Supreme Court Won’t Block One Onerous EPA Reg, Jury Out on Another
EPA Administrator Michael Regan used a considerable amount of fossil energy and emitted tons of carbon dioxide to jet over to Dubai last December to participate in the COP28 confab, where he released a final rule that was “two years in the making” to force the U.S. oil and gas industry to cut methane emissions by using budget-busting new technologies and onerous (frequent) inspections (see Bidenistas Unleash Hellscape of U.S. Methane Regs at COP28). A group of 26 states asked the swamp-dwelling judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (D.C. Circuit) to temporarily block the EPA rule while a lawsuit by the states (and others) plays out. Unsurprisingly, the swamp-dwelling judges turned the states down in July, allowing the EPA’s onerous new reg to commence (see DC Circuit Allows EPA Attack on O&G Via Methane Reg to Commence). In August, the states suing to end the regulation filed an emergency stay request with the U.S. Supreme Court (see States Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Emergency Block EPA Methane Reg). On Friday, the Supremes decided to be not so supreme after all and elected not to block the rule. Read More “Supreme Court Won’t Block One Onerous EPA Reg, Jury Out on Another”
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. 
According to Pennsylvania regulation 25 Pa. Code § 78a.122(b)(6)(iv), a drilling company must provide a list of the chemicals intentionally added to the stimulation [fracking] fluid by name and chemical abstract service (CAS) number in a Completion Report. The PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) says three drillers, including EQT, Range Resources, and Greylock Energy, failed to file the proper paperwork for one or more wells.
Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) authorization to place the final three liquefaction blocks (7-9) into service in November 2023 (see 
The Algonquin Gas Transmission pipeline (owned by Enbridge) transports up to 3.09 Bcf/d of natural gas through 1,131 miles of pipeline. Algonquin connects to Texas Eastern Transmission (TETCO), Millennium Pipeline, and Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline and supplies New England with critically needed natural gas supplies for power generation and consumer use. As we told you in September 2023, Enbridge conducted an open season to gauge interest in expanding Algonquin’s capacity to flow more gas into New England — mainly from the Marcellus/Utica — called Project Maple (see 
The European Union’s idiotic methane regulations will soon come into full force, prompting oil, gas, and coal companies to monitor, measure and report their emissions. The same restrictions will also apply to energy imports coming from other countries, including the U.S. (see 
We don’t think it’s overly melodramatic to say that Pennsylvania is standing on the edge of a cliff with the upcoming election in November. Yes, there’s the issue of which presidential candidate, Trump or The Cackler, will win PA and likely win the election. That is of critical importance. But so, too, is another race (or races): That of the Pennsylvania Senate. Right now, a radical Democrat, Josh Shapiro, is governor in PA. The PA House has a razor-thin Democrat majority in control (102-101). The Senate is a bit better with a 28-22 GOP majority. However, the enviro left has its sights set on retaining the House and flipping at least three Senate seats in “swing” districts this year. If all three branches are in Democrat hands come next January, you can expect very bad things ahead for the Marcellus shale. 
In late July, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) opened up the shuttered Austin Master Services (AMS) radiological waste management solutions company in Martins Ferry (Belmont County), Ohio, to begin cleanup work at the facility (see 
The Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) published a notice in the Saturday edition of the Pennsylvania Bulletin that says the SRBC’s Executive Director recently approved or renewed 24 general water use permits for shale gas drilling pads in Bradford, Cameron, Clearfield, Clinton, Lycoming, Susquehanna, Tioga and Wyoming counties in the Keystone State (full list below). Approval by the Executive Director is the first step in the process. Each permit will also require a separate water withdrawal approval before water begins to flow from the Susquehanna (and its tributaries) to shale well pads. 
In a statement issued last week, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) said it “remains concerned about maintaining sufficient natural gas supplies to address extreme winter conditions” for this upcoming winter heating season. In a “Statement on Criticality of Natural Gas this Winter” (full copy below), NERC noted that next month marks the one-year anniversary of the FERC/NERC/Regional Entity staff report on Winter Storm Elliott—a wide-area extreme cold event that affected states in the Eastern Interconnection from Georgia to Maine and from Nebraska to Pennsylvania. The primary cause of that almost-outage was, says NERC and the report, reduced production (freezeoffs) at Marcellus/Utica wells. 
Toby Rice, CEO of EQT Corporation, currently the largest natural gas producer in the U.S., spoke yesterday at the Gastech event in Houston. Rice expressed his view that the Henry Hub price for natural gas will remain below $3/MMBtu “in the short term.” He also had thoughts on how long companies like his will continue to curtail natgas production. Rice said curtailments will “ease by next year” when more LNG exports begin to pick up. Said another way, Rice expects to continue holding back at least some supply for the balance of this year.