NRDC Offers Recommendations to DOE for LNG Evaluations
In January, President Biden announced he would “pause” any approvals for new LNG export plants (currently 17 requests in the pipeline) for at least one year while his people fart around pretending to figure out how to measure global warming as a new consideration for whether or not to approve projects (see White House Makes it Official – Biden Declares War on LNG Exports). It was a purely political move aimed at currying favor with the radical left, which seems to have worked. The Dept. of Energy’s chief ditz, Jennifer Granholm, says new criteria for how to evaluate (and reject) LNG export applications will be ready by the end of this year. Her buddies at the National Resources Defense Council (a radicalized left-wing environmental group) are lending Granholm a hand by supplying their own list of new criteria the DOE should use.
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As we reported a few weeks ago, former President Donald J. Trump met with members of the oil and gas industry last month at his Mar-a-Lago estate (see 
Last week, MDN brought you the news that CNX Resources Corp., KeyState Energy, and Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) are working together on a $1.5 billion project that, if completed, would make sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at PIT from coal mine methane gas (see 
Finally, it’s the end of the road for Big Green using (abusing) six uppity Virginia landowners who didn’t want the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to cross their well-groomed horse pastures. The landowners, funded by Big Green and using Big Green lawyers, sued repeatedly to try and overturn the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) right to delegate its eminent domain authority to pipeline companies like MVP in order to build pipelines. Big Green and the landowners knew it wouldn’t stop MVP — the hope was to block all (and we mean ALL) future pipelines from getting built. That was the end game. Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court said it will not revisit the case. It had already looked at this case once before. This is well and truly the end of the line for these landowners and Big Green in attempting to gut FERC’s eminent domain authority. Finally.
The Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) approved two bids to drill for oil and gas under (not on) state-owned lands yesterday. Antero Resources was the sole bidder to drill under a Dept. of Transportation (DOT) property in Noble County. Southwestern Energy won its bid to drill under DOT land in Monroe County along the Ohio River. The OGLMC also advanced five other nominations to drill under state-owned properties to the bidding process. One nomination advancing is a request to drill under the 84-acre Keen Wildlife Area in Harrison County (see 
We’ve read the canard a number of times in recent months that the Biden administration has been good for oil and gas. Why? Because (goes the Democrat line), O&G is producing more now than ever. Because O&G companies are more profitable now than ever. Because O&G shareholders are doing better now than ever. So the Dems believe O&G should love the Biden administration. But here’s the truth: O&G is doing OK now DESPITE the onslaught against it by the Biden administration. The health and well being of O&G companies today is NOT the result of Biden’s policies (which have sought to destroy fossil energy), but despite those policies. We are doing OK today because of the lingering benefits of the policies put into effect under Donald Trump, not because of anything Joe Biden has done.
Fake research used by Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) will be allowed in a hearing that appeals permits granted to Olympus Energy to drill shale wells at the Metis well pad in Penn Township, Westmoreland County. The PSR’s so-called research is a mish-mash accumulation of other people’s research that doesn’t apply specifically to the wells permitted by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). The so-called research is sprinkled with lots of scary words like PFAS and “forever chemicals,” implying such chemicals are being used by Olympus in drilling and fracking its wells — allegations with NO basis in fact. Protect PT, a radicalized group that receives funding from other Big Green groups, is challenging the DEP permits for the Metis pad, using SPR’s so-called research in its challenge. Olympus tried to have the SPR’s throw-enough-crap-against-the-wall-and-hope-some-of-it-sticks “research” tossed from being considered, but the Environmental Hearing Board (EHB), the special court in PA that hears appeals of DEP decisions, refused to toss the crap-throwing “research” out, saying Olympus should challenge said research during cross-examination.
The “sue-till-green” strategy sweeping the nation began in 2012 when the radicalized Climate Accountability Institute (CAI) hosted a conference in La Jolla, California. The gathering discussed a new approach to climate activism, mirroring the campaign against Big Tobacco — but this time targeting the oil and gas industry. The goal of the radicals is to effectively revoke the oil and gas industry’s “social license to operate.” Ultimately, this approach buries oil and gas companies with legal fees and, together with other “green” policies, artificially raises the cost of reliable energy and subsidizes the production of unreliable alternative energy sources. Disgusting. And now this strategy has come to Pennsylvania.
We’re just a few weeks away from the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) going online, flowing 2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of yummy FRACKED natural gas from the Marcellus/Utica to southern Virginia and beyond. And that fact is driving the insane, unhinged left even more insane and unhinged. Yesterday, a man (who refused to identify himself as a man) tied himself to two barrels full of concrete in the middle of the road in the Bent Mountain (Roanoke County), VA, area, blocking access to an MVP work yard. The protester was spewing anti-Israel statements (a bigot and anti-Semite), along with nonsensical statements about the oil and gas industry. Truly unhinged. State police arrived to deal with the situation.
Here’s a truism you can take to the bank. Anti-fossil fuel nutters need (crave) a public forum where they can prance around like peacocks making a spectacle of themselves. Deny them that forum, and they get grumpy — fast. Such was the case at an information session held Tuesday at the Athens (NY) Elementary School. A company hired to work on upgrading a compressor station in Athens for the Iroquois Gas Transmission pipeline tried to share important information about the project. However, protesters made it impossible, and the session was dismissed early due to the bad behavior of the petulant protesters.
Wednesday evening, the supervisors of West Deer Township (Allegheny County), PA, held a regular monthly meeting. One item on the agenda was the potential adoption of revisions to the town’s oil and gas drilling ordinance. A number of (supposed) residents showed up to question the revisions and ask for stricter setbacks (a bigger distance from drilling to homes and other structures). Ultimately, the supervisors decided to delay a vote on the revisions, pushing it off until next month’s meeting.
Although Shell maintains flaring and accidental emissions from its multi-billion-dollar ethane cracker in Beaver County, PA, have not violated state and federal air standards, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) says they have — on numerous occasions. Shell didn’t argue the point, and in May 2023, the company agreed to pay nearly $10 million in fines and “contributions” to benefit the local community (see 
It’s clearly a case of sour grapes for the same three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circus clowns) who tried to block the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) by rendering arbitrary decisions that caused years of delays for the pipeline. We’re talking about Judge Stephanie Thacker, appointed by Barack Hussein Obama (she likes to quote from Dr. Seuss books in her opinions); Judge James Wynn, appointed by Barack Hussein Obama; and Chief Judge Roger Gregory, appointed by William Jefferson Clinton. All three are (in our opinion) corrupt and should immediately be impeached and removed from the bench. Congress finally had enough of their judicial malpractice in blocking MVP and passed a law overriding the clowns, signed into law by Joementia last June (see 
Isn’t this interesting? Two days ago, MDN published a post pointing out that a bill passed by both houses of the New York State legislature to ban so-called carbon dioxide (CO2) fracking had still not been signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul (see 
According to Energy in Depth, opposition to the Rockefeller-backed LNG export “pause” keeps pouring in from Republicans and Democrats alike. Last week, eight “moderate” (i.e., desperate) Democrat members of Congress sent a letter to President Biden requesting regular updates on the Dept. of Energy’s evaluation of LNG exports and more clarity on the timeline of the pause. The sycophantic Dems refused to condemn Biden’s overt action to harm American energy. However, they did “urge” him to “bring about a swift end to the LNG export permit pause” and to ensure “that any regulatory changes be incorporated in an open and transparent means.”
Is there a crack of light, a sliver of hope, that a bill passed by both the New York Assembly and Senate to ban carbon dioxide “fracking” will NOT be signed into law by New York’s left-leaning Governor, Kathy Hochul? The bill was passed by the Senate on March 20 after already passing in the Assembly (see