Gov. Shapiro Dooms PA Gov’t to Use Unreliable, Intermittent Solar
As we outline today in another post, the PJM electric grid, which covers 13 states including Pennsylvania, reports emissions of all the nasty things (carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide) have decreased radically thanks to the change from coal-fired power to natural gas-fired power (see Marcellus Fracked Gas Leads to Record Low Emissions in PJM Grid). We also report today that in 2023, the country as a whole increased its usage of natural gas specifically because the country (including the M-U) is adding more low-carbon gas-fired power plants (see NatGas Grew Its Share of Electric Power 7% in 2023, New Record High). So what does the “brilliant” Governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, do? He signs up PA government agencies (sentences them) to use unreliable solar energy.
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West Virginia natural gas drillers are excited at the prospect of the soon-opening Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which will carry WV gas 303 miles from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA. During a recent meeting of the West Virginia Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Energy and Manufacturing, the CFO of Pillar Energy said it’s only a month or two until MVP will be online and flowing. Hallelujah! We [the O&G industry] were finally able to get this one done.
A new bill proposed by two Republican state lawmakers in Ohio would make it easier to site and build natural gas pipelines to areas of the state where pipelines currently don’t exist. If our reading of the bill language is correct, it is aimed at stimulating new jobs by running pipelines to industrial parks and businesses that currently are not serviced by natgas. The aim is to stimulate new jobs and opportunities in the Buckeye State. Smart.
CNX Resources has partnered with NuBlu Energy, an EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) company, to introduce two exciting new solutions that use Marcellus/Utica gas — one solution for CNG (compressed natural gas) and the other for LNG (liquefied natural gas). The solutions are called ZeroHP CNG and Clean mLNG. Zero Horsepower (ZeroHP) CNG creates a decentralized CNG production market to meet better the growing demand for clean, affordable CNG energy. ZeroHP CNG eliminates the need for compressors to compress the CNG. How cool is that? As for LNG, a new low horsepower solution called Clean mLNG™ advances cost-effective and lower emissions production of small-scale LNG. We’re talking micro-scale LNG, making LNG available for just about anyone to use.
Isn’t it interesting how the devil continues to use the same tactics he has used since the very beginning of time? Lucifer (the Center for Climate Integrity, or CCI) is whispering lies to Eve (the Allegheny County Council) located in the Garden of Eden (Pittsburgh region, the unofficial headquarters of the Marcellus/Utica shale), enticing Eve to bite the fruit (launch a lawsuit against Big Oil & Gas companies), promising she’ll have more money than God if she sues and wins. Lucifer always leads with a lie. The end result is always the same — death. In this case, the death of Pittsburgh as the headquarters of the Marcellus/Utica. Will Eve do it this time? Or resist?
A team led by Penn State researchers has developed a new tool that can estimate the emissions potential of shale wells after they are no longer active. The researchers claim drillers can analyze their own drill cuttings (samples of shale rock) to determine how much potential there is for methane leakage after a well is abandoned. Which is interesting and perhaps even useful information for Marcellus/Utica drillers. However, a tangential factoid in the news story is what caught our interest and got our mental wheels churning. The factoid is this…
On Friday, the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission upheld a regulatory order from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) suspending operations of three wastewater injection wells located in Torch (Athens County), OH, owned by K&H Partners, a subsidiary of Tallgrass Energy. ODNR “temporarily” suspended the operations of four fracking waste injection wells (the three K&H wells and one other) in Athens County last September (see 
Pennsylvania State Senator Katie Muth’s attempt to block a proposed frack wastewater treatment plant in Dimock (hours away from her own district) has bombed out yet again. Muth tried to challenge and block a permit for the plant, an effort which was mostly rejected in court in June 2022 (see 
Last week, the Baker Hughes rig count regained a couple of rigs; for the first time in five weeks, the count has gone up instead of down. The count went from 617 active rigs two weeks ago up to 619 last week. Since last October, the national count has gone as low as 616 and as high as 629. And that’s it. No higher and no lower. The Marcellus/Utica lost one rig last week and now runs 41 rigs. Pennsylvania remained constant with 22 rigs; Ohio lost a rig and now operates 11 rigs; and West Virginia remained the same with 8 rigs.
Things may finally be turning around for the problem-plagued Freeport LNG export facility located in Quintana, Texas. Last week we reported gas flows to the facility had dropped to “near zero” for at least five days in a row (see 
Today is the annual day when environmental wackos demand fealty to Mother Earth. You WILL bow down and worship the creation (instead of the Creator) or risk being excommunicated from polite company. We thumb our noses at Earth Day worshipers and declare our love for the miracle of fossil energy on this Earth Day. We invite you to join us in celebrating the greatest invention of mankind–fossil fuels!
Exactly a year ago, MDN brought you the good news that a company based in Houston, Texas called Encina (not to be confused with Encino Energy, which drills for natural gas and oil in Ohio) was proposing to build a $1.1 billion plastics recycling plant along the Susquehanna River in Northumberland County, PA — about 60 miles north of Harrisburg (see 
LS Power, headquartered in New York City, has developed or acquired 47,000 megawatts (MW) of power generation, including utility-scale solar, wind, hydro, battery energy storage, and natural gas-fired facilities. We’ve previously mentioned LS Power in a number of MDN articles (
According to S&P Global Commodity Insights, U.S. power sector natural gas demand set another record high in the first quarter and has remained higher year over year into April. Demand from the power sector for natural gas totaled 32.7 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) in the first quarter of 2024, up 2 Bcf/d from the first quarter of 2023. The trend has continued into April. Gas demand from power plants averaged 30.8 Bcf/d from April 1-18, which is 2.1 Bcf/d higher than the same period of 2023. However, whether the trend will continue through the rest of the year is an open question.