FirstEnergy’s New CEO Tries to Clean Up Massive Ohio Fraud Mess
FirstEnergy Corp. CEO Steve Strah has an impossible job–to revive the badly tarnished reputation of his company following the biggest bribery scandal in the history of Ohio. Ohio’s House Bill (HB) 6 law granted billions (plural) of dollars to FirstEnergy in an attempt to prop up the company’s economically failing nuclear power plants. FirstEnergy bribed state legislators to pass, and keep passed, HB 6 by paying out $61 million to a small group of insiders, including the now-former Speaker of the House (see FirstEnergy Involved in Bribery Scheme to Pass $1B Nuke Bailout Law).
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Today, right now, the #1 source of electricity produced in the so-called Empire State is…(drum roll please)…natural gas. By 2040 the state says natural gas will produce zero electricity and the number one source to produce electricity will be huge, ugly, noisy, environmentally-damaging windmills–both onshore and offshore. We plan to be around in 20 years just to laugh and say “we told you so” that such a plan is a pure (and dangerous) fantasy. Yesterday the state’s power management grid, called NYISO (New York Independent System Operator, Inc.) held an Installed Capacity and Market Issues Working Group meeting. From a question asked about the state recently denying permits to upgrade natgas-fired power plants, it was obvious NYISO members don’t have a clue how they will generate enough electricity to keep the lights on in 20 years’ time.
After signing the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin is reported to have said: “We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” Someone at Consolidated Edison (ConEd) never studied history. ConEd has joined hands with the very people that seek to destroy the fossil fuel industry in a campaign to pressure New York City into adopting a new law prohibiting new customers from hooking up for natural gas delivery. Even though ConEd itself is one of two primary suppliers of natural gas in NYC. Why do such a foolish thing?
The NYMEX “front month” futures contract for natural gas traded on the Henry Hub benchmark has crashed over the past three days, down more than 90 cents, closing at $4.26/MMBtu yesterday. Why? Because weather models predict relatively warm weather in the weeks ahead. Weather trumps all other factors in the price of natural gas. Which exposes the intentional lie (or stupidity, take your pick) of people like U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren who are spreading the false narrative that LNG exports are the cause of high natural gas prices here at home (see 
In October the province of Quebec, Canada announced it will expropriate all of the rights for all oil and gas companies in the province to drill and extract oil and natural gas (see 
The so-called Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI) is a far-left, hyper-partisan, nonprofit organization that routinely lies about the Marcellus/Utica industry. A Pittsburgh area labor and business group called Pittsburgh Works Together (PWT) routinely debunks ORVI’s falsehoods. Here’s the latest lie from ORVI: “[T]he Shell petrochemical complex has failed to produce economic growth in Beaver County.” Here’s the truth, the facts, as shared by PWT: “In the years before the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, Beaver County grew jobs far faster than the overall Pittsburgh region, the state of Pennsylvania, and the U.S, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of labor statistics. And Beaver County’s economy expanded twice as fast as the rest of the state, and faster than the U.S. economy overall, gross domestic product (GDP) data show.”
Chesapeake Energy is the latest big oil and gas producer with major assets in the Marcellus region to declare itself clean and green. The company just launched a new “microsite” (website) dedicated to the company’s ESG reporting and progress toward its climate-related targets. ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance efforts. You already know what we think of such programs (see 
Here’s a startling statistic: A survey of nearly 17,000 global energy industry companies, recruiters, and workers conducted by Brunel and 
Back in June, MDN told you about a long-running lawsuit in Tioga County, PA by landowners who claim that UGI has taken their mineral rights as part of operating the Meeker Storage Field, an underground natural gas storage facility (see 
Earlier this week MDN told you about a nastygram written by U.S. Senator Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren (see 
According to the experts at RBN Energy, “If there was ever a year that proves NGLs march to the beat of a different drummer, 2021 was it.” Production of NGLs went *up* during the pandemic, not down. Prices have been up, down, and all around. Like all oil and gas markets (markets of any kind, really), there is no one, specific factor or reason why NGL production and prices are doing what they are doing. It is a complex soup of factors that affect the NGL market–a market that’s increasingly vital for Marcellus/Utica producers.
According to S&P Global Platts, gas production from the Marcellus and Utica shales, since the beginning of November, has “surged,” rising by nearly 1 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day), or up about 2.7%. The surge means production is now near record highs–in the upper 34 Bcf/d range. However, the M-U is constrained by pipeline takeaway and finite local markets. With rising supply and steady demand, prices are doing what Econ 101 predicts: beginning to fall.