Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania General Energy | Regulation
PA DEP Dings PGE (Again) for Causing Muddy Water in Loyalsock Creek
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has, for a second time, served a notice of violation (NOV) of the PA Clean Streams Law to Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) for causing sediment pollution in the Loyalsock Creek north of Montoursville (Lycoming County). PGE is constructing a natural gas pipeline, a freshwater pipeline, and it withdraws fresh water for Marcellus Shale-related activities at the site.
Read More “PA DEP Dings PGE (Again) for Causing Muddy Water in Loyalsock Creek”
We’ve been warning about it for years because various government and private companies have been warning about it–that Boston and New England were just one extended cold snap away from rolling blackouts. More than half of all electricity generated and provided to New England comes from natural gas-fired power plants. During cold periods when there is high demand for home heating, power plants are threatened with shortages. Somehow New England has dodged a bullet and has not had to resort to rolling blackouts. Until (likely) this year. Eversource, the region’s largest utility company, sent a letter last Thursday to President Biden urging him to assemble a panel and figure out how to ensure natgas flows to New England (via LNG) this winter–because if it doesn’t, this IS the year rolling blackouts become reality.
We began to see the latest fake news attacks against natural gas nearly two weeks ago. The extreme, leftwing activist group Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy (PSEHE) produced a junk science report that claims the natural gas in your cooking stove is leaking gas that contains chemicals that cause cancer. Mainstream outlets, like NBC News, dutifully (without verifying it) reported this nonsense like it was legitimate science news. It is not. It’s quackery. But then NBC (and others like it) have VERY low standards. NBC is more into propaganda and advocacy than it is reporting objective, unbiased news. No worries. We will debunk it for you below.
For some time, we’ve been sounding the alarm about a coming change at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that will force publicly traded companies to disclose mythical greenhouse gas emissions data (see 
As we mentioned yesterday, House Bill (HB) 1059, legislation to provide $142 million annually in state tax credits for several purposes, including clean hydrogen hubs, use of natural gas, semiconductor manufacturing, and milk processors, was approved by a Senate committee and is on a fast track to becoming signed into law (see 
In 2021, the use of coal in the U.S. to fire power plants actually rose by 16% after it had declined steadily, year after year, from 2014 to 2020. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects coal used to fire power plants in the U.S. to decline again this year, even though the price of natural gas has doubled and tripled. Coal and natgas are typically interchangeable, and power generators use whichever costs less. But not, it seems, anymore.
Norwegian company DNV operates as a quality assurance and risk management company. It offers supply chain, data management, technical assurance, software, and advisory services. DNV recently published its annual Energy Transition Outlook 2022. DNV’s predictions are somewhat shocking. The company is a global warming Kool-Aid drinker, believing we’ll all toast if we don’t “transition” away from burning fossil energy by 2050. Yet DNV’s report shows it thinks by 2050, the U.S. and Canada will still be 66% powered by fossil energy, primarily natural gas.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat from West Virginia, ended his political future when he sold out the country by voting in favor of the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which is actually a mini-Green New Deal bill (see 
The clown judges who occupy the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circus) appear ready to reject another water permit granted by the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection to cross streams and rivers and swamps to finish up the 94% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Three judges from the 4th Circus were appointed back in 2017 to hear appeals against the project. All three are profoundly bigoted and prejudiced against natural gas pipeline projects.
Two days ago, we told you that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Republicans from the state legislature are reportedly working hard on a “massive development package” of tax credits that would, among other things, encourage MORE natural gas development in the Keystone State (see 
Cheniere Energy, the largest LNG exporter in the U.S., recently made a major error in judgment and a misstep that threatens the company, in our humble opinion. Cheniere, via its Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi LNG facilities, exports more than 50% of all U.S. LNG exports, and more than 10% of all LNG exports worldwide. In fact, only the country of Qatar (Qatar Petroleum) exports more LNG than does Cheniere Energy. Last week Cheniere announced it has voluntarily joined the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP) 2.0, a United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) oil and gas methane emissions reporting and mitigation initiative. This is bad news.
Natural gas prices in North America hit record highs in 2022. In fact, prices quadrupled from what they were before the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. Winter is the time of year when we use the most natural gas–both for heating and to power electric generation. The question arises, what will prices do this winter with an increase in demand? A McKinsey & Company analyst answers that question. He says three key factors could *decrease* natural gas prices in North America in the short term (i.e., this winter). What are those three factors?
This is a sad and very angering tale. During the Trump administration, we were close to granting waivers for the Jones Act and its archaic restrictions on transporting LNG via ships that are not U.S.-built and crewed (see 
Sometimes natural gas pipelines leak. Hey, it happens. Not often, but it happens often enough that pipeline companies must prepare risk assessments of the potential hazards posed by a pipeline leak. They now have a new tool to make those assessments. According to a new study published by researchers at Southern Methodist University, soil moisture content is the main factor that controls how far and at what concentration natural gas spreads from a leaked pipeline underground.
It seems the Bidenistas have tried every bad energy policy idea in the book to lower the cost of energy. They’ve looked at price caps, export bans, tapping the strategic petroleum reserve, and begging OPEC. None of it has worked. At the risk of helping the Bidenistas (whom we want tossed from office), there is an easy fix to the current energy crisis: Support the domestic oil and gas industry. Showing support for our oil and gas industry will build investor confidence and calm markets. But don’t hold your breath that Biden will actually reverse course and begin to support oil and gas.