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MVP Antis Spread Lies About Pipes Sitting in the Sun Too Long
Even though the radicalized left has been defeated in their attempts to block the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, they won’t go quietly (they never do). The liars of the left are trying to plant seeds of fear and doubt in the residents of West Virginia and Virginia that as soon as the remaining 6% of MVP pipe is buried in the ground and begins to flow, a piece of that newly installed pipeline will blow up because the pipe has been sitting above ground for years and the special epoxy coating that prevents corrosion has degraded by sitting in the sun. Yet another lie from the left.
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It’s gettin’ ugly out there. For the fifth week in a row and the 14th in the last 15 weeks, the U.S. active rig count lost rigs. Last week the number decreased by ANOTHER five rigs, after falling five rigs the week before, and five the week before that–now down to 654 active rigs across both oil and gas. Sadly, the Marcellus dropped two rigs last week for a combined M-U rig count of 43–the lowest this year. Some 15 weeks ago, the M-U lost four rigs (going from 53 down to 49). Eight weeks ago, we lost another rig, down to 48. Two weeks ago, we lost two more rigs, down to 46. Last week we lost one. And this week, two more rigs disappeared–both gone from Pennsylvania. The trend is not our friend. We wish we had better news.
Last December, PPL Corporation subsidiaries Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities Company (KU) announced a plan to replace 1,500 megawatts of aging coal-fired generation (nearly one-third of Kentucky’s coal fleet!) with two 621-megawatt natural gas combined-cycle units along with several unreliable, intermittent solar projects (see 
Banpu is Thailand’s largest coal mining company. However, it is looking to reduce the amount of revenue it derives from coal from around 66% today to 50% by 2025. One of the ways Banpu is accomplishing that objective is by investing in American shale gas, American gas-fired power plants, and now, American carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). Banpu partners with Kalnin Ventures and operates BKV Corporation (Banpu Kalnin Ventures), the American arm of Banpu (96% owned by Banpu). Over the past seven years, BKV has become one of the top 20 gas-weighted natural gas producers in the U.S.
The American Gas Association (AGA) is a trade organization founded in 1918 that represents and advocates for local energy companies that deliver natural gas throughout the United States. With more than 200 members (BIG companies), the AGA educates the public about the importance of natural gas, supports natural gas utilities in their efforts to make their operations safer, more efficient, and more environmentally friendly, and serves as a resource for local, state and federal policymakers when it comes to regulating the natural gas industry. The AGA is one of the country’s premier natural gas associations. The AGA says its members “support the safe, reliable, affordable and sustainable delivery of natural gas to millions of Americans.” Although Eversource, the largest utility company in New England serving 4 million customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, provides its customers with electricity and natural gas, it has quit its membership in the AGA.
The KeyState Natural Gas Synthesis project in Clinton County, PA, is developing the first carbon capture project in Pennsylvania, which will locally produce hydrogen, ammonia, and urea (see 
The Williams Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project is a plan to beef up the Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to deliver an extra 829 MMcf/d of Marcellus gas to PA, NJ, and Maryland. The project is Williams’ alternative to the PennEast Pipeline that got canceled in September 2021 (see 
You never know how Marcellus/Utica gas affects the entire country for the good. Here’s an interesting example. In April, the ARCH2 (Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub) project, the West Virginia-led effort to attract $1 billion of government funding for one of 6-10 regional hydrogen hubs, took a big leap forward with the announcement of a plan to build a “multi-billion-dollar” clean ammonia manufacturing facility in southern West Virginia (see 
Everyone is telling the Bidenistas at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the same thing: Dump the faulty regulations you composed at the last minute that will result in closing most (if not all) of America’s natural gas-fired power plants. The latest group to tell (off) the EPA is the electric grid operators that cover a majority of the residents in the country, including PJM Interconnection, the largest electric grid operator in the U.S., serving 65 million people in 13 states plus the District of Columbia (including PA, OH, and WV). Earlier this week, PJM, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), Southwest Power Pool (SPP), and Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) submitted joint comments against the EPA’s proposed new regulations.
We guarantee that if an oil and gas company announced it was in the process of drilling 90 boreholes 700 feet deep (through the groundwater table) to extract oil and gas in the bastion of liberalism known as Massachusetts, the leftist mainstream media would have a stroke. There would be protests. There would be nutballs gluing themselves together in plastic PVC pipe in front of the drilling rigs to prevent drilling. The news would make the front page of the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the LA Times. But if the same company drills 90 boreholes 700 feet deep and calls it “geothermal” … nothing. Not a peep from anyone. Even though geothermal pipes that run through the water table pump something far more dangerous than drilling mud. Bentonite (drilling mud) is the same stuff used in kitty litter and toothpaste. It’s completely non-toxic and safe if it leaks. On the other hand, geothermal systems pump antifreeze through pipes. Eversource, the largest utility company in Massachusetts, announced yesterday it is drilling 90 boreholes in Framingham, MA, and will pump dangerous antifreeze through it to heat local homes, businesses, and a community college. Where is the outrage?
In December 2020, then-Gov. Tom Wolf announced a $2.5 million contract had been awarded to the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) Graduate School of Public Health to “conduct research on the potential health effects of hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania” (see 
In 2015 Cunningham Energy, a small oil driller based in West Virginia, struck oil in the Big Injun sandstone formation in Clay County, WV (see 
At the end of May, WhiteHawk Energy, headquartered in Philadelphia with ownership of mineral and royalty interests for 850,000 gross unit acres and over 2,500 producing horizontal shale wells between the Marcellus and the Haynesville, sent a letter to the board and management of PHX Minerals, based in Fort Worth, Texas, owner of 75,000 leased mineral acres principally located in the SCOOP and Haynesville plays. The letter proposes marriage–a combination of the two companies. WhiteHawk received no response and tried again about three weeks later. Still nothing. So WhiteHawk has gone public to catch the attention of PHX shareholders, hoping to convince them to pressure PHX’s board–the M&A equivalent of a shotgun wedding.
Yesterday MDN editor Jim Willis had a nice chat with a renewing MDN subscriber (a landowner with wells and leases in Ohio). The question arose, “What do you see happening right now?” Jim’s response: “As long as the price of natural gas stays below $3, not much!” Jim made the point that price drives this industry, and ongoing prices in the basement aren’t helping. Can we get an amen? Both Jim and the subscriber agreed that gas prices may be heading higher soon. That conversation seems to have been prescient. Yesterday the front-month Henry Hub NYMEX futures price rocketed to a six-week high, close to $3 (closing at $2.96/Mcf). Are we finally going to go above, and stay above, $3 gas?
In May, the Bidenistas at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a hellscape of new regulations (681 pages) aimed at forcing coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to close (see