Reuters Says FERC Sides with Venture Global in Shafting LNG Customers
Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) authorization to place the final three liquefaction blocks (7-9) into service in November 2023 (see Venture Global Gets FERC OK to Commission 3 Calcasieu Pass Trains). The other trains, 1-6, have been online for over two years! However, the entire facility is not officially in commercial service, even though it has shipped over 200 cargoes. Venture Global claims it is still working out the kinks. A newly issued inspection report by FERC personnel appears to support Venture Global’s claims of still working out the kinks, according to Reuters. Read More “Reuters Says FERC Sides with Venture Global in Shafting LNG Customers”
As we often say, we’re suckers for a good railroad story. There’s something magical about the clickety-clack of trains heading cross country. Shortline railroads play an important role in the Marcellus/Utica by transporting machinery, materials for drilling, and sand. But today’s story is not about shortlines but long-haul railroads. Here’s a fascinating fact: U.S. rail freight transported nearly 1.8 million metric tons of materials in 2023, with energy products, including coal, oil, and natural gas, being the most common. The number two most common product hauled (not even close) is agricultural products. 
Toby Rice, the Chief Executive Officer of EQT Corporation, currently the largest natural gas producer in the U.S. (but about to become second-largest next week, after Chesapeake Energy & Southwestern Energy merge to become the largest, see today’s companion story), addressed the 800 attendees at the Shale Insight event yesterday. He was in Erie, PA, yesterday, just one day after he spoke at an event in New York City at that city’s so-called Climate Week. Rice had some rather blunt words about the capability of renewable energy and the inability of renewables to meet a dramatic increase in demand for energy that will come from AI data centers and a massive expansion in the use of electric vehicles. He said renewables will “not be enough” to meet that demand, especially at the prices needed. Natural gas, on the other hand, IS enough. 
In August, MDN told you about a tiny new gas-fired power plant coming to Kentucky (see 
For those of a certain age (or who like to watch reruns), do you remember that iconic song and TV series, The Love Boat? Sing along with us: “The love boat soon will be making another run. The love boat promises something for everyone. Set a course for adventure, your mind on a new romance…” Princess Cruises is the operator of the ships featured on the Love Boat TV show. The company announced yesterday that finishing work has begun in Italy on its second LNG-powered cruise ship. The Star Princess is due to be based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and will set sail in the fall of 2025. 
EQT CEO Toby Rice has been in New York City for the city’s so-called Climate Week. Rice (EQT) is a member of the Partnership to Address Global Emissions. Bloomberg is reporting on several comments made by Rice that are intriguing and insightful—comments about the coming important role of AI data centers, when the price of natural gas may begin to rise again, and just how high the price may hit. Buckle up as we crawl inside the head of Toby Rice… 
The Algonquin Gas Transmission pipeline (owned by Enbridge) transports up to 3.09 Bcf/d of natural gas through 1,131 miles of pipeline. Algonquin connects to Texas Eastern Transmission (TETCO), Millennium Pipeline, and Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline and supplies New England with critically needed natural gas supplies for power generation and consumer use. As we told you in September 2023, Enbridge conducted an open season to gauge interest in expanding Algonquin’s capacity to flow more gas into New England — mainly from the Marcellus/Utica — called Project Maple (see 
CNX Resources released its first Radical Transparency™ assessment report in August (see 
A gigantic 91,000-square-foot facility that turns cow poop into CH4 (methane) is set to begin construction, possibly in October, near Seneca Lake in Ontario County, NY. Yes, the beautiful countryside of Upstate New York will soon produce methane, and it will be near the largest of NY’s bucolic Finger Lakes. The facility will use the manure from 12 local dairy farms with a combined 11,000 cows to extract methane through an anaerobic digester process. The methane would then be converted into natural gas and injected into a nearby NYSEG (New York State Electric & Gas) pipeline. Wait…where’s anti-fossil fueler Sandra Steingraber from Ithaca College? Where’s anti-fossil fueler Robert Howarth from Cornell University? They both begin to froth at the mouth whenever the word “methane” is uttered publicly or privately anywhere in Upstate New York! Yet they, and groups like Food & Water Watch, the Sierra Club, and a host of other Big and Little Green groups are completely silent about this plant that will see 91 truckloads of cow poop coming and going each and every day at this plant—12 hours a day. All to produce (gasp!)…METHANE. 
The European Union’s idiotic methane regulations will soon come into full force, prompting oil, gas, and coal companies to monitor, measure and report their emissions. The same restrictions will also apply to energy imports coming from other countries, including the U.S. (see 
According to Ronald Stein, an engineer, senior policy advisor on energy literacy for CFACT (Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, a Washington, D.C. think tank), and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated book, “Clean Energy Exploitations,” energy policymakers in the U.S. (and elsewhere) do not understand that electricity and transportation cannot exist without products made from fossil fuels. Political bureaucrats and policymakers seem to be oblivious to humanity’s addiction to oil, as they are to these two basic facts… 
In January, MDN told you about a long-closed landfill that seeks to reopen in Liberty and Pine Townships in Mercer County, PA (see