Powell Says Federal Reserve Will Not be a “Climate Policymaker”
Last week Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the Fed will “stick to its knitting” and will NOT wander off the trail into political issues like man-made global warming (i.e. climate change). The purpose and focus of the Federal Reserve is to control inflation via interest rates, thereby strengthening the economy and creating jobs. Powell will not allow the Fed to get caught up in global warming policymaking by forcing banks to require the companies to which they make loans to bow down before the ESG gods. Frankly, we’re surprised and delighted at Powell’s steel backbone on this issue.
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In February 2022, Equitrans Midstream announced it had filed a new pipeline expansion project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see 
Freeport LNG, which has been offline since an explosion and fire in June 2022, asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to begin the restart procedure this past Sunday (see 
Last April, MDN introduced readers to the developing issue of landowners being approached to lease “pore space” rights (see 
Is the coal industry and natural gas industry in West Virginia friends? Or enemies? Or perhaps “frenemies”? We suppose it depends on the issue. In our book, the coal industry has largely been an enemy of the natural gas industry in WV because natgas-fired power plants threaten to displace coal-fired plants (see 
After the shocking news that U.S. Senator Joe Manchin had sold out his state and the entire country by agreeing to support the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) bill last summer, the details began to come out about just how bad this bill really is for the oil and gas industry. First and foremost, it slaps a new tax on natural gas production (see 
The clown judges who occupy the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circus) appear ready to reject a water permit granted by the Virginia State Water Control Board to help finish up the 94% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Three judges from the 4th Circus were appointed back in 2017 to hear appeals by Big Green groups against the project. All three judges are profoundly bigoted and prejudiced against natural gas pipeline projects. Yesterday, the three clowns heard oral arguments from the foreign-backed Sierra Club (and its cronies) arguing the Control Board’s approval of a permit to cross streams and wetlands violates the federal Clean Water Act.
On January 18, 2022, Eastern Shore Natural Gas Company (ESNG, a subsidiary of Chesapeake Utilities Corporation) filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to construct and operate a new natural gas-fired compressor unit and ancillary facilities at its existing Bridgeville Compressor Station in Sussex County, Delaware (called the Southern Expansion Project). Right away, the odious radicals of Food and Water Watch filed an official protest. It took nearly a year, but (as we’re just learning now) on Dec. 16, FERC issued full approval for the project. The new compressor unit will flow an extra 7.3 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) of natural gas to new residential, commercial, and industrial customers along the Delmarva Peninsula.
On January 18, every single Republican member of the Pennsylvania State Senate signed (and sent) a joint letter to newly-minted Gov. Josh Shapiro urging him to take steps “immediately” to undo PA’s entrance into the insane Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax, a plan forced on the state by Shapiro’s wacky predecessor Tom Wolf. During the campaign, Shapiro prevaricated on whether or not he would pull PA’s plan to enter RGGI.
Joe Manchin, the rather pathetic, has-been U.S. Senator from West Virginia, is sitting his bum in Davos, Switzerland, wining and dining and hobnobbing with leftist elites from around the world at the World Economic Forum. Manchin, you might recall, sold out the United States by voting for the Green New Deal, renamed to Build Back Better, and further renamed to the Inflation Reduction Act (see 
Earlier this month, radical Bidenistas at the EPA announced they have rewritten a rule aimed at regulating all waters in the U.S., putting power over just about everything (including oil and gas drilling) into the federal government’s hands via WOTUS, or Waters of the United States (see 
Alan Armstrong, the CEO of pipeline giant Williams (which has MAJOR pipeline assets in the Marcellus/Utica), delivered a talk yesterday in the company’s hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, to a group at the University of Tulsa. Summarizing his talk, Armstrong said we can have lower emissions right now. The way to do it is with natural gas. The problem is, of course, nobody can get a new pipeline for natural gas permitted anymore. The government, and lawsuits, are blocking new pipeline projects. The system of permitting needs to get “straightened out” according to Armstrong. Put another way, the system is BROKEN.
Newly enthroned Governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, has done a good job of crafting his image as that of a moderate. At least on the issue of energy. He supposedly has voiced support for natural gas production and an “all-of-the-above” energy policy. Members of the natural gas industry in the state are mouthing their own platitudes of willingness to “work with the new governor” on energy issues–to find “common ground.” But right now, just a day after he took office, everyone is waiting and watching to see what he actually does. Will Shapiro tackle important issues like permitting delays and regulatory roadblocks? Or will he revert to his Attorney General days of attacking the industry? We know which one we think he’ll do.
The policies of politicians like New York Gov. Kathy Hochul have real-world consequences. Even if those policies never actually get implemented. Last week, the intellectually-challenged Hochul proposed banning the sale of all new natural gas appliances across the state, and indeed ban hooking up new homes and businesses to gas, by 2030 (see