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M-U Co. Partners with Renewable Co. to Build Solar, Wind, Storage
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.
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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 
The clown judges who occupy the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circus) appear ready to reject another water permit granted by the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection to cross streams and rivers and swamps to finish up the 94% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Three judges from the 4th Circus were appointed back in 2017 to hear appeals against the project. All three are profoundly bigoted and prejudiced against natural gas pipeline projects.
Last Thursday, representatives from manufacturing and the energy sectors delivered their thoughts on the future of the national and local economies at the 2022 Economic Outlook Conference sponsored by the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce. Front and center at the event was talk about the role of shale energy in revitalizing West Virginia and making it THE go-to place to set up new manufacturing operations. One speaker pointed out: “(West Virginia) is the only place in the world where you can build your manufacturing facility on top of your natural resources, your energy, and your raw materials in the middle of the biggest market in the world.”
Following his sellout of the country by voting for Joe Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act (a new name for the Build Back Better/New Green Deal), U.S. Senator Joe Manchin’s popularity in his home of West Virginia state has sunk into the sewer. A majority of voters are not happy with the job Manchin is doing, and if the election for Manchin were held today, he would lose to any Republican running against him. Joe Manchin’s political career is over–deservedly so.
Researchers at the West Virginia University (WVU) Energy Institute presented an update on their latest work to reporters yesterday on the Evansdale campus in Morgantown. According to Sam Taylor, assistant director for the WVU Energy Institute, the university is leading the way in research of technologies that can help move the state to a cleaner environment while still using the natural gas produced in the state. WVU professed its love for natgas, but it loves loves loves hydrogen.
Two days ago, MDN told you that the Apostle of LNG, Toby Rice (CEO of EQT), had convinced his buddies at Williams and TC Energy (two pipeline companies) to join him in his latest effort to push for more U.S. LNG exports (see 
There have been a number of project proposals by Marcellus/Utica states (PA, OH, WV), and even proposals by private companies within those states, to attract one of the 6-10 regional hydrogen hub projects on offer from the Bidenistas as part of the so-called Infrastructure Bill passed last year. While we think it’s important that one of those hubs ends up in the M-U region, we have not (will not) root for any particular effort (we love all our children equally). However, as a purely outside observer, it sure seems to us that a recently announced effort by West Virginia called ARCH2 (Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub) has pulled into the lead among a number of competing proposals.
So what happens now that Joe Manchin’s plan to get his fellow Democrats to vote for a bill to finish up the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a “permitting reform” bill, is dead (see 
In September, EQT Corporation announced it is buying Tug Hill Operating’s West Virginia shale assets for $5.2 billion (see 
In something of a shocker, EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas producer in the country with its headquarters (and most major drilling operations) in Pennsylvania, is throwing its weight and support behind a coalition in West Virginia to attract one of the so-called regional hydrogen hubs (worth $1 billion or more in taxpayer investment) to the Mountain State, not to the Keystone State. EQT is one of the main players in forming a new coalition called the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2). Other big energy companies supporting ARCH2 include Williams, Dominion Energy, CNX Resources, and New Fortress Energy (among many more).
We’ll say it right up front: We told you so. From the beginning, when U.S. Senator Joe Manchin announced he had sold out the country and would vote in favor of the horrible (misnamed) Inflation Reduction Act in return for a promise from Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to pass a “permitting reform” bill that guarantees to finish the stalled (95% complete) Mountain Valley Pipeline, we told you it was a bad deal (see 
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, from West Virginia, made a stop at the Global Clean Energy Action Forum (a confab of global warming wackos) on Friday to make a pitch for support of his “save Mountain Valley Pipeline” bill without actually mentioning MVP. At the start of his talk, Manchin was heckled by four wackadoodle protesters who were escorted out by security. Manchin then talked about his bill and how it will streamline the process for renewable energy projects. No mention of fossil fuel projects. Love the one you’re with, right?
Two weeks ago, a lawsuit brought by two West Virginia landowners seeking to overturn the state’s newly enacted forced pooling (i.e. unitization) law was tossed by a federal judge (see 
Yesterday evening, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (from West Virginia) finally released a draft bill that purportedly streamlines the permitting process for oil and gas pipelines, among other things. The bill, called the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2022, also clears away the remaining roadblocks to complete the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline that travels through WV and into Virginia. MVP is 94% done and in the ground, yet anti-fossil fuel wackos keep blocking its completion with frivolous lawsuits and colluding federal judges. Manchin wants to blast through it and get it done, to his credit.