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EQT Sues Former Midstream VP Robert Wingo re Non-Compete Contract
Last week, MDN told you that EQT’s vice president of midstream, Robert Wingo, was moving on to another job (see EQT Head of Midstream Rob Wingo Leaving for Greener Pastures). It looks like the greener pastures will have to wait. On June 17, EQT sued Wingo in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania over a trade secrets and contract dispute. The lawsuit seeks to block Wingos’s planned move to Williams Cos., a competitor. According to the complaint (below), Wingo’s acceptance of a senior role at Williams violates his one-year non-compete agreement and risks disclosure of confidential information. Read More “EQT Sues Former Midstream VP Robert Wingo re Non-Compete Contract”
Recent actions taken by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) appear to be quite significant, yet it has not received any media attention. On June 18, FERC took several actions to remove regulatory obstacles and therefore speed up the construction of needed natural gas infrastructure projects in the United States. FERC issued a blanket waiver (valid for the next two years) of its Order No. 871, which has allowed Big Green to block the construction of pipeline projects while rehearing requests are being handled. The result has been to delay projects by years while Big Green ties up such projects with endless appeals. Waiving Order No. 871 frees up FERC personnel to go ahead and issue orders to allow projects to begin construction. 
Commonwealth LNG received major news this week from two different government agencies. The first bit of news was a final authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to proceed with building the $11 billion project in Cameron, Louisiana. The second bit of news was a final authorization to export to countries without a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States, granted by the Department of Energy (DOE). Commonwealth still plans to make a final investment decision (FID) on the project in the third quarter of this year. 
Every now and again, the left will deal honestly with energy issues. It’s rare, but it happens. Recently, a journalist for Canary Media made the following stark admission in an article: “Even before Trump and fellow Republicans began pulling the financial rug out from under the industry, green hydrogen megaprojects were collapsing.” He goes on to list the evidence for “green” hydrogen’s collapse—prior to Trump and the Republicans coming into power in January. 
In yesterday’s MDN post about the spike in the NYMEX futures price for natural gas, MDN told you that traders were targeting the next significant trading target to be $3.84/MMBtu (see 
We previously reported that following some intense conversations between President Trump and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, she caved and according to the White House agreed to allow two long-stalled pipeline projects—the Constitution and the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE)—to get built in NY in return for Trump allowing her to continue to sink $5 billion into an offshore wind project (see 
It’s not a good look for New York State that not long after Governor Kathy Hochul made a deal with President Trump to allow two natural gas pipelines to get built in return for allowing an offshore wind farm, the state legislature passed a bill that essentially spits in the face of the natural gas industry in the state. The Assembly passed A8888, already approved by the Senate as S8417, which forces new homes and businesses that want to connect to the natural gas line that runs down their street to pay the full cost of connecting—$10,000 or more. Meaning if Gov. Hochul signs it, no new natural gas customers will be added anywhere in the state. It is a de facto ban on connecting new customers to use natural gas in the so-called Empire State. 
Permitting reform—shortening the amount of time and eliminating some of the onerous regulations that stand in the way of permitting new energy projects—has been a hot topic for at least the last three years, if not longer. Before leaving the Senate last year, West Virginia’s then-Senator, Joe Manchin, tried to get a bill passed to address permitting reform (see 
Cayuga Station, owned by Duke Energy, is a three-unit coal-fired power plant built between 1970 and 1993 in Vermillion County, Indiana. The existing plant produces as much as 1,040 megawatts (MW) of electricity. Duke recently filed a request with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) for permission to build two new gas-fired plants at the Cayuga site to replace the coal-fired units (see 
A month ago, NRG Energy announced a deal to acquire LS Power’s portfolio of natural-gas power plants in a deal valued at roughly $12 billion, including debt, that will expand NRG’s footprint in Texas and along the East Coast (see 
Marcellus/Utica molecules may be heading to Malaysia. Commonwealth LNG yesterday identified PETRONAS LNG Ltd., a subsidiary of Malaysia’s national oil and gas company, as the major Asian energy company referenced in the company’s May 5 announcement of a buyer to purchase 1 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG for 20 years from Commonwealth’s 9.5 MTPA facility under development in Cameron, Louisiana. Commonwealth LNG currently has 4 MTPA of offtake under long-term agreements. The company expects to finalize all of the deals it needs before making a final investment decision (FID) in Q3 2025. The Commonwealth facility targets its first LNG production in 2029. 
A situation that’s been playing out for nearly two years is just now becoming public. In late 2023, a welding inspector working on the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) said he had discovered three sections of the pipeline were corroded and violated construction standards and federal guidelines. He reported it to his superiors at MVP, who allegedly ignored his objections. So he filed a report with the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). The pipeline sections got replaced, and the inspector got fired. In April of this year, the inspector filed a lawsuit against MVP (and Equitrans Midstream, and EQT) for wrongful termination. 
We experienced a nice jolt in the NYMEX futures price for natural gas yesterday, rising 16.7 cents to close at $3.748/MMBtu. Those in the know say the main factors behind the price increase were (a) a hot weather forecast beginning next week for the eastern half of the country, and (b) lingering uncertainty over the Israel-Iran war and its potential impact on oil and LNG shipments in the Persian Gulf. 
When referring to Big Green groups in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, we often refer to the groups as “colluding,” meaning they coordinate their legal and public relations attacks against fossil fuel companies. It is something we have long suspected but (unfortunately) can’t prove definitively. Somebody is about to prove it. Several of these groups, including POWER Interfaith, Sierra Club, Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania, Clean Air Council, Vote Solar, PennEnvironment, and the Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group, attacked a recent proposal by Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) to raise rates. PGW is asking the PA Public Utility Commission (PUC) to order these groups to provide internal communications that would prove they have been colluding together. 