U.S. Hits New All-Time, Record-High NatGas Consumption in January
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)…
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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 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: EPA’s new methane rule blocks environmental progress in PA; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Trade assoc. data shows Texas O&G employs almost 500,000 people; NATIONAL: We are having the wrong debate about Biden’s decision on LNG; INTERNATIONAL: Oil rises as traders weigh Red Sea risks against Fedspeak; Venezuela oil industry fears losing ground if USA revives sanctions; GlobalData says North America leads long term LNG deals; AMLO goes against fracking in constitutional reforms; Dryad says Red Sea threat has significantly escalated; Sweden closes investigation into Nord Stream pipeline blasts.
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 
TC Energy, formerly TransCanada, is a huge pipeline company headquartered in Canada. TC owns and operates the Columbia Gas Transmission and Columbia Gulf Transmission pipeline systems in the Marcellus/Utica region. Yesterday, TC announced that it plans to move its regional headquarters from Kanawha City (a neighborhood in Charleston, WV) to downtown Charleston and build a new $60 million building in the process. TC said the existing 110,000-square-foot former CASCI building will be demolished and replaced with a new building, with construction expected to be complete in 2025 and employees moving in by 2026.
The pressure on Joe Biden to renounce his so-called pause on approving new LNG export projects is growing white-hot intense. On Friday, Jan. 26, Biden announced he has put “a temporary pause on pending decisions of Liquefied Natural Gas exports” (see 
There is a mountain of controversy over Biden’s pause on approving new LNG export permits to non-free-trade countries (see our story today, Intense Pressure on Biden from All Sides to End LNG Approval Pause). Even though the Dept. of Energy (DOE) has said it will not issue any new export permits for the next year for the 17 projects currently in the pipeline that have requested such permits (while it conducts a so-called review), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will likely continue to work on those projects.