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EPA Rolls Out Final Regs Attacking Coal & Gas-Fired Power

The Bidenistas attacked coal and gas-fired power plants yesterday, threatening to destabilize the existing electric power grid. Under 1,020 pages of new regulations, which will go into effect this year, all coal-fired plants that are slated to remain operational in the long term and all new gas-fired power plants will be required to control (capture) 90% of their carbon emissions. Plus other hoops to jump through. According to the Energy Information Administration, at least 20 natural gas-fired power plants (some in the M-U) are expected to come online in 2024 and 2025, with a total capacity of 7.7 gigawatts, enough to power millions of homes. All 20 of those plants are now in jeopardy under the EPA’s onerous new regulation.
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Lefties Throw Tantrum that MVP Asked FERC to Startup on Earth Day

Yesterday, we brought you the great news that Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), the 303-mile, 2.0 Bcf/d pipeline from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA, is essentially done (see MVP Essentially Done, Builder Asks FERC for OK to Start Up May 23). Equitrans, the builder, sent a request to FERC on Monday requesting the agency issue a decision allowing the pipeline to come online beginning May 23. Monday was Earth Day, which is a sacred day for anti-fossil fuel nutters. Kind of like Easter Sunday is for Christians. That MVP transmitted a request on sacred Earth Day appears to bother antis more than the fact that MVP is about to go online.
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MVP Essentially Done, Builder Asks FERC for OK to Start Up May 23

We never thought this day would arrive! We hoped. We prayed. But finally, it’s (almost) here. The 303-mile, 2 Bcf/d Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is almost ready to begin operation. On Monday, Equitrans Midstream filed a letter (below) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requesting a May 23 startup date for the pipeline. MVP (Equitrans) says the pipeline will be in the ground, buried, and ready to begin on May 22 (called “mechanically complete”). Get the champagne on ice and ready…
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Ohio Bill Encourages New NatGas Pipelines to Spread Across State

A new bill proposed by two Republican state lawmakers in Ohio would make it easier to site and build natural gas pipelines to areas of the state where pipelines currently don’t exist. If our reading of the bill language is correct, it is aimed at stimulating new jobs by running pipelines to industrial parks and businesses that currently are not serviced by natgas. The aim is to stimulate new jobs and opportunities in the Buckeye State. Smart.
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Ohio O&G Commission Votes to Shut Down 3 Athens Injection Wells

On Friday, the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission upheld a regulatory order from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) suspending operations of three wastewater injection wells located in Torch (Athens County), OH, owned by K&H Partners, a subsidiary of Tallgrass Energy. ODNR “temporarily” suspended the operations of four fracking waste injection wells (the three K&H wells and one other) in Athens County last September (see ODNR Temporarily Shuts Down 4 Injection Wells in Athens County). ODNR said the wells presented an “imminent danger” to health and the environment.
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Texas Fines Freeport LNG – Some Feedgas Starts to Reflow

Things may finally be turning around for the problem-plagued Freeport LNG export facility located in Quintana, Texas. Last week we reported gas flows to the facility had dropped to “near zero” for at least five days in a row (see Freeport LNG Still Mostly Shut Down – 5 Days in Row at < 5% of Gas). Reuters is out with a pair of reports. One report says feedgas is finally beginning to flow to one of Freeport’s three trains again. The other report says the State of Texas recently levied fines on Freeport for violating state air pollution emissions rules between 2019 and 2021.
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Bidenistas Consider Claiming “Climate Emergency” to Limit O&G Dev

Bloomberg is reporting that White House officials have restarted discussions about potentially declaring a national “climate emergency” in order to unlock sweeping federal powers in order “to stifle oil development.” Yeah, you read that right. The Bidenistas want to destroy the U.S. oil industry. Declaring an emergency would grant the president sweeping powers that “could be used to curtail crude exports, suspend offshore drilling, and curb greenhouse gas emissions.” These radicals are over-the-top drunk on power. They are authoritarian (Communist) to their core. They are the opposite of what this country was founded on — freedom.
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Dems Seek to Remove O&G Pipes from CWA Nationwide Permit 12

The devious left is at it again. In their hatred of fossil energy, the Democrat Party is targeting a little-known portion of the Clean Water Act (CWA), called a Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP12), that is often used to streamline the construction of new oil and gas pipelines. NWP12 was used, in part, to construct the Mountain Valley Pipeline in West Virginia. The Dems are leaning on the Bidenistas to “review” the NWP12 and to revise the regulation to exempt its use to build oil and gas pipelines. Yet another attack from the Democrats on oil and gas.
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ODNR Using Drones to Sniff Out Orphaned Wells in Bowling Green

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management, has hired environmental company Verdantas LLC to fly drones over Bowling Green (Wood County), OH, to try and identify any hidden orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells. Residents of Bowling Green received a letter from ODNR alerting them to the upcoming drone flights.
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PA Senate Passes Carbon Capture & Sequestration (CCS) Act

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.
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PA Slaps Equitrans with $1.1M Fine for 2022 Rager Mountain Gas Leak

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 Equitrans Gas Storage Well in Cambria County, PA is Leaking). It took two weeks for the leak to get fixed after it had leaked an estimated 1.4 billion cubic feet into the air (see Storage Well Leak Fix in Cambria County Failed, Leaked 1.4 Bcf). It turned out to be less — around 1.1 Bcf of leaked methane in total. Now, a year and a half later, the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is fining Equitrans $1.1 million for the accidental leak.
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ODNR Testing Athens Co. Water Wells for Possible Injection Leaks

The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) “temporarily” suspended the operations of four fracking waste injection wells in Athens County last September (see ODNR Temporarily Shuts Down 4 Injection Wells in Athens County). ODNR said, with no solid evidence, that the wells presented an “imminent danger” to health and the environment. ODNR is finally about to test residential water wells in the area (i.e., do real science) to determine if there has been any kind of “communication” or contamination from the injection wells with area production and water wells.
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NY DEC Attempting to Use Draft Reg to Block Iroquois Compressor

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 Despite Antis’ Best Efforts, More NatGas Coming to New England). The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the project back in 2022 (see Iroquois Gas Enhancement by Compression Project Approved by FERC). Since that time, the DEC has found ways to delay it (see NY DEC Intentionally Delays Permits for Iroquois Compressor Upgrades). And now the DEC is making noise about using a new DRAFT regulation (not even legally adopted yet) to reject ExC. This is pure corruption.
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WV Adds Citigroup, HSBC, TD Bank, Northern Trust to ESG Banned List

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 WV Warns 6 More Banks They are in Danger of Blacklist re ESG). Four of the six, including the Chinese-owned HSBC, were just added to the list. It’s lights out for these four companies as far as doing business with the State of West Virginia.
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Bidenistas Delay Chessy/Southwestern Merger, Request More Info

This is precisely what companies going through a merger DON’T want to happen. Last Thursday, both Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy, which previously announced a deal to combine back in January (see Deal is Done! Chesapeake & Southwestern Announce $7.4B Merger), received the dreaded “Second Request” for information from regulators at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Dept. of Justice (DOJ), meaning the merger is now delayed from the first half of this year to the second half (i.e., by Dec. 31, 2024). It’s not the end of the world, but it’s not a good thing, either.
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With Respect to Orphaned Wells, PA DEP Doesn’t Know Jack Squat

Last week, MDN reported on new (to us) information shared at a Pennsylvania House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee hearing that the state’s program to plug orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells is, quite frankly, a hot mess (see Plugging PA’s Abandoned & Orphaned Wells is a Hot Mess). The Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) recordkeeping of old wells is rife with errors. And the price to plug orphaned wells has ballooned from $17,500 per well in most cases to now over $110,000! An editorial appearing in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette takes the federal and state governments to task for spending big money on a problem they can’t even accurately describe or outline.
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