Irrational Antis Oppose Tiny Peaker Plant in Lansing, Mich.
Lansing (Michigan) Board of Water and Light (BWL) is committed to the false premise that humans are catastrophically warming the planet. BWL has a clean energy plan that includes building solar, wind, and battery storage. However, solar and wind — even with battery storage — are intermittent and unreliable. That’s just a fact. In order to use MORE solar and wind, BWL needs to install a small (very small) natural gas-fired peaker plant that will turn on during periods of high demand, periods when solar and wind and battery backup can’t meet the demand. In other words, natgas will make using more renewable power possible. And still, antis who irrationally hate fossil fuels are protesting the peaker.
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As you may have noticed, a number of our posts today are stories about gas-fired power plants, which are vitally important (very big) customers for shale gas. According to an analysis by Reuters, natural gas use by power generators has expanded by around 3.5% a year over the past three years and is by far the largest single source of gas used in the U.S. However, natural gas consumption by the other major sectors, including industry, households, and commercial, is falling each year. The fall in usage by industry, etc., is more than the growth in powergen.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) slapped the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project (which is now online) with a fine of $30,500 for violations of erosion and sediment control rules that happened during the second quarter. It is the fourth consecutive quarter in which MVP was fined by the DEQ for violations. In total, MVP has been fined nearly $100,000 by the DEQ over the past one year. Which is pretty much a nothingburger.
The Algonquin Gas Transmission pipeline (owned by Enbridge) transports up to 3.09 Bcf/d 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. Much of the gas flowing through it comes from the Marcellus/Utica. Algonquin needs to install a backup “meter and regulator” station in Lincoln, Mass., to keep the gas flowing in the region. The city of Cambridge owns a piece of land that it uses as a “buffer” for the city-owned reservoir in the area. Algonquin needs to cut some of the trees on that land in order to get its equipment through for the meter and regulator station, which will be constructed on land owned by Algonquin. Enter several nutjobs who are trying to block work at the site.
Hope Gas, West Virginia’s largest natural gas utility company, and Quantum Pleasants, which is working on a plan in Pleasants County, WV, to use natural gas to produce hydrogen for electricity generation at what is currently a coal-burning plant, are squabbling before the state Public Service Commission (PSC) over whether or not Quantum Pleasants has the right to buy its natural gas from a different vendor (with a different pipeline).
We need a scorecard to keep track of all the ups and downs at the problem-plagued Freeport LNG export facility. We don’t think it’s a stretch to say the plant, which is the second largest LNG export plant in the U.S., has been down as much as it has been up over the past two years of its short existence. Just last Thursday, Reuters reported full operations at the plant (all three “trains”) would not be fully online again until “early August” following Hurricane Beryl visiting the area (see 
The U.S. national oil and gas rig regained more of its lost ground last week by adding three more rigs back to active status. The national combined Baker Hughes oil and gas rig count now stands at 589 rigs. The Marcellus/Utica remained even last week. Pennsylvania continued to operate 21 rigs. Ohio operated 11 active rigs (after adding a rig two weeks ago). West Virginia remained the same with five active rigs. The M-U’s primary competitor, the Haynesville, remained static with 36 active rigs — one less than the M-U’s 37 rigs.
CNX Resources issued its second quarter update yesterday. MDN will do a deeper dive into the update on Monday. Today, we want to highlight one item “tucked away” in the report that was first noticed by the Pittsburgh Business Times. CNX has a New Technologies Group dedicated to growing the use of natural gas outside of the typical extract-it-and-sell-it-via-pipeline model. In yesterday’s update, CNX said it had sold what it calls ZeroHp CNG to an outside company in July — making CNG (compressed natural gas) right at the well pad without the use of compressors.
The Bidenistas at the EPA attacked coal and gas-fired power plants in April, threatening to destabilize the existing electric power grid with new regulations (see 
Real journalism in the U.S. is dead. You know that, right? Once objective and venerable publications like the New York Times, Washington Post, and other mainstream media publications are now nothing more than the public relations arm of the Democrat Party. Their “reporters” don’t report, they spin. They lie. They obfuscate. A case in point is an article by the Bloomberg news service. Kamala Harris is on record (on video) saying she is in favor of a full-on, 100% ban on all fracking in the country. Not just fracking on government land (which was Joementia’s position), but a ban for everyone everywhere. Republicans are now reminding people of her statements and position on this issue, so Bloomberg is covering for Ms. Harris.
Yesterday, EQT Corporation, the country’s largest natural gas producer, issued its second quarter 2024 update. We’re dedicating another post to chronicling other news coming from the update. This post is dedicated to the most significant news from the update: EQT has decided to keep the newly christened 2.0 Bcf/d Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) instead of selling it. Not only that, but EQT wants to expand the pipeline’s capacity from 2.0 to 2.5 Bcf/d as soon as possible.
Yeah, we kind of felt like it was too good to be true. Tuesday, we told you that an LNG carrier had left Freeport LNG’s port last weekend fully loaded, and a couple of carriers were queued up, waiting to dock and load (see 
According to the left-leaning Spotlight PA, “A flurry of recent bipartisan agreements by state lawmakers on energy projects and policies is sending a clear message: Pennsylvania is slowly moving toward clean energy but fossil fuels aren’t going anywhere.” Joe Biden is sending big money to Pennsylvania to fund all sorts of ludicrous “renewable” energy initiatives (i.e., bribes). However, sources talking to Spotlight PA confirm that fossil fuels — the Marcellus industry — remain strong and are not going anywhere.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is the sixth-largest power supplier and the largest public utility in the country. In 2021, MDN told you that TVA is spending over $1 billion to replace six coal-fired plants with natgas-fired turbines (see 
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), injections into natural gas storage so far this injection season (April 1–October 31) is 15% (166 Bcf) *less* than the previous five-year average (2019–23) for the same period. Injections into storage are also 15% (172 Bcf) less than this same time last year. Yet working natural gas inventories in the Lower 48 states are 17% *higher* than the five-year average and 8% higher than this time last year. How can that be?