WV Landowners Left Out of EQT Class Action Can’t Sue Now
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 EQT Settles WV Class Action Royalty Lawsuit for $53.5M). EQT agreed to pay $53.5 million into a settlement fund that will disburse payments to each individual litigant–unless they elected to opt out of the settlement and continue on with a private lawsuit against EQT. Several landowners say they were not given the opportunity to join (or opt out of) the class action, so they launched their own new/separate lawsuit. A federal judge has just shut them down.
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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 
We don’t often use material from the known fake news source called the New York Times, but here we are using a second article from the NYT in one day! The article (below) does its best to shred the reputation and credibility of Joe Manchin, senior U.S. Senator from West Virginia. We have to confess we’re a bit wary of Manchin given his tendency to cave under pressure and vote with the Democrat Party line. But Manchin is all that currently stands in the way of Joe Biden and the Democrat Party’s plan to eliminate natural gas (and coal), phasing both out as energy sources to produce electricity, part of the $3.5 trillion so-called budget reconciliation bill.
In April, on the last day of the West Virginia legislative session for 2021, the West Virginia Senate unanimously passed House Bill (HB) 2581 which changes how the State Tax Department values producing oil and gas wells for property tax purposes (see 
The Route 2 | I-68 Authority in West Virginia wants to expand Route 2 to four lanes from Parkersburg, WV to Chester, WV, and to extend Interstate 68 from I-79 near Morgantown, WV westward to WV Route 2 along the Ohio River Valley, some 73 miles (see 
In January MDN told you that UGI Corporation, one of Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas utility companies, wants to buy Mountaineer Gas Company, one of West Virginia’s largest natural gas utility companies, for $540 million (see 
Yesterday the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a puff piece praising Brian Anderson, director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and now the head of the Biden administration’s Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization, an effort to kill the use of fossil fuels (see 
There is a very real and tangible cost to the delays coming from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) with respect to reviewing natural gas pipeline projects. Those delays, intentionally created by current FERC Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick, are costing West Virginians jobs and money. JB McCuskey, the state auditor for WV, should know. He audits how tax dollars are spent in the state. His office reviews and approves general operating budgets for some 700 municipalities, counties, and school districts across the state. McCuskey says FERC is tangibly hurting the state of WV by dragging its feet in reviewing pipeline projects.
A new report (full copy below) commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has found the oil and natural gas industries directly or indirectly supported over 188,000 jobs in Pennsylvania in 2019, or 6.1% of the total share of commonwealth employment. Furthermore, the oil and gas industries produced $14.2 billion in labor income, which was 7.9% of the state total share, and had a statewide economic impact of $31.9 billion, for 9.7% of the state total share. The percentages for the impact of oil and gas on the West Virginia economy are similar.
How does this sound? You’d like a good job in the oil and gas pipeline industry, something skilled that requires some schooling. But you have a job now and can’t attend a class full-time and you can’t afford the tuition. If you live West Virginia, a huge opportunity has just opened up for you. TC Energy (pipeline giant based in Canada) is partnering with Kanawha County’s BridgeValley Community and Technical College to create programs to train future gas technicians for jobs that are expected to be in high demand in the next three to five years. If you live and stay living in WV, the 60 credit-hour (two-year) college program is tuition-free. Much of the work can be done online in a blended format–traveling to school for lab work only.
Back in January MDN told you that UGI Corporation, one of Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas utility companies, wants to buy Mountaineer Gas Company, one of West Virginia’s largest natural gas utility companies, for $540 million (see 
Last week MDN told you about an unplanned outage at two MarkWest natural gas processing plants located in West Virginia (see 
On June 3 we published a post posing the question of whether or not the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would delay the already-years-delayed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) for yet another year (see 
The West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection (WV DEP) is moving forward with its constitutional duty to evaluate whether or not the state should issue a federal Clean Water Act permit allowing Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to finish crossing water bodies it hasn’t already crossed under a previous permit (which was overturned by the lefties of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit). WV DEP will hold an online, virtual hearing tonight at 6 pm to accept comments from the public.
A federal court in Pennsylvania upheld the findings of a U.S. Dept. of Labor investigation that oil and gas contract worker Henkels & McCoy Inc. owes big money in back wages and overtime to 362 workers at 11 worksites in five states, including Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Connecticut, Georgia, and (yes) even in New York too. The company must now pay $1,085,830 in back wages and damages.
It would be laughable if it were not so tragic…Democrats like Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm (worst Sec Energy in a generation) think throwing $5 million to West Virginia University for “research” to develop “low-carbon power plant technology” is some big deal. It’s generous. Magnanimous. Beneficent. Granholm visited WV last week to bestow $5 million in largesse from Uncle Joe on the good people of the Mountain State. A $5 million research grant is NOTHING. It’s a rounding error of a rounding error in the Dept. of Energy’s budget. By comparison, a single natural gas-fired power plant in WV would attract $500-$800 million of investment! And that’s all private money, not taxpayer’s hard-earned money.