Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia
Joe Manchin Floats New “Save MVP” Permitting Bill, Biden Supports
For the third time, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (liberal Democrat from West Virginia) has introduced a permitting reform bill to save the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from the clutches of colluding leftists who sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Manchin is rebranding this bill (essentially the same one he introduced last year that bombed out) as the “Building American Energy Security Act of 2023” (full copy below). He introduced the bill in the U.S. Senate yesterday.
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During yesterday’s quarterly phone call with analysts to discuss the 1Q23 performance of Equitrans Midstream, a big topic of conversation was the 94% completed (but stalled) Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Equitrans (builder of MVP) CEO Thomas Karam said, “The path to an MVP completion during 2023 is narrower but based on the diligent and comprehensive work being done by the staff at various state and federal agencies and the expected overall permitting timeline, we believe the possibility of commencing forward construction this summer still exists.” He also said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circuit) and their prospective rejection of new permits for the project is not “that dire of a position.” We 100% disagree.
In late 2015, MPLX (i.e. Marathon Petroleum) bought out and merged in the Utica Shale’s premier midstream company, MarkWest Energy, for $15 billion (see 
Even though Dominion Energy sold its interstate pipeline network in 2020 (see 
Rational thought was purged from the radicalized left long ago. Still, it’s worth mentioning from time to time just how illogical and irrational the “environmental” left has become in its thinking and pronouncements. For example, extremely combustible hydrogen emits NO carbon dioxide when burned. It simply turns into water. So you might think replacing natural gas with hydrogen would be a dream come true for anti-fossil fuel zealots. But you would be wrong. Antis HATE hydrogen energy and are now actively working to defeat it even as they work to defeat natural gas. Why?
The left has infected and corrupted hard science, like math, chemistry, biology, and geology. Even the scientific method is no longer used by the very organization that is supposed to promote real (hard) science: the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA). Members of the 
Earlier today Equitrans Midstream, the former EQT Midstream (now a standalone company), issued its first quarter 2023 update. The update is actually a series of updates about the company’s vitally important (to the Marcellus/Utica) pipeline and midstream projects. In the update, we learn more about the company’s Rager Mountain Natural Gas Storage Field accident; we learn the latest about the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, essentially on hold; and we learn about the Ohio Valley Connector Expansion Project (OCVX), expected to be in-service the first half of 2024.
Yesterday MDN told you about a new assault on the oil and gas industry in Pennsylvania coming from the Chairman of the House Environmental Resources & Energy Committee, anti-fossil fuel zealot Greg Vitali, who (along with 13 other leftists) introduced House Bill (HB) 962, aimed at raising the bonding rates for drilling new conventional wells in the state (see 
U.S. LNG (liquefied natural gas) exports are hitting new highs each month now that the Freeport LNG facility came back online in March (see 
Commodities like oil and natural gas are just about the purest form of free market capitalism on the planet. They are textbook supply-and-demand commodities. When supply goes up or down, given the same demand, the price for the commodity will go up or down inversely. It doesn’t take long for the markets to “balance.” The same on the demand side. If demand goes up or down and supply stays the same, the price will go up or down. But what about propane? The propane market is different and much harder to predict.
We’re not even sure how to process this, or where to begin. We previously warned MDN readers that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, an extremist, is trying to ban natural gas hookups in every single new home and business across the “Empire” State (see 
The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), which treats the 17 counties in Pennsylvania under its jurisdiction as a fiefdom, has colluded with the leftists of the Big Green group Damascus Citizens for Sustainability to “settle” a lawsuit brought by the group against DRBC “forcing” the DRBC to further restrict and ban wastewater from conventional wells from being spread on roadways (dirt roads) in the 17 PA counties located behind the Iron Curtain of the DRBC.
During the second week of May, Marcellus driller Northeast Natural Energy will begin to drill a geothermal and carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) data collection well–all the way down to 15,000 below the surface. The test well is being done in cooperation with (under the direction of) West Virginia University and the U.S. Dept. of Energy. The study and the data collected from the well aim to test the potential of geothermal energy in the region and gather information on the potential for underground CCS in the Appalachian basin.