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FERC Issues Order Allowing MVP to Restart ALL Construction
Finally! On Monday, Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) builder Equitrans asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to restart all remaining construction to install the final 6% of MVP in West Virginia and Virginia. Yesterday, FERC issued that permission. Ladies and gentlemen, start your bulldozers! Company spokeswoman Natalie Cox said crews will begin work “shortly” on all remaining construction. We don’t know what shortly means, but we hope it means this week.
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In 2021, U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal, Chief Judge for the Southern District of Texas, approved deals for Chesapeake Energy to pay $6.25 million to class members of the three royalty lawsuits brought by Pennsylvania landowners (roughly 15,000 class members) and another $2.9 million to the lawyers involved (see 
In the early days of the shale revolution, Marcellus/Utica drillers (all shale drillers) were incentivized by shareholders to drill at any cost. The philosophy was “drill baby drill,” believing pipelines would somehow get built to handle the increasing production volume. Over the past three years or so, since about the time the pandemic began, things have changed. Instead of “drill baby drill,” the rallying cry is now “curtail volumes,” “delay completions,” and “game-time decisions.” M-U producers have learned to “walk the line” of matching production with local demand, storage, and firm pipeline capacity.
One of the biggest complaints from drillers and pipeline companies doing business with the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), going back for years, is the lack of speed when reviewing and approving new permits. In particular, Chapter 102 (erosion and sediment control) and Chapter 105 (water obstructions and encroachments) permits. At a budget hearing in Harrisburg in March, then-Acting (now confirmed) DEP Sec. Rich Negrin presented a 10-point plan to improve the DEP’s response times in issuing permits (see 
Epsilon Energy concentrates most of its effort on developing Marcellus Shale wells in Susquehanna County, PA. Epsilon typically does not do its own drilling. The company joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy, and the other company typically does the drilling. Epsilon is the smallest publicly-traded company operating in the Marcellus/Utica (we think). Yesterday, Epsilon announced a new $35 million line of credit from Frost Bank, which replaces its previous line of credit.
The Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity Initiative (VCMI), formed with funding by some of the biggest funders of Big Green causes, has officiously announced the publication of a new “Claims Code of Practice” that private companies WILL adopt–or be forced out of business. The Code of Practice is aimed at forcing companies to stop using anything to do with fossil fuels, on the theory it will Save the Planet. Companies can disregard the Code of Practice (a supposedly voluntary standard) at their own peril. If you don’t hew to VCMI’s standards, you WILL be targeted.
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