Net Power Makes Progress with Tech, High Costs a Challenge
In December 2022, Rice Acquisition Corp II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) started by the Rice brothers (Danny, Toby, and Derek), announced a deal to acquire Net Power — an electric power developer with revolutionary new technology to capture every last molecule of carbon dioxide from natural gas-fired power plants (see Dan Rice Buys Co. that Builds Zero-Carbon Gas-Fired Electric Plants). The Rice deal to buy Net Power closed in June 2023, with Danny Rice (former CEO of Rice Energy) becoming the new CEO of NET Power (see NET Power Completes $1.5B Merger with Rice Acquisition Corp.). Net Power, now a publicly traded company, issued its fourth quarter 2024 and business update yesterday to inform investors of its progress. Read More “Net Power Makes Progress with Tech, High Costs a Challenge”
For more than 13 years MDN has harped on the fact that groups like Trout Unlimited are filled with extremist anti-drillers (see our article 
After five weeks of adding rigs, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count decreased by a single rig last week. The national rig count now stands at 592. As for the Marcellus/Utica, the rig count was a combined 35 last week, retaining a rig added in West Virginia three weeks ago. Rigs focused on the Marcellus were a combined 24 across the three M-U states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. Rigs focused on the Utica were a combined 11. PA has operated 15 rigs (or more) for the past 17 weeks. OH has operated nine rigs for the past 14 weeks. WV had operated 10 rigs for an astonishing 23 weeks in a row. Three weeks ago, WV added (and has kept) one additional rig and now operates 11 active rigs. Good things are happening in the Mountain State. 
On Sunday, March 2, MDN friend Tom Shepstone (who writes the must-read 
Here’s an explosive allegation. EQT Corporation and its pipeline subsidiary EQM Gathering are suing Union Township (located in Washington County, PA). Also named in the lawsuit are the town’s five supervisors. EQT’s allegation is that the town (and its supervisors) are attempting to extort big money from EQT to allow the company to connect gathering pipelines to several of its recently-drilled shale wells. Among the claims, the town wants $50,000 to issue a permit for ANY gathering pipeline that connects to a well. The town also (says EQT in the lawsuit) tried to extort $750,000 to repair a road slip caused by another company. Oh! And Union wants a $50,000 monthly “fee” from EQT to continue operating in the township. 
This morning, Diversified Energy, FuelCell Energy, and TESIAC announced a strategic partnership “intended to address the urgent energy needs of data centers” by supplying as much as 360 megawatts (MW) of electricity to three distinct locations in Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky. The partnership has agreed to create an Acquisition and Development Company (ADC), essentially a joint venture, focused on delivering reliable, cost-efficient, so-called net-zero power from natural gas and captured coal mine methane (CMM) to meet the soaring demand of data centers for reliable power. The way they will provide the power is quite interesting. 
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is a typical liberal Democrat politician. He pretends to be moderate and a supporter of the Marcellus industry in the Keystone State. He is neither. Shapiro claims his proposed energy programs will cut costs for Pennsylvanians. The reverse is true. But we’re not just making blanket unprovable assertions or opinions about Shapiro’s energy plans. We have the receipts to prove that what he wants for the state vis-à-vis energy is a disaster for residents. 
Two months ago, a video circulated on social media featuring a Biden EPA political appointee talking about “tossing gold bars off the Titanic,” intentionally rushing to get billions of tax dollars recklessly out of the agency before Inauguration Day. The EPA’s new sheriff, Lee Zeldin, located $20 billion of those gold bars sitting at a Citibank bank account (see 
Sorry to be so blunt: You can’t fix stupid. You can only call attention to it, which is what we’re doing with a group of “40 to 50” protesters who gathered yesterday at the Ohio Statehouse to protest drilling for oil and gas under state-owned land, including drilling under (not on) state parks. It was cold and blustery, so they get props for coming out in the foul weather. However, all of the clothes they wore, including the coats, hats, mittens, gloves, boots, not to mention their signage, the glasses some of them wore, the cell phones in their pockets, the bullhorn and podium the used—were all made from the very oil and gas they were protesting. Not to mention none of them arrived there by horse and buggy or by walking. They all drove vehicles made from and powered by fossil fuels. Do they realize how ridiculous they looked? No, we suppose not. 
The nonpartisan S&P Global released Phase 1 of a study on LNG exports last December on the very same day the Biden/Granholm Department of Energy released its LNG export “study” (see 
Sometimes you have to toot your own horn, especially when the legacy media (which nobody watches, reads, or listens to anymore) won’t do it. On Tuesday, President Trump gave a joint address to Congress. We won’t rehash the endless coverage of that event and the juvenile (quite despicable) performance by Democrats in attendance. One of Trump’s main themes for the talk was energy. Just ahead of his speech, The White House issued a statement to identify the many ways in which his administration is “unleashing American energy.” That was the toot-your-own-horn bit. It’s a great list and his work thus far is not getting the attention it deserves. Trump has done so much in such a short time, it’s hard to keep up with it all. Let’s go through it chapter and verse… 
There are deadbeats in every industry, including (unfortunately) the oil and gas industry. Some O&G producers in West Virginia are gaming the system by not paying landowners/rights owners the royalties they are due. Typically, this does not apply to shale drillers, mostly larger companies. However, with (some, very few) smaller conventional drillers, they just don’t pay royalties owed. And if the check is for under a hundred bucks, what can a landowner do? Hiring a lawyer to litigate would cost more than the money received. A new bill making its way through the WV Senate would fix the situation. 
In January 2023, Ohio House Bill (HB) 507 became law with the signature of Gov. Mike DeWine (see 
How often have we read that shale energy doesn’t create jobs and isn’t the economic boom to local communities as advertised. The enviro-left peddles the lie that oil and gas companies get fat on profits while everyone else suffers. We have the perfect story that exposes the left’s lies about the economic benefits of shale energy—and it comes from Youngstown, OH. Dearing Compressor & Pump designs and manufactures compressor packages for three major business lines including natural gas pipelines.