Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Nov 22, 2024
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Trump energy pick signals new direction in US policy, benefiting PA; Democrat Bob Casey concedes Pennsylvania Senate race to Dave McCormick; NATIONAL: SEC Chair Gary Gensler resigns, leaves legacy of division and crypto feuds; U.S. propane inventories well stocked heading into winter heating season; INTERNATIONAL: Miami financier is quietly trying to buy Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline; Climate talks teeter, with rich and poor countries in a tug of war; Macquarie strategists expect oil prices to test new lows in 2025. Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Nov 22, 2024”
In 2021, as he was running for Governor in Virginia, Glenn Youngkin pledged that if he won, he would remove the state from the onerous carbon tax on coal- and gas-fired power plants called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Youngkin kept his promise, although it took longer than he had hoped. Unfortunately, the left-leaning (very partisan) Association of Energy Conservation Professionals sued. The judge in the case just ruled the way Youngkin removed the state from RGGI was unlawful and that the state must (for now) remain in the high-tax, onerous organization. 
Antis did their best, but their best wasn’t good enough. Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) victoriously began to flow up to 2 Bcf/d of Marcellus/Utica molecules in June (see 
Range Resources, the very first company to drill a Marcellus well back in 2004, leases office space in the Southpointe II business park in Cecil Township (Washington County), PA. Yeah, that Cecil, the one that has banned all new drilling by Range or anyone else via a 2,500-foot setback regulation (see 
Living in New York State, as MDN editor Jim Willis does, is like watching a slow-motion train wreck. You can see it coming; you warn those nearby to get off the tracks and leave the area, but no one is listening. We’re talking about the coming brownouts and blackouts across the state (especially in New York City) due to the state’s climate policies blocking new natural gas-fired power plants. This past summer, Danskammer Energy, which operates a gas-fired peaker power plant along the Hudson River in Newburgh, NY, withdrew its request to expand the plant (see 
Reuters predicts a sharp increase in U.S. LNG exports to European destinations “in the coming weeks.” Why? Because “the price spread between domestic natural gas and Europe’s main gas pricing hub hit one-year highs.” What the heck does that mean? We will explain it below. 
We’ve brought you Harold Hamm’s top energy priorities for the incoming Trump administration (see 
ExxonMobil is the second-largest oil company (by market capitalization) in the world, second only to the Saudi-owned Saudi Aramco. Exxon is the definition of “Big Oil.” Unfortunately, Big Oil isn’t always a positive thing. Exxon CEO Darren Woods wants to keep American taxpayers locked into forking over trillions of dollars to other (corrupt) countries in the name of global warming, called the Paris Agreement. Darren Woods needs to go, and we’re not the only ones who think so. On November 14th, the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) sent a letter to ExxonMobil’s Board of Directors that called for the immediate firing of Darren Woods as CEO and Chairman of the Board. NLPC cites “misaligned priorities and an irrational emphasis on government subsidies” as their reasons. NLPC contends that Mr. Woods’s leadership and his role in pushing to stay in the Paris Agreement has jeopardized ExxonMobil’s profitability and core mission as a leading oil and gas company. 
DT Midstream (DTM), headquartered in Detroit, owns major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region and in other regions, such as Haynesville. Yesterday, DTM announced it had cut a deal to buy three FERC-regulated interstate pipelines from Oklahoma-based ONEOK, Inc. for $1.2 billion. Two of the three pipelines flow Marcellus/Utica molecules to Midwestern markets. 
UGI Corporation, a diversified energy company with midstream (pipeline) operations in the Marcellus and one of Pennsylvania’s largest utility companies, is selling its 169-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant near Wilkes-Barre, PA, to Castleton Commodities International for an undisclosed amount. The plant’s owner/seller is actually a wholly-owned subsidiary of UGI Corp. called UGI Energy Services. 
Permitting in Pennsylvania overseen by the Dept. 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. According to a DEP press release from yesterday, that’s all behind us now. DEP Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley and Gov. Josh Shapiro said the agency has eliminated the backlog for oil and gas permits. Credit where credit is due. 
Greg Wrightstone is a geologist and the executive director of the