OH Lawmakers Asked to Waive Competitive Bids to Plug Orphaned Wells
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) asked a panel of lawmakers called the Ohio Controlling Board to waive the need for competitive bidding for $11.2 million in contracts to plug orphaned oil and gas wells around the state. Yesterday, the Controlling Board approved the request. The contracts were awarded to two companies: Next LVL Energy (owned by Diversified Energy) will receive $7 million, and CSR Services will receive $4.2 million. Read More “OH Lawmakers Asked to Waive Competitive Bids to Plug Orphaned Wells”
Under the Clean Air Act, legal challenges to “nationally applicable” EPA rules must be tried in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit). Unfortunately, that court is loaded with Constitution-ignoring liberals. The U.S. Supreme Court has just agreed to hear arguments in a set of cases that seek to move legal battles over certain EPA rules that aren’t “nationally applicable” from the D.C. Circuit to other appeals courts around the country. Is this the beginning of real justice, at least for some issues related to the out-of-control EPA? 
Kentucky has seen unprecedented economic growth in recent years like other southern states. Data centers are looking to Kentucky for future expansion. Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities Company (KU), both part of PPL Corporation, are forecasting in their Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) the need for additional power generation due to the expected influx of data centers and economic development across their service territories. The companies want to build two new natural gas combined-cycle generation units—one in 2030 and another in 2031. 
It is just coming to light for us now that back in August, Hope Gas, a large local utility company that provides gas service to more than 131,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-seven West Virginia counties, filed a rate case with the state Public Service Commission (PSC) looking to convert customers who use a “farm tap” gas system to either propane fuel or electric heat for their homes. The change would affect around 600 customers, removing them from the ability to use local natural gas. 
Just two days ago, MDN brought you a story about a developing issue of who, ultimately, should pay to build out new electricity sources for data centers (and AI) that increasingly use huge amounts of power (see 
The environmental left continues to try and co-opt the term “Evangelical Christian,” defined as protestants who tend to be pro-life and conservative in their political views. We’re talking about the so-called Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN) and its political lobbying arm, EEN Action. The group continues to pressure Pennsylvania’s political leaders to adopt unreliable renewable energy (by government fiat) and to force residents to dump their use of fossil energy. We previously exposed them for who they really are (see 
In August, some two dozen states asked the U.S. Supreme Court to place a temporary block on new EPA regulations that will put all coal plants out of business and block most (if not all) new gas-fired power plants from getting built (see 
In November 2022, PA’s then-Governor, Tom Wolf, signed into law a bill providing $142 million annually in state tax credits for several purposes, including clean hydrogen hubs, natural gas use, semiconductor manufacturing, and milk processors (see 
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (6th Circuit) slammed the brakes on a pipeline project in Tennessee on Friday. In January, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a certificate of public convenience for Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) subsidiary to build the Cumberland Project, a 32-mile, 30-inch pipeline to feed 245 MMcf/d of natural gas (from the Marcellus/Utica) to the Tennessee Valey Authority’s (TVA) proposed Cumberland gas-fired power plant. 
It’s good to revisit the basics from time to time. When drilling a shale oil or gas well, each well produces “brine,” a super-salty (minerally) water from the depths that keeps flowing long after the well is drilled and is online. This is not surface water; fresh water found down to about 300 feet. This is another layer of water thousands of feet below the surface. Disposing of brine can be a problem given the minerals in it. A lot of brine is recycled and used again for new drilling and fracking. But what happens when drilling slows down? The water continues to flow out of existing wells and needs proper disposal. Researchers at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, may have a new solution. 
Big Oil sometimes works against the interests of smaller shale drillers and (we would argue) against the best interests of the U.S.A. Here’s a case in point. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that senior leaders with Exxon Mobil, Occidental Petroleum, and Phillips 66 have been whispering in President Trump’s ear that should he win, they want him to keep Biden’s Green New Deal legislation, otherwise called the Inflation Reduction Act. Why? To protect their investments in carbon capture, carbon credits, and other carbon scams. They don’t want to lose their big tax credits/money. 
In August, the Biden-Harris administration promised (but hasn’t yet delivered a dime of) up to $152 million in “Phase 2” federal money, i.e., your taxpayer dollars, to help plug old conventional oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania (see 
Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw believes he has a solution to help fund plugging many of the state’s ~350,000 orphaned and abandoned conventional oil and gas wells. Yaw recently introduced a bill, Senate Bill (SB) 1330, that directs the PA Department of General Services to sell any alternative energy credits it owns from buying unreliable solar energy and use the funds to plug old wells. The proposal, which could generate upward of $227 million, drives the enviro-left nuts. 
We spotted an article on the Rigzone website with the following headline: “What Would a USA Fracking Ban Mean for the Oil Price?” Our initial thought was, “A frack ban will never happen.” But we read the article and came across this comment by Matt Willer, Managing Director of Capital Markets at Phoenix Group Holdings: “Willer told Rigzone that, in his opinion, the likelihood of a U.S. fracking ban is less than 50 percent.” Whoa, wait just a darned minute! You mean IF The Cackler actually wins, there is a close-to-50% chance of a nationwide frack ban? That’s what Willer appears to be saying. If true, it’s alarming. It’s astonishing. And it’s all the more reason you must motivate everyone you know to vote for DJT.