12 State AGs Push Back on EPA’s Latest O&G Attack re Enviro Justice
It appears the Bidenistas, particularly those lodged in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), are attempting to inflict so many tyrannical rules and regulations so frequently we become exhausted and give up. In the immortal words of Winston Churchill, we will NEVER give in. Never, never, never, never. For example, the EPA has just issued another so-called environmental justice rule. The Attorneys General from 12 states (God bless them!) are pushing back against this latest shenanigan–a proposed rule called “Accidental Release Prevention Requirements: Risk Management Programs under Clean Air Act; Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention.” The AGs argue the proposed rule will increase energy costs and risk Americans’ safety.
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The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) released a notice of intent to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) that will focus on the construction of a 32-inch buried pipeline under 3.5 miles of forest service land in the Jefferson National Forest. This is the third time around for the same permit. The first two EIS/permits were rejected by the clown judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. There’s no reason to believe the clowns will not reject it a third time, but Equitrans (the builder) and the USFS must go through the motions anyway.
MDN previously reported that in October, Joe Nolan, the CEO of New England’s largest utility company, Eversource, sent a letter to President Biden urging him to assemble a panel and figure out how to ensure natgas flows to New England (via LNG) this winter–because if it doesn’t, this IS the year rolling blackouts become reality (see 
In his first two days in office, Joe Biden declared war on the oil and gas industry. One of the first things he did was to revive an interagency working group on the “social cost” of greenhouse gas emissions and directed the issuance of an “interim” cost (see 
House Republican leaders said last Thursday the party is preparing an energy and environment package that will likely emerge in January as one of the first pieces of major legislation passed by the Republican-controlled chamber. The Republican leaders of the House energy committees said they have an interest in tackling permitting reform (proposed by Joe Manchin) in the next Congress as well. They say it’s doubtful a permitting reform bill can move in the next month before the current Congress adjourns.
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced that CNX Resources has paid two civil penalty assessments totaling $200,000 for violations at two different well sites in Richhill Township, Greene County. According to the civil penalty assessment paperwork, CNX spilled “production fluids” (wastewater, drilling mud, etc.) and didn’t clean it up quickly enough. Tallying all of the spills, CNX inadvertently spilled 2,170 gallons of production fluid at two sites, and ended up removing roughly 3,400 tons of “contaminated” soil.
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) voted to approve the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and its Environmental Quality Board’s (EQB) rammed-through (in a rush) regulation to control volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and by extension methane, for conventional drilling sites throughout the state (see 
In March of this year, the three Democrats who occupy and control the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) sent a loud and clear signal they don’t like the Commonwealth LNG plan to erect a new LNG export plant in Cameron Parish, La. due to concerns over so-called environmental justice (see 
Two separate but related cases concerning Pennsylvania’s entrance into the interstate carbon cap-and-trade program known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which we call a carbon tax, had their day in court yesterday. Judges from PA’s typically conservative Commonwealth Court heard oral arguments and, according to leftists, zeroed in on the issue of whether the so-called RGGI “fee” assessed by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is really a fee, or instead is really a tax. It makes a difference. The DEP can, constitutionally, assess a fee, but it cannot unilaterally slap a new tax on coal- and natural gas-fired power plants (as it is trying to do).
Spire Inc. is the owner and operator of the Spire STL Pipeline, a 65-mile pipeline that connects to and flows Marcellus/Utica gas from the Rockies Express (REX) pipeline in Scott County, IL, to residents and businesses in the St. Louis, MO area. Yesterday Spire issued its third quarter update and included a tidbit of information that had escaped us. In October, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a full, final, positive environmental impact statement (EIS) for Spire STL, the final step before issuing a permanent certificate for the pipeline to operate.
As we pointed out about a month ago, following his sellout of the country by voting for Joe Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act (a new name for the Build Back Better/New Green Deal), U.S. Senator Joe Manchin’s popularity in his home state of West Virginia sank into the sewer (see 
The Bidenistas waited until the UN’s 2022 Climate Change Conference, called COP 27, was up and running (in Egypt) before *going to Egypt* to announce their latest attack on the oil and natural gas industry. At COP27 in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it is “strengthening its proposed standards to cut methane and other harmful air pollution” in the oil and gas industry. In other words, yet another massive power grab in attempting to regulate oil and gas at the federal level, instead allowing O&G to be regulated at the Constitutionally-designated state level.
Last year the Bidenistas initiated a massive power grab to transfer the right of individual states to regulate local natural gas gathering pipelines to the federal government (see 
Yeah, well, that didn’t take long, did it? Pennsylvania Governor-elect Josh Shapiro, just a few days after he won the election, has vowed to further restrict fracking with huge new setback regulations. He’s also promising new regulations for gathering pipelines. In other words, he’s about to screw over the Marcellus industry and pretty much stop new drilling in the state. Still glad you voted for Shapiro?