Va. Gov. Youngkin Can’t Use Exec Order to Block RGGI Carbon Tax
In early December, Virginia’s newly-elected governor, Glenn Youngkin, said that as soon as he took office he would use his executive power to withdraw Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (see VA’s New Republican Gov Pledges to Cancel RGGI Carbon Tax). RGGI is nothing more than an obscene, very expensive carbon tax. Youngkin’s pledge was a nice sentiment from someone not yet in office. Since taking office, Virginia’s leftist Attorney General told Youngkin the law does not permit the governor to use an executive order to undo a legislative action. What now?
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Yes we predicted it and yes we were right (self-praise stinks, we know). We told you last year when the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) went forward with an absurd increase in the fee to drill a new shale well–from $5,000 to $12,500 (250%)–it would vastly slow the growth of new shale wells being drilled in the state and fall far short of revenue goals DEP hoped would fund the oil and gas program. Yesterday the DEP confirmed we were right.
In early November MDN told you about a massive new power grab being attempted by the Biden Dept. of Transportation’s PHMSA, implementing new regulations to take control of local gathering pipelines, in contravention to the U.S. Constitution (see 
Just coming to light for us now is an application to build a “data center” in Morgantown, WV. The application was filed last August, but the WV Dept. of Environmental Protection’s Division of Air Quality held a hearing yesterday to accept public input on the facility. Marion Energy Partners wants to build the facility, yet its purpose is shrouded in mystery. The best guess is that this is another new cryptocurrency (bitcoin) mining operation. Our interest is that it will use four natural gas-fired turbines to generate the huge amounts of electricity needed to operate it–natural gas that will come from the Marcellus/Utica.
Earlier this week MDN told you that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf swiftly vetoed a Senate resolution sent to him that would block PA from joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), nothing more than a carbon tax that won’t actually reduce carbon emissions (see 
West Virginia House of Delegates member Lisa Zukoff (Democrat from Marshall County) is making a bold claim: Some out-of-state property owners aren’t paying taxes on oil and gas royalties, and it is costing the state millions of dollars in lost revenue. Zukoff is (once again) introducing a bill in the annual two-month session of the state legislature that requires gas and oil companies to subtract any taxes from the royalty check before it is sent to the property owner.
What is it about leftist Democrats that compels them to want to control everyone else’s lives (but their own)? Pennsylvania State Sen. Katie Muth is one of the worst offenders of this disorder. So too are PA State Rep. Dianne Herrin and Rep. Danielle Friel-Otten. The trio of Dem ladies are asking the odious PA Attorney General, Josh Shapiro (who is running for governor) to “halt construction of the Mariner East Pipeline.” Why? Because they don’t like it.
The Pennsylvania legislature recently passed a resolution against joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax and sent it to Wolf, who had promised to veto it (see 
There is a clear delineation in the U.S. Constitution that says anything not specifically enumerated in the Constitution is left up to the individual states to govern and regulate. Leftists have for years tried to chip away, and under Joe Biden dynamite away, that distinction. Especially with regard to nationalizing the regulation of oil and gas drilling. The left’s favorite tool to regulate O&G is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is charged with regulating and enforcing various laws including the federal Clean Air Act (CAA) and federal Clean Water Act (CWA). In a case that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court next month, West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, the “potential ramifications” are “profound” according to anyone and everyone paying attention.
The West Virginia State Legislature passed House Bill (HB) 2581 on the last day of the annual WV legislative session in April 2021. HB 2581 changes how the State Tax Department values producing oil and gas wells for property tax purposes (see 
We’ve had our disagreements with Pennsylvania State Sen. Gene Yaw over the years (about a severance tax in PA), but for the past half dozen or more years Yaw, from Lycoming County, has been a stalwart champion of the PA Marcellus industry. Frankly, the shale industry could not ask for a better representative in the PA legislature. Yaw, chairman of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, has done his best to defeat Tom Wolf’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax. Yaw is also promoting more pipelines in the Keystone State.
Although liberals are “dumb” in many senses–i.e. they don’t understand basic economics, they don’t understand the human yearning for freedom, etc.–they are very smart when it comes to accomplishing their twisted goals. For example, Joe Biden (a very dumb liberal) doesn’t need to outright ban natural gas-fired electric power plants across the country–something that could be undone by his successor. Instead, Biden gets various federal agencies to adopt new policies that make it impossible for new natgas projects to get investors and funding, which accomplishes the same thing–no new gas-fired electric plants. We have a coming crisis in electricity production if Biden’s policies, as stated, are implemented.
“Anti” in MDN’s parlance means “anti-fossil fuel.” Being anti-fossil fuel is a wholly insane philosophical position to take, yet many in the Democrat Party have taken that position. (Yes, we’re calling some Democrats insane.) People like Sen. Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren, Sen. Ed “Lackey” Markey, and Sen. “Crazy” Bernie Sanders, and others in Congress, bash away and demand the end of fossil fuels. Yet those same antis who demand an end to fossil energy have just sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) demanding FERC do something to lower the price of oil, natural gas, and electricity in their blue states. Why? Because they don’t want to be voted out of office for their obviously failed policies.
Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) drills in the Greater Pittsburgh region, in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. In 2021 Olympus filed an application to build a new well pad in a rural part of Allegheny County, in West Deer Township. So-called “concerned citizens” got amped up to oppose the project (see