IPAA’s Plan to Make American Energy Great Again
We’ve brought you Harold Hamm’s top energy priorities for the incoming Trump administration (see Harold Hamm’s Oil & Gas Priorities for Trump’s Second Term) and the top five priorities from Jeff Eshelman, the president and CEO of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (see Top 5 Energy Issues for Trump-Vance to Tackle Starting Jan. 20). Although Eshelman’s list was personal (a blog post), the agency he leads, the IPAA, recently issued its proposed plan for “Making American Energy Great Again.” Whereas Eshelman’s list was brief, the IPPA plan is detailed (15 pages long) and does an excellent job of laying out the why as much as the what. Read More “IPAA’s Plan to Make American Energy Great Again”
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. 
NATIONAL: JP Morgan reveals greatest threat to USA shale sector; US LNG feedgas on track for 10-month high; INTERNATIONAL: Equinor CFO sees tight European gas market going into winter; Stalled European electric vehicle sales trigger 4,000 job cuts at Ford; The so-called ‘green movement’ increases the world’s demand for crude oil. 
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 
Dominion Energy plans to build four small “peaker” electric generating plants in Chesterfield County, VA, near Richmond (see 
Some interesting research coming from Penn State (and Binghamton University). A paper recently published in the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists found that companies contributing the greatest pollution and emissions were more committed to reducing pollution because they faced greater public scrutiny and risked being labeled as “greenwashers” — entities that make false claims about their environmental impact. In other words, public shaming and bullying (our words) make companies change their behavior. But there was another finding that equally intrigued us… 
The European Union’s idiotic methane regulations will soon come into full force, prompting European oil, gas, and coal companies to monitor, measure and report their emissions. The same restrictions will also apply to energy imports coming from other countries, including the U.S. (see 
Venture Global has some nerve. In August, we told you that most of Venture Global’s contracted customers for LNG from the company’s Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility in southwestern Louisiana’s Cameron Parish had filed for arbitration over Venture Global’s refusal to sell them cargoes under contract (see