Harvard Law Advocates Prosecuting Oil Cos. for “Climate Homicide”
Just over a year ago, MDN brought you the news that two lawyers, one from Public Citizen’s climate program and the other a professor at George Washington University Law School, had written a paper to be published in the Harvard Environmental Law Review that claims if there’s a NATURAL disaster, like a flood or hurricane or big snowstorm, and if people die in that event, governments and prosecutors can sue Big Oil, holding Big Oil criminally negligent for homicide (see Lawyers Claim Oil Companies Can be Sued for “Climate Homicide”). It’s no joke. Believe it or not, the article was recently (finally) published by Harvard. Cue the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland…
Read More “Harvard Law Advocates Prosecuting Oil Cos. for “Climate Homicide””
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Shapiro lurches left, Fetterman goes ‘unwoke’; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Texas man makes millions repairing oil rigs; NATIONAL: How much time do we have?; Dems bash GOP proposal linking natgas exports to Ukraine aid; INTERNATIONAL: Oil rises after news of imminent strike on Israel; Can Iran survive war with Israel?; European gas prices through next year rise on persistent risks; PetroChina to build up its LNG fleet and expand global trade; Suing Big Oil is becoming a lucrative business.
In November 2022, one of the ten natural gas storage wells at the Equitrans Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area in Jackson Township, Cambria County (in Pennsylvania), began to leak. Equitrans is the owner/operator of Rager Mountain. The well leaked roughly 100 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of gas into the atmosphere (see 
CNX Resources Corporation yesterday announced that it is nearing completion of its Kiski Water Line project in Westmoreland County, PA, which will serve the company’s local operational needs for drilling and fracking. The new water line, due to be done in June, will reduce the local impact of natural gas development (fewer truck trips), and potentially optimize regional water resources by providing additional reliable water infrastructure to area communities.
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) “temporarily” suspended the operations of four fracking waste injection wells in Athens County last September (see 
It appears that EOG Resources, with headquarters in Houston, Texas, is about to establish a regional headquarters/operation in Malvern (Carroll County), Ohio. We say “appears” because we have strong evidence, but we don’t (yet) have confirmation. EOG Resources, one of the largest oil and gas drillers in the U.S. (with international operations in Trinidad and China), owns a huge 430,000+ acres of leases in the Ohio Utica. EOG calls its position the “Ohio Utica combo play” and now considers it one of the company’s “premium plays.” EOG concentrates on oil drilling in the Utica. It makes sense the company would establish a regional office in the Utica near where it drills.
In January, MDN told you about a long-closed landfill that seeks to reopen in Liberty and Pine Townships in Mercer County, PA (see 
On May 2, 2023, some four months after Josh Shapiro was installed as Pennsylvania’s 48th governor, we said this about him: “Since taking office, Shapiro has been a major dud–someone who doesn’t know how to lead. He’s bereft of any idea of what to do and how to do it. When it comes to the environment and energy policy, Shapiro assembled a secretive group to guide him” (see 
Wisconsin Electric Gas Operations, doing business as We Energies, proposes to spend $1.2 billion dollars at its Oak Creek Power Plant (Oak Creek is a suburb of Milwaukee) to convert the facility from a coal-fired power plant to a natural gas plant that will generate 1,100 megawatts of electricity. Last Friday, We Energies filed a formal application with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC), revealing more details about the project and its projected timeline. We hopes to have the project built and online by the summer of 2028.
The radicals who run the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) are gearing up to block the Iroquois Gas Transmission system from completing its Enhancement by Compression (ExC) project. ExC increases horsepower at three compression stations — two in New York and one in Connecticut — by an extra 125 MMcf/d, flowing more Marcellus/Utica gas into New York City and New England (see 
In February, West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore sent notices to six financial institutions warning them of potential inclusion on the state’s Restricted Financial Institution List (can’t do business with the state) after his office made an initial determination that the institutions appear to be engaged in boycotts of fossil fuel companies as defined under state law (see 
Hart Energy is know for its DUG events — Developing Unconventional Gas. In years gone by, Hart would host separate DUG events in their respective regions. This year is different. Hart combined the Marcellus/Utica (called Appalachia), which, of course, covers Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, with the Haynesville, which covers northern Louisiana and East Texas. Both are the leading natural gas-focused plays in the country. This year’s combined event, called DUG Gas+, was held two weeks ago in Shreveport, LA. One of the interesting discussions coming from this year’s event was talk about buyers (and investors) being “starved” for top-tier natural gas assets, and that Appalachia could become a dealmaking hotspot in the coming years.
Yesterday, the Pennsylvania House Republican Policy Committee held a hearing called “Fueling Pa’s Future: Liquid Natural Gas.” In January, Joe Biden announced he would “pause” any approvals for new LNG export plants (currently 17 requests in the pipeline) for at least one year while his people fart around pretending to figure out how to measure global warming as a new consideration for whether or not to approve projects (see 
We are currently mired in some of the lowest prices for natural gas in the last 27 years (see