EQB Votes to Approve Gov. Wolf’s $2.4B Carbon Tax on PA Residents
As we told you on Monday, the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB), a powerful committee operating under the larger umbrella of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), held a hearing and cast a vote yesterday on whether or not PA should join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a tax on carbon for power generators (see Exclusive: PA EQB Board Member Speaks Out Against RGGI Carbon Tax). As we predicted on Monday, EQB, which is packed with political appointees by PA Gov. Tom Wolf, voted in favor of their boss’s plan. It would have been career suicide to vote against it.
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Liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from the U.S. came from literally zero in early 2016 to a total theoretical capacity today of 8.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). The first three months of this year saw U.S. LNG exports average 7.9 Bcf/d–almost full capacity! Since then, our LNG exports have gone over a metaphorical cliff. In June, U.S. LNG exports averaged 3.6 Bcf/d. The turning point came in April.
Emboldened by Dominion Energy’s decision to abandon its 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) from West Virginia to North Carolina, anti-fossil fuel zealots are trying to force Equitrans Midstream to abandon its 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from West Virginia to Virginia. But there’s a big difference between the two: While ACP had less than 50 miles built, MVP is now 92% done and in the ground, with just a little bit left to go. Even so, it’s not stopping a small group of antis, including the well-funded Sierra Club, from attempting to kill MVP.
Have you caught yourself thinking lately (as we have), “When in the world is the price of natural gas (and oil) going to go up again?” And, “Why is more drilling not happening?” Perhaps you answer yourself with the obvious answer: It’s the pandemic, stupid. If you have said/thought that, you are correct. But what is there about the pandemic (which seems to be getting better) that is causing this ongoing slowdown and low prices for oil and gas?
There’s trouble brewing in EQT-land. Once upon a time, EQT was both a producer (drilling) and midstream (pipeline) company. But then so-called activist investors forced the company (after its merger with Rice Energy) to split in two–drilling and pipelines. The split happened in November 2018 (see 
Yesterday our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), issued our favorite monthly report, the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). The DPR estimates how much oil and natural gas each of the country’s seven largest shale plays produced in the previous (i.e. current) month, and how much each will produce in the coming (i.e. next) month. The September report, which predicts production for the coming month of October, estimates natural gas production in the Marcellus/Utica will decrease by 162 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d)–the eighth month in a row the M-U has seen a production decrease.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has just published its 2019 Oil and Gas Annual Report. This is the fourth year in a row the DEP has published the report in an interactive, electronic (i.e.online) format ONLY. What does the 2019 report show? While permits issued and number of new wells drilled have both gone down (again), gas production has gone up (again)–to a new record high.
Last week MDN brought you the news that the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) had, once again, caved to pressure from radicalized environmental groups by suspending (for now) a permit they previously issued to allow New Fortress Energy (NFE) to build a dock in the Delaware River to load ships with LNG (see 
S&P Global Platts published analysis last Friday looking at supply and demand for natural gas in the Midwestern region of the country. Platts says supplies to the region from places like the Bakken, Midcontinent (SCOOP/STACK), and Rockies will decrease this winter–by a lot. But then, demand in the region will decrease too, given the slumping economy because of the coronavirus pandemic. However, it looks to us like maybe there’s an opportunity for Marcellus/Utica gas, which travels to the Midwest via several pipelines, to make up the difference between supply and demand. The region will still need more gas than supplies available.
Last week MDN told you that Enbridge had begun testing its Weymouth, Massachusetts compressor station project, the final piece of the company’s $452 million Atlantic Bridge expansion project (see 
Sounding downright nasty and mean, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Pat McDonnell has ordered Sunoco Logistics Partners (Energy Transfer) to reroute part of the Mariner East 2X pipeline around Marsh Creek Lake State Park, following a spill of nontoxic drilling mud that ended up in Marsh Creek Lake in Chester County. McDonnell uses combative and incendiary words like Sunoco “blatantly disregarded the citizens” of Chester County, has been “careless” and is guilty of “unlawful actions.” In a rather uppity tone, McDonnell says he will “not stand for more of the same” and he is “demanding a proper cleanup” of the site. Sunoco has been working diligently to clean up the spill since it happened.
Bad news for leftists Joe Biden and Kamala Harris: A majority of registered voters in their own party support using natural gas as an energy source, according to a new independent, national poll. No wonder both Biden AND Harris are furiously backpedaling (i.e. lying) about their views on fracking. They risk losing PA, OH, and other states where fracking is a big deal.
Amid all the prattling about so-called renewable energy and how renewables are taking over the world and everyone should just dump using fossil fuels right now because renewable nirvana is here…comes this splash of cold, hard truth. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has run the numbers and found that in 2019, like in years past, the vast majority of the energy used by Americans comes from fossil fuels. Some 80% of all the energy we consumed in this country last year came from fossil fuels. Renewables? A minuscule fraction.