Biden DOE Threatens Refineries: Export Less Gas & Diesel, or Else
Here’s a bit of news only one major news outlet (the Wall Street Journal) has covered: Last week Jennifer Granholm, hands down the most incompetent Secretary of Energy ever to hold the office, sent a letter to seven major refinery companies threatening them that if they don’t scale back exports of gasoline, diesel, and other liquid petroleum products, Granholm will have old dementia Joe whip up an executive order slapping a ban on such exports. She’s making them an offer they can’t refuse.
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The 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA, announced in 2014, was supposed to be completed in 2018 and cost $3.5 billion. The project builder, Equitrans Midstream, now says MVP, which is 94% complete, should be done by the end of 2023 at a staggering cost of $6.6 billion. What happened between 2014 and today is that Big Green groups, many of which use foreign funding (from countries like Russia), have repeatedly challenged the project. Complicit and colluding judges have placed roadblocks in the way, preventing MVP from finishing. Given the ongoing opposition from the radical left, MVP asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in June to extend the time to complete the project until October 2026, just in case. On Tuesday, FERC granted MVP’s request.
Just when you thought you’d seen it all from the Communist left in this country (i.e. the Sierra Club and their foreign-backed affiliates), along comes another breathtaking attack. The Clubbers and their minions have filed a petition with the Bidenista-controlled EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), asking the EPA to classify natural gas and fuel oil furnaces throughout the country as a “Source Category” subject to emissions rules under the federal Clean Air Act, which is a clever way of saying the sale of new fossil energy furnaces used in homes and businesses should be banned on the assumption they cause pollution that violates the Clean Air Act.
If you live in Pennsylvania and listen to (or read) the media at all, you have likely heard about Senate Bill 106. The “short title” for the bill is this: “A Joint Resolution proposing separate and distinct amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, providing that there is no constitutional right to taxpayer-funded abortion or other right relating to abortion; further providing for action on concurrent orders and resolutions, for Lieutenant Governor and for qualifications of electors; and providing for election audits.” Yeah, not so short. The bill is aimed at amending the PA Constitution to cover several important issues.
The recently-adopted Manchin-Schumer so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which is a toned-down version of the Build Back Better/Green New Deal proposal of last year, is supposed to save Mom Earth from toasting to death. That’s what all the Big Green groups and Democrat politicians say. You could hear a collective sigh of relief that Joe Biden has saved the planet. The reality? When you plug the numbers into the United Nations climate model to measure the impact on global temperature by 2100, you find that the Manchin-Schumer bill, in the most optimistic scenario, will lower worldwide temperatures by 0.028 degrees Fahrenheit. In other words, it doesn’t lower temps AT ALL. What the new law does do is transfer hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money to corporate Democrat cronies in the renewable sector. It’s sickening.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, in an interview with the Associated Press, attempts to come off as the reasonable, middle-of-the-road, aw-shucks guy who sticks up for what he believes is right and the good of West Virginians. Don’t fall for it. He was pressured by the wackadoodle left in the Democrat Party, and he folded like a cheap suit. Manchin deserves to be voted out of office the instant that opportunity arises. We’re talking, of course, of Manchin’s betrayal of fossil energy through his support for one of the most destructive pieces of legislation that has passed since Joe Biden began to occupy the White House–the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), better known as the Green New Deal (aka Build Back Better). Manchin’s betrayal has profound consequences for fossil energy in this country.
A new audit of the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources’ (ODNR) Orphan Well Program was released August 9 by the Auditor of State’s Ohio Performance Team (full copy below). The Ohio Auditor’s office reviews the operations of government agencies and programs and offers recommendations to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. Auditor of State Keith Faber said in the audit that ODNR is still spending only about half of the funding required to plug old wells. Faber said, “ODNR’s Orphan Well Program is moving in the right direction, but there’s still much work to do,” and “We need to pick up the pace.” It was a metaphorical kick in the seat of the pants.
It used to be that freedom and justice and capitalism were baked into our psyche via the U.S. Constitution. All of those things–freedom, justice, and capitalism–are rapidly disappearing. They are replaced with totalitarian statism. The people we “elect” actually think we serve them and that they tell us what we can and can’t do. Example: A pipeline expansion (looping pipe and expanding some compressor stations) by Williams in the Marcellus/Utica is now imperiled by authoritarians in New Jersey.
U.S. Senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, supposedly “secured an agreement” to fast-track the completion of the 94% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in return for selling out the entire country by voting for the Big Green “Build Back Better” bill, renamed to the laughable “Inflation Reduction Act” (see 
Candidate for governor of New York State running on the Republican line, Lee Zeldin, is pushing to reverse the now-permanent ban on fracking in the state. The frack ban was enacted into law as part of a sneaky budget bill Andrew Cuomo signed in 2020 while everyone was distracted with COVID (see 
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (Traitor Joe) from West Virginia made a huge gamble in agreeing to vote for the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Manchin got an agreement from Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to allow a vote on a separate bill sometime in the fall that will help the stalled 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (94% done) to get completed. The gamble is that Pelosi will actually allow a vote and, if so, that she will use her iron fist to ensure it passes. Legal experts have reviewed the “deal” Manchin made with the devil and conclude it’s far from certain MVP will finish.
The dirty deed is done. Dementia Joe signed the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law yesterday, and the country is harmed because of it. Tens of thousands of jobs will be lost. Businesses will close shop. It’s a pretty dystopian future we face thanks to a bill passed with absolutely no Republican votes. But face it we must. One of the first orders of business is to figure out how the new methane tax will work and to who it applies. Will LNG export facilities be subject to this incredibly harmful tax? Nobody knows. In fact, nobody knows how the tax will work, given certain loopholes baked into the bill at the last minute. The IRA is yet another exercise in total confusion by the Democrat left.