Martins Ferry Council Pressures ODNR to Clean Up AMS Facility…NOW
We have been tracking and reporting on the drama surrounding Austin Master Services (AMS), a radiological waste management solutions company in Martins Ferry (Belmont County), Ohio, located close to the Ohio River (see our AMS stories here). Two weeks ago, a Belmont County Common Pleas Court judge ordered AMS to be fined $200 per day for failing to meet its permitted requirements for the amount of frack drill cuttings and other frack waste products housed at the Martins Ferry site. However, paperwork filed with the court by AMS claims the company is out of money, deep in debt, and is “effectively a dead company” that will not be able to meet the court’s order … unless it gets sold (quickly) to someone else who can do the cleanup work (see Austin Master Services Claims It is “Effectively a Dead Company”). The problem is that nothing is getting done to clean up the mess left by AMS, and the city of Martins Ferry is not happy with the stalemate.
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Every now and again, the liberal Democrat editors of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette publish an unsigned editorial (from the editors) that surprises us. Yesterday was another such instance when Post-Gazette editors said Pennsylvania should leverage frack wastewater to extract lithium, which can be used to make electric vehicle batteries for Joementia’s EV fantasies. The editors cited a study recently published (in April) by the National Energy Technology Laboratory that says Marcellus wastewater in Pennsylvania alone has enough lithium to provide 40% of the country’s needs (see 
In 2021, as he was running for Governor in Virginia, Glenn Youngkin pledged that if he won, he would remove the state from the onerous carbon tax on coal- and gas-fired power plants called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Youngkin kept his promise, although it took longer than he had hoped (and is still being challenged in court). In addition to not paying as much for electricity post-RGGI, ratepayers just got another gift: Dominion Energy, the primary utility company servicing Virginia, is dropping an average fee of $4.50 per month from the utility bills of Virginia residents.
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 
Liberals are so funny to watch. Their own words condemn them. For example, the far-left-leaning POLITICO “news” organization held an Energy Summit yesterday. It was a virtual event, as far as we can tell. One of the big discussion topics was Biden’s “signature” climate law, the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), made possible by a single vote from Joe Manchin. The IRA is better named the Green New Deal. It’s an abysmal law that targets fossil fuel energy for extinction. Judging from the comments made at the Summit, the libs are clearly worried that if Donald Trump wins, he will take an ax to the IRA (as he should).
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) released production numbers for the first quarter 2024 yesterday. Oil production, led by Encino Energy wells, is the headline news. Oil production from Encino represented 51.3% of all Ohio Utica oil production in 1Q. Ascent Resources was the next closest oil producer, with 21.8% of Utica oil produced. As for natural gas, Ascent Resources dominated with 42.8% of all Ohio Utica natgas production. In the number two slot was Gulfport Energy with 17.6% of natgas production, followed closely by Encino with 16.0% of natgas production. Below, we have lists of the top 25 gas and oil wells by production in 1Q24, along with charts showing gas and oil production by both drillers and by county. You’ll only find this news (and this level of detail) here on MDN.
Four out-of-state pipeline protesters (two from New Jersey, one each from Vermont and Maryland), all senior citizens who thought it was cutesy to block access to work sites for the almost-done Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), are about to learn a hard lesson. They have been sued by MVP for BIG BUCKS — for the costs to compensate for lost time AND for punitive damages. We’ll see if the protesters’ Big Green benefactors will pony up the lawyers and money they need to fight the lawsuits. It’s about time our side begins to play hardball. You play hardball by suing these crazies and making them pay. Kudos to MVP.
In early March, President Joementia Biden nominated three new candidates to become Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) commissioners (see 
On May 14, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the final Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule requirements for petroleum and natural gas systems under 40 C.F.R. Part 98, Subpart W in the Federal Register (full copy of the 266-page rule included below). The changes to this rule resulted from passing the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) which required EPA to develop standards to collect payment on methane from facilities that exceed specific thresholds. (Incidentally, the IRA passed due to a single vote: Joe Manchin.) The final rule applies to a wide range (more than originally thought) of oil and gas facilities operated by the petroleum production, gas transmission, and utility industries. The new rule will impose *significant* budget-busting administrative and recordkeeping costs on those industries, as well as requiring them to pay fees for reported methane emissions. It is a flat-out attack on natural gas and oil.
Price volatility is how much and how fast a price, like the NYMEX futures price of natural gas at the Henry Hub, changes. How much the price “swings” up or down, and how suddenly, is a measure of volatility. In 2022, when the price of natgas spiked to new multi-year highs, it did so quickly. The price in 2022 also came down about as quickly as it rose, meaning extreme volatility. Since early 2022, NYMEX prices, in general, along with volatility, have settled down. The extreme price swings are gone — at least for now. Sadly, higher prices for natgas are also gone for now.
Newly released information gathered from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request shows that as Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) tested its 303-mile pipeline from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA, some 130 potential problem areas were located. Running a PIG (pipeline inspection gauge) device through the pipeline to check for dents and other weaknesses found 50 “anomalies” that required further excavation work to check. Another 80 excavations were needed after tests using an electric current to probe for weaknesses in the pipeline’s special anti-corrosion coating.
In April, EQT Corporation and Equinor (formerly known as Statoil) announced a deal to swap land in Pennsylvania and Ohio (see 
Why are we not surprised? We’ve been tracking the up down up down up down situation at Freeport LNG since it came online in 2019. Freeport was mostly offline this year following an episode of cold temps in January (see 
On May 23, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issued a pooling order to Encino Energy that combines a number of properties into a single unit for drilling wells. The total of the surface land pooled is 1,081.076 acres, located in Stock Township, Harrison County, Ohio. There are 121 (!) properties or pieces of property involved, largely due to the unit passing under what appears to be a housing development. This type of thing goes on frequently — the ODNR issuing a pooling order. What’s different and unusual about this one is that the ODRN appears to have denied a request by Encino to raise the penalty against those who refused to sign a lease but ended up being forced to participate anyway.