Weather Channel Founder Says “Climate Change” Theory has Failed
John Coleman is the founder of the Weather Channel. He’s been a meteorologist for over 60 years. He was the original forecaster for the first seven years of ABC’s Good Morning America. The man has been around. He knows weather, and he knows science. Penning a column in today’s USA Today, for Earth Day, Coleman skewers the global warming “climate change” hysteria as a hoax that does nothing more than give more power to the United Nations. Happy Earth Day! Here’s what Coleman says…
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The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Columbia Pipeline gets award; tax revenues up in Monroe County, OH from fracking; new EQT directors; no vote on Elizbeth Twp natgas-fired power plant; big renewables co. SunEdison goes bankrupt; making OPEC irrelevant; natgas storage surplus; and more!
Anti-fossil fuel nuts in Massachusetts and other northeastern states are euphoric, actually orgasmic, at Kinder Morgan’s announcement yesterday that the company has suspended (not necessarily canceled) any further spending/time/effort on the Tennessee Gas Pipeline expansion from NY through MA, otherwise known as the Northeast Energy Direct (NED) project. Here’s what Kinder Morgan’s announcement means for natural gas customers, at least in certain parts of Massachusetts: If you build a new house, or a new business, and want to connect it to the natgas system in your community, forget about it. You can’t. There’s not enough gas. And if you’re an existing customer and want to convert your electric stove or electric hot water heater or oil furnace to a natgas alternative–don’t do it. If the local utility finds out, they’ll shut you off completely. Why? Not enough gas. So here’s something you anti fossil fuel freaks can really celebrate–you’ve just screwed yourselves, AND your neighbors too! A 2-for-1 deal…
Thailand’s largest coal miner, Banpu Pcl, has spent $112 million to buy a 29.4% stake in the Chaffee Corners Joint Exploration Agreement (JEA). JEA is a Marcellus shale drilling joint venture 65.4%-owned and operated by Talisman Energy. What it means is that Talisman has a new partner in their northeast PA Marcellus drilling program. Banpu has hired the former CEO of PTT Exploration and Production Pcl, Thailand’s largest oil and gas explorer, as a director and to advise Banpu on JEA and on the company’s new and developing upstream gas strategy. PTT Exploration and Production is a subsidiary of Thailand’s state-owned PTT Public Company Limited. PTT Global Chemical is another subsidiary of PTT Public Company Limited–and the company proposing to build a $5B+ ethane cracker complex in Belmont County, OH (see 
The long, slow process of “reorganizing” and emerging from bankruptcy just sped up for Magnum Hunter Resources (MHR). The Marcellus/Utica driller filed for bankruptcy protection in December (see 
Two shale industry members of last year’s ill-fated Pennsylvania Pipeline Task Force have pulled the curtain back to reveal what went on behind the scenes. The sausage-making. And it’s not pretty. Two important facts emerge for their disclosures: (1) most of the members of the task force didn’t (and still don’t) know their heads from their rear-ends when it comes to how the natural gas industry actually works, and (2) nothing useful will come from the 658-page report and its 184 recommendations. We previously predicted that outcome when we said, “Silly libs–they never learn. This initiative was never about actually getting anything done. It was always about the optics–to show that radical leftist Tom Wolf (and his lackey John Quigley) actually care about the hoi polloi” (see 
The proposed takeover/merger of Williams by Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) is better than a daytime soap opera. It was a long courting period before ETE finally cajoled, harangued, and eventually forced the board of Williams to agree to a merger/takeover. ETE’s billionaire CEO Kelsy Warren revealed he had been propositioning Williams for over six months–offering Williams $64 per share to buy the company, totaling $48 billion (see 
Yesterday Kinder Morgan provided a first quarter 2016 and rest-of-2016 update. It contained this earth-shattering news: “We reduced our growth capital backlog from $18.2 billion at the end of the fourth quarter 2015 to $14.1 billion at the end of the first quarter 2016. The reduction in our backlog was driven primarily by the removal of the Northeast Energy Direct (NED) Market project due to insufficient contractual commitments from customers in the New England market, and the removal of the Palmetto Pipeline project following unfavorable action by the Georgia legislature regarding eminent domain authority and permitting for petroleum pipelines.” See our lead story today about Kinder’s decision to mothball the NED project. As part of the update, Kinder brings us up to speed on the pipeline (and other infrastructure) projects currently being built, including several in the northeast U.S. that will impact takeaway capacity for Marcellus and Utica Shale gas…
The Obama administration is trying to kill the oil and gas industry. Whether it’s intentional or not (we think it is), recently proposed new regulations from the lawless Environmental Protection Agency are bad news. Particularly the EPA’s quest to force drillers to capture every last molecule of methane so it doesn’t escape (see 
In March MDN told you that Canadian midstream giant TransCanada is making a play to buy American Columbia Pipeline Group for $10 billion/C$13 billion (see 
“We’ll take one prepackaged bankruptcy to go.” That was the upshot of an announcement yesterday from oilfield services company Seventy Seven Energy (SSE)–the old Chesapeake Oilfield Operating unit that was spun into its own company a few years ago. In February MDN reported that for 2015 SSE revenue was down 45% and the company lost $221 million (see 
There’s no way to sugarcoat the fact that Stone Energy–an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company (E&P) headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana that drills mainly in the Gulf of Mexico but also has a presence in the Marcellus/Utica Shale with 75,000 acres of leases–is inching toward a bankruptcy filing. That’s our take anyway. Last week Stone issued an update for 1Q16 in which they disclose their line of credit with the banks has been reduced from $500 million to $300 million (see 
As MDN pointed out earlier this month, EXCO Resources, once a sizable player in the Marcellus–with 145,000 net acres in the Marcellus and having drilled and operating 124 horizontal Marcellus wells–has pretty much abandoned the Marcellus at this point (see