MDN’s Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, Jul 7, 2025 [FREE ACCESS]
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Mamdani made anti-fossil fuels central to his “affordability” plan for NYC; Did Louisiana just become America’s first energy sanctuary state?; NATIONAL: US refiners rely on shale more than ever as heavy oil supplies dwindle; EPA puts on leave 139 employees who spoke out against policies under Trump; Trump fired head of Nuclear Regulatory Commission over a “conflict of visions”; It is time to hold the climate cabal accountable; INTERNATIONAL: US overtakes Russia as EU number two gas source; Oil slips as US plans Iran talks; The world’s biggest carbon emitters—and the story behind the numbers. Read More “MDN’s Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, Jul 7, 2025 [FREE ACCESS]”
Like most proud Americans, MDN is taking a break today, July 4th, to celebrate Independence Day. It is a day to enjoy parades, barbeques, fireworks, and baseball! Or camping, gathering with family and friends, and many other ways to celebrate. We hope you have a great day!
Lithium extracted from Marcellus shale wastewater (brine) has been in the news over the past week or so. Last week, we brought you the exciting news that a Boston-based company, Gradiant, is working on building a lithium production facility in an undisclosed PA location, which we were able to identify as Susquehanna County (see 
We hate to see internal fighting and bickering within the oil and gas industry. We (as an industry) have a hard enough time battling the crazies of the environmental left. Yet infighting has erupted over a plan to run a pipeline to a proposed gas-fired power plant in South Carolina. In February 2024, the South Carolina Public Service Commission approved a proposed project to build a 1,020-megawatt (MW) gas-fired power plant in the state’s Lowcountry, in Colleton County (see 
The number crunchers at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) had some time on their hands with the upcoming July 4th holiday, so they researched and wrote a post examining how U.S. energy use has changed since 1776. As it happens, the post is quite interesting! It chronicles the rise of fossil energy and how fossil fuels have dominated the modern era (leading to the highest standard of living in human history). However, it was a section on so-called renewable energy sources that caught our attention. In particular, one “renewable” has been around since the beginning of our country. That same renewable energy source today produces more energy than either wind or solar. And no, it’s not hydro. The renewable we’re talking about is burning wood. 
We’re trying not to snicker and laugh out loud, but it’s hard. In May of last year, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a Big Green group dedicated to eliminating the use of fossil fuels, launched a methane-sniffing satellite called MethaneSAT (see 
We’ve chronicled some of the antics and borderline violent behavior of the environmental left. We’ve also told you how some on the left seek to ban free speech and put you in jail if you support fossil fuels. The United Nations, in a new report, calls for criminalizing “fossil fuel disinformation” (i.e., expressing support for fossil fuels). It calls for prohibiting fossil fuel companies from lobbying or advertising (no free speech for them). It goes on to call for making the spread of “climate disinformation” a crime. That would mean locking up MDN’s Jim Willis. The report even calls for countries to force-brainwash citizens against fossil fuels—just call it what it really is, reeducation camps. Can anyone tell us why we should remain in the UN? We can’t think of a single good reason. 
Environment-related permitting in Pennsylvania, overseen by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), has been a hot mess for years. A Chapter 102 Erosion and Sedimentation permit sometimes takes two, three, or even six months for approval, instead of the policy-mandated 14 days. The DEP announced last November that it would soon implement the SPEED (Streamlining Permits for Economic Expansion and Development) program to speed up the permit approval process (see 
Once again, the NYMEX natural gas front-month contract (for August) took a plunge, going down 32.40 cents (8.67%) over the last two trading sessions. On the bright side, the price, which closed at $3.4150/MMBtu yesterday, is 40% higher than this time last year. At least there’s that. The question is, why is it heading lower, and how low will it go? We went looking for answers in the usual places. It’s important to note that most of the loss came in Monday trading, when the price “collapsed” by 28.3 cents (7.6%). Yesterday, the price declined a modest 4.10 cents (1.19%). 
We are finally seeing a return to sanity and real science following four years of out-of-control edicts during the Biden autopen administration. (The old fool likely didn’t even know a tenth of the things signed under his name.) On Monday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), along with the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, the Interior, and Transportation, revised regulations to eliminate all references to considering climate change, environmental justice, and other so-called environmental issues in their permit reviews. The left under Biden had introduced such nonsense in a bid to block new fossil energy projects. No more! The pendulum has swung back to the common-sense middle. 
The climate change hoaxers of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), along with other Big Green groups, are attempting another headfake of oil and gas companies and the financial institutions that help fund them. The Methane Finance Working Group, an initiative launched at the United Nations’ COP28 climate summit in 2023, released guidance to “deliver and deploy market-tested finance mechanisms that facilitate decarbonization across the oil and gas sector, while expanding the opportunities to achieve measurable methane emission reductions,” according to EDF. What the heck does that even mean?