PA AG Shapiro’s Vicious Attack Against Coterra Energy Continues
In June 2020, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (Democrat) announced an indictment of Cabot Oil & Gas for allegations of methane migration going back more than a decade, long before he was elected as AG (see PA AG Charges Cabot with Enviro Crimes for Long-Settled Dimock). Shapiro’s indictment was a bogus charge, an attempt to turn a long-settled accident into a crime–all for political gain. Shapiro recently won the race to be the state’s next governor. Bashing the Marcellus industry as AG gave him credibility with the wacko left in his own political party. A few weeks after Shapiro’s shameless and bogus indictment in 2020, Cabot (now Coterra Energy) signaled it would fight him tooth and nail in court (see Cabot Signals They Will Fight PA AG Sham Dimock Indictment). Here’s the next chapter: Shapiro is about to force Coterra (still under indictment for multiple felonies) to pay for a new municipal water system in the middle of nowhere for 20 homes that already had methane in their water for generations before Cabot showed up to drill.
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The same three radicalized environmental groups that previously attacked the Renovo Energy Center (REC), a Marcellus gas-fired power plant planned for Clinton County, PA, are at it again. On November 22, the Clean Air Council, PennFuture, and the Center for Biological Diversity (all completely radicalized fossil fuel bigots) announced they had appealed an extension of time for an air pollution permit granted to REC by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP).
Last week the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) voted to approve the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and its Environmental Quality Board’s (EQB) rammed-through (in a rush) regulation to control volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and by extension methane, for conventional drilling sites throughout the state (see 
While tracking the active rig count week by week can give you a little sugar high, we think tracking the count month by month is more illustrative of where the count (and drilling activity) is heading. Baker Hughes is the grandaddy of rig counts, having tracked rigs since 1944. You need a rig to drill a new well, so counting active rigs gives you an idea of overall drilling activity. What do the rig counts look like for Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia over the past two years? Is drilling activity going up, or down, in our region? We have the answer.
From time to time, it’s helpful to revisit our longstanding relationship with Canada with respect to natural gas flowing across the border–both ways. It sounds strange on the surface to say that there are dozens of pipelines that cross our joint border–some flowing gas to Canada (exports), others flowing gas from our neighbors to the north (imports). Why don’t we both just keep our own gas to ourselves instead of swapping? Because in some areas, it makes sense for Canada to produce the gas and ship it to us, and in other areas, the reverse makes sense. Truth be told, Canada’s flows of gas to the U.S. help us maintain supply reliability during the winter months. So says the EIA.
Last week (Nov. 14-20) saw a total of 31 new shale permits issued across the Marcellus/Utica, up slightly from 26 permits the week before. Pennsylvania received the most permits, with 26 new permits issued. Ohio received five new permits, and West Virginia got skunked with no new permits last week.
Happy Thanksgiving! MDN is taking both Thanksgiving Thursday and Black Friday off. While you’re taking time to be thankful for your friends, family, food, drinks, and other luxuries, take a moment to say THANK YOU to the resources that make this holiday so wonderful: fossil fuels! Below is a video from our friends at Clear Energy Alliance. Watch it (under 4 minutes) to learn just how much oil, natural gas, and coal bring to the table during the holiday season–and every other day of the year.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Sempra announces partnership with ConocoPhillips for Port Arthur LNG; NATIONAL: Proposals for a windfall profits tax are damaging even if never enacted; Looming rail strike complicates Biden options to avoid diesel supply crisis; INTERNATIONAL: Nearly 60% of German chems need to cut output to reduce natgas use.