April STEO – U.S. Electric Use to Hit New Record High in 2024/25
Once a month, the analysts at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) issue the agency’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), their best guess about where energy prices and production will go in the next 12 months or so. We sometimes poke good-natured fun at the EIA because their predictions go up in one month, and in the next month, they go down, etc. What about the latest STEO dart board, published on Tuesday? EIA predicts the average spot price for natural gas will be $2.20/MMBtu in 2024. That’s down significantly (17%) from the $2.65 it predicted just two months ago in February’s report (see EIA Predicts NYMEX Henry Hub to Average $2.40/MMBtu in Feb/Mar). EIA says the average spot price for gas will hit $2.90 in 2025. Still way too low, in our opinion, but moving in the right direction. On the shorter-term horizon, EIA believes the spot price will average under $2 for the second quarter. No duh! It hasn’t been above $2 since January!
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With the rapid increase in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects around the country, including right here in the Marcellus/Utica region, a key issue has arisen. Where does one store (sequester) all that carbon dioxide (CO2)? The answer is underground in a Class VI injection well. Class VI wells are a relatively new classification for injection wells, created by the federal EPA in 2010. Earlier this week, the Pennsylvania State Senate took the first step in establishing a framework that allows for the underground storage of CO2 in the Keystone State.
A large swath of rational-thinking people on Planet Earth reject the apocalyptic pronouncements of the left that the planet is burning to a cinder due to human activity. It’s a problem for leftist thugs who aim to control us. They try to use fear, but the threat that the planet is doomed if we don’t end the use of fossil fuels by 2050 (26 years away) is just too nebulous for most folks. That’s half a lifetime for some! So, the lefties become more shrill over time. And now, the United Nations Climate Chief, Simon Stiell, has taken it to its logical extreme. In a speech at the Chatham House think tank in London delivered yesterday, Stiell said, “We have exactly two years to save the world.”
Just over a year ago, MDN brought you the news that two lawyers, one from Public Citizen’s climate program and the other a professor at George Washington University Law School, had written a paper to be published in the Harvard Environmental Law Review that claims if there’s a NATURAL disaster, like a flood or hurricane or big snowstorm, and if people die in that event, governments and prosecutors can sue Big Oil, holding Big Oil criminally negligent for homicide (see 
In November 2022, one of the ten natural gas storage wells at the Equitrans Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area in Jackson Township, Cambria County (in Pennsylvania), began to leak. Equitrans is the owner/operator of Rager Mountain. The well leaked roughly 100 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of gas into the atmosphere (see 
CNX Resources Corporation yesterday announced that it is nearing completion of its Kiski Water Line project in Westmoreland County, PA, which will serve the company’s local operational needs for drilling and fracking. The new water line, due to be done in June, will reduce the local impact of natural gas development (fewer truck trips), and potentially optimize regional water resources by providing additional reliable water infrastructure to area communities.
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) “temporarily” suspended the operations of four fracking waste injection wells in Athens County last September (see 
In January, MDN told you about a long-closed landfill that seeks to reopen in Liberty and Pine Townships in Mercer County, PA (see 
Wisconsin Electric Gas Operations, doing business as We Energies, proposes to spend $1.2 billion dollars at its Oak Creek Power Plant (Oak Creek is a suburb of Milwaukee) to convert the facility from a coal-fired power plant to a natural gas plant that will generate 1,100 megawatts of electricity. Last Friday, We Energies filed a formal application with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC), revealing more details about the project and its projected timeline. We hopes to have the project built and online by the summer of 2028.
The radicals who run the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) are gearing up to block the Iroquois Gas Transmission system from completing its Enhancement by Compression (ExC) project. ExC increases horsepower at three compression stations — two in New York and one in Connecticut — by an extra 125 MMcf/d, flowing more Marcellus/Utica gas into New York City and New England (see 
In February, West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore sent notices to six financial institutions warning them of potential inclusion on the state’s Restricted Financial Institution List (can’t do business with the state) after his office made an initial determination that the institutions appear to be engaged in boycotts of fossil fuel companies as defined under state law (see 
Hart Energy is know for its DUG events — Developing Unconventional Gas. In years gone by, Hart would host separate DUG events in their respective regions. This year is different. Hart combined the Marcellus/Utica (called Appalachia), which, of course, covers Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, with the Haynesville, which covers northern Louisiana and East Texas. Both are the leading natural gas-focused plays in the country. This year’s combined event, called DUG Gas+, was held two weeks ago in Shreveport, LA. One of the interesting discussions coming from this year’s event was talk about buyers (and investors) being “starved” for top-tier natural gas assets, and that Appalachia could become a dealmaking hotspot in the coming years.
Yesterday, the Pennsylvania House Republican Policy Committee held a hearing called “Fueling Pa’s Future: Liquid Natural Gas.” In January, Joe Biden announced he would “pause” any approvals for new LNG export plants (currently 17 requests in the pipeline) for at least one year while his people fart around pretending to figure out how to measure global warming as a new consideration for whether or not to approve projects (see 