Big Coal Sues PA to Block PA Carbon Tax + Court Hearing for Senate
Three cheers for Big Coal! We’re not all that thrilled with using coal in power plants given there is a much more environmentally-friendly option–natural gas. But we’re certainly not against coal energy and we’re all for free enterprise and competition among fuel sources. The coal industry in Pennsylvania has our respect and admiration for standing up for itself and suing the state to block the insane Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax. PA Gov. Tom Wolf is forcing his state to join RGGI, which will assess huge new taxes on both coal and gas-fired power plants, threatening to drive both out of business.
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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 of well valuations not only for Antero but other drillers led to a reworking of how the state law values shale wells (see 
Spire STL is a 65-mile pipeline that connects to and flows Marcellus/Utica gas from the Rockies Express (REX) pipeline to residents and businesses in the St. Louis, MO area. The pipeline began flowing gas in late 2019 (see 
Last Tuesday, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court ruled that Gov. Tom Wolf’s obscene carbon tax, called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), will not go into effect until “pending further order of the court” (see 
The Barack Hussein Obama administration went crazy with over-regulation in many areas. One of them was to redefine “waters of the United States” (or WOTUS) as everything down to, no exaggeration, mud puddles (see 
On Tuesday, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court ruled that Gov. Tom Wolf’s obscene carbon tax, called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), will not go into effect until “pending further order of the court.” What further action from the court is necessary was not disclosed. What is obvious is that Wolf’s attempt to force the state to join RGGI is now on a very long pause, until more court cases are filed. The end game (for Republicans) is to run out the clock until a new governor is elected in November (hopefully a Republican). Either that, or convince the 5-2 liberal majority of the PA Supreme Court (which is likely where this will end up) to rule against Wolf’s unilateral attempt to force the state into the RGGI compact.
Last December the Democrats who sit on the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board rejected issuing an air permit for a compressor station in southern Virginia for the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) Southgate extension that will run 75 miles from Virginia into North Carolina (see 
Epsilon Energy concentrates most of its effort on the Marcellus Shale in Susquehanna County, PA. Epsilon doesn’t typically do its own drilling. The company joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy, and the other company typically does the drilling. Epsilon issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2021 update last week. The company’s Marcellus net gas production was 2.6 Bcf (billion cubic feet) in 4Q21. The company generated revenues of $13.8 million during 4Q21, compared to $5.9 million for 4Q20. Realized natural gas prices averaged $3.65/Mcf including hedges, and $4.36/Mcf excluding hedges.
Radical green groups, including the Sierra Club (
There is a practice called “sue and settle” used by swamp dwellers in the federal government, financed by taxpayers (you) that will make your blood boil. It’s not new. It’s been going on for years. Sue and settle was frequently used during the bad Obama years. When Donald J. Trump took over at the White House he brought in Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to run the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) where sue and settle was the normal routine. Scott drained the swamp and stopped the practice. Guess what? Like a bad yeast infection, the swamp dwellers are back and they’re bringing back sue and settle to the EPA. Surprised? We aren’t.
Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s (TGP) plan to flow more Marcellus gas to Westchester and New York City is called the East 300 Upgrade Project. The project involves upgrades at two existing compressor stations (in Pennsylvania), along with building a brand new compressor station in West Milford (Passaic County), just across the border and not far from Westchester County, NY. Radicalized fossil fuel haters at Food & Water Watch, one of the worst of the worst anti groups, is challenging the all-electric, no-emissions compressor station planned for Passaic County in New Jersey Supreme Court.