Don’t Know Jack: Politician Lobbies for High OH Severance Tax
The Marcellus and Utica Shale industry, like all shale industries in the U.S., is getting clobbered. Prices are at historic lows for natural gas–with no prospects it will go higher anytime soon (see Natural Gas Prices Hits 14-Year Low – When Will it Rebound?). Drillers (otherwise known as producers or E&Ps) can’t make a profit. Those who are making a profit are realizing profits that are razor thin–like break-even. So what does a “brilliant” politician like Ohio State Rep. Jack Cera (Democrat) lobby and advocate and agitate for? Raising the severance tax on shale drillers in Ohio. How utterly dense can you possibly be to not see that doing such a thing in this low-price climate would essentially shut down the Utica industry in the state? Or perhaps that’s what Jack really wants?…
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The politicization of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)–a government agency that should be, by law, devoid of politics–has caught up with the Obama Administration. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that the EPA, in using social media to urge the public to back Obama’s aggressive new redefinition for Waters of the United States (or WOTUS), was in fact illegal. We previously wrote about this draconian new “rule” ginned up by the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers (see 
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy appears to be drunk on her own power. When quizzed about fossil fuel energy at the Paris Climate Conference, McCarthy, in answering questions about coal and its use in China and elsewhere, quipped, “Coal is no longer marketable.” She should know. She’s made it that way on purpose. You may think, “So what! It’s coal. It’s dirty. Natural gas is a better alternative.” Don’t think natural gas and oil aren’t next up on the hit list for McCarthy and the Obama gang: “McCarthy made it clear she is also working to limit methane emissions, particularly from oil and natural gas. Methane, the primary component in the product commonly known as natural gas, is 25 times more potent in trapping heat in the atmosphere than CO2.” These idiots will not stop until they have eliminated, BY FORCE, the use of fossil fuels for energy. That is the plan. They must be opposed, vigorously…
The price of natural gas hit a 14-year low yesterday. Ouch. We don’t normally report on the ups and downs of natgas prices because, well, because it goes up and down–all the time. Broad trends in the price we report on, but not the day-to-day vagaries of natgas prices. But we are today. Why? Because there appears to be no end in sight for these low prices. MDN editor Jim Willis lives in the Binghamton, NY area. It’s usually cold and cloudy in Binghamton in the winter–from about the end of October to mid-April. No lie. Winter is typically that long around these parts. Yesterday? Mid-60s. Today? In the 50s and sunny. We do love it–but it’s beginning to freak us out! Point: As was predicted by natural gas weather guys we heard a few months ago at a Bloomberg meeting in NYC, the weather in the northeast during this monster El Niño winter will be drier than usual and warmer than usual. Translation: We’re going to use a whole lot less heating fuel and natural gas. More supply than demand means prices go down and they stay down. And that’s just what’s happening. Traders are giving up on a cold snap causing prices to rebound, and that capitulation is reflected in the price of natural gas…