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25 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV May 29-Jun 4
New shale permits issued for May 29-Jun 4 in the Marcellus/Utica finally went higher again last week. There were 25 new permits issued, up from the dismal 8 new permits issued the previous week. Last week’s permit tally included 13 new permits for Pennsylvania, 6 new permits for Ohio, and 6 new permits in West Virginia. EQT scored the most new permits with 7 issued in Greene County, PA. Close behind in the #2 position was Antero Resources, with 6 new permits issued in Ritchie County, WV.
Read More “25 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV May 29-Jun 4”
It literally took an Act of Congress, but the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline will be, according to the builder and main owner, Equitrans, completed and online by the end of 2023. Victory!!! Finally, the good guys win one. The bulk of the credit for this significant victory goes to…House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who listened to the Republicans of West Virginia and stuck his own neck out to ensure this pipeline project gets completed by including it in the debt ceiling bill. Yes, liberal Democrat Joe Manchin gets credit for calling attention to the plight of MVP, but make no mistake–Manchin could not seal the deal. He fumbled the ball and could not get it across the finish line for a touchdown. It was McCarthy who picked up the ball and ran with it. It was Congresswoman Carol Miller (from West Virginia) and Senator Shelley Moore Capito (also from WV) who fought and lobbied (behind the scenes). Their work aided McCarthy in securing a place for MVP in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. Hats off to the Republican delegation from WV for their success.
Marcellus driller Northeast Natural Energy (NNE) has begun to drill a geothermal and carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) data collection well, all the way down to 15,000 below the surface (see 
Although U.S. Senator Joe Manchin “absolutely thinks” that Congress will pass the debt ceiling bill negotiated by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, it’s still an open question as to whether or not it will pass. There are plenty of people on both ends of the political spectrum who are more than unhappy with the bill and plan to vote against it. At least, that’s what they say now. Today will be the acid test when a finalized bill appears and gets a vote in the House of Representatives. The billed, called the “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023,” contains language that forces the completion of the 303-mile Marcellus/Utica Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Manchin says if the bill passes, all currently open and pending lawsuits against MVP in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will be immediately dismissed.
Big news over the weekend. President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to a compromise deal to raise the debt ceiling–into the stratosphere. Part of the deal is a provision in the 99-page “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023” called Section 324, which expedites the completion of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. MVP will flow 2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of Marcellus/Utica gas from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA. Needless to say, anti-fossil fuel nutters began howling at the moon and clawing at their faces upon hearing the MVP news.
Today’s lead story shares the good news that Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is finally getting a literal “act of Congress” to force its completion (see Biden-McCarthy Debt Ceiling Deal Includes Finishing MVP PDQ). One of the provisions in the “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023” (debt ceiling bill) removes jurisdiction to hear court cases brought against MVP away from the corrupt U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and gives it to the D.C. Circuit instead. Which may not be the panacea we were hoping for. On Friday, the D.C. Circuit ruled in a case concerning MVP that has the potential to delay the project further. So much for the D.C. Circuit being MVP’s savior…
Last Friday, Form Energy, a Boston-based firm building a utility-scale battery factory just across the Pennsylvania border in Weirton, West Virginia, held a groundbreaking ceremony on the site of a former steel plant. On hand for the ceremony were Jennifer Granholm, Secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE), and U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, from WV. We don’t care a fig about the battery factory. It was comments about a potential Appalachian hydrogen hub, made during interviews at the event, that caught our attention. Granholm all but guaranteed a hydrogen hub is coming to our region. Hello, $1 billion! Joe Manchin went even further and said, “I think West Virginia is going to be awarded a hydrogen hub.” What does Joe know that we don’t?
Last Thursday, a Congressman from Pennsylvania, John Joyce (a physician from Altoona, PA), introduced House of Representatives Bill (HR) 3500, called the “Mountain Valley Pipeline Completion Act” (copy below). Which we find interesting because Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) does not touch PA, although a PA company, Equitrans, is building it. The 303-mile MVP pipeline starts in Wetzel County, WV, and runs through WV into Virginia, ending in Pittsylvania County, VA. The project has been stalled for years due to repeated lawsuits from foreign-funded Big Green groups. HR 3500, aimed at finishing MVP, was co-sponsored by U.S. Reps. Carol Miller (R-WV), Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA), Mike Kelly (R-PA), Dan Meuser (R-PA), and Alex Mooney (R-WV). Here’s what the bill would do…
Two weeks ago, the Bidenistas at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a hellscape of new regulations aimed at forcing coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to close (see 
Last week MDN told you the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) had given final approval to Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to install pipe through 3.5 miles of woodlands, and under the Appalachian Trail, in the Jefferson National Forest in Monroe County in West Virginia, in and Giles and Montgomery counties in Virginia for the THIRD time (see