Unusual: Full Court to Hear Case Against Obama Clean Power Plan
We’ve written plenty about President Obama’s draconian, so-called “Clean Power Plan” (see our stories here). In a nutshell, Obama and his servile Environmental Protection Agency are attempting a massive federal takeover in how electricity gets generated–by requiring more electricity is produced by so-called renewable sources. They’re doing it through limiting carbon dioxide emissions from power generating plants. It puts coal out of business completely. But the dirty little secret is that Obama is also taking aim at natural gas too (see Obama Stabs Natural Gas Electric Plants in Clean Power Plan). More than half of the states have joined together to to stop the plan by filing a lawsuit. In a surprise move, the U.S. Supreme Court stopped the EPA from implementing the plan until the lawsuit brought by the states gets a full airing (see Supreme Court Shocker – Justices Halt Obama’s Clean Power Plan). The first step in the process of getting that airing happens at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In another move that surprised everyone, the DC District Court on Monday announced that the full court (9 of 11 justices) will hear the case and not the normal three-judge panel. Typically you start with three judges, and any decision can be appealed to the full court (which typically gets denied), and from there it goes to the U.S. Supreme Court. The DC court is removing a step so the process goes faster. Is that good (for those of us who believe this is unconstitutional), or bad? Depends on the news source you read…
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If you happen to believe in the fairy tale of man-made global warming, you no doubt know all about CO2–carbon dioxide. CO2 is the stuff you exhale with every breathe you take, as every mammal does on God’s green earth. Somehow CO2 has been twisted into becoming a dreaded “greenhouse gas”. Go figure. At any rate, aside from breathing, when we burn fossil fuels it creates CO2–which is at the core of the neurosis of anti-drillers. Their kindergartenish solution to “solving” the “problem” of “global warming” is to stop burning fossil fuels. But the thing is, not all fossil fuels are created equal. Natural gas burns relatively clean and produces far less CO2 than other fossil fuels. You might think people who really care about the planet would welcome more natgas–but you would be wrong. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has just published an analysis of the biggest non-breathing cause of CO2 generation–burning fossil fuels to generate electricity. The EIA says in 2015 CO2 emissions were down 12% from baseline levels in 2005. With more population and more electricity being generated, how can that possibly be? Because of the shale revolution–that’s how. So-called renewable forms of electric power generation are still minuscule compared to burning fossil fuels to generate electricity. Because we now use more natgas instead of coal to generate electricity, the amount of CO2 being produced has dropped dramatically. Thanks to the miracle of fracking…
In February MDN brought you the good news that Laclede Group (St. Louis-based natural gas utility) wants to build a 60-mile pipeline from St. Louis through southwest Illinois and connect to the Rockies Express (REX) and Panhandle Eastern Pipeline to grab low-cost Marcellus/Utica Shale gas for Midwestern markets (see 
NTE Energy, headquartered in St. Augustine, Florida, builds new natural gas-fired electric plants. Currently the company is building plants in Southwest Ohio, West Texas and North Carolina. Last Friday NTE announced three more new natgas-fired power plant projects–one in Connecticut, one in North Carolina and one in Ohio. There’s no doubt these plants will use shale gas from the Marcellus/Utica to power them–which is good news for producers in the northeast. Here’s the details from NTE…
Once a month our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), issues a Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). The EIA issued their latest edition on Tuesday. We have a full copy below. We’ve grabbed out the section on natural gas because it includes a couple of key points: (1) U.S. natural gas inventories just finished the winter heating season at their highest level ever, and are expected to be at a record high at the start of next winter heating season in November. (2) This summer natural gas consumption for electricity generation is expected to reach a record high. Here’s the natgas section of the STEO, along with a copy of the full report…