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US Forest Service Issues Approval for MVP Thru Jefferson Forest
In mid-December, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) issued an environmental impact statement (EIS) that supports plans for Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to run through 3.5 miles of woodlands, and under the Appalachian Trail, in the Jefferson National Forest in Monroe County in West Virginia, in and Giles and Montgomery counties in Virginia (see US Forest Service Issues EIS Supporting MVP Thru Jefferson Forest). The good news is that yesterday USFS issued a final approval, which allows MVP to proceed with construction (once the BLM chimes in with a right-of-way grant and permit).
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Dan Billman, a consulting geologist and president of Billman Geologic Consultants, has 32 years of experience in the Appalachian Basin. Billman says there is a “war for porosity” happening in the Marcellus/Utica region, by which he means a critical shortage of underground storage for methane and natural gas liquids.
The very first cargo of LNG to transit the expanded Panama Canal happened in July 2016 (see 
In a brilliant move aimed at boxing in the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), two northeastern Pennsylvania State Senators–Gene Yaw and Lisa Baker–along with members of the PA Senate Republican Caucus, filed a lawsuit yesterday against the DRBC, accusing the quasi-governmental agency of “taking” the property rights of PA residents without just compensation under the law.
If you recall, the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic wasn’t really “a thing” (here in the U.S.) until mid-March 2020. That’s when all hell broke loose and the country shut down. Prior to that, natural gas demand was steadily rising and hitting all-time highs (see 
The Community College of Beaver County’s (CCBC) Shell Center for Process Technology, a $5 million state-of-the-art training facility, has just officially opened. While the Center was built to train employees to run the Shell ethane cracker plant, it’s also training people for a myriad of other opportunities too.
Not a day that goes by without a story in Big Media announcing another municipality has passed (or is considering passing) a law/regulation prohibiting new homes and businesses from using natural gas for heating, cooking, etc. The proffered solution by these foolish dunderheads is that new structures must use electric for heat. Eventually (like here in New York by 2050), not only new structures but existing homes and businesses will have to convert to all-electric too (see 
Last June New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court asking the court to not even consider hearing a case involving PennEast Pipeline (see 
Last week we told you about anti-fossil fuel zealots (including THE Delaware Riverkeeper) attempting to convince the incoming Biden administration to block the now fully permitted and authorized LNG export terminal New Fortress plans to build on the New Jersey shore of the Delaware River in Gibbstown (see 
In our book, methane (CH4) is methane and needs no justification to be drilled for and widely used. But for those who drill for it, or flow it through pipelines, methane now has to be perceived as “green” or risk going the way of the dodo bird. This is how the game is played. Various organizations have sprung up in an effort to prove drillers (and others) are harvesting and moving methane in an environmentally safe manner. One of those systems for certifying the greenness of gas is the Responsible Gas program by Independent Energy Standards Corp. (see 
The Enverus U.S. oil and gas rig count slipped by one to 406 over the past week. The Marcellus play stayed even with 32 active rigs. However, in a good sign, the Ohio Utica picked up 2 new rigs to close the week with 8 active rigs (total of 40 active rigs in the M-U).