Sen. Joe Manchin Defends Misnamed IRA in Davos, Switzerland
Joe Manchin, the rather pathetic, has-been U.S. Senator from West Virginia, is sitting his bum in Davos, Switzerland, wining and dining and hobnobbing with leftist elites from around the world at the World Economic Forum. Manchin, you might recall, sold out the United States by voting for the Green New Deal, renamed to Build Back Better, and further renamed to the Inflation Reduction Act (see Tragedy: Joe Manchin Caves & Agrees to Big Green Build Back Better). Manchin did so after cutting a deal for the Senate to vote on a “permitting reform” bill that would, in essence, save the Mountain Valley Pipeline project from languishing in regulatory and litigation hell (see Joe Manchin Cuts MVP “Deal” in Return for Selling Out Country). It was a bad trade as the permitting “save MVP” bill has still not passed. In Davos, Manchin is trying to repair his tattered reputation, saying the Inflation Reduction Act was/is a good thing.
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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 is coming under criticism for an almost-blackout during the recent Christmas cold snap. If not for certain gas-fired peaker plants, like that in the Little Town of Bethlehem, the lights would have gone out during a brutal cold snap (see 
West Virginia’s annual 60-day legislative session begins today. Yesterday, in preparation for the new session, the state’s Revenue Secretary, Dave Hardy, and Deputy Secretary, Mark Muchow, gave a report on the state’s finances to the Joint Committee on Finance. Hardy said state surpluses from taxes (particularly the severance tax) are “eye-popping and they’re historic numbers.” The high price of natural gas has led to record severance tax collections in the Mountain State. Halfway through the fiscal year, severance tax collections are up 113%. State revenue is up 21% year-to-date because of high severance tax collections. But, will the severance tax gravy train continue?
Yesterday we told you that the Pennsylvania-blessed effort by Shell and Equinor to build (at taxpayers’ expense) a so-called hydrogen hub in PA has received the Dept. of Energy’s blessing (“encouragement”) to submit a full application (see 
West Virginia is taking the lead in a coalition to apply for (and build) a regional hydrogen hub, funded by taxpayers as provided for in the so-called Biden infrastructure bill. Some 200 organizations (universities, businesses, trade associations, etc.) have joined the WV effort, called Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2), including the State of Ohio (see 
Last September, EQT Corporation announced it is buying privately-owned Tug Hill Operating’s West Virginia shale assets for $5.2 billion (see 
Another twist in the effort to overturn a bill passed earlier this year by the West Virginia legislature, Senate Bill (SB) 694, which finally brings forced pooling for shale wells to the Mountain States after eight years of trying (see 
Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA), a trade group representing some of the biggest consumers of energy in the U.S. (i.e., manufacturers), wrote a letter to the governors of 12 states along the Eastern Seaboard asking those governors to prioritize natural gas pipelines in their respective states (full copy of the letter below). Recipients included Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and (falling on deaf ears) New York and New Jersey. According to the letter, manufacturing companies along the East Coast face growing natural gas scarcity due to the lack of interstate natural gas pipeline capacity.
Two days ago, MDN brought you the news that U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, from West Virginia, would make one more attempt to “shock” his permitting reform bill (that would allow the Mountain Valley Pipeline to finish up more quickly) into life once again (see 
Last week MDN told you that U.S. Senator Joe Manchin’s latest attempt to pass a so-called permitting reform bill (that would save Mountain Valley Pipeline as part of the bargain) had once again crashed and burned (see 
Since the so-called Biden infrastructure bill became law late last year with $8 billion earmarked for so-called clean hydrogen hubs to be funded around the country, we’ve made the strong and loud point that unless the Marcellus/Utica states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia join forces and submit a joint proposal to site one of the 6-10 regional hubs here, we risk losing out to other regional coalitions. It seems someone is finally listening. Until now, each M-U state has proffered its own plan/application for a hydrogen hub (see 
Once again, a permitting reform bill floated by U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (from West Virginia) with a provision to complete the 94% completed 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) has flamed out. Manchin made a deal with the devil–his own Democrat Party–to vote for the misnamed and terrible Inflation Reduction Act (a warmed-over version of the Green New Deal) in return for HIS party’s support to pass a so-called permitting reform bill that would, among other things, allow MVP to finish up without court interference (see 
A lawsuit brought by two West Virginia landowners seeking to overturn the state’s newly enacted forced pooling (i.e. unitization) law was put on pause by a federal judge on Dec. 1. The same two landowners had a previous version of the same lawsuit tossed by the judge back in September (see