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MVP Essentially Done, Builder Asks FERC for OK to Start Up May 23
We never thought this day would arrive! We hoped. We prayed. But finally, it’s (almost) here. The 303-mile, 2 Bcf/d Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is almost ready to begin operation. On Monday, Equitrans Midstream filed a letter (below) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requesting a May 23 startup date for the pipeline. MVP (Equitrans) says the pipeline will be in the ground, buried, and ready to begin on May 22 (called “mechanically complete”). Get the champagne on ice and ready…
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Evolution Well Services, headquartered in Houston with a regional office in Pittsburgh, specializes in “electric” fracking — using natural gas from the well pad (instead of diesel fuel) to power turbines to create electricity that drives fracking pumps. Evolution announced yesterday it had successfully deployed two new electric fleets in March, one in Appalachia and one in South Texas, bringing the company total to 12 fully operational crews.
PJM is the largest electric grid operator in the U.S. It serves 65 million people in 13 states plus the District of Columbia (including PA, OH, and WV). PJM recently issued a press release to tout a radical reduction in emissions of all types. From 2005 to 2023, carbon dioxide (CO2) emission rates fell 43% across PJM’s footprint. Emission rates for nitrogen oxides (NOx) declined 90%, and the rates for sulfur dioxide (SO2) dropped 96%. It is, says PJM, a new all-time low for electric power emissions across the PJM region. Why the drastic drop? Because (says the Marcellus Shale Coalition), a number of coal-fired power plants have been replaced by natural gas-fired plants.
Yesterday the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) published a post to announce that U.S. natural gas consumption set annual and monthly records during 2023. In 2023, some 89.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas was consumed in the United States, the most on record. Since 2018, U.S. natural gas consumption has increased by an average of 4% annually. Why the significant increase in gas usage? It wasn’t due to residential, commercial, or industrial usage — all of which stayed even or decreased last year. It was (as you may have guessed) a huge increase in the use of natural gas to feed gas-fired power plants.
As we outline today in another post, the PJM electric grid, which covers 13 states including Pennsylvania, reports emissions of all the nasty things (carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide) have decreased radically thanks to the change from coal-fired power to natural gas-fired power (see Marcellus Fracked Gas Leads to Record Low Emissions in PJM Grid). We also report today that in 2023, the country as a whole increased its usage of natural gas specifically because the country (including the M-U) is adding more low-carbon gas-fired power plants (see NatGas Grew Its Share of Electric Power 7% in 2023, New Record High). So what does the “brilliant” Governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, do? He signs up PA government agencies (sentences them) to use unreliable solar energy.
NATIONAL: NA natgas demand to soar in ‘25 and beyond, says Halliburton; Bidens doing everything they can to stop LNG development, exports; AI boom to fuel natural gas demand in coming years, report says; INTERNATIONAL: Rising spot LNG prices starting to bite some Asian buyers; Environmentalists’ silence on humanity and environmental atrocities.