the Year; NATIONAL: U.S. weekly export amounts to 21 LNG carriers; INTERNATIONAL: Britain seeks USA gas deals; Increase in Suez Canal transit fees unlikely to impact LNG trade flows.