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9-Day Delay Before PA DEP Inspected Revolution Plant Explosion
Residents living in the vicinity of Energy Transfer’s Revolution Pipeline cryogenic plant in Bulger (Washington County), PA, got a surprise “present” on Christmas morning. Around 7:30 am, residents report hearing an explosion, followed by a fire, at the plant used to separate NGLs (natural gas liquids, including ethane, propane, and butane) from the raw gas stream that flows through the Revolution gathering pipeline (see ET Revolution Cryogenic Processing Plant Explodes in PA on Xmas). Believe it or not, it took the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) nine full days, until Jan. 3, to actually show up on-site and investigate the situation.
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We just have to say right up front, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia is either a lying sleazebag, or he’s really, really stupid. And neither option is very inspiring. Last year Manchin was lured into voting in favor of a massive government spending bill that previously was called the New Green Deal. It got renamed (misnamed) to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), to make it an easier sell to voters (see 
Tuesday of last week, Freeport LNG, which has been out of operation since an explosion and fire in June 2022, asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to begin re-introducing feedgas back into one of three liquefaction “trains” (units) at the facility. A day later, FERC agreed, and small amounts of gas began to flow (see 
We spotted an article chronicling a visit to Pennsylvania by the Dept. of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland yesterday. She was there to tout money flowing to the Keystone State from the so-called Infrastructure bill in order to plug old abandoned oil and gas wells. What was interesting about her visit was not that she was there to promote the Bidenista agenda and proclaim how great the doddering old fool (her boss) is. The interesting thing is who was by her side: Rich Negrin. You may recall newly minted liberal Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro nominated Negrin to be the next Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) just about 30 days ago (see 
Attorneys for both the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and those representing gas-fired power plants were in PA Commonwealth Court on Wednesday. DEP’s attorneys argued the court should toss a lawsuit brought by the power-generating industry against an obscene carbon tax called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) that DEP is trying to force on the state. Power generators argue in their lawsuit that RGGI will actually lead to MORE carbon pollution rather than less.
The heads of three major oil and gas groups in the Appalachian region–the Marcellus Shale Coalition (representing Pennsylvania), the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia, and the Ohio Oil and Gas Association–combined to pen an open letter to President Biden encouraging him to let the Marcellus/Utica “lead the way” in achieving our country’s shared goals for domestic, affordable, and clean energy. It’s a great letter making strong and cogent arguments for why more M-U natgas can reduce emissions and benefit not only the economy but the environment. There’s just one small problem…
Joe Biden has big plans to force you to change the way you get (and consume) your energy. He wants you to use hydrogen, electricity (generated by unreliable renewable sources like wind and solar), force you to capture your carbon dioxide (the stuff you breathe out with every breath you take), and in general, use anything other than fossil energy. Joe is happy to export LNG (a nasty fossil fuel), but only because other people will use it and not you. There’s one big problem with making Joe’s dystopian future a reality: The government bureaucracy and red tape that it spins, is preventing his preferred sources of energy from getting built and used. Isn’t it delicious? The very bureaucracy the left loves and adores is strangling the left’s attempts at the forced conversion of society to alternative energy.
On Dec. 22, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) published a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement that allows the nearly-completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to finish up construction through 3.5 miles of Jefferson National Forest straddling West Virginia and Virginia (see 
Sigh. The Bidenistas are at it again–targeting the fossil fuel industry for extinction. The latest attempt came on January 9th when the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), which serves as the White House’s environmental policy arm, issued “interim guidance” to assist federal agencies in analyzing so-called greenhouse gas (GHG) and climate change effects of their proposed actions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). One of the agencies affected by this guidance is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). However, FERC is an independent agency and does not necessarily march to the White House drummer. The question is, how much will the new CEQ guidance affect FERC’s policies as the agency evaluates oil and gas pipelines?
For almost a year, we’ve sounded the alarm about a coming change at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that will force publicly traded companies to disclose mythical greenhouse gas emissions data (see 
The Ohio Oil and Gas Leasing Commission, established in 2011 by a law signed by RINO Gov. John Kasich, is a five-member group designed to oversee drilling and fracking on state-owned land. After Kasich created it, he refused to appoint members, for years, to punish the oil and gas industry for not endorsing his plan to raise the severance tax rate. In 2017, under threat by the Republican legislature, Kasich finally relented and appointed the five members (see 
U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, Republican Congressman from Ohio’s 6th congressional district (in the Utica Shale part of the state), has introduced his first bill of the new session of Congress. The bill is called the Unlocking Our Domestic LNG Potential Act. It will allow domestic suppliers of natural gas, including LNG, to export our gas to allies in Europe and Asia after completing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) review process only–cutting out a requirement to have the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) also approve it. The DOE approval takes much longer (years) and has been a choke point. It’s time to end the delays. It’s time to get rid of the weakest link.