Big Green-Owned NY Politicians Pressure Hochul to Block Trump Pipes
Big Green is keeping up the pressure on New York Governor Kathy Hochul to block two natural gas pipeline projects that have roared back to life at the prompting of President Trump. Just a week and a half ago, a Big Green rent-a-mob of some 400 (paid) protesters held a rally in New York City and proceeded to march across the Brooklyn Bridge to register their opposition to new natural gas pipelines (see Big Green Marches on Brooklyn Bridge to Protest NESE, Constitution). Barely a week later, Big Green keeps up the pressure, this time by sending a letter signed by 130 New York elected politicians, bought and paid for by Big Green, to Hochul, urging her to block the two projects. Read More “Big Green-Owned NY Politicians Pressure Hochul to Block Trump Pipes”
A week ago, MDN told you that Venture Global (VG) had won an arbitration case brought against it by Shell (see 
A Reuters reporter/commentator published an article that chronicles (with lots of facts, statistics, and charts) the coming rapid buildout of both gas-fired power generation and LNG exports in the U.S. He pitches the situation as a coming “clash of the Titans” (our words, but his sentiment). The author believes that the buildout of new gas-fired plants will sop up molecules that would have gone to LNG export plants, setting up a price war for those molecules. (One could only hope!) We have a different perspective. 
A quick note to let our faithful readers know that MDN will not publish on Thursday or Friday of this week, August 21 & 22. Editor Jim Willis and his bride are taking a short holiday to spend time with family and attend a Major League Baseball game (Mets vs. Nationals). In addition to a trip to D.C. for the game, we will visit one of our favorite places on earth: Lancaster, PA. Jim will catch you up on all the news, including the latest permit numbers, on Monday, August 25.
NATIONAL: With supply abundant and demand easing, natural gas futures falter again; Is CO2 truly a pollutant? We break down the debate; Time to stop endangerment of developing economies with CO2 regulation; INTERNATIONAL: Oil falls as Trump pushes summit; LNG demand, prices to rise further this year, O’Neill says. 
Once upon a time, Eureka Resources operated three shale wastewater recycling facilities in the Marcellus region, one in Bradford County, PA, and two in the Williamsport, PA, area (Lycoming County). One year ago, MDN brought you the news that Eureka had “temporarily” closed the Bradford site and had permanently closed the two sites in Williamsport (see 
We’ve been tracking a story that we consider an ongoing tragedy for more than a decade. American Water Management Services (AWMS) owns a wastewater injection well in Trumbull County, Ohio, that supposedly caused a low-level earthquake (that nobody could feel) in 2014. Actually, there are two injection wells located at the site, both operated by AWMS. They were both “temporarily” shut down by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) following the quake nobody could feel (see 
DT Midstream (DTM), headquartered in Detroit, owns major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region and in other regions, such as Haynesville. The company recently issued its second quarter report with some interesting updates on new pipeline projects coming. We’ll discuss those below. However, it was comments about a potential expansion of capacity along the DT-owned Millennium Pipeline (which flows Marcellus molecules) that caught our attention. The company announced an open season in May for added capacity along the Millennium (see 
We spotted an interesting court ruling in Virginia with the potential to impact midstream (pipeline) companies in the state. The case is Zinner v. Washington Gas Light Co. On July 1, the Court of Appeals of Virginia ruled that a proposed Washington Gas Light (WGL) natural gas pipeline project is a “distribution” and not a “transmission” pipeline project. In Virginia, distribution pipelines are exempt from needing to conform to local municipal ordinances, while transmission lines are subject to such ordinances. 
Last week, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count halted its downward trend, maintaining the same overall number of rigs as the week before: 539 active rigs nationwide. The count has been down (bleeding) 14 of the last 16 weeks. Has the bleeding now stopped? We hope so. The Marcellus/Utica count remained the same for the past four weeks at a combined 36 active rigs. PA operates 18 active rigs. OH is running 11 rigs. And WV is operating 7 rigs. Twenty-four rigs targeted the Marcellus and 12 rigs targeted the Utica last week. 
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued its latest monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) last week. The STEO is the agency’s monthly best guess about where energy prices and production will head in the next 12 months. We joke about the predictions coming from a dartboard, given their seemingly random ups and downs. In this latest assessment, EIA dropped its estimates for the Henry Hub spot price for 2025, again. The agency expects the HH price to average $3.60 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in 2025, $0.10 lower than last month’s forecast. EIA also dropped its 2026 forecast, now believing the gas price will average $4.30/MMBtu, down $0.10 from last month’s $4.40 (and WAY down from the estimate two months ago of $4.90 next year). 
We’ve extensively covered the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) Project over the years, including its death in May 2024 (see