Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines | Virginia
Virginia Landowners Petition SCOTUS to Block MVP Eminent Domain
A small group of landowners in southwestern Virginia who have lost all of their previous attempts to block Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from crossing their property have made one last-ditch effort to fundamentally change the laws of the entire country to prevent this one pipeline. The landowners, obviously using Big Green money, have appealed their losing case to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the high court to hear their case against FERC’s (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) right to delegate its eminent domain power to a private pipeline company–in this case to MVP.
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In February 2020, EQT Corporation’s credit rating (for company-issued bonds) was designated at the “junk” (i.e. non-investment grade) level. In March of this year, two of the three top credit rating agencies–Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings–upgraded EQT’s credit rating, returning it to investment grade (see 
Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) is one of four natural gas distribution companies owned by Southern Company. VNG provides natural gas service to more than 300,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in southeast Virginia. Since 2012, VNG has replaced nearly 500 miles of the aging pipeline, resulting in a 27% reduction in methane emissions. VNG is a little over halfway through spending $360 million on infrastructure upgrades.
Last Friday, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) released a report of the results of mixing so-called “green” hydrogen with natural gas and using the fuel to generate electricity with reduced emissions from a retrofitted General Electric combustion turbine. The experiment was conducted at NYPA’s Brentwood Power Station on Long Island. NYPA experimented with fuel blends from 5% to 44% hydrogen. The study found CO2 mass emission rates were reduced by approximately 14% by mixing in a 35% blend of hydrogen.
We are equal parts excited and repulsed by hydrogen as an energy source. We’re excited because, seemingly overnight, everybody and his brother (and sister) are jazzed about converting to hydrogen energy. Mountains of money are being poured into hydrogen research and infrastructure. The federal government is spending $8 billion (out of $1.2 trillion) to establish regional hydrogen hubs. Even companies in the Marcellus/Utica are jazzed because hydrogen production offers a huge new customer for M-U molecules. On the other hand, we’re repulsed because hydrogen is a “poor” fuel that faces “major obstacles” to its widespread adoption. We’re concerned about chasing after the wind–sinking a LOT of money into something that ultimately won’t pan out. Let’s have a hard and honest look at some of the downsides to hydrogen energy.
A few years ago, a trader could buy an LNG cargo for $15-$20 million. Today? It’s an order of magnitude higher. A single “spot” LNG cargo now fetches $175-$200 million! Given the money involved, only a handful of international energy majors and top global trading houses are currently in the game of buying and selling such cargoes. And it appears it will stay that way–in the hands of the big players–at least until 2026. That’s the analysis according to Reuters.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: EQT named one of Pittsburgh’s top 2022 workplaces; Fredonia alum to give talk on Upper Devonian Shale of western NY; NATIONAL: Fitch Solutions raises Henry Hub gas price forecast; INTERNATIONAL: More than 20 countries agree to boost low-emission hydrogen output by 2030.