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SRBC Advises Water Permit Holders to Consider Alternative Sources
At the end of May, MDN told you about water withdrawal restrictions from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) affecting 42 Pennsylvania oil and gas operators due to ongoing drought conditions (see SRBC Water Withdrawal Restrictions Hit 42 PA Oil & Gas Operators). Earlier this week, the SRBC notified all water users in the basin that have withdrawal permits, including shale drillers, they should review those permits, and if there are restrictions for withdrawals during low streamflow conditions, they need to make alternative plans…now.
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We spotted a press release from an energy company that works in New York State called 
Yesterday, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), an independent, nonpartisan group, named New York Governor Kathy Hochul (Democrat) its May 2023 “Porker of the Month” for signing a budget that bans gas stoves and furnaces in new residential buildings. Hochul signed a $229 billion behemoth budget bill that bans new construction from connecting to natural gas pipelines (outlawing new gas stoves and furnaces), as well as forces the shutdown of seven gas-fired peaker power plants (see 
Three New York City pension funds–the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, the Teachers’ Retirement System, and the Board of Education Retirement System–were sued this week by municipal employees for breaching their fiduciary duty and divesting from fossil energy companies. The plaintiffs allege the divestments have resulted in the loss of billions of dollars that otherwise would have gone to retirees. The pension funds went woke and decided they could no longer support companies that (in their wrong opinion) are creating catastrophic, man-made global warming.
We are extremely unimpressed with New York City’s main utility company, Consolidated Edison. Con Ed supplies customers in all of New York City and Westchester County with electricity, and major portions (but not all) of NYC and Westchester with natural gas. The company has thrown in its lot (colluded with) New York’s far-left Democrats on a plan to kill off natural gas for its customers, believing it can eliminate some of its competitors. Con Ed is more than happy to build new projects, like a six-mile electric transmission line through Queens, and then pass the $275 million price to its customers to pay back. The new transmission line is meant to deliver enough extra electricity that Con Ed can shut down the gas-fired peaker plants it uses to help supply electricity on heavy usage days.
Two days ago, we brought you the very sad news that New York State has fallen and is now under a Communist dictatorship (see 
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a true extremist, is trying to ban natural gas hookups in every single new home and business across the “Empire” State (see 
New York State’s chickens are finally coming home to roost. The extreme leftist politicians who run the state have assaulted the fossil energy industry for half a dozen years, maybe longer. The assault on fossil energy began under Andrew Cuomo and has continued under his successor, Kathy Hochul. Their actions are leading to electricity blackouts in New York City. Last Friday, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) released its quarterly assessment of the reliability of the bulk electric system. While the state as a whole is not (yet) in trouble, NYISO says beginning in 2025, NYC “could become deficient” in electric power. Translation: The Big (Rotten) Apple is heading for blackouts.
New York politicians are so consumed with hatred of fossil fuels they are forcing residents to pay an average of $28,000 to convert their homes away from heating and cooking with natural gas, propane, and fuel oil (see 
This is another in our series of what it’s like living “Behind Enemy Lines.” MDN editor Jim Willis lives in Upstate New York (Binghamton area). Our freedoms in NY are being stripped away at an alarming rate. The radical left is in full control of the state, as is illustrated by a recent debate between Gov. Kathy Hochul (a far-left radical) and others in the Democrat Party even further to the left of Hochul, if such a thing is possible. The people left of Hochul are resisting a reasonable compromise in the current budget that would change the current timeline for methane accounting from 20 years to 100 years.
National Grid is desperately trying not to run out of natural gas for its customers in Brooklyn and Queens (on Long Island). It appears because of opposition from crazy leftists, they won’t succeed. For several years the company has fought a battle to run a tiny pipeline to its Greenpoint, Brooklyn facility to provide extra natural gas. That project is going nowhere fast. National Grid has/had a backup plan in case it could not complete the pipeline project–add two extra LNG vaporizers to the Greenpoint facility to turn trucked LNG back into gas that can flow through the system. It seems even Plan B is now gone. What’s left are coming gas outages for Long Island.
As we reported yesterday, New York legislators are pushing back against a truly crazy plan by NY Gov. Kathy Hochul to ban natural gas (and fuel oil) in all homes and businesses across the Empire State (see 
We live and work in Upstate New York State (sad to say). It is our birthplace, and our families live here. However, New York has fallen. We are overwhelmed with Democrat socialists who don’t care about traditional American values like freedom. The best illustration of this is our newly-elected Governor, Kathy Hochul. She not only wants to ban natural gas hookups for new homes and businesses across the entire state, she wants to force all EXISTING homes and businesses to give up using natural gas (and fuel oil, and coal, and wood) as well. It’s certifiably insane. Yet that’s how the Democrat socialist mind works. Fortunately, there are at least a few Dems left willing to push back on some of this insanity. Where do plans stand to ban natgas in the Empire State?