Forest Service Caves to Radicals, Extends Comment Period for MVP
On Dec. 22, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) published a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement that allows the nearly-completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to finish up construction through 3.5 miles of Jefferson National Forest straddling West Virginia and Virginia (see US Forest Service Floats New Plan to Allow MVP Thur Natl Forest). This is the THIRD time the Forest Service has issued the same permit. Two previous attempts were overturned by three clown judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The public had until Feb. 6th (yesterday) to file official comments on this latest plan. That is, until the bleating radicals moaned and groaned, asking for more time. So USFS extended the comment period another two weeks, until Feb. 21st.
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The Pennsylvania House Republican Policy Committee held a hearing yesterday in Harrisburg on the increasing energy costs that affect large and small businesses as well as homeowners. Several energy advocates, including Marcellus Shale Coalition President Dave Callahan, shared their thoughts and insights. High on the list of issues creating higher energy prices in the Keystone State are (1) the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI, an obscene carbon tax), and (2) the ongoing issue of red tape from government bureaucracies like the Dept. of Environmental Protection.
Baker Hughes reported the rig count for last week saw the deepest cuts in rigs for any single week since June 2020 (just as the COVID pandemic and lockdowns were taking hold). The oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, fell by 12 to 759 in the week ending Feb. 3. That is the lowest overall rig count number since September of last year. All of which sounds rather ominous. So we grabbed the numbers and updated our own spreadsheet/chart, and found the rig count across the three Marcellus/Utica states–Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia–remained a constant 52 active rigs over the past three months. Whew.
New analysis from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows the world will bring online the least amount of new LNG exports this year than it has in the past ten years. The world will, if the predicted four new projects come online, add another 1 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) of LNG export capacity, which is piddly. But that’s not even the worst news. The worst news is that NONE of that new capacity will come from the U.S.
Last week, the oil and gas industry gathered in Houston for the 
Sigh. The Bidenistas are at it again–targeting the fossil fuel industry for extinction. The latest attempt came on January 9th when the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), which serves as the White House’s environmental policy arm, issued “interim guidance” to assist federal agencies in analyzing so-called greenhouse gas (GHG) and climate change effects of their proposed actions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). One of the agencies affected by this guidance is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). However, FERC is an independent agency and does not necessarily march to the White House drummer. The question is, how much will the new CEQ guidance affect FERC’s policies as the agency evaluates oil and gas pipelines?
For almost a year, we’ve sounded the alarm about a coming change at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that will force publicly traded companies to disclose mythical greenhouse gas emissions data (see 
INTERNATIONAL: What would war-end mean for global oil and gas?; Saudi Arabia unexpectedly raises oil prices for next month.