Trump DOE Investing $18M to Figure Out How to Frack Better
The Trump Dept. of Energy (DOE) wants to make better frackers. What does being a “better” fracker mean, and how is the DOE further that cause? The DOE is doling out $20 million, of which $18 million will be used on research to “address critical gaps in the understanding of reservoir behavior and optimal completion, stimulation, and recovery strategies for unconventional oil and gas.” That is, figure out how to frack cheaper, faster and in a way that impacts the environment less. And the government is willing to spend some coin to help figure it out…
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Anti-frackers like Josh Fox (maker of the propaganda film Gasland) have long relied on a single, flawed research “study” that purported to make the case that the entire country could, if it wanted to, switch over to using 100% renewable energy sources by 2050. The study, titled “100% clean and renewable wind, water, and sunlight (WWS) all-sector energy roadmaps for the 50 United States” (full copy below), presents “roadmaps for each of the 50 United States to convert their all-purpose energy systems (for electricity, transportation, heating/cooling, and industry) to ones powered entirely by wind, water, and sunlight (WWS).” This week a group of 21 independent experts, including the former associate director at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a NOAA researcher who specializes in renewables, issued a devastating rebuttal of the earlier “renewable roadmap” study–saying it has “significant shortcomings,” using “invalid modeling tools” with “modeling errors” and makes “implausible and inadequately supported assumptions.” In the rebuttal study, titled “Evaluation of a proposal for reliable low-cost grid power with 100% wind, water, and solar” (full copy below), the authors rip the earlier “renewable roadmap” study to shreds, exposing the lie that fossil fuels can be phased out within our lifetimes. It’s simply not possible. And it’s time that lie is debunked in the public square. But don’t look for mainstream media to give one drop of ink to this study. It doesn’t fit their renewables-are-nirvana-and-fossil-fuels-are-evil narrative…
A group of creaking, tottering old RINO (Republican in Name Only) dinosaurs (i.e. RINOsaurs) left the golf course long enough to lobby President Trump on the insane idea of a so-called “carbon tax” back in February (see 
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Ohio anti-fracking ‘digital disruption powerhour’ a huge disappointment; FirstEnergy executive vice president James H. Lash to retire; EQT/Rice merger could make more office space available at Southpointe; Environmentalists bring PA closer to financial ruin; U.S. Secretary of Energy Perry to visit W.Va.; Clean coal power plant ordered to run on natural gas instead; Frackers collide with traditional oil drillers – “frack hits”; USA: new LNG act to remove export restrictions; Cheniere offers better terms to attract LNG customers; and more!
In March of this year, the Team Pennsylvania Foundation released a report called “Prospects to Enhance Pennsylvania’s Opportunities in Petrochemical Manufacturing” (see 
The petrochemical conference in Pittsburgh earlier this week wasn’t the only event in town. The DUG (Developing Unconventional Gas) East conference and exposition took place at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, several blocks from the petchem event. The reporting from one session in particular caught our attention. A panel of drillers and service companies (upstream focus) talked about the prices that service companies (that is, oilfield service companies, like Halliburton and Baker Hughes) charge has gone up 10-15% over rates from last year, when service companies had to slash prices. While that’s good for service companies, but not so good for drillers and may, yet again, lead to a decline in active rig counts. The panel also discussed the increasingly critical shortage of workers in the Marcellus/Utica industry…
It’s kind of humorous when a small group of insane anti-fossil fuelers participate in a march that they call “Stop the Madness.” Kind of meta, dontcha think? An anti reporter from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tagged along (who could tell the difference?) to “report” on a group of “about 100 protesters from 11 organizations” who rallied and marched from one Marcellus event to another being held in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. The protesters, dressed in clothes made from petrochemicals, wearing sneakers made from petrochemicals, and holding signs made from petrochemicals (after arriving at the “rally” and “march” in fossil fuel-powered transportation), rallied outside of the Northeast U.S. Petrochemical Construction conference–to protest petrochemicals, and then marched across town to the convention center to protest fracking outside of the DUG (Developing Unconventional Gas) East event. The group was a mish mash of the usual suspects–hard left nutters who pop up again and again to grab a headline bashing fossil fuels, before scarpering home using the fossil fuels they just bashed, going to houses and apartments heated and cooled using fossil fuels. Typical…
Primoris Services Corporation, a pipeline building company based in Dallas, TX, has built a number of gathering pipelines in the Marcellus region. We’ve been covering some of the projects Primoris has been involved with since 2013 (
The federal Environmental Protection Agency has been a rogue agency for years under the previous Obama administration. To be fair, the agency has been a problem long before that–pretty much since its inception. Now that President Trump is attempting to reign in the EPA by trimming its budget and focusing it on its original intent–to clean up America’s air and water–leftists are having a cow. In a devastating column published by Dr. Jack Rafuse, a former White House energy adviser, Rafuse exposes some of the egregious collusion and criminal cover-ups perpetrated by the EPA. Rafuse lays bare the swamp that needs draining at the EPA, providing justification for Trump’s actions in reigning in this rogue agency. This is the real news that fake newsers in mainstream media won’t tell you…
It’s hard to overestimate the damage to the fossil fuel industry in general, and the natural gas industry in particular, from the propaganda film Gasland, created by Josh Fox. The movie is full of lies and misinformation, but it’s good entertainment and in a culture that disdains the use of logic and reason, someone else’s lies quickly become some unthinking people’s “truth.” Fox has repeatedly proven he’s a charlatan and liar. No one exposes his lies better than Phelim McAleer, a real filmmaker who made the counter-documentary 
Canadian company RocketFrac Services Ltd. has an interesting twist on waterless fracking technology–they use solid rocket fuel. No danger of leaks. No worries about transporting it. No water involved. The company makes some pretty big boasts: “We are confident that our fracing process will rapidly become a valuable alternative, perhaps even the preferred choice, for oil and gas exploration and development companies around the globe.” We’ve heard those kinds of claims before. Still, the startup company set out to raise $1 million and ended up raising $3.1 million (see 
It takes a lot longer these days to get a big pipeline approved than it used to. In April 2014, Dominion promoted an open season for what would later become the $5 billion, 594-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline–a natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina. By September 2014, Dominion said they had enough commitment to move forward with the project (see 
A week ago a sharp MDN reader (landowner) in West Virginia emailed us to ask about news of a sale by CNX Gas (i.e. CONSOL Energy) of their leases and wells in Doddridge County to Antero Resources. We were stumped. We’ve neither heard nor read anything about it. We searched. And searched. And searched. Nothing. She wrote again a few days later–had we heard anything? Nope. Then we got a second email from another MDN reader asking about the same thing. Our second questioner is in the oil and gas industry. When we questioned him, he gave us a few more clues: It may not only be in Doddridge, but also Tyler County too. There’s something happening in both areas. So we put our feelers out to a number of industry contacts and heard back from one of them–a highly placed source–who confirmed our tipsters. So we now have three people confirming. We know something has been sold and deeds are getting transferred from CNX to Antero in at least one county. Our best guess is that a sale is happening not just in Doddridge, but also in Ritchie, Tyler and Pleasants counties too. We have not (yet) been able to confirm this with Antero, but we feel we have enough to share with you, our valued readers. Here’s what we know, the evidence we have, and a map of the acreage we believe has been/is getting transferred from CNX to Antero…
On Monday EQT announced what is some of the biggest news MDN has covered in the past few years: EQT is buying Rice Energy (see