Tennessee Sues BlackRock for Misleading Investors re Aggressive ESG
BlackRock is the largest investment firm in the world, with around $9 trillion of investments under management. Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, has pushed the so-called ESG (environment, social, governance) agenda for years. What the left and people like Fink mean by ESG is don’t invest in or use fossil fuel energy (E), everything is racist (S), and the government is always right when Democrats are in charge (G). Fink said earlier this year he would stop using the ESG term, although he continues to push the ESG agenda of divesting from fossil fuel companies (see Unrepentant BlackRock Won’t Use ESG Term, Still Forces Divestment). A number of states and even Republicans in Congress have pushed back against BlackRock’s ESG agenda, causing it to lose money. Now the company has a new concern: The State of Tennessee is suing BlackRock for violating consumer protection laws.
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Hope Gas is a Local Distribution Company (LDC) that provides gas service to approximately 125,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-five West Virginia counties. The company owns and maintains more than 6,900 miles of pipelines that safely deliver West Virginia natural gas to many homes and commercial or industrial sites. In September, Hope Gas asked the WV Public Service Commission (PSC) of West Virginia for permission to build a new 30-mile pipeline in Monongalia County (see 
In May, the PHMSA issued a proposed new rule that would slap onerous and very expensive new requirements on pretty much all natural gas pipelines in the country, including 2.7 million miles of gas transmission, distribution, and gathering pipelines; 400+ underground natural gas storage facilities; and 165 liquefied natural gas facilities (see 
A small group of uppity Virginia landowners don’t want Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) crossing their horse pastures, leaving a mark. So they conspired with Big Green lawyers in a lawsuit challenging the right of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to use eminent domain to build pipelines across private land. In October, the landowners filed an “emergency” request with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, asking the court to block MVP construction while the eminent domain lawsuit grinds on. The D.C. Circuit judges rejected that request in October (see 
Anti-fossil fuel fanatics in Ohio (and beyond) still can’t accept that they lost a battle to block drilling under (not on) Ohio state-owned land, including some Ohio state parks. Several weeks ago, the Ohio Oil & Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) met in a public forum and voted to allow shale drilling under three state-owned tracts of land: (1) all 20,000 acres of Salt Fork State Park in Guernsey County, (2) more than 300 acres of Valley Run Wildlife Area in Carroll County, and (3) 66 acres of the Zepernick Wildlife Area in Columbiana County (see 
Last week, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced that he will appeal a decision by the Commonwealth Court that blocks PA’s entrance into the obscene Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme (see 
Three New York City pension funds — the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, the Teachers’ Retirement System, and the Board of Education Retirement System — were sued in May by four NYC employees for breaching their fiduciary duty and divesting from fossil energy companies (see 
Glenn O. Hawbaker, Inc.
A lawsuit of interest for all landowners is playing out in West Virginia between a class of landowners and EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas producer in the country. We searched our extensive archives high and low and found no mention of this lawsuit! Somehow, it has escaped our attention — until now. As these cases often are, this one is long and complicated. However, the nub of the case, the essence of the dispute, is whether or not EQT can pay royalties to landowners based on the “raw” gas that comes out of the borehole (methane plus NGLs) or whether, as the plaintiffs argue, EQT should pay royalties based on the post-processed gas and NGLs (presumably at a much higher rate).
Earlier this year, Sempra Infrastructure, a subsidiary of Sempra, announced it had reached a positive final investment decision (FID) for the development, construction, and operation of the Port Arthur LNG Phase 1 project in Jefferson County, Texas (see 
Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility recently received Federal Energy Regulatory Committee (FERC) authorization to place the final three liquefaction blocks (7-9) into service (see 
In a court case that stretches back to 2019, Antero Resources, the biggest driller in West Virginia, challenged how its wells had been valued for tax purposes in Doddridge and Richie counties for 2016 and 2017. Antero said the combined value of its wells for those years should have been $1.488 billion. The state tax commissioner reckoned the value to be $1.513 billion. The controversy over well valuations, not only for Antero but other drillers, led to a reworking of how the state law values shale wells (see 