The ESG Emperor has No Clothes – Will Anyone Else Say So?
One of our favorite writers in the energy space is Paul Driessen, a senior policy advisor for CFACT (Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, a Washington, D.C. think tank), and author of Cracking Big Green and Eco-Imperialism: Green Power – Black Death. Driessen recently published an article on the CFACT website that rips the face off these silly ESG programs being blabbered on about everywhere, especially in the oil and gas sector.
Read More “The ESG Emperor has No Clothes – Will Anyone Else Say So?”
ExxonMobil is the latest big driller to sign on to a certification program called MiQ which aims to prove the natural gas it produces is “responsible.” We guess all the gas it’s produced for decades until now has been irresponsible, right? Anyway, Exxon plans to initially use the MiQ standard to certify some of the gas coming from its Permian Basin facilities at Poker Lake, New Mexico. Depending on how that goes, Exxon plans to expand the MiQ certification to other plays, including the Marcellus/Utica.
Whether we think it’s a good idea or not (we don’t), there is no denying that the Marcellus/Utica industry has collectively jumped off the RSG/ESG cliff. RSG stands for “responsibly sourced gas” and ESG is “environmental, social, governance.” Responding to pressure from investors and customers, most M-U drillers are now making moves to prove the natural gas they produce has been produced using practices that protect the environment. We say the gas has always been produced responsibly and we have nothing further to prove, but hey, who are we? The latest to join the crowd is Seneca Resources. The company announced yesterday will use Project Canary to certify its natural gas.
EY, formerly known as Ernst & Young Global Limited, is one of the Big Four accounting firms in the world. The company is also a powerhouse consulting firm. EY published a new study yesterday called “EY US oil and gas reserves, production and ESG benchmarking study” (full copy below). In the study EY tells us what we already knew: That 2020, due to the coronavirus, was a waste of a year in the oil and gas sector. It was bad–really bad. The EY study puts some numbers to just how bad, including the shocking number that capital expenditures (capex) totaled $60.3 billion, 60% lower than 2019. Of the 50 companies studied they collectively drilled 41% and 32% fewer development and exploration wells, respectively, compared with 2019.
We believe there is a total lack of scientific proof that an increasing amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, put there by burning fossil fuels, is causing Mom Earth to catastrophically toast. In fact, we did our own quick analysis of temperatures in the Binghamton area over the past 70 years and found a total lack of proof that CO2 is causing global warming (see 
Earlier this month MDN brought you information on the kinds of efforts and initiatives oil and gas companies are adopting to prove to those who hate us that we’re green and good for Mom Earth (see 
Whether we think it’s a good idea or not (we don’t), there is no denying that the Marcellus/Utica industry has collectively jumped off the RSG/ESG cliff. RSG stands for “responsibly sourced gas” and ESG is “environmental, social, governance.” Responding to pressure from investors and customers, most M-U drillers are now making moves to prove the natural gas they produce has been produced using practices that protect the environment. We say the gas has always been produced responsibly and we have nothing further to prove, but hey, who are we? Anywho, the Pittsburgh Business Times delves into the programs–Project Canary and MiQ–that M-U drillers have embraced as their preferred method of proving environmental friendliness.
When CNX Resources issued its second quarter update in July, the company revealed that it is not only “net carbon zero” right now, it has been that way–actually net carbon negative, pulling more CO2 out of the atmosphere than it puts in–since 2016 (see 
America’s natural gas and oil industry announced “a landmark partnership” in late 2017 called The Environmental Partnership, to “accelerate improvements to environmental performance in operations across the country” (see 
We happen to think the oil and gas industry has sort of lost its collective mind. We’ve lost the battle over fossil fuels by conceding that carbon dioxide, the stuff you emit with every breath you take, is somehow polluting the planet. If we concede that point, it’s all downhill from there. Environmentalist wackos will not stop until all fossil fuels are permanently eliminated from the energy mix–which will be devastating to humankind. But they don’t care. Still, you can’t miss the fact that O&G is “doing its part” to reign in carbon and methane emissions, playing along with the demands of the left. ESG has become a more common phrase in the quarterly updates of O&G companies than barrels of oil and thousands of cubic feet of natural gas. What is O&G doing with respect to ESG, hydrogen, and carbon capture sequestration? And where is it all heading? Will O&G companies actually hit net carbon zero?
Three weeks ago MDN told you about Equitrans’ plan to buy indulgences, er, a, carbon offsets for its 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project (see 
It seems to be the season of not only second quarter updates, but also 2020 ESG (environmental, social, governance) updates, often referred to as corporate sustainability or social responsibility reports. There are half a dozen different phrases and terms used to describe the same thing. Yesterday Equitrans Midstream Corporation (the former EQT Midstream) issued its 2021 Corporate Sustainability Report, covering activity for the calendar year 2020.
Yesterday pipeline giant Williams released its 2020 Sustainability Report, which is another name for ESG (environmental, social, and governance). The company says it will be net carbon zero by 2050, but in the meantime, they will meet other important targets long before that date. While it would be easy to dismiss this report as yet another 126-page manifesto in gobbledegook aimed at placating the global warming gods, when we began to dig into the report we found some interesting bits of information and statistics.
You can’t miss all the chit-chat coming from the oil and gas industry (particularly drillers) about being “net carbon zero” by such-and-such a date–typically by 2025. Or maybe 2030. CNX Resources, an independent natural gas driller (and midstream company) based in Pittsburgh, released its annual corporate social responsibility (CSR) report for 2020 yesterday. CNX continues to walk the talk when it comes to ESG (environmental, social, governance)–one of the few (only?) companies to do so. Get this: CNX has been net carbon *negative* (pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere) for its Scope 1 and 2 operations since 2016! It is the only E&P we’re aware of that can make that claim. Everyone else is still trying to get to net carbon zero, let alone net carbon negative as CNX has done.
For all the chatter about ESG and environmental yada yada, at the end of the day every Marcellus and Utica driller drills for and extracts hydrocarbons. Fossil fuels. As the de facto leader of all natural gas drillers, it’s important and instructive to watch what EQT and its young CEO, Toby Rice, actually do AND say. EQT and Rice are leading the charge to defend our industry against the crazies who want to end the use of all fossil fuels. In a recent column appearing in a West Virginia newspaper, Rice makes the case that natural gas is good for the economy and good for the environment.
In January of this year, EQT Corporation announced it would partner with a Denver, CO company calling itself “Project Canary” to run a test on two of its shale gas pads, to prove the natural gas produced is “certified responsibly sourced” (see