DRBC Appoints New Executive Director Figurehead
In 1961, the federal government and the governments of Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York made a huge mistake. They entered into an agreement that created the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC). The DRBC has the independent legal authority to oversee and manage the Delaware River Basin. The DRBC treats the 17 counties in Pennsylvania under its jurisdiction (particularly Wayne and Pike counties) as a fiefdom, banning shale energy within those counties (see DRBC Jumps Off Cliff – Votes to Permanently Ban Fracking). Big Green pretty much runs the agency. The DRBC appoints an executive director as a figurehead to push papers around. Earlier this year, Steve Tambini, current ED, announced he would retire as of Dec. 1 (see DRBC’s Disappointing Executive Director Steve Tambini is Retiring). Yesterday, the agency announced who would replace him. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Read More “DRBC Appoints New Executive Director Figurehead”
Shell is putting numbers to the gross transgression of Venture Global in screwing over its contracted customers for LNG shipments. 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 
Yesterday, MDN told you that if The Cackler (Kamala Harris) can turn on a dime and supposedly embrace fracking, why can’t leftist New York Governor Kathy Hochul do the same (see 
The CEO of midstream giant Williams, Alan Armstrong, spoke at the Barclays CEO Energy-Power Conference yesterday. He gave conference attendees an update on the many (many!) projects Williams has recently completed, is currently completing, and is likely to complete in the future. The company is on track, said Armstrong, to add 12 new pipeline projects representing about 4.2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of capacity from 2024-2027. Looking further out, the company said it has about 30 projects under development, representing about 11.5 Bcf/d of capacity from 2028-2032. That’s a staggering 15.7 Bcf/d of new capacity coming online from this one company. How much of it is in the Marcellus/Utica? 
In 2019, when then-Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced he would unilaterally force the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax scheme aimed at forcing coal- and gas-fired plants out of business, he claimed the tax would only amount to a few dollars per allowance (or “short ton”) of CO2 (see 
MiQ is one of two major gas certification authorities that certify low methane emissions and is used by nearly every Marcellus/Utica driller. Last October, MDN brought you information about the two major gas certification authorities, MiQ and Project Canary, and the effort by drillers to get their gas officially certified as responsibly sourced (see 
There’s just no way to sugarcoat the fact that the low low price for natural gas is having an impact on shale drillers in the Marcellus/Utica. According to an analyst with RBN Energy, a price plunge to near the $2/MMBtu level in early 2023 “crippled” financial results for the companies RBN monitors that are gas-focused (namely M-U companies). However, most producers on the RBN list have remained in the black through spending less and cutting back on production. Down but far from out. How did the major M-U companies that are publicly traded perform in 2Q24? We have the numbers below. 
As you know, the Biden-Harris administration has been a big promoter of hydrogen energy, even though (a) it’s expensive to produce and (b) there are no customers (currently) who want more supplies of it. Because hydrogen is “clean” energy, the left is pushing it as energy nirvana. (Most leftists alive today don’t know what the 
The State of Maine has a completely unrealistic climate goal of using 80% renewable energy generation by 2030. It 100% won’t happen. But state officials continue to fart around pretending they will hit that goal. Meanwhile, back in the real world, natural gas remains THE key energy source for the state, generating more than half of New England’s (and Maine’s) power. Three interstate pipelines flow natural gas molecules to the state: Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline, Algonquin Gas Transmission, and Granite State Gas Transmission. All three are requesting a rate increase. Two of the three, Maritimes and Algonquin, are owned by Enbridge and have requested a rate increase of 30-50%. Ouch. 
We spotted an opinion piece in the New York Post with the provocative title, “With Kamala Harris now in favor, Hochul should let upstate NY frack, baby, frack.” It’s part tongue-in-cheek and part serious. If The Cackler can turn on a dime and supposedly embrace fracking, why can’t leftist Kathy Hochul? (Of course, Harris hasn’t really changed her position on fracking. But play along just for kicks…) The Post column outlines the economic devastation that has hit Upstate NY (where MDN is located) and how a simple change in policy to allow fracking would ignite the Upstate economy. The author is right. If Hochul *really* cared about Upstate and seeing it prosper, she would work to allow shale fracking.
In 2015, a group of nearly 60 landowners in northeastern Pennsylvania who had leased their land for fracking filed a lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy, Anadarko, Statoil (now Equinor), Mitsui E&P, and Access Midstream (later bought by Williams), alleging the companies had improperly deducted post-production costs (e.g., gas gathering and transportation expenses) from royalties owed to the landowners in breach of their respective leases. The lawsuit also alleged collusion and conspiracy to defraud the landowners. The lawsuit was on hold for many years while other lawsuits played out. Earlier this year, a federal court in Scranton unpaused this lawsuit, and yesterday, the judge ruled, tossing out the landowners’ claims.
What’s your price, Pennsylvania oil and gas industry? Are you willing to sell yourselves to the Democrats for $152 million (revised down to $114 million) in bribes? How about if Biden-Harris sweetens the pot and rushes a check for $76 million to the state, as they did yesterday? Can you not see through this sleazy attempt to unduly influence the election? In August, Biden-Harris promised (but hasn’t yet delivered a dime of) up to $152 million in “Phase 2” federal money, i.e., your taxpayer dollars, to help plug old conventional oil and gas wells in the Keystone State (see 
The Board of Supervisors for Cecil Township in Washington County, PA, has caved to pressure from radical leftists and is floating a plan to effectively ban all new shale drilling in the township by increasing setbacks from “protected structures” from 500 feet to 2,500 feet (a half a mile!). The supervisors will hold a special meeting tonight to discuss this lunacy. We strongly recommend you attend and voice your opposition.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), North America’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity is on track to more than double between 2024 and 2028, from 11.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2023 to an astonishing 24.4 Bcf/d in 2028! That is, if all the projects currently under construction begin operations as planned. However, that increase includes not just exports from the U.S. but also from Canada and Mexico. Yes, somehow, magically, countries like Canada and Mexico, where Big Green thought it held an iron grip, will soon begin to export LNG (some of it U.S. molecules).
In January, Joementia announced he would “pause” any approvals for new LNG export plants (currently 17 requests in the pipeline) for at least one year while his people fart around pretending to figure out how to measure global warming as a new consideration for whether or not to approve such projects (see 
The big news (for us) with the weekly Baker Hughes rig count is that last week, Pennsylvania laid down its use of three active drilling rigs, resulting in the lowest rig count in the state in 2 1/2 years. PA now operates 18 active rigs, down from 21 the week prior. The last time PA operated only 18 rigs was, according to our records, in November 2021. Fortunately, West Virginia picked up one of those rigs and improved its count from five to six. Ohio remained the same with nine active rigs. So, the Marcellus/Utica, in total, went from 35 active rigs two weeks ago to 33 active rigs last week. The national rig count (for both oil and gas rigs) dropped by two, now with 583 active rigs.