WV Bill Promoting New Gas-Fired Power Plants Debated in House
West Virginia Senate Bill (SB) 188, the Grid Stabilization and Security Act, is aimed at making WV more competitive with its neighbors–Pennsylvania and Ohio–with respect to siting more gas-fired power plants in the state. While there was a lot of early momentum to pass the bill, it came to a screeching halt early last week in the House of Delegates (see WV Bill Promoting New Gas-Fired Power Plants Suddenly Derailed). The state’s powerful coal lobby does not like some of the language in the bill, which stalled progress. However, the measure is once again moving in the House. There was a vigorous debate yesterday in the House about whether or not to fold SB 188 into a similar House bill aimed at promoting more coal use in the state.
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The West Virginia State Legislature passed House Bill (HB) 2581 on the last day of the annual WV legislative session in April 2021. HB 2581 required the State Tax Commissioner to develop a revised methodology to value oil and natural gas properties for the purpose of assessing property taxes. The State Tax Department submitted an emergency rule in the summer of 2021 that was, quite frankly, a mess. In March 2022, the legislature passed, and Gov. Jim Justice signed into law, House Bill (HB) 4336, aimed at fixing the mess (see 
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 
We just have to say right up front, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia is either a lying sleazebag, or he’s really, really stupid. And neither option is very inspiring. Last year Manchin was lured into voting in favor of a massive government spending bill that previously was called the New Green Deal. It got renamed (misnamed) to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), to make it an easier sell to voters (see 
The heads of three major oil and gas groups in the Appalachian region–the Marcellus Shale Coalition (representing Pennsylvania), the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia, and the Ohio Oil and Gas Association–combined to pen an open letter to President Biden encouraging him to let the Marcellus/Utica “lead the way” in achieving our country’s shared goals for domestic, affordable, and clean energy. It’s a great letter making strong and cogent arguments for why more M-U natgas can reduce emissions and benefit not only the economy but the environment. There’s just one small problem…
On Dec. 22, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) published a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement that allows the nearly-completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to finish up construction through 3.5 miles of Jefferson National Forest straddling West Virginia and Virginia (see 
Baker Hughes reported the rig count for last week saw the deepest cuts in rigs for any single week since June 2020 (just as the COVID pandemic and lockdowns were taking hold). The oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, fell by 12 to 759 in the week ending Feb. 3. That is the lowest overall rig count number since September of last year. All of which sounds rather ominous. So we grabbed the numbers and updated our own spreadsheet/chart, and found the rig count across the three Marcellus/Utica states–Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia–remained a constant 52 active rigs over the past three months. Whew.
The number crunchers at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) have analyzed proved reserves data for 2021 (the most recent year available) and have determined that proved reserves soared, up by 32% from the previous year. Why? Five of the eight states with the most proved reserves of natural gas each reported new record volumes, driving the growth nationally. And one of those five is a Marcellus/Utica state: West Virginia.
We love West Virginia. The state continues to fight the good fight against those who insist on trying to defund fossil energy companies. WV’s latest target is the two proxy advisory services, Glass Lewis and International Shareholder Services (ISS), that control some 90% of all corporate proxy voting in the U.S. WV is advancing a new bill, at the prompting of State Treasurer Riley Moore, that the state (including its massive pension fund) will not do business with proxy services that use ESG (environment, social, governance) as a litmus test for how to invest. States like WV (and Florida, and Texas) are changing the game–having an impact.