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Jay-Bee Paying $42M to Settle WV Post-Production Deduction Lawsuit
Here’s a lawsuit that flew under our radar — until now. Several landowners in West Virginia sued Jay-Bee Oil & Gas, alleging “improper royalty deductions” were made from royalty checks for post-production work from 2010 to 2023. The landowners (their lawyers) convinced a court to turn the lawsuit into a class action. Jay-Bee denies the claims in the lawsuit but has agreed to settle the dispute to avoid additional litigation by paying $42.6 million into a settlement fund established to disburse payments to participating class members.
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In February, MDN told you about Dominion Energy’s filing to build a new 45-mile pipeline to connect Equitrans’ (now EQT’s) MVP Southgate pipeline project with Duke Energy’s planned new natural gas power plants on Hyco Lake’s southern shore (see 
Hats off to Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw, who is floating yet another bill that will benefit the state, electric ratepayers, and the Marcellus industry — all at the same time. Yesterday, Yaw announced his intention to float a new bill that would create the Pennsylvania Baseload Energy Development Fund. What is it? It’s a fund that would set up a revolving loan program at a low interest rate to encourage private companies to build more baseload electric power generation in the state. That is, build more gas-fired power plants.
Yesterday, MDN brought you the news that two dozen states have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to place a temporary block on new EPA regulations that will put all coal plants out of business and block most (if not all) new gas-fired power plants from getting built (see 
The International Gas Union (IGU), Snam, and Rystad Energy partnered (as they have in the past) to produce and release the Global Gas Report 2024 (full copy below). The authors are sounding the alarm. According to the study, should gas demand continue to grow as it has in the last four years without additional production development, a 22% global natural gas supply shortfall is expected by 2030. If demand continues to strengthen, the shortfall will be even more pronounced. There is, say the authors, an urgent need to scale up investments. NOW. 
As we often point out when discussing the fugitive methane issue, the number one source of fugitive methane emissions, at 40%, is Mom Earth herself (i.e., “natural”). The number two source, at 24%, is agriculture. The number three source, at 21%, is oil and gas operations. Yet global warming nutjobs ONLY focus on emissions from O&G and ignore the other 79% of sources, including natural. Every now and again the nutters will mention other sources to try to protect their tattered reputations. Even then, they twist the science. Get this latest howler: Burning fossil fuels, which supposedly causes global warming, “may” be causing Mom Earth to emit even more fugitive methane that she otherwise would emit. So, we all must stop using fossil fuels right now or risk obliterating all life on earth. Or something like that. 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Donation of oil and gas industry standards to Penn College enhances curriculum; Penn College gets grant from Coterra Energy; $500K gift aids laboratory upgrades at WVU Statler College; NATIONAL: Exxon joins OPEC in warning of looming oil supply crisis; Hydrogen may be bad bet for gas turbine makers; CBS attacks plastic recycling using Rockefeller-funded ICN; Yes, Kamala Harris wants to ban your gas stove; INTERNATIONAL: Equinor to deploy world’s first supply vessel running on ammonia; European gas’s near-term risks are stealing winter’s thunder. 
We bet you never thought that old idiom about pigs flying was true. In this case, it is! Range Resources operates a temporary above-ground water pipeline in Mount Pleasant Township (Washington County), PA. The pipeline (essentially a giant water hose) flows Ohio River water to Range’s fracking sites. Range sent a PIG (pipeline inspection gauge) down the pipeline, and it got caught. The water pressure built up and exploded the pipe, sending the PIG flying through the air. Yes, Virginia, pigs can fly! OK, OK. After we got done laughing out loud about a flying pig, we settled down to read and better understand the situation. The pipeline explosion resulted in damage to a local farmer’s property, which was no laughing matter for the farmer.
“Follow the money.” Never a truer phrase spoken. “The fix is in” is another trite but true phrase. Put the two together, and you have an apt description of the latest news to come from Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration — that the state is now working with (giving money to) the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) to train union workers to plug oil and gas wells, in essence funneling federal dollars into the pockets of a single labor union (which delivers a reliable vote for the Democrats). Your tax dollars at work funding the Democratic Party.
Last week, MDN brought you an article from RBN Energy detailing how more electricity and natural gas will soon be needed in Virginia and the Carolinas for a plethora of new projects in the works (see 
New England’s power grid would have gone offline this summer without natural gas. Electricity generation using fossil fuels increased in New England to meet the additional air-conditioning demand during heat waves in June and July. Natural gas-fired electricity generation made up 56% of New England’s generation mix during the week of the June 16 heat wave, peaking at 61% on June 22. Between July 6 and 13, natural gas-fired electricity averaged 58% of the generation mix. Solar and wind (aka renewables) made up a tiny fraction of New England’s power generation mix.
PJM Interconnection is the largest U.S. power grid operator, serving 65 million people in 13 states plus the District of Columbia (including PA, OH, and WV). PJM supplies power to more than 20% of the U.S. economy. Most of the states in PJM are not energy self-sufficient. They don’t produce enough electricity to meet their own demand. Pennsylvania is the exception and has become THE main producer in the PJM region, exporting electricity to its neighbors. However, according to a chilling new report by Pittsburgh Works Together (PWT), PA Gov. Josh Shapiro’s electricity proposals will destabilize the PJM grid and potentially cause massive blackouts. 
EPA Administrator Michael Regan used a considerable amount of fossil energy and emitted tons of carbon dioxide to jet over to Dubai last December to participate in the COP28 confab, where he released a final rule that was “two years in the making” to force the U.S. oil and gas industry to cut methane emissions by using budget-busting new technologies and onerous (frequent) inspections (see 
MDN has an exclusive update on a lawsuit by several West Virginia surface landowners who are suing Diversified Energy over Diversified’s failure to plug their unproducing conventional wells. At the prompting of the Sierra Club, the landowners attempted to turn the lawsuit into a class action. Yesterday, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of WV struck down the class action request, meaning a couple of surface owners from the original lawsuit can proceed with their lawsuit. The outcome won’t affect anyone else. However, a second related case and a second request for a class action are still alive.