POLITICO Energy Summit – Libs Petrified Trump Will Take Ax to IRA
Liberals are so funny to watch. Their own words condemn them. For example, the far-left-leaning POLITICO “news” organization held an Energy Summit yesterday. It was a virtual event, as far as we can tell. One of the big discussion topics was Biden’s “signature” climate law, the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), made possible by a single vote from Joe Manchin. The IRA is better named the Green New Deal. It’s an abysmal law that targets fossil fuel energy for extinction. Judging from the comments made at the Summit, the libs are clearly worried that if Donald Trump wins, he will take an ax to the IRA (as he should).
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In early March, President Joementia Biden nominated three new candidates to become Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) commissioners (see
On May 14, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the final Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule requirements for petroleum and natural gas systems under 40 C.F.R. Part 98, Subpart W in the Federal Register (full copy of the 266-page rule included below). The changes to this rule resulted from passing the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) which required EPA to develop standards to collect payment on methane from facilities that exceed specific thresholds. (Incidentally, the IRA passed due to a single vote: Joe Manchin.) The final rule applies to a wide range (more than originally thought) of oil and gas facilities operated by the petroleum production, gas transmission, and utility industries. The new rule will impose *significant* budget-busting administrative and recordkeeping costs on those industries, as well as requiring them to pay fees for reported methane emissions. It is a flat-out attack on natural gas and oil.
On May 23, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issued a pooling order to Encino Energy that combines a number of properties into a single unit for drilling wells. The total of the surface land pooled is 1,081.076 acres, located in Stock Township, Harrison County, Ohio. There are 121 (!) properties or pieces of property involved, largely due to the unit passing under what appears to be a housing development. This type of thing goes on frequently — the ODNR issuing a pooling order. What’s different and unusual about this one is that the ODRN appears to have denied a request by Encino to raise the penalty against those who refused to sign a lease but ended up being forced to participate anyway.
Folks, we’re not trying to beat a dead horse here, but we have to point out how the Biden administration is actively (right now) attacking the natural gas industry. You need to know this so you can educate others on what’s happening and so that you know why it’s so important that we dislodge the Bidenistas from the D.C. swamp in November. We’ll summarize the main points right here. The Biden administration is currently attacking natgas in three ways: via the EPA, FERC, and pausing LNG export approvals.
Anti-fossil fuelers and some residents with portions of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) traversing their land are flooding the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) with comments asking the agency to delay permission for MVP to be placed into service. The latest in-service date MVP outlined to FERC in a recent request for startup permission is “early June” (see
On Monday, the socialists of the European Union (EU) adopted into law a new regulation aimed at tracking and reducing methane emissions within the energy sector. The onerous new reg introduces new requirements for measuring, reporting, and verifying methane emissions. The reg mandates operators to measure emissions at the source and submit monitoring reports verified by independent bodies. What does this have to do with the Marcellus/Utica? If drillers want to export LNG to any country that’s part of the EU (many M-U drillers do export LNG to Europe), they will have to comply with these new regs. According to MiQ, an independent methane emissions measurement and certification authority, its certification is the only one that satisfies the EU’s new regulation.
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has extended three temporary air permits for the Shell ethane cracker plant in Monaca, PA, which would have expired at the end of April. The extended permits will suffice until Shell files for and receives what is called a federal Title V Operating Permit for air emissions from the cracker plant. In March, we told you that the DEP had told Shell to file for a Title V permit no later than June 21 of this year or risk being shut down (see
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally-owned electric utility corporation in the U.S. TVA’s service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. TVA is the sixth-largest power supplier and the largest public utility company in the country. Last May, TVA announced that it would convert the Kingston Fossil Plant (coal-fired plant) in East Tennessee to a natural gas-fired plant capable of generating 1,500 megawatts of electricity (see
In January, President Biden announced he would “pause” any approvals for new LNG export plants (currently 17 requests in the pipeline) for at least one year while his people fart around pretending to figure out how to measure global warming as a new consideration for whether or not to approve projects (see
In 2020, Congress mandated a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to assess the U.S. Coast Guard’s ability, methods, and role in conducting the certificate of compliance (COC) program for the foreign-flag tanker ships known as liquefied gas carriers (LGCs) and to consider the need for statutory reforms. The National Academies released its report yesterday with recommendations for how the Coast Guard can and should update its LNG carrier certification program.
Nearly a year ago, MDN brought you the news that the federal EPA had issued a permit to G2 STEM LLC based in Fairfax, Virginia, to build a Class IID oil and gas wastewater underground injection well in Young Township, Jefferson County, PA (see
We have been tracking and reporting on the drama surrounding Austin Master Services (AMS), a radiological waste management solutions company in Martins Ferry ( Belmont County), Ohio, located close to the Ohio River (
The merger of EQT Corporation and Equitrans Midstream into a single company took one giant leap forward on Wednesday when the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Antitrust Act waiting period expired. In November 2018, under intense pressure from activist investors, EQT split itself into two companies: EQT Corporation and Equitrans Midstream (see
In case you weren’t aware, there’s an important political race happening in Pennsylvania for the U.S. Senate. In fact, the race’s outcome will likely determine whether or not the Senate remains hostage to radical Democrat control or flips to common sense Republican control. The Democrat running for the seat is Bob Casey, an entrenched D.C. swamp dweller seeking his third 6-year term. Bob Casey has voted with Joe Biden 98.5% of the time (
As we reported a few weeks ago, former President Donald J. Trump met with members of the oil and gas industry last month at his Mar-a-Lago estate (see