U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Block Biden’s “Social Cost of Carbon”
In his first two days in office, Joe Biden declared war on the oil and gas industry. One of the first things he did was to revive an interagency working group on the “social cost” of greenhouse gas emissions and directed the issuance of an “interim” cost (see What Biden’s First Two Days on the Job Mean for the O&G Industry). The social cost of carbon dioxide emissions is a metric that regulators use to assess the monetary impact of emissions increases. On his very first day in office, Biden restored the so-called climate cost estimate to $51 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions after the Trump administration had reduced the figure to $7 or less per ton. In February a federal judge overturned Biden’s order (see Fed Judge Overturns Biden Order to Use Global CO2 Cost Estimates), but in March a panel of judges overturned that judge and reinstated Biden’s crazy-high carbon cost (see 5th Circuit Restores Biden Order to Use Global CO2 Cost Estimates). The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and the Supremes weren’t so Supreme this time, saying they won’t block Biden’s obscenely high cost of carbon number.
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The radicals of the Clean Air Council (CAC) are claiming a (very small) victory in their campaign against processing NGLs at the Marcus Hook refinery located near Philadelphia. CAC is CACkling that they have forced Energy Transfer, builder of the mighty Mariner East (ME) pipeline system (a pipeline that CAC couldn’t stop), to back down on how permits are issued for the Marcus Hook facility–the place where NGLs from ME end up for processing and loading for export. The end result is…well…not much. Nothing will really change. The same volume of NGLs will still flow to Marcus Hook, and the same volume of NGLs will be loaded onto ships and exported to other countries. The only thing that changes is that ET spends more time and pays more money to obtain a single large permit instead of two separate, smaller permits. We’ll explain.
In March 2021, Eureka Resources announced plans to build a Marcellus Shale wastewater treatment facility in Dimock (Susquehanna County), Pennsylvania (see 
Every “game” comes to an end when play must stop and a winner, and a loser, are declared. If you watch basketball you know that the final couple of minutes can last what seems like a lifetime. One team, up by 2 or 3 points, gains possession of the ball and they are in the lead. What do they do? Play keep-away. Run the clock down so the opponent can’t score to tie or pull ahead. What does the opponent do? Try to foul the person with the ball, or call for a time-out, in order to stop the clock and (hopefully) when the ball is thrown in and play resumes, regain possession and score. In a sense, that’s what is happening with the 94% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, a 303-mile pipeline from West Virginia to southern Virginia. Right now anti-American Big Green groups have possession of the ball (having co-opted leftist judges) and they are ahead by one point, hoping to end the game by running out the clock. Will they succeed?
We’re holding on by a thread folks, with respect to PA’s onerous new carbon tax. Back in April, we told you about a lawsuit filed by Big Coal against the Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf administration to block Wolf’s attempt to force the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax on coal- and gas-fired power plants (see 
Yesterday Joe Biden delivered an address from the White House to talk about inflation. He blamed the high price of gasoline (and diesel fuel) on: (1) Vladimir Putin, (2) oil companies price gouging, and (3) Republicans who refuse to sign on to so-called renewables. He’s wrong on all three counts, but that’s another post for another time. Our point is that Biden continues to say he wants more oil production here at home to address the problem of high gasoline prices. Yet his actions disprove the words coming from his mouth (i.e. he’s lying). Biden and his administration continue to aggressively try to cut, reduce, and even block new permits and drilling on publicly-owned land. Some 25% of the oil production in the U.S. comes from wells on publicly-owned land. And yes, there is a tie-in with the Marcellus/Utica on this issue.
How much of an effort is “enough” when a surface landowner in Ohio tries to locate the owner(s) of the belowground mineral rights under his or her land using the Dormant Mineral Act (DMA), with an eye toward reclaiming those rights? Is it enough to search the public record archive in only the county where the land is located? The Ohio Supreme Court recently ruled in two cases to say no, it’s not enough to run a quick search in one county when attempting to locate mineral rights owners.
The editorial writers at the Wall Street Journal have taken notice of something MDN has been trumpeting for more than four years: The same three Democrat judges who sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit keep killing U.S. energy projects. Specifically, they’re prejudiced against natural gas pipeline projects. We’re talking about Judge Stephanie Thacker, appointed by Barack Hussein Obama; Judge James Wynn, appointed by Barack Hussein Obama; and Chief Judge Roger Gregory, appointed by William Jefferson Clinton. These three leftwing judges find the smallest, nitpicky things to use as an excuse to block the completion of the 94% completed, 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Enough!
An interesting case recently decided by Ohio’s Fourth District Court of Appeals has a significant impact for both surface landowners and drillers. The case is Zimmerview Dairy Farms, LLC v. Protégé Energy III LLC and establishes, under Ohio law, that a general release of damages contract (typically signed by landowners when they lease land for drilling or pipelines) does not release a driller or pipeline company from its ongoing obligation to remediate (fix) and restore damage to a landowner’s property.
In March the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB), a sub-agency of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), approved a final version of onerous new regulations that supposedly will capture every last molecule of stray methane that leaks from shale and conventional drilling operations (see 
Yesterday MDN brought you the news that Equitrans Midstream, builder of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project from West Virginia to southern Virginia, has decided to roll the dice for a third time with the radical judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit by applying for a new permit to cross 3.5 miles of the Jefferson National Forest (see 
With all due respect, Equitrans Midstream, builder of the 94% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), is making a big mistake, in our humble opinion. Equitrans issued its first quarter 2022 update this morning. The big announcement from the update is that the company plans to file for new permits from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to allow MVP to build through 3.5 miles of the Jefferson National Forest. The radically left U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circuit) has ruled against MVP and those same permits twice before. Equitrans CEO Thomas F. Karam says he thinks the third time will be the charm. We say, don’t hold your breath.