FERC’s Allison Clements Says She Won’t Seek 2nd Term in June
The most radical Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) commissioner currently serving, Allison Clements (a former lawyer for the uber-radicals of the National Resources Defense Council), told her fellow Democrat leftists at POLITICO that she will not seek re-election to a second term at the commission when her term ends on June 30 of this year. Which is great news! However, if the Bidenistas don’t nominate someone to take her position (and that of two other empty seats), FERC would only have two commissioners — not enough to vote on projects. Lack of a quorum will halt important work at the agency.
Read More “FERC’s Allison Clements Says She Won’t Seek 2nd Term in June”
There is no doubt that recently issued regulations by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) aimed at reducing methane emissions are having a deleterious effect on the Marcellus industry in the Keystone State. The Bidenistas are proposing a huge tax on oil and gas drillers that will drive some companies out of business (see 
Dozens of conservative organizations have banded together to provide Trump a road map — known as Project 2025 — if he prevails in November. It outlines a series of steps that the former president could take to (among other things) reverse the climate actions taken by the Biden administration. The Washington-based Heritage Foundation (fantastic organization!) worked with conservative organizations to produce Project 2025, which offers 920 pages of policy prescriptions to ensure the chaos of Trump’s first term is not repeated if he gets a second term (full copy of Project 2025 is embedded below). Among the 920 pages are sections addressing policy prescriptions for the Dept. of Energy, EPA, Interior, and other agencies that touch on energy issues, including oil and gas.
The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, Climate and Grid Security held a hearing on Tuesday to challenge Joe Biden’s so-called pause on new LNG permits to non-free-trade partners as it “studies the impacts,” including on climate change, of LNG use. Republicans blasted the Bidenistas for the havoc they have created with the announcement. Democrats on the subcommittee defended Biden’s pause (go figure), arguing now is the time to reevaluate new LNG exports. The Dems are oblivious to the tangible harm this pause is causing (see 
Politicians on Capitol Hill aren’t the only people taking aim at Joe Biden’s pause on LNG export approvals (see today’s companion story, Repubs Attack, Dems Defend Biden LNG Pause at House Hearing). Some 23 “red” state Attorneys General wrote a letter to President Biden and the nutty Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, to inform them that this LNG approvals pause violates federal law. The not-so-subtle threat is that unless Biden “changes course” and reverses the pause, he’s facing a lawsuit by half of the states in the country.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan used a considerable amount of fossil energy and emitted tons of carbon dioxide to jet over to Dubai in 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 
Last November, MDN brought you the news that pipeline giant Williams had given the green light to proceed with a new Transco pipeline expansion project called the Southeast Supply Enhancement Project (see 
Yesterday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro unveiled a whopping $48.3 billion budget that threatens to bankrupt the state. Among the line items in Shapiro’s bizarre spending plan is a $1.1 billion increase in funding for K-12 public schools, and just $10 million to help the state’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) try to fix its broken permitting system. Yes, the DEP gets an extra $10 million, which amounts to 0.0002 (or two one-hundredths) of the overall budget, to help fix the broken permitting system. Meanwhile, teachers’ unions (who voted for Shapiro) get a bribe of an extra $1.1 billion (0.0227 or 2.3%) of the bloated budget.
Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw recently announced the introduction of legislation to repeal the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax enacted through an executive order by the Wolf Administration in 2019. RGGI, a multi-state compact, would increase electricity rates for PA consumers, cut energy and manufacturing jobs, and lead to the closure of Pennsylvania power plants. It would be an unmitigated disaster for the Marcellus industry. PA Republican Senators sued to block the measure and won in Commonwealth Court. Current Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro then appealed the lawsuit to the PA Supreme Court, where it still sits (see 
The pressure on Joe Biden to renounce his so-called pause on approving new LNG export projects is growing white-hot intense. On Friday, Jan. 26, Biden announced he has put “a temporary pause on pending decisions of Liquefied Natural Gas exports” (see 
There is a mountain of controversy over Biden’s pause on approving new LNG export permits to non-free-trade countries (see our story today, Intense Pressure on Biden from All Sides to End LNG Approval Pause). Even though the Dept. of Energy (DOE) has said it will not issue any new export permits for the next year for the 17 projects currently in the pipeline that have requested such permits (while it conducts a so-called review), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will likely continue to work on those projects.
On Friday, MDN told you that several New York Democrat legislators were introducing a new bill to ban the use of carbon dioxide (CO2) in any process to extract natural gas or oil in the Empire State (see 
Hopefully, we’re near the end of an effort to overturn a bill passed in early 2022 by the West Virginia legislature, Senate Bill (SB) 694, which finally brought forced pooling for shale wells to the Mountain State after eight years of trying (see 