Republican Blocks Mass. Democrat Plan to Forcibly Remove NatGas
Something incredible is happening in Massachusetts. The entire legislature, minus one brave Republican (maybe the only patriot left in New England), wants to pass a law that empowers state regulators to “terminate [natural gas] service to consumers so long as they have access to ‘safe, reliable, and affordable alternatives.'” It is a breathtaking seizure of freedom from the residents of the state. Government weenies can decide whether or not to rip pipelines out of the ground that feeds your home with natural gas. Except Sen. Ryan Fattman, a Sutton Republican, who used a procedural tactic to push off debate by another day. It’s a desperate move to buy time to sound the alarm like Paul Revere. Fattman is a modern-day Paul Revere. Wake up, Massachusetts residents! Stop this insanity while you can!
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The Dems are all about handing out other people’s money. It keeps them in power (tantamount to bribes). Incidentally, Alexander Fraser Tytler said in the late 1700s: “A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.” The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) recently began soliciting applications to hand out nearly $200 million in grants from the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure law to upgrade natural gas pipelines. Spreading around $200 million from the total of $1.2 trillion a rounding error — below two-tenths of a single percent.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Hawaii agrees to ‘groundbreaking’ settlement of youth climate change case; NATIONAL: Vaclav Smil on the two cultures and our “fully post-factual world”; INTERNATIONAL: Oil drilling suffers blow in climate ruling at top UK court; Oil rises as US stockpile drop continues; China’s LNG import boom threatened by Russian pipeline gas.
We’re always interested in lease signing bonuses and royalty rates. We don’t see as many references today as we did five and ten years ago. Typically, we learn about lease rates when municipal-owned land is leased, as is the case for a small parcel in North Huntingdon, PA (Westmoreland County). Apex Energy is offering North Huntingdon $1,500 per acre in a signing bonus to lease 4.5 acres of town land for a grand total of $6,760. It ain’t much, but it’s better than a sharp stick in the eye, right?
Chesapeake Energy has gone through some major changes over the past four years. In June of 2020, Chessy declared bankruptcy (see 
There’s no way to sugarcoat bad news. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) predicted in January that money raised by the shale impact fee (PA’s version of a severance tax) would plummet this year (see 
As we report in a companion post today, Pennsylvania is currently dishing out close to $180 million in impact fees raised from 2023 shale activity — PA’s version of a severance tax (see PA PUC Distributes 2023 Impact Fee – Revenue Dropped $99M YOY). As the name implies, some 60% of the money raised goes to the counties and municipalities where drilling happens, those “impacted” by shale drilling. The other 40% goes to the black hole of Harrisburg for redistribution to various state agencies and the other counties with no shale drilling. Let’s look at how some counties and towns will spend the money coming their way.
Radicalized environmental groups, including Trout Unlimited and the Mid State Trail Association, have devolved into trying to block gathering and water pipelines in Pennsylvania. Driller Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) wants to install 3.7 miles of a gathering pipeline to connect several wells to the Transco pipeline system, along with two 8-inch water pipelines of about the same length, in Lycoming County. Nearly all of the pipeline projects are located on state-owned land.
Danskammer Energy, which operates a gas-fired peaker power plant along the Hudson River in Newburgh, NY, has been working on a project to upgrade the plant since 2018 — seven years. On Monday, Danskammer Energy withdrew its permit application with the fossil fuel-hostile state, formally ending attempts to expand after years of trying. It’s time to throw in the towel in NY State and let the idiots who keep the Dems in power sit in the dark.
For those (like the dunce who heads up the Dept. of Energy, Jennifer Granholm) who say Uncle Joe’s “pause” on authorizing new LNG export requests isn’t having an impact, how do you respond to this?… Russia has overtaken the United States as the top exporter of natural gas to Europe. Why? Because the Europeans are scared to death they will run out of natgas promised by the U.S. Biden’s pause on new export authorizations has Europe scrambling to ensure their citizens don’t freeze to death next winter.
Today, June 19th, is a stock exchange and bank holiday. Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the U.S. commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Juneteenth marks the anniversary of the announcement of General Order No. 3 by Union Army General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, proclaiming freedom for enslaved people in Texas. Originating in Galveston, the holiday has since been celebrated annually on June 19 in various parts of the United States, often broadly celebrating African-American culture. The day was first recognized as a federal holiday in June 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. As with other bank holidays, MDN will not publish today.
We often mention gas-fired power generation here on MDN for a reason — it’s a HUGE customer for the natural gas locally extracted. The more power plants we build in the Marcellus/Utica region, the more our gas stays right here at home (a win/win for everyone). The power grid that covers the M-U region is called PJM. New data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows coal-fired generation in PJM accounted for 14% of the market’s total generation in 2023, down from 44% of total generation in 2013. That’s a whopping 68% fall in the use of coal in just ten years. The reason? Coal generation was largely replaced by natural gas-fired generation.