WV Sen. Manchin May Block Biden’s Disastrous “Infrastructure” Plan
We’re not big fans of U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (Democrat). He hails from Republican-leaning West Virginia, so he has to pass himself off as a “moderate” Democrat. When push comes to shove, we’ve noticed Manchin falls into line and obsequiously obeys Chuck Schumer’s commands. Yet perhaps, hope against hope, Manchin will show some spine and refuse to sign on to the $2 trillion shale energy-killing “infrastructure” plan Biden is pushing.
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One of the brightest of the bright spots in the Marcellus/Utica shale industry has been shale’s effect on local economies and jobs, as in more money and jobs flow to shale drilling counties. To counter all that good news left-leaning “media” outlets like the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have run hit pieces, like this article in February: 
The deed is done. On Saturday, the last day of the legislative session in 2021, the West Virginia Senate unanimously passed House Bill (HB) 2581 which changes how the State Tax Department values producing oil and gas wells for property tax purposes. As we told you last Thursday, the Senate version modified the bill from its original intent of allowing landowners to claim big deductions (see 
Cheniere Energy, the biggest LNG exporter operating in the U.S., published a “Climate Scenario Analysis Report” last week (full copy below). The report analyzes the long-term resilience of Cheniere’s business and the potential implications for LNG supply and demand in various future climate scenarios through 2040. Cheniere predicts LNG demand and exports to continue growing through 2040, but after that, LNG will decline due to continued global action to reduce so-called greenhouse gas emissions.
Dan Rice IV, former CEO of Rice Energy and a board member of EQT Corp. (where his younger brother is now the CEO), is making a big bet–we’d call it a gamble–of $1 billion on so-called renewable natural gas, mainly from landfills. Rice’s “blank-check” acquisition firm, called Rice Acquisition Corp., is acquiring and merging together Archaea Energy ($347 million) and Aria Energy ($680 million) into a single company focused on providing renewable natural gas (RNG) and “green” hydrogen.
MDN editor Jim Willis attended (remotely) yesterday’s 
Last week MDN told you that Epsilon Energy, which concentrates most of its effort on the Marcellus in Susquehanna County, PA, had sued its joint venture partner Chesapeake Energy over Chessy’s refusal to allow Epsilon to drill four shale wells on land Chessy doesn’t want to drill (see 
The Enverus U.S. rig count continues to climb (a good sign). For the week ending April 7, the U.S. rig count climbed another 9 active rigs to 528. The Marcellus lost two rigs and ended the week with 31 active rigs. The Ohio Utica added one rig and now has 13 active rigs. The M-U combined has 44 active rigs. The other major shale gas play, the Haynesville, stayed even with 48 active rigs.
We sometimes wonder if politicians understand how STUPID they sometimes sound (
Last MDN told you that the West Virginia House of Delegates had passed House Bill (HB) 2581, which changes how the State Tax Department values producing oil and gas wells for property tax purposes (see 
Prepare for some mental gymnastics. Limber up your brain so you can follow this story. As you know, some big pension funds and investment firms have been on a “divestment” kick, eliminating their investments in filthy fossil fuel companies (see 
A month ago MDN told you about some of the biggest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica announcing new or expanded ESG (environment, social, governance) programs during their quarterly updates (see