Ohio O&G Commission Moves Rapidly to Lease State Land for Drilling
Last week MDN told you about a presentation by the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) to the Ohio Oil & Gas Land Management (OGLM) Commission, a commission established years ago to lease state-owned land for shale drilling (see Shale Drilling Safe and Successful on Ohio Public Lands for Years). The OGLM dragged its collective feet, FOR YEARS, and finally, the state legislature had enough and passed a law bypassing the OGLM until it can get its act together (see OH Gov. Signs Bill Expanding Drilling in State Parks, NatGas “Green”). The new law lit a fire under the OGLM, which has adopted a standard lease and is proposing the legislature adopt tweaks to allow for higher royalties and a bidding process.
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Indian-American Vivek Ramaswamy, the conservative co-founder of the anti-ESG Strive Asset Management investment company (based in Ohio), delivered a rousing speech over the weekend at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. In his speech, Ramaswamy said he would pull the U.S. out of the “religion” of climate cultists who insist that carbon dioxide is a pollutant and that we must end the use of fossil energy. As an added bonus, Ramaswamy said if elected, he would end American businesses doing business with and in China.
The Bidenistas have taken notice that shale companies are beginning to use various private NGOs to certify the production of natural gas as responsible. There are currently four such independent certification authorities. The effort is picking up steam, and the Bidenistas don’t like the fact they are not in control. They can’t call the shots and determine what is and what is not “green enough” for them. So the Bidenistas are “holding talks” to try and establish a national (international) standard. Are they talking to the existing four certification authorities? No. They’re talking with “global energy companies and foreign officials in an effort to set standards for certified natural gas.” Yeah, the Bidenistas are talking with our competitors and our enemies to establish a new standard. Typical.
West Virginia Senate Bill (SB) 188, the Grid Stabilization and Security Act, is aimed at making WV more competitive with its neighbors–Pennsylvania and Ohio–with respect to siting more gas-fired power plants in the state. While there was a lot of early momentum to pass the bill, it came to a screeching halt early last week in the House of Delegates (see 
Will the third time be the charm? Probably not. On Wednesday, 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. We have a full copy of the opinion below. It finds that completing the MVP project will NOT harm protected species. Two other times USFWS issued this same report, and two times the radical judges of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals (three Democrats) have overturned the opinion and blocked a permit needed to allow MVP to finish. Will it happen again?
In 2022, 897 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of interstate natural gas pipeline capacity was added from five projects to the interstate gas pipeline system, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). That is the least amount of capacity added to the interstate natural gas pipeline system since the EIA began data collection in 1995. This ignominious achievement happened under the Bidenistas, while Richard “Dick” Glick was Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
We’ve criticized BlackRock, the world’s largest investment firm with $10 trillion under assets, due to CEO Larry Fink’s insistence that public companies adopt ESG (environment, social, governance) policies that include reducing CO2 emissions. Fink’s demands are tantamount to divesting (or refusing to invest in) any company that produces or heavily uses oil and natural gas. A number of Republican-controlled states, including Texas, West Virginia, and Florida, have begun the process of dumping all BlackRock investment funds. Fink is worried–as he should be. He’s losing business. So he’s now doing what sleazy, corrupt leftists always do–resort to bribery.
Range Resources Corporation, the very first driller to sink a Marcellus shale well back in 2004 in western Pennsylvania, issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2022 update yesterday. During 2022, Range generated record cash flow from operations of $1.9 billion and produced an average of 2.1 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas. The company spent $492 million on drilling in 2022. Of keen interest to us was a response by Range’s CEO about the rumors that Pioneer Natural Resources is interested in buying or merging with Range.