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Manchin’s “Save MVP” Permitting Reform Dies (Again) in Senate Vote
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 Dr. Manchinstein Tries to Shock Permitting Reform Bill into Life). Manchin got Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to schedule a vote to add the permitting bill to a defense authorization bill. That vote happened yesterday, and Manchin’s bill was voted against by ten of his own fellow Democrat Senators–sinking any chances of getting it approved.
Read More “Manchin’s “Save MVP” Permitting Reform Dies (Again) in Senate Vote”
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 
There are advantages and disadvantages to being publicly or privately owned. In the oil and gas sector, most large companies are publicly owned–meaning they have a board of directors, and the “owners” hold shares of stock in the company, shares traded on public exchanges. In the Marcellus/Utica, most of the top drillers are publicly owned: Range Resources, Coterra Energy, CNX Resources, EQT Corporation, Antero Resources, Southwestern Energy, Repsol, National Fuel Gas Company (i.e. Seneca Resources), and Gulfport Energy. Several others are privately owned, including Ascent Resources (Ohio’s largest natural gas producer and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S.), Greylock Energy (based in West Virginia), and Olympus Energy (which drills in the Pittsburgh suburbs).
And just like that, the horse everyone thought was dead has come back to life and is leading the race. We’re talking about U.S. Senator Joe Manchin’s so-called permitting reform bill to help save the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). The bill proposed by Manchin would bypass the clown judges on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals who are blocking it. Manchin got a pledge from his buddy Chuck Schumer to allow a vote on permitting reform in return for Manchin selling out the country by voting to pass the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (see 
Just last week, we told you that a West Virginia Circuit Court judge who allegedly waved and pointed a gun at an attorney for EQT Corporation during a hearing about a case brought against EQT by landowners for improper deductions of post-production expenses from their royalty payments had resigned (see 
According to insiders in the D.C. swamp, the deal that U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (from West Virginia) made with Sen. Chuck Schumer (from New York) to get a “permitting reform” bill passed that would, among other things, allow the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), currently 94% built and in the ground, is on “life support.” The bill proposed by Manchin would bypass the clown judges on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals who are blocking it. The bill supposedly would allow MVP to finish and go online. However, Republicans are being falsely accused of blocking it.
While tracking the active rig count week by week can give you a little sugar high, we think tracking the count month by month is more illustrative of where the count (and drilling activity) is heading. Baker Hughes is the grandaddy of rig counts, having tracked rigs since 1944. You need a rig to drill a new well, so counting active rigs gives you an idea of overall drilling activity. What do the rig counts look like for Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia over the past two years? Is drilling activity going up, or down, in our region? We have the answer.
John Deskins, director of the Bureau of Business & Economic Research at West Virginia University, told members of the state legislature’s Joint Committee on Natural Gas Development at a meeting on Monday that the severance tax on natural gas production in the state is responsible for more than 20% of the state’s record-breaking tax revenue surpluses. Natural gas severance tax collections between July and October accounted for approximately 20% of the $575 million in total general revenue fund surplus tax revenue during that time period.
We have chronicled a number of companies that buy royalty and/or mineral rights from landowners in the Marcellus/Utica over the years (see our previous stories about royalty mineral rights sales 
A press release issued yesterday announced the partnership between an Appalachian driller we aren’t familiar with, Oil Well Shares (OWS), and Canada-based OYA Renewables to form a joint venture called Chrysalis Energy. The new company will use OWS’s 1.5 million leased acres across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia to build solar farms, wind farms, and “energy storage infrastructure projects.” We have some thoughts about this partnership and how it may impact landowners.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat from West Virginia, ended his political future when he sold out the country by voting in favor of the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which is actually a mini-Green New Deal bill (see