Antis Pressure OH Gov. to Veto Bill Extending Fracking of State Land
One week ago, MDN told you that Ohio House Bill (HB) 308 had passed votes by both the full House and Senate and was heading to the desk of RINO Gov. Mike DeWine for his signature (see OH Senate Passes Bill Extending Time Drillers Can Frack State Land). HB 308 extends the standard lease terms for drillers who want to drill under (not on) state-owned land from three to five years. The bill also extends the total amount of time fracking operations can last from six to eight years. Sensible increases in both cases. This morning, the radicals of Save Ohio Parks (and their friends) issued a press release demanding (notice the left always demands) that Gov. DeWine veto the bill. Because they say so. Read More “Antis Pressure OH Gov. to Veto Bill Extending Fracking of State Land”
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), headed by the ultra-dumb Jennifer Granholm, issued a bogus “study” (copy below) arguing that no new approvals should be granted for additional LNG exports. The report (and Granholm, in a cover letter) argues that “the amounts [of LNG export facilities] that have already been approved will be more than sufficient to meet global demand for U.S. LNG for decades to come.” In other words, the so-called elites know better than the free market how many LNG export plants the country should support. Granholm argues in favor of a command-and-control approach (i.e., Communism) over a free market, free enterprise approach to approving new LNG exports. 
“The science is settled on climate change” is not so settled after all. Researchers in Spain have found that global emissions of a sulfur gas produced by marine life have a previously unknown cooling effect on temperatures. It has long been known that oceans capture and redistribute the sun’s heat. However, there is more to the story. A study published Nov. 29 in the journal Science Advances noted that oceans, notably in the Southern Hemisphere, produce gases known as marine sulfur. And one of these gases, methanethiol, influences the climate in a way that has gone unnoticed. Until now. The study finds that our fear over the planet’s health may be “greatly overestimated” given the cooling effects of methanethiol. 
Iroquois Gas Transmission’s Enhancement by Compression (ExC) project would increase horsepower at three compression stations — two in New York and one in Connecticut — by an extra 125 MMcf/d, to flow more Marcellus/Utica gas into New York City and New England. The two NY compressors include one in Dover and one in Athens. The CT compressor is located in Brookfield. The left, via the odious Food & Water Watch, has made a concerted effort to block the two NY compressor station upgrades (see 
In January, Joementia announced a “pause” on any approvals for new LNG export plants (currently 17 requests in the pipeline) for at least one year while his people pretend to figure out how to measure global warming as a new consideration for whether or not to approve a project (see 
You can’t fix stupid. You can only vote it out of office. From the outskirts of New York to the Delaware River shoreline across from Philadelphia, New Jersey is home to numerous oil and natural gas facilities. A New Jersey Senate committee is seriously discussing (planning) an insane new tax on those facilities as a way of creating a slush fund supposedly to help the state fight the effects of climate change. It would be just another pile of money for corrupt politicians to line their own (and friends’) pockets with. Hello, Tony Soprano! 
Last week, MDN told you the country’s largest electric grid, PJM Interconnection, which covers all or parts of 13 states, including PA, OH, and WV, is making changes to how it decides which new power plants can connect to the system first. The new policy *favors* adding natural gas-fired power over other types of power like unreliable solar and wind (see 
Every budget season in Pennsylvania, it’s the same old dog-and-pony show by the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). “We don’t have enough money to pay our staff,” and “We aren’t making as much money from (insanely high) shale permit fees anymore, so we need more taxpayer money to make up the difference.” Etc. Yet a few months later, after the budget is adopted, the DEP somehow finds money lying around to donate to various leftwing causes. Case in point: The DEP announced yesterday it is donating $600,000 to 12 leftist organizations to spread more wokeness across the Commonwealth under the banner of “environmental justice” (EJ). 
Watching the crazy environmental left crack up following the Republican victory (particularly Trump) in November is, we have to admit, pretty fun. Lefties say the craziest things. Just watch “The View” sometime. Most non-governmental environmental groups, like the Sierra Club and Food & Water Watch (FWW) have pledged to litigate even more than they did in Trump’s first term. Apparently, they have unending funds from George Soros (i.e., György Schwartz) and other Big Left funders to hire sleazy lawyers to file blizzards of frivolous lawsuits. The thing is, this time, these groups won’t know what’s hit them come Jan. 20th. We predict the Trump administration will hit so hard and so fast that these groups won’t be able to catch their collective breath. 
In the spirit of doing the maximum amount of damage to the fossil fuel industry before being pried out of their cushy offices in the D.C. swamp, the Biden EPA last week proposed yet another onerous new regulation aimed at strangling natural gas-fired power plants. This latest attack ups the limits on emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from most new, modified, and reconstructed gas-fired power plants. It’s a safe bet that the incoming Trump EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, will withdraw the proposed regulation before it can be implemented. So, at least there’s that. However, the new reg comes from a “sue-and-settle” court case with the odious Sierra Club in 2022 that requires a new reg to be in place by Nov. 2025. 
In October 2023, the Biden Department of Energy (DOE) published a new rule that cracks down on gas furnaces in homes, essentially phasing out many existing models and requiring new ones to meet onerous new standards (see 
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is aiding and abetting radical environmental groups in circumventing the state legislature. In what amounts to a classic leftist “sue-and-settle” case, radical environmental groups (including the Clean Air Council and Environmental Integrity Project) petitioned the state Environmental Quality Board (EQB), asking the board to amend 25 Pa. Code Chapter 78a by increasing “setbacks” for oil and gas well drilling to a minimum of 3,281 feet from any building or water wells (5,280 feet from hospitals and schools), and 750 feet from any river, creek, or mud puddle (i.e., surface waters). Such an increase in setbacks would stop ALL new shale drilling in the state, which is the goal of these radicals. The DEP ruled that the petition to the EQB was right and proper and should move forward. 
