WV Sen. Joe Manchin is About to Cave & Vote for National NatGas Tax
We’re really sad for our readers in West Virginia who mistakenly voted for Joe Manchin in the last election, believing that he’s a “different” kind of Democrat. The entire country will pay the price for your mistake. Joe Manchin is beginning to cave to the intense pressure he’s under to vote in favor of a multi-trillion dollar budget deal that (yes) does include an obscene tax on methane (i.e. natural gas) aimed at forcing drillers and pipeline companies, along with those using methane, to abandon it. Abandon natural gas. That’s what is now coming at us in the supposedly renegotiated Biden budget bill.
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Last week Pennsylvania issued 21 permits to drill new shale wells. Most of the permits went to two well pads, one in Butler County drilled by PennEnergy Resources and the other in Tioga County drilled by Repsol. Ohio issued six new permits, three to Encino Energy, two to Utica Resource Operating, and one to Ascent Resources. West Virginia, for the second week in a row, issued just one new permit. Last week’s WV permit went to Tug Hill Operating in Marshall County.
Everyone is scratching their heads trying to figure out why, given the price natural gas is fetching in both the futures and physical spot price market, natural gas drillers don’t drill more wells. The excuse given is that budgets are cast, plans made, and by gosh companies are finally showing fiscal discipline and sticking to their plans because if they don’t, investors will scream bloody murder. The last time we checked investors don’t mind spending a little more money to drill new wells if it puts more money in their pockets! That message finally seems to be getting through. Yesterday U.S. natural gas production surged to its highest level since late August (when Hurricane Ida struck, shutting down natgas production in the Gulf). Most of the gains came from more production in the Marcellus/Utica.
In July the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a plan by Dominion Energy to clean up and “undo” the work done for the company’s previous Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project (see 
The Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia (GO-WV) released a new report yesterday called “Gas Facts” (full copy below). The report chronicles the impact oil and gas has had on the Mountain State over the past five years. According to Charlie Burd, GO-WV executive director, “Natural gas is the state’s top-paying sector, supporting more than 82,000 jobs and contributing roughly $5.2 billion in wages each year. Clean, abundant natural gas will continue to drive economic growth and opportunities for generations of West Virginians.” It’s an interesting report. One thing in the report caught our eye immediately: Two “top 10” lists for gas and oil production. We’re suckers for a good top 10 list…
Charlie Burd, executive director of the Gas & Oil Association of West Virginia, gave an update on the state’s oil and gas industry to the members of the West Virginia Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Energy on Tuesday. Burd (a Democrat) sang the praises of hydraulic fracturing. In 2020, more than 95% of the 2.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas produced in West Virginia came from horizontal drilling, according to Burd. We discovered some interesting statistics from Burd on the state’s oil and gas industry…
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia remains the only thing standing in the way of the Democrats’ far-left, socialist plan to remake the country using a pair of bills that will spend over $5 trillion of your tax money. Both the infrastructure bill and the so-called budget reconciliation bill contain new regulations and laws that directly, nakedly, attack the oil and gas industry. The Democrats want to end fossil fuels–a truly frightening (and stupid) plan. Manchin is holding them back. Will he cave?
Yesterday Antero Resources announced the publication of its 2020 ESG Report (environmental, social, governance) highlighting a focus on People, Performance, and Purpose. The report details Antero Resources’ ongoing commitment to the communities in which it operates, safe operations, environmental excellence, and strong governance. Frankly, we could care less about ESG programs–an attempt to impress people who will never be impressed with the extraordinary efforts made by fossil fuel companies to respect the environment. What caught our eye in Antero’s report is the amount of money the company invested in West Virginia and Ohio, where it drills for liquids and gas.
A healthy number of permits were issued to drill new shale wells across the Marcellus/Utica region last week. Pennsylvania issued 19 new permits in both southwest and northeast PA. Ohio issued 8 new permits, all of them to a single driller (Ascent Resources) for two well pads in two different counties. West Virginia issued 9 new permits–all but 2 of them were issued to Antero Resources in Tyler County.
In early 2019, EQT, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S. (and in the Marcellus/Utica) settled a class action lawsuit in West Virginia with landowners and rights owners ending EQT’s practice of post-production deductions from royalty checks (see 
Sometimes it seems like a full-time job running around and setting the record straight, correcting the outright lies and half-truths spun by the wacko environmental left. For example, shoveling up the messes made by the Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI), a far-left, hyper-partisan, nonprofit organization. Last month ORVI peddled falsehoods at a hearing convened by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management which is conducting a study on the prospects for a petrochemical industry in the Marcellus/Utica (see