BofA Global Research Says IRA Will Cause, Not Reduce, Inflation
A new Bank of America Global Research report calls the so-called Biden Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) the most important, and largest, federal green energy and climate package in U.S. history. It also says rather than reduce inflation, the IRA will increase inflation because government spending will increase, regulations will restrict supply chains, and the result is that prices, especially for energy, will soar. The IRA is another sterling example of why the free market (capitalism) is preferred over government command-and-control (Communistic) intervention.
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Yesterday both Antero Midstream (the pipeline subsidiary of Antero Resources), and Crestwood Equity Partners announced a deal to sell Crestwood’s remaining Marcellus assets to Antero for $205 million. The assets include 72 miles of dry gas gathering pipelines and nine compressor stations with approximately 700 MMcf/d of compression capacity located in Doddridge County and Harrison County in West Virginia.
Pat McDonnell, who was Tom Wolf’s Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) until July 2nd, has just become the President and CEO of a major PA anti-shale environmental group–PennFuture. McDonnell’s appointment at PennFuture raises disturbing questions about some of the decisions he made during his tenure at DEP. That McDonnell immediately became employed by one of the biggest detractors of and litigators against the DEP indicates McDonnell may have had an anti-drilling agenda and deep conflicts of interest while he served at the DEP. Was McDonnell a wolf in sheep’s clothing (no pun intended)? Was McDonnell Big Green’s inside man at DEP? Will there be an investigation of McDonnell and the decisions he made as head of the DEP? We certainly hope so.
Last week EQT Corporation confirmed it is buying Tug Hill’s THQ Appalachia operation with major assets in West Virginia for $5.2 billion (see 
Joe Manchin, U.S. Senator from West Virginia (now wildly unpopular in his home state) continues to have a tough time sealing the deal on a permitting reform bill that will help the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) get done. Manchin traded his integrity away by voting to approve the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (a Big Green giveaway) in return for a vote on a bill to streamline the permitting of oil and gas projects like (and including) MVP. The Dems snookered Manchin into voting for the IRA with big promises, but now they don’t want to vote for his permitting bill, breaking those promises. Manchin needs help, and he’s turning to the oil and gas industry, hoping we will pressure Republican House and Senate members into helping him out. Don’t hold your breath, Joe.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me every time, shame on me. This is the trap that trade unions have fallen into by backing Democrat candidates like Josh Shapiro for Governor in Pennsylvania. On one level, it makes no sense. Why would unions back someone who will, as soon as he takes office, begin to enact policies that kill union jobs (pipeline workers, construction workers, welders, plumbers, etc.)? Shapiro has done nothing but attack the shale industry since he took office as Attorney General. Yet a number of trade unions whose members work on shale jobs have backed Shapiro–to the tune of $3 million. Why?
Quick…grab the paddles! The patient is still alive and needs to be shocked and revived! The patient we’re talking about is New Fortress Energy’s (NFE) Repauno Port and Rail Terminal on the shoreline of the Delaware River in Gibbstown, N.J. We thought the project to build a new dock for cargo ships to load and export LNG from the facility was pretty much dead after NFE withdrew a request to build an onshore LNG liquefaction plant in Wyalusing, PA, earlier this year–a plant that would have fed the export operation on the Delaware River (see 
Back in March, MDN told you about a bill passed by the West Virginia legislature, Senate Bill (SB) 694, which finally brings forced pooling for shale wells to the Mountain States after eight years of trying (see 
The so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a tax on carbon dioxide emissions from coal and natural gas-fired power plants aimed at killing off those two sources of energy, held its latest tax auction on Friday. The result was pricing close to an all-time high, although the average price came down just a smidgen from the previous auction. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is trying to force PA to join the RGGI cabal of 11 states (most of them in the northeast), a move endorsed by the man who wants to replace him in November, PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro (see 
Another update on the uphill battle Joe Manchin faces in getting his “side deal” legislation passed that will help Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) get done. Manchin agreed to vote for the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in return for a “permitting reform” bill, to be voted on in September, as the price for his vote. We told you it was a bad deal for many reasons–one of which is that Manchin may never get his vote. On Friday, 72 Democrat members of the House of Representatives signed a letter (copy below) to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer opposing the Manchin “side deal” legislation. Yeah, it didn’t but a few weeks for the Dems to welsh on their deal with Manchin. It appears that Manchin got rolled.
What if we gave the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) a $2.5 million grant to study a link between peanut butter and childhood cancer? Researchers could only use the money to study any potential link between peanut butter and kids getting rare cancers. Sounds absurd, right? What if there is NO link between peanut butter and cancer in kids? What if there IS a link to some other environmental factor like, say, an old uranium dumpsite nearby? But the remit is to ONLY research peanut butter. Sound silly? Sound stupid? Substitute “shale drilling” for “peanut butter,” and you can see how absurd it is for Pitt to study a single potential cause for rare childhood cancers in southwestern PA. Yet they are. Pitt is studying a link solely between fracking and cancer in kids. They are now trying to recruit local families to participate in this sham they call science.
In February, three Democrat FERC commissioners voted to adopt onerous new regulations to use global warming considerations when approving (more like disapproving) pipeline projects (see 
This one is a “learn from your enemies” lesson. It has long been known that heating shale rock can free up oil and gas–something called in situ upgrading (ISU). But such a practice has not been economic, at least that was the thinking. A new study published by researchers from (get this) Northeast Petroleum University in China (no way an American university would ever name itself after fossil energy!) looked at the different techniques that can be used to heat shale rock–the most economical ways–and published their findings in a paper for the world to read. It is just Chinese Communist propaganda? We don’t think so. The Chicoms know the West is so thoroughly brainwashed against using fossil energy that our own scientists and citizens won’t even pay attention to this important new study that discusses how to get more mileage from existing shale deposits.
One step forward and two steps back. That country tune went through our head as we read about the progress being made by Williams with its Regional Energy Access Expansion Pipeline project in Pennsylvania. The project, aimed at competing with the now-dead PennEast Pipeline project by flowing gas from northeastern Pennsylvania to the Trenton, NJ area, will get a virtual public hearing by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection on Wednesday, October 5.