Big Green Seeks to Join Lawsuit re PHMSA Pipeline Power Grab
Last year the Bidenistas initiated a massive power grab of transferring the right of individual states to regulate local natural gas gathering pipelines to the federal government (see Massive Power Grab Proposed by Biden DOT: Regulate Gathering Lines). The oil and gas industry asked Biden to pause the power grab by 3-5 years. In April, the Bidenistas rejected that request, proving once again they are willing to stab natural gas in the back, rather than support it (see Biden Admin Attacks NatGas – Refuses to Pause Gathering Pipe Regs). We’ve just learned that the GPA Midstream Association has sued to block the new regulations, and the radicals of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) have filed a petition to join the lawsuit on the side of the PHMSA.
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In April 2019, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) instructing the Environmental Protection Agency to review Section 401 of the Clean Water Act–the section that grants states (and tribes) the right to have a say in pipeline projects (see 
Follow This is a group of 8,000 far-left, radical investors who want to shut down the oil and gas industry by using big money invested in O&G companies to force board changes and new policies aimed at forcing “Big Oil” to self-harm. Follow This’ twisted vision of the future is forcing humanity back to Medieval Times when no oil and gas and plastics existed. Back to the time when humans lived to be about 35-40 years old and then died from disease or famine. Follow This and their ilk were having some success in forcing oil and gas companies to engage in self-harming activities (selling off assets, reduced drilling, investing in unreliable renewables, etc.). But since the pandemic and (now) since the war in Ukraine, many of the “advances” made by Follow This have evaporated.
Yesterday MDN brought you the news that Ohio Congressman Troy Balderson, Republican representing Ohio’s 12th Congressional District, recently introduced a resolution that officially recognizes American natural gas as a “green and clean” energy source (see 
According to Reuters analyst John Kemp, if the U.S. wants to keep growing its LNG exports, the amount of natural gas we produce will also have to grow. If natgas production falls behind, as it is now, prices will continue to skyrocket. LNG exports were up an astonishing 87% for the first three months of this year compared with 2019 (three years ago). Domestic consumption of natgas is pretty much the same year after year. The thing increasing year after year is exports–both LNG and pipeline exports to Mexico.
A new industry has popped up to buy and sell so-called carbon credits, allowing companies that reduce carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to offer credits for sale, and companies that “pollute” the atmosphere with CO2 to buy those credits, offsetting their evil ways. We think the Catholic practice of buying and selling indulgences for sins in the 1300s and 1400s is an accurate comparison. One such company offers a blockchain platform for buying and selling carbon credits (carbon indulgences). The company has just raised $70 million in its first round of funding.
We’ve talked plenty about the big LNG export facilities scattered mostly along the Gulf Coast that export a fair amount of Marcellus/Utica molecules (and two LNG export sites situated on the East Coast, both of which export 100% M-U molecules). Every now and again we talk about some of the smaller LNG export operations, including Eagle LNG in Florida, which uses at least some M-U molecules. The experts at RBN Energy have a new post exploring “small-scale” LNG producers, including Eagle and three other companies that own and operate a number of small facilities. As with Eagle, these smaller players are potential customers for M-U molecules.
We were shocked last December when Consolidated Edison, one of the top natural gas utilities in New York City (in the entire country), threw its support behind a plan to eventually ban the use of natural gas in all of NYC’s buildings (see 
We chalk this one up to the “With friends like this, who needs enemies?” department. The American Petroleum Institute (API) is receiving high praise from leftists for its open support of a plan to enact a so-called tax on carbon dioxide. The very products API’s members make, oil and natural gas, are made from carbon and when burned, create carbon dioxide. (In fact, when all mammals exhale, they breathe out CO2. Don’t get us started.) It’s no secret that Big Oil–companies like Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and others–have sold out to the environmental left in a deal with the devil which they think will keep them in business a few more years. In reality, they are sowing the seeds of their own destruction by embracing a carbon tax.
In September 2016, MDN editor Jim Willis had the good fortune and pleasure of hearing a keynote address from philosopher and author Alex Epstein at the Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh (see 
Last week the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released its latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for January through March 2022 (full copy below). There was 136 new horizontal wells spud (drilled) in 1Q22, an increase of nine wells (7.1%) compared to 1Q21. However, natural gas production volume was 1,851 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in 1Q22, a slight decrease (-0.6%) from 1Q21. It is the first quarterly decrease in production in over a year.
The largest private investment in the state of West Virginia in history, not to mention the largest investment for the company making it, Nucor Steel, is happening because of abundant, cheap, Marcellus/Utica natural gas. Nucor is building a $2.7 billion new sheet steel mill in Mason County, WV, largely due to locally sourced and affordable energy.
The Bidenistas at the Dept. of Interior breathlessly announced the agency is (finally) releasing $33 million to plug 277 orphaned oil and gas wells across the country located on federal lands. The average price per plugging is $119,000. Spending $33 million to plug wells on federal lands is chump change compared to the $4.7 billion allocated for plugging old wells under the so-called Biden infrastructure bill. Why is the government paying $119K to plug wells that normally cost maybe $50,000 to plug? We’ll answer that question with another question. Why does the government pay $400 for a hammer it could buy at Lowes for $18?