Tiny Newark Gas Peaker Approved by EPA, Set to Begin Construction
The Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission operates the largest sewage treatment plant in New Jersey — in Newark. When Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, the sewer plant lost power and dumped BILLIONS of gallons of raw sewage into the Passaic River. The Commission plans to prevent that from happening again by building a tiny natural gas peaker plant to generate electricity. It would only be used to avoid such environmental damage again (i.e., rarely used, only for emergencies). Great news: The plant has been approved by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and now has (or soon will have) all the permits it needs to begin construction. Read More “Tiny Newark Gas Peaker Approved by EPA, Set to Begin Construction”
Speaking of the Constitution Pipeline project (see today’s post, Williams CEO Supports Restart of Constitution Pipe – With Conditions), New York Governor Kathy Hochul will visit The White House for a one-on-one with President Trump today. They have a few things to discuss. One of the biggest discussion topics will be Trump attempting to convince Hochul that it’s time to allow the 124-mile Constitution Pipeline from Susquehanna County, PA, to Schoharie County, NY, to move Marcellus gas into New York State and New England, to get built. Will he be successful? 
There has been dynamite news coming from this week’s CERAWeek by S&P conference in Houston (wish we were there!). Of all the things reported thus far (with two days still to go), no piece of news has been more dynamite than a statement made by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum during a talk at the event yesterday. Speaking of the 124-mile Constitution Pipeline project that Williams gave up on building in 2020 after years of delays and legal roadblocks by New York State, Burgum said the Trump administration is willing to “step in” and take federal action to get the pipeline project from the Pennsylvania Marcellus to New York and New England completed. 
One of President Donald Trump’s greatest lines during the 2016 presidential campaign was his promise, “We’re gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning. And you’ll say, ‘Please, please. It’s too much winning. We can’t take it anymore, Mr. President, it’s too much.’ And I’ll say, ‘No it isn’t. We have to keep winning. We have to win more!’” Such was our thought (“We’re winning too much!”) about yesterday’s massive announcements (plural) coming from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA announced the launch of the biggest deregulatory action in the history of our country. It is MASSIVE, with extremely important/critical implications for the oil and gas industry. Many of the actions EPA is taking will roll back, modify, or otherwise improve regulations that directly affect the shale industry, including actions on Biden’s Clean Power Plant 2, the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) regulation, revising regs to allow brine (wastewater) to be recycled and used for things like cooling data centers, and much, much more. 
Yesterday, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro visited the site of an orphaned well being plugged in Washington County, PA, to celebrate and toot his own horn that this is the 300th orphaned well plugged since he became governor in January 2023. There’s nothing wrong with that, except during the same 2+ years, Ohio has plugged at least double that number. Which makes us ask: Why does it take so much longer and cost so much more to plug wells in PA than in OH? 
Yesterday, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro visited Voith Hydro North America (in York, PA) to announce that key components of his extremely flawed “Lightning Plan” will be introduced in the General Assembly in the coming weeks by sychophantic Democrats. Shapiro claims his so-called Lightning Plan is “a comprehensive, all-of-the-above energy plan to secure Pennsylvania’s energy future.” Except his plan puts the thumb of the government on the scales in favor of wind, solar, and hydro and purposely disadvantages natural gas. 
Joe Stalin was a brutal dictator in the Soviet Union (Russia) who ruled with an iron fist during the early 20th century. He established the totalitarian political system known as 
On Sunday, March 2, MDN friend Tom Shepstone (who writes the must-read 
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is a typical liberal Democrat politician. He pretends to be moderate and a supporter of the Marcellus industry in the Keystone State. He is neither. Shapiro claims his proposed energy programs will cut costs for Pennsylvanians. The reverse is true. But we’re not just making blanket unprovable assertions or opinions about Shapiro’s energy plans. We have the receipts to prove that what he wants for the state vis-à-vis energy is a disaster for residents. 
Two months ago, a video circulated on social media featuring a Biden EPA political appointee talking about “tossing gold bars off the Titanic,” intentionally rushing to get billions of tax dollars recklessly out of the agency before Inauguration Day. The EPA’s new sheriff, Lee Zeldin, located $20 billion of those gold bars sitting at a Citibank bank account (see 
Sometimes you have to toot your own horn, especially when the legacy media (which nobody watches, reads, or listens to anymore) won’t do it. On Tuesday, President Trump gave a joint address to Congress. We won’t rehash the endless coverage of that event and the juvenile (quite despicable) performance by Democrats in attendance. One of Trump’s main themes for the talk was energy. Just ahead of his speech, The White House issued a statement to identify the many ways in which his administration is “unleashing American energy.” That was the toot-your-own-horn bit. It’s a great list and his work thus far is not getting the attention it deserves. Trump has done so much in such a short time, it’s hard to keep up with it all. Let’s go through it chapter and verse… 
There are deadbeats in every industry, including (unfortunately) the oil and gas industry. Some O&G producers in West Virginia are gaming the system by not paying landowners/rights owners the royalties they are due. Typically, this does not apply to shale drillers, mostly larger companies. However, with (some, very few) smaller conventional drillers, they just don’t pay royalties owed. And if the check is for under a hundred bucks, what can a landowner do? Hiring a lawyer to litigate would cost more than the money received. A new bill making its way through the WV Senate would fix the situation. 
In January 2023, Ohio House Bill (HB) 507 became law with the signature of Gov. Mike DeWine (see