Wolf DEP Sec. McDonnell Tries to End-Run Legislature on Carbon Tax
Last week MDN told you about Pennsylvania Gov. Wolf’s latest attempt to force through his effort to force PA to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax scheme (see Gov Wolf Tries to Bypass Legislature on Carbon Tax – Gets Caught). Wolf is using his patsy in the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), Secretary Pat McDonnell, to try and get the final RGGI regulation published in the PA Bulletin. That effort bombed out when the Republican-controlled legislature blocked it. That battle continues…
Read More “Wolf DEP Sec. McDonnell Tries to End-Run Legislature on Carbon Tax”
TC Energy Corp., the former TransCanada, held its annual investor day on Dec. 1. TC owns extensive liquids and natural gas pipelines across North America, including the Columbia Gas Transmission interstate pipeline network that blankets Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. If anyone has its ear to the ground and watching for/discerning longer-term trends, it is big pipeline companies like TC Energy. During the investor day update, one of TC’s executives, Tracy Robinson, said she expects natural gas demand in North America to grow 25% by 2030. That’s a remarkable amount of growth!
The electrical system that powers the United States is made up of individual power grids that connect with each other. Different regions have their own “grid of grids” (called a regional transmission organization, or RTO) that operates to manage the flow of electricity across the entire grid to ensure reliability. In New England, the grid operator/RTO is ISO New England (ISO standing for Independent System Operator). Gordon van Welie, CEO of ISO New England, recently had some startling and stark words about the reliability for New England’s electric grid: Get ready for rolling blackouts.
Two weeks ago MDN told you that New York City is actively considering a ban on new customers from hooking up for natural gas delivery throughout the city, and that Consolidated Edison, one of the biggest utilities that flows gas in NYC, is shockingly promoting the ban (see 
According to Robert Bradley, Jr. from the Institute for Energy Research (IER), the Biden Administration’s Build Back Better (BBB) plan is at odds with affordable, reliable energy. The so-called “largest effort to combat climate change in American history” is a bribe-and-bully program to systemically substitute inferior energies for consumer-chosen, taxpayer-neutral ones. The Biden plan is an assault on the free market system and doomed to abject failure.
A long-fought-over wastewater injection well in Plum Boro (Allegheny County, Pittsburgh suburb) finally opened for business earlier this year, having overcome all sorts of smears and slanders and lawsuits by the enviro-left (see 
Nuverra Environmental Solutions (formerly Heckmann) is one of the largest companies in the United States that handles the transportation and disposal of shale drilling wastewater and leftover rock and dirt from drilling. The company has major operations in the Marcellus/Utica region. Because of the company’s major operations in the M-U, we keep track of its performance. Quarter after quarter after quarter, for well over a year, the company has lost money (
S&P Global Platts and its analytics division is a powerhouse provider of information, analysis, and benchmark prices for the commodities and energy markets. We often bring you their insights. Yesterday Platts Analytics released their 2022 energy outlook. Next year, Platts Analytics expects supply will catch up and exceed demand. Let that sink in. In 2022 we will see an increase in LNG exports, a rebound in U.S. shale oil, shale gas, and shale NGLs production–and the return of investment in non-OPEC production. You can guess what all that means for prices…
In August of this year, co-CEO of Energy Transfer, Tom Long, said “the final phase of the Mariner East Pipeline is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2021” (see 
Far-left Democrat and so-called civil rights “leader” Rev. William Barber II “preached” to a crowd of fellow lefties on Saturday. The topic of the reverend’s sermon? The evil, racist Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). We bet you didn’t know that MVP is “an abusive sin,” did you? Yeah, it’s right there in Revelation. That’s what Rev. Barber told his audience. That evil ole’ snaking pipeline will “harm the poor” and people of color. The rally was arranged ahead of this week’s Virginia State Water Control Board vote (on Tuesday) to allow MVP to cross minor creeks and swamps in the state.
Last week MDN told you about two smaller, privately-owned Marcellus/Utica drillers (both with their own pipeline gathering operations) that have contracted with certification authorities to certify their natural gas as responsibly produced (see 
The hypocrisy of Joe Biden and his administration continues. Biden has repeatedly begged Saudi Arabia and OPEC+ to increase oil production, while at the same time shutting down pipeline projects and disallowing new leases and drilling on public lands here at home. He then blames our domestic producers for not ramping up production! Here’s the latest: The Biden administration has *ordered* U.S. government agencies to *immediately* stop financing new “carbon-tensive fossil fuel projects” overseas and instead begin to push unreliable so-called renewable technology, like Chinese-manufactured solar and wind technology.
A natural gas pipeline project management company based in Canonsburg, PA, GW Ridge LLC, ceased all operations in November and filed for bankruptcy in a Texas federal court. Creditors owed money filed a competing Chapter 7 bankruptcy action against the company in Pittsburgh and GW Ridge withdrew its Texas filing and agreed to allow the Pittsburgh case to proceed. A Chapter 7 (as opposed to a Chapter 11) means the company has stopped all operations and its assets will be sold or auctioned and the money given to creditors. GW Ridge is no more.