Natural Gas the #1 Source of New Electricity in Latest PJM Auction
Yesterday, the PJM Interconnection announced the results of its latest electricity capacity auction (for 2024/2025). PJM is the largest electric grid operator in the U.S. It serves 65 million people in 13 states plus the District of Columbia (including PA, OH, and WV). PJM reported prices for electricity in most areas were down, but prices were up in areas with local constraints (i.e., lack of natural gas pipelines). Of keen interest for us is which energy sources will increase their contributions to the grid, and which will decrease, in the coming years. Would it surprise you to learn that despite the hype and lies of mainstream media about solar and wind taking over, that new electricity from natural gas sources will increase the most?
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It’s full speed ahead in the U.S. House of Representatives, now controlled (thank God!) by Republicans. Today and tomorrow, three different House committees will hold hearings and markups on 20 distinct measures related to energy and permitting reform. The permitting reform measures, in particular, may help save the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project in the Marcellus/Utica region.
Isn’t it typical for Democrats to try and use a crisis that has nothing whatsoever to do with shale and natural gas to block shale and natural gas? Seven members of Pennsylvania’s Congressional delegation, every single one of them a Democrat, sent a letter (copy below) to another Democrat, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (an incompetent nincompoop), asking him to permanently delete a rule adopted during the Trump administration that allows LNG to be safely transported by special rail cars. The reason cited for banning LNG by rail? The train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio–an event that has nothing whatsoever to do with shale energy.
In April 2019, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) instructing the Environmental Protection Agency to review Section 401 of the Clean Water Act–the section that grants states (and tribes) the right to have a say in pipeline projects (see 
Last summer then-Gov. Tom Wolf instructed the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to conduct a comprehensive review of conventional oil and gas driller compliance with an eye on locating enough dirt to justify creating onerous new regulations for the industry (see 
A little over a month ago, MDN brought you the good news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved the Williams Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project, a plan to beef up the Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to deliver an extra 829 MMcf/d of Marcellus gas to PA, NJ, and Maryland (see 
Pennsylvania State Rep. Martin Causer, Republican from Bradford (McKean County), PA, is introducing a new bill to prohibit PA municipalities from banning the installation and use of natural gas stoves and furnaces. “Pennsylvanians deserve better than to have their freedom restricted by an overly involved government that thinks it knows better than they do,” Causer wrote in a memorandum to his fellow House members, asking them to join him in co-sponsoring the bill. In our opinion, every single Republican member of the PA House should be listed as a co-sponsor of Causer’s “energy freedom” bill.
The difference between the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) and the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) is stark. The former is well-run and rational, the latter is disorganized and irrational. At least with respect to fracking. Over the weekend, the SRBC published a notice in the Pennsylvania Bulletin to announce that during the month of January, the agency approved 38 requests for daily water use on shale well pads in the SRBC’s jurisdictional territory in Pennsylvania, totaling some 233.5 million gallons. Put another way, this is a handy list of where drilling will soon happen in northeastern PA.
The Barack Hussein Obama administration went crazy with over-regulation in many areas. One of them was to redefine “waters of the United States” (or WOTUS) as everything down to, no exaggeration, mud puddles. When Donald Trump took office, he set about to correct some of the insane abuses of the Obama era, including WOTUS. He finally got it fixed. However, the Bidenistas took up the cause once again. Radicals at the EPA announced a new rule in January aimed at re-regulating all waters, putting power over just about everything (including oil and gas drilling) into the federal government’s hands via WOTUS (see 
Here’s a scary reality: The U.S. federal government is the world’s single largest purchaser of goods and services. Federal contractors employ over one-fifth of the labor force in the U.S., and contribute billions of dollars to state economies. Knowing this, the Bidenistas are attempting to coopt the government’s purchasing power as a back-door way to implement Biden’s anti-fossil fuel agenda. The Bidenistas are pushing the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council (FARC) to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to require federal contractors to disclose their so-called greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and to set targets to reduce them. The Attorneys General of 22 states are pushing back–hard–against this blatantly illegal plan.
We have lamented, on many occasions, that New York State (our beloved home state) has simply gone to Hades. The state is now run by left-wing radicals. When you cross the border into NY, you are entering The Twilight Zone (a pun and nod to the talented Rod Serling, who was born and grew up in Binghamton, NY). Case in point: A radical member of the NY Senate, along with a member of the NY Assembly, have teamed up to introduce a truly frightening bill. Senate Bill S9612, introduced by the wacky Sen. Zellnor Myrie, a Brooklyn Democrat, would allow anyone to sue oil and gas companies claiming damage from mythical (and unproven) “climate change.”
The Biden EPA plans to allow private citizens to police oil wells and pipelines for methane leaks. Most of the time, that means Big Green groups will do the “policing.” And here’s how it will work: A radicalized group like the Sierra Club or Earthworks or NRDC or some other odious bad actor will set up equipment near oil and gas well sites or pipeline operations to report suspected “super emitter” leaks of at least 100 kilograms per hour. Once reported (likely a false report), the company involved would be required to perform a root-cause analysis within five days and take corrective actions within 10 days. All based on an accusation by an anti-fossil fueler. Methane snitches.