Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Mar 21, 2025
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: New York state’s natural gas and electricity dilemma; Utica Shale Academy embarks on $1.5M welding lab project to boost local workforce skills; Bucks County’s energy lawsuit hurts Pennsylvania; NATIONAL: The Biden LNG ‘pause’ deception; Oil executives talk permitting but not prices in Trump meeting; U.S. ethane production, consumption, and exports set new records in 2024; Shale producers face uncertain future despite the Trump agenda; INTERNATIONAL: Hydrogen is not the future of energy; Net zero – all pain for no climate gain; Oil prices likely to be lower in 2025. Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Mar 21, 2025”
Big Green is alarmed that New York Governor Kathy Hochul trooped to The White House last Friday to have a private, off-the-record conversation with President Trump about a laundry list of things, but two primary items: the Constitution Pipeline and a tax on driving in parts of Manhattan during certain hours (called “congestion pricing”). Nobody is saying anything about the meeting, but the implication is that perhaps Hochul and Trump were engaged in “horse swapping”—Trump bends on congestion pricing if Hochul bends on allowing (even endorsing) the Constitution Pipeline. The prospect of Hochul caving on the Constitution has set the environmental left’s hair on fire. 
Earlier this week, MDN told you that the Ohio Chamber of Commerce was putting its considerable influence behind a pair of bills making their way through the state legislature: Senate Bill (SB) 2 and House Bill (HB) 15 (see 
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will hold an 
You have to hand it to the environment-left; they sure are creative. How do they think these things up? Penn State researchers, committed to the religion of eliminating fossil fuels and the 100% adoption of unreliable renewables, are looking for a way to use old/depleted oil and gas wells—of which there are hundreds of thousands in PA (an estimated 3.9 million nationwide). The latest Penn State research proposes blowing compressed air down old wells and storing it underground where the earth’s heat will warm it, further compressing it (giving it an extra 9.5% of “efficiency”). And when electricity is needed, let the air escape, running big power turbines. Just one teeny, tiny problem: It costs so much that nobody will do it. 
Yesterday, Venture Global received approval from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to non-FTA countries for its third project, CP2 LNG, in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Venture Global is working through a final investment decision (FID) to proceed with the project. The DOE approval is a key milestone for the project, a project that, in all likelihood, will use at least some Marcellus/Utica molecules. However, there are miles to go before it gets built, comes online, and then begins to honor its customer contracts. YEARS. 
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued its approval for Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass (CP) 2 LNG export project (see our story today, DOE Grants CP2 LNG (La.) Approval to Export to Non-FTA Countries). The DOE is ramping up and will likely approve many more projects. However, there is a problem: a hidden “landmine” left behind by the Biden DOE on its way out the door, meant to be used by Big Green in opposing Trump’s DOE actions. The landmine is a sham “study” on LNG and climate change issued by the Bidenistas (see 
This is a sweet victory for our side. Last summer, MDN told you about a lawsuit being heard to hold Big Green groups (namely Greenpeace) responsible for their actions. Energy Transfer (ET), the owner and operator of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAP), sued Greenpeace and other alleged instigators for $300 million for the damages sustained by the company due to violent protests incited by the groups in North Dakota in 2016 (see 
Pipeline giant Williams, owner and operator of the mighty Transco pipeline system, deployed its top executives to speak at last week’s CERAWeek by S&P conference in Houston. On hand at the event were CEO Alan Armstrong, VP of New Energy Ventures, Jaclyn Presnal, and VP of Environmental, Regulatory and Permitting, Mark Gebbia. The three made a strong case that permitting reform is urgently needed if the country wants to deploy more natural gas for power generation and data centers. 
Earlier this month, MDN reported that S&P Global had released Phase 2 of an LNG study that shows U.S. LNG capacity additions would *significantly* lower global GHG emissions compared to the alternatives (see 
An explosive expose appearing on the Daily Caller website confirms rumors from last year that the Biden Department of Energy “intentionally buried” a final draft version of a study that would have undermined its January 2024 decision to pause approvals for liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects. Last October, we brought you the rumor that a study had been circulated at DOE that shows LNG is NOT bad for the environment and was subsequently covered up (see 
The environmental left (at least some of them) is finally admitting what everyone with a brain already knows: Solar and wind power cannot meet the rapidly increasing demands for electricity coming from existing and soon-to-be-built AI data centers. What’s a lefty to do? We’ve been telling you (for years) that natural gas-fired power, which is “dispatchable” and on-demand, is a good backup for solar and wind. The left is finally holding its nose and saying maybe “dirty” natgas “peaker” (on demand) gas plants aren’t so bad after all.