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Air Monitors Detect Benzene at Fenceline of Shell Cracker in Monaca
Air monitors at Shell’s ethane cracker plant detected elevated levels of benzene (which can cause cancer in humans) following an April 11 malfunction. However, an industrial hygienist told attendees at Tuesday night’s webinar session with local residents that the levels of benzene detected at the cracker’s community-adjacent fenceline during and after the release were too low to cause “even transient discomfort or irritation.” The highest concentrations found outside the fenceline were “in the parts per billion range.”
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The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) says less natural gas was withdrawn from storage this past winter (Nov. 1 through Mar. 31) than in the past seven years. We entered the heating season with about 3% less natural gas in storage than the average, but because of mild temps during the winter, we used far less than is typical during the wintertime. Hence the low withdrawals.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced new proposed federal vehicle emissions standards that will force Americans to give up driving gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles and instead switch to electric vehicles (see 
When we saw the headline “Environmental Bootleggers and Baptists Fleece Consumers,” we just couldn’t resist. An article in RealClearEnergy written by Gordon Tomb, a Senior Fellow with the Commonwealth Foundation, a Pennsylvania-based free-market think tank, compares an interesting time in our history with what is happening today. Once upon a time, Baptists advocated for a ban on alcohol sales Sundays. They were supported by…Bootleggers! Take about strange bedfellows! Today, the Baptists are environmentalists who insist we must dump fossil energy in order to save the planet (definite religious overtones in the environmental movement). And the Bootleggers are…
Despots and dictators the world over are the same, whether it’s Vladimir Putin relabeling his naked aggression of outright war against Ukraine as a “military operation,” or New York State’s so-called Climate Action Council relabeling natural gas as “fossil gas” (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Equitrans shareholders approve board, executive compensation; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Pioneer’s founder and CEO Sheffield to retire; NATIONAL: U.S. coal shipments increased in 2022 due to power plants; The bullish case for natural gas prices; INTERNATIONAL: Oil tumbles rescinding OPEC gains; IEA warns OPEC should be very careful about boosting oil price; Four scenarios that could send oil prices to $200.