Repubs Attack, Dems Defend Biden LNG Pause at House Hearing
The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, Climate and Grid Security held a hearing on Tuesday to challenge Joe Biden’s so-called pause on new LNG permits to non-free-trade partners as it “studies the impacts,” including on climate change, of LNG use. Republicans blasted the Bidenistas for the havoc they have created with the announcement. Democrats on the subcommittee defended Biden’s pause (go figure), arguing now is the time to reevaluate new LNG exports. The Dems are oblivious to the tangible harm this pause is causing (see The True Impact of DOE’s Pause in LNG Export Licenses).
Read More “Repubs Attack, Dems Defend Biden LNG Pause at House Hearing”
Politicians on Capitol Hill aren’t the only people taking aim at Joe Biden’s pause on LNG export approvals (see today’s companion story, Repubs Attack, Dems Defend Biden LNG Pause at House Hearing). Some 23 “red” state Attorneys General wrote a letter to President Biden and the nutty Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, to inform them that this LNG approvals pause violates federal law. The not-so-subtle threat is that unless Biden “changes course” and reverses the pause, he’s facing a lawsuit by half of the states in the country.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan used a considerable amount of fossil energy and emitted tons of carbon dioxide to jet over to Dubai in 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 
Do you remember those Ball mason jars your mom used for canning when you were growing up? Well OK, maybe we’re dating ourselves. Trust us, it’s a thing (see the image to the left). Here’s the interesting bit: Ball Corporation not only makes mason jars and other packaging solutions for beverage, personal care and household products customers, it also has an aerospace division that manufactures satellites! Ball is a $14 billion company. One of the company’s projects was to manufacture and deliver a satellite that would sniff out fugitive methane. The satellite was just delivered to Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California, and will launch next month.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Tellurian explores sale of Haynesville upstream assets; Venture Global, Grain LNG ink storage, regasification deal; New bill helps Florida ports with greater access to natural gas; NATIONAL: Oil swings higher amid mixed data signals; We have the cleanest natural gas in the world; World’s largest carbon removal plant is about to open; How fractures nucleate, propagate and stop.
For climate change catastrophists and “peak gas” proponents who read MDN, please tell us yet again how natural gas (and oil) are on the way out. Remind us of how unreliable renewables are taking the country by storm and that pretty soon (any year now), we won’t need natgas anymore. We need a good laugh! Here’s the reality: On January 16, 2024, the U.S. Lower 48 states consumed 141.5 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas, exceeding the previous record set on December 23, 2022. That is a new, all-time, record-high natural gas consumption record in this country for a single day. So yes, tell us again how natgas is quickly fading away (LOL)…
U.S. natural gas and power prices hit multi-year highs in mid-January with the prospect of frigid temps and snow storms in various portions of the country (see 
Once a month, the analysts at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) issue the agency’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), their best guess about where energy prices and production will go in the next 12 months or so. We sometimes poke good-natured fun at the EIA because their predictions go up in one month, and in the next month, they go down, etc. What about the latest STEO dart board, published yesterday? It won’t surprise you to read that due to warmer weather, the EIA prognosticators believe the average Henry Hub natural gas spot prices will remain “subdued” around $2.40/MMBtu in February and March. What about for the entire year?
Peregrine Energy Partners, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, continues a program to buy royalty rights in the Marcellus/Utica and elsewhere. We have chronicled a number of Peregrine’s M-U purchases since 2019 (
Last November, MDN brought you the news that pipeline giant Williams had given the green light to proceed with a new Transco pipeline expansion project called the Southeast Supply Enhancement Project (see 
Yesterday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro unveiled a whopping $48.3 billion budget that threatens to bankrupt the state. Among the line items in Shapiro’s bizarre spending plan is a $1.1 billion increase in funding for K-12 public schools, and just $10 million to help the state’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) try to fix its broken permitting system. Yes, the DEP gets an extra $10 million, which amounts to 0.0002 (or two one-hundredths) of the overall budget, to help fix the broken permitting system. Meanwhile, teachers’ unions (who voted for Shapiro) get a bribe of an extra $1.1 billion (0.0227 or 2.3%) of the bloated budget.
Duke Energy is a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., and is one of America’s largest energy holding companies. Last summer, Duke announced plans to build a new gas-fired power plant in Person County, NC. The company recently announced it wants to double it — build a second big gas-fired plant at the same location (see 
Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw recently announced the introduction of legislation to repeal the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax enacted through an executive order by the Wolf Administration in 2019. RGGI, a multi-state compact, would increase electricity rates for PA consumers, cut energy and manufacturing jobs, and lead to the closure of Pennsylvania power plants. It would be an unmitigated disaster for the Marcellus industry. PA Republican Senators sued to block the measure and won in Commonwealth Court. Current Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro then appealed the lawsuit to the PA Supreme Court, where it still sits (see 
Last November, Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NOG), a company that invests in non-operated oil and gas assets (they let others do the drilling), announced a deal to enter the Utica Shale (see