World’s 60 Largest Banks Invest $5.5 Trillion in Fossil Energy
This one has us laughing. A group of some of the hardest of the hardcore left in the “environmental” movement–including the Rainforest Action Network, BankTrack, Indigenous Environmental Network, Oil Change International, Reclaim Finance, the Sierra Club, and Urgewald–join forces to publish a report called “Banking on Climate Chaos” (full copy below). It is the 14th annual such report, detailing the amount of money invested in fossil energy companies by the world’s 60 largest banks. We thought we might flip the script and promote Big Banks doing the right thing (investing in fossil energy) by using the left’s work against them. Cool, right?
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New York politicians are so consumed with hatred of fossil fuels they are forcing residents to pay an average of $28,000 to convert their homes away from heating and cooking with natural gas, propane, and fuel oil (see 
Yesterday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced new proposed federal vehicle emissions standards that will force Americans to give up driving gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles and instead switch to electric vehicles, which are much more expensive to buy. The Biden EPA said the new standards will “accelerate the ongoing transition to a clean vehicles future and tackle the climate crisis.” Which is total B.S. The Bidenistas intentionally use inflammatory language, calling EVs “clean” vehicles, as opposed to fossil energy vehicles which, by inference, are “dirty.” They also claim the new standards will tackle the “climate crisis”–perpetuating an unproven theory that mankind is causing the earth to catastrophically warm.
Yesterday MDN told you about the recently-filed application by the State of Pennsylvania to attract one of 6 to 10 so-called hydrogen hubs to the Keystone State (see 
In January, Ohio House Bill (HB) 507 became law with the signature of Gov. Mike DeWine (see 
Once a month, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) analysts issue the agency’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), their best guess about where energy prices and production will go in the next 12 months. Yesterday’s latest edition once again revises down the price EIA believes the Henry Hub will average for all of 2023. Last month’s STEO predicted an annual average of $3.02/MMBtu in 2023. This month’s STEO says the HH will average $2.94. Let’s add some color around that prediction.
We can’t resist a good railroad story. The American Shortline and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) has just recognized the 
Using numbers from its recently published Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) for 2023, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts natural gas production coming from oil-focused plays, called “associated gas,” will continue to grow for the next 30 years. EIA says associated gas will make up somewhere between 20% and 32% of all natural gas produced over that period of time. As oil drilling continues to expand, so too will associated gas production.
Some interesting insights from S&P Global Commodity Insights into how the world has changed. S&P’s analysts say the Russia-Ukraine war is in the process of “resetting” the energy sector, with natural gas turning into a global and interconnected market affected by events and dynamics far beyond its traditional physical scope. In fact, S&P says natural gas is now similar, to some extent, to what oil used to be for decades. We will explain.
One of two original “anchor” applicants in the billion-dollar hydrogen hub Hunger Games contest that was part of Pennsylvania’s application was Equinor (the Norwegian super major formerly known as Statoil). The Pittsburgh Business Times reports Equinor is now out and has been replaced by Mitsubishi Power, which (among other things) builds natural gas and hydrogen turbines to generate electricity. Why did Equinor leave? Is this proposal in trouble?
You knew it was only a matter of time. On March 1, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) issued a 297-page biological opinion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s (MVP) potential impact on threatened and endangered species if the 94% complete pipeline is allowed to finish (see 
Last week MDN told you about the long-festering issue of building a shale wastewater injection well in Clara Township in Potter County, PA (see 
These days oil and gas companies (and other types of companies, too) have to “prove” they are helping to make Mom Earth better by achieving (giggle) “net-zero” carbon emissions. We giggle because net-zero is a myth. It’s a sham. And everybody knows it. But, these are the games people play now. Every night and every day now. Never meanin’ what they say now. Never sayin’ what they mean. (Whoops! Back to center.) Our own Marcellus/Utica companies, including the largest natural gas producer in the country, EQT, are forced to play the games too. Yesterday, EQT announced the company’s first “nature-based carbon offset initiative.” EQT will pay for trees to be planted in a Wheeling, WV park as atonement for emitting (sinning) CO2.
We’ve often written about “permitting reform” needed to build new pipeline projects and finish existing projects like the stalled Mountain Valley Pipeline. Last year U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (Democrat, WV) tried and failed to get permitting reform passed (see 
On several occasions, we have compared the current abdication of rational thinking in the global warming debate to the Dark Ages and the Catholic Church’s policy of selling indulgences to sinners. Got a few big sins you’ve committed? No problem. Just pay your money to a priest, and it gets magically absolved. Compare that with paying for carbon offsets today. We dare you to tell us how there’s a dime’s worth of difference! The Renaissance (and Reformation) delivered us from the practice of buying indulgences to absolve sins. An article in Forbes says we may be on the cusp of a new Renaissance to deliver us from the lunacy of buying carbon credits.