MDN Off Thursday & Friday for Thanksgiving Holiday
MDN is taking both Thanksgiving Thursday and Black Friday off. While you’re taking time to be thankful for your friends, family, food, drinks, and other luxuries, take a moment to say THANK YOU to the resources that make this holiday so wonderful: fossil fuels! Below is a video from our friends at Clear Energy Alliance. Watch it (under 4 minutes) to learn just how much oil, natural gas, and coal bring to the table during the holiday season — and every other day of the year.
Here’s a blast from the past (2018). Just as true today as it was then!
We don’t begin to get excited about the price of natural gas unless and until it’s above $3/MMBtu and it stays there for a while. We’re there. Yesterday, the “front month” contract for NYMEX Henry Hub natural gas closed up 6.2 cents (1.8%) at $3.43/MMBtu. Over the past two days, the price closed up 30.2 cents (9.65%). Yesterday’s closing price was a 52-week high. Finally. Why the dramatic increase? Weather. 
In October, MDN told you about a Congressional investigation looking into the Department of Energy’s use of a prematurely released “study” as an excuse to “pause” (i.e., ban) new LNG export approvals (see 
In the spirit of doing the maximum amount of damage to the fossil fuel industry before being pried out of their cushy offices in the D.C. swamp, the Biden EPA last week proposed yet another onerous new regulation aimed at strangling natural gas-fired power plants. This latest attack ups the limits on emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from most new, modified, and reconstructed gas-fired power plants. It’s a safe bet that the incoming Trump EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, will withdraw the proposed regulation before it can be implemented. So, at least there’s that. However, the new reg comes from a “sue-and-settle” court case with the odious Sierra Club in 2022 that requires a new reg to be in place by Nov. 2025. 
In October 2023, the Biden Department of Energy (DOE) published a new rule that cracks down on gas furnaces in homes, essentially phasing out many existing models and requiring new ones to meet onerous new standards (see 
The incoming Trump administration will have a big emphasis on natural gas, including LNG (liquefied natural gas) exports. Lazy journalists and lazy economists try to scare the general public into believing more (new) LNG exports from this country will cause the price of domestic natural gas to skyrocket. Their arguments presume no increase in natgas production, which is a fallacy. There are many reasons why the price of natgas isn’t going to skyrocket from more LNG export approvals. 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Maine AG’s climate lawsuit risks higher energy costs for residents; NATIONAL: Exxon says ‘drill, baby, drill’ is unlikely under Trump; What’s next for the radical climate agenda?; INTERNATIONAL: Alberta plans legal challenge to bypass Trudeau cap on oil, gas emissions; More oil, gas exploration needed now says WoodMac; Woodside CEO says gas market volatility signals supply tightness. 
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is aiding and abetting radical environmental groups in circumventing the state legislature. In what amounts to a classic leftist “sue-and-settle” case, radical environmental groups (including the Clean Air Council and Environmental Integrity Project) petitioned the state Environmental Quality Board (EQB), asking the board to amend 25 Pa. Code Chapter 78a by increasing “setbacks” for oil and gas well drilling to a minimum of 3,281 feet from any building or water wells (5,280 feet from hospitals and schools), and 750 feet from any river, creek, or mud puddle (i.e., surface waters). Such an increase in setbacks would stop ALL new shale drilling in the state, which is the goal of these radicals. The DEP ruled that the petition to the EQB was right and proper and should move forward. 
A key issue has come about with the rapid increase in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects around the country, including right here in the Marcellus/Utica region. Where does one store (sequester) all that carbon dioxide (CO2)? The answer is underground in a Class VI injection well. Class VI wells are a relatively new classification for injection wells, created by the federal EPA in 2010. Who regulates Class VI wells is a flashpoint of controversy. Right now, the EPA is the primary regulator (has “primacy”) in regulating Class VI wells in all but three states (North Dakota, Wyoming, and Louisiana). According to a notice coming in tomorrow’s Federal Register by the EPA, a fourth state is about to be added to the list: West Virginia. 
We have fantastic news to share. Elba Island LNG, which accepts and liquefies Marcellus/Utica molecules just offshore from Savannah, Georgia, received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last Thursday to expand the facility to produce an extra 0.4 million metric tons/year (mmty). By our calculations, that would mean an extra 16.4 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of M-U natural gas flowing to Elba over the course of a year. 
The analysts at the federal U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) are cautioning (we’d call it warning) that the global natural gas market may experience a tighter supply-demand balance this winter than in the prior two winters. Why? Several reasons, chief among is the coming colder winter. El Niño changes to La Niña this season. La Niña generally brings colder, drier weather to the Northern Hemisphere. But weather isn’t the only factor for EIA. So, too, is the lack of growth this winter in new LNG exports from the U.S. 
There’s no shortage of articles about the incoming Trump administration and what it will mean for the energy space. We’re trying not to bury you with such speculation. However, when we notice items that pique our curiosity and interest, things that make us sit up and take notice, we will bring you those items. This is one such article. Writing on the OilPrice.com website, a pair of economist/financial analysts write that gas-fired power plants will be the big winner in the coming Trump administration. They explain their reasoning, which we find cogent…