MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Now the time to expand Utica Shale usage; Hydrogen brings opportunities, challenges for West Virginia; NATIONAL: Biden admin blocks off millions of acres from oil, gas leasing.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Aug 28, 2023”
Last November, 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. The well leaked roughly 100 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of gas into the atmosphere (see Equitrans Gas Storage Well in Cambria County, PA is Leaking). The leak took nearly two weeks to get fixed (see Storage Well Leak Fix in Cambria County Failed, Leaked 1.4 Bcf). Both the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) investigated (see Feds Investigate Equitrans Storage Well Leak in Cambria County, PA). Equitrans hired an independent, third-party company with expertise in reservoir management and well and corrosion engineering to do a “root cause analysis” to determine what happened. The report was just filed with the PHMSA.
Read More “Report: Rager Mountain Gas Storage Well Casing Failed from Corrosion”
East Daley Analytics, based in Colorado, is a consulting firm that specializes in identifying, understanding, and monitoring operational risk throughout the oil and gas value chain. A “Daley Note” published yesterday by the company focused on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), providing a status update and a couple of intriguing (some might say controversial) comments. East Daley says while Equitrans, the builder of MVP, says it will finish the project by the end of this year, East Daley’s analysts don’t think so. East Daley also says when (not if) the pipeline gets done and comes online, the newly available capacity won’t translate into new/more shale drilling in the Marcellus/Utica–at least not initially.
Read More “Analyst Says MVP Not Ready Until Mid-2024; Won’t Spur New Drilling”
We’re naming names. Pennsylvania State Rep. Charity Grimm Krupa (Republican from Fayette County) has turned against the Marcellus industry. She is introducing legislation that would ban drilling new wastewater injection wells in the state, making it much harder to drill new shale wells. Companies end up drilling fewer wells without a place to dispose of the naturally occurring water that comes from shale (and conventional) wells for years after an oil or gas well comes online. Was Krupa always anti-drilling? Or has she recently lost her way? Either way, she needs to be vigorously opposed in this effort–and someone needs to primary her in the next election. She needs to go.
Read More “SWPA Republican Rep. Sells Out, Turns Against Marcellus Industry”
The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) is giving utility giant Duke Energy (mega profitable) and one of its natural gas suppliers, Williams (i.e., the Transco Pipeline, also mega profitable) $1 million of taxpayer money to do their jobs of monitoring for methane leaks. Dontcha love corporate welfare? Of course, if the government is going to blow taxpayers’ money on energy projects like uncompetitive and unreliable renewables, why not give a little love to fossil energy too, right? Still, it bugs us.
Read More “DOE Gives Duke Energy & Williams $1M to Monitor for Methane Leaks”
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) is the public utility commission in Pennsylvania. The PUC has five commissioners appointed by the Governor with the consent of the state Senate. The PUC oversees public utility and services operations in the Commonwealth, in sectors including water, energy, telecommunications, and transportation. The decisions made by the PUC impact the Marcellus/Utica–particularly pipelines, including the Mariner East pipelines. Consequently, any changes at the agency are of concern. The PUC has just hired a liberal Democrat from the failed Tom Wolf administration to be its new Executive Director.
Read More “PA PUC Hires Lib Dem Retread from Wolf Admin as Executive Director”
Carbon offsets are the same thing as carbon taxes. A carbon offset refers to reducing so-called greenhouse gas emissions by buying a credit from someone who plants trees or agrees not to cut down trees. A company gets to keep on polluting as long as it pays a tax to do it–pretending they are helping the precious environment by paying to plant or not chop down trees. It is the darnedest feat of mental gymnastics we’ve ever seen. Who thinks up this stuff? (Hey, wanna buy a bridge in Brooklyn? We have one to sell!) A new study by the leftists at the University of Cambridge published yesterday in the journal Science exposes the sale of carbon credits as a scam.
Read More “Cambridge Study Finds Carbon Offsets Using Trees is a Scam”
Bonus post today! Something we came across after completing our list of stories to write and share–but just too good to pass up. This story perfectly illustrates what has happened inside the Democrat Party from its fearmongering about climate change and demonization of fossil energy. A group of kids in their early 20s (thoroughly brainwashed from K-12 and now in college) showed up at a hoity-toity, very exclusive fundraiser for Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, herself a hardened anti-fossil fuel leftist. The kids crashed her party being held at a private Nantucket Island home. The kids demanded Healey shut down all new fossil-fuel projects in the Bay State, and demanded she answer “yes or no” right then and there to their demands. Healey demurred, and the wacko kids got loud and mouthy and had to be escorted out of the event. It came close to a fistfight between some of the older leftwing libs attending the event and the kids. Civil war in the Democrat Party.
Read More “Climate Crazies Turn on One of Their Own: Mass. Gov. Maura Healey”
New shale permits issued for Aug 14 – 20 in the Marcellus/Utica finally turned around. There were 27 new permits issued last week, way up from the 10 issued the prior week. Last week’s permit tally included 21 new permits in Pennsylvania, 2 new permits in Ohio, and 4 new permits in West Virginia (after no permits in WV for three weeks in a row). The top permittee for the week, for the second week in a row, was Chesapeake Energy, receiving 6 permits–5 in Bradford County and 1 in Susquehanna County.
Read More “27 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Aug 14 – 20”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Drought watch remains for 20 Pa. counties, lifted for 47 counties; Reformers say make Pa. state permits more like pizzas; Pennsylvania farmers benefit from strong natural gas industry; NATIONAL: GOP candidates embrace domestic energy production in first debate; Carbon capture faces several challenges to wider commercialization; INTERNATIONAL: IMF says fossil fuel subsidies hit record high in 2022; Citi says OPEC may need to cut again.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Aug 25, 2023”
An Act of Congress (the Fiscal Responsibility Act) cleared away the remaining obstacles to completing the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (see Equitrans Announces Mountain Valley Pipe to Get Completed in 2023). After a final appeal by antis with their colluding buddies of the 4th Circuit threatened to block the Fiscal Responsibility Act’s MVP provisions, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in and overruled the 4th Circuit (see Supreme Court Overturns 4th Circuit, MVP to Restart Construction). Following the Supremes’ decision, MVP restarted construction–on August 4 in Virginia. Since then, MVP has installed pipelines through (or under) eight streams and wetlands, and the work continues at a brisk pace.
Read More “MVP Restarted Va. Construction Aug 4th, 8 Stream Crossings So Far”
Two Marshall County, WV landowners with the same last name (obviously related) sued Southwestern Energy (SWN), accusing the company of “well bashing,” in March of this year (see WV Mineral Owners’ Lawsuit Accuses Southwestern of ‘Well Bashing’). The landowners seek to have the lawsuit certified as a class action. Well bashing happens when drilling a child well near a parent well causes the parent well to lose pressure or become clogged with fracking fluids and sand. Ultimately, the child well causes the parent well to become less profitable (i.e., less revenue from royalties for the landowner). The WV lawsuit says Southwestern is practicing well bashing intentionally–in order to keep lease rates low. Yesterday, a federal judge working the case rejected Southwestern’s request to dismiss the case.
Read More “Judge Rules WV Lawsuit Against SWN for ‘Well Bashing’ Continues”
Two weeks ago MDN told you that eight “blue” states, including New Jersey (the Blue State Mafia), are challenging the Williams Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project, a plan to beef up the Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to deliver an extra 829 MMcf/d of Marcellus gas to PA, NJ, and Maryland (see NJ & 7 Other States File Challenge to FERC Approval of Transco REAE). We think there’s a close parallel between the court challenge against REAE and the now-defunct PennEast Pipeline.
Read More “Blue States v FERC – Left Using Transco Case to Defeat New Pipes”
Encino Energy and its vendors made major donations stemming from Encino Energy’s Vendor Charity Classic, a two-day event including a clay shoot, golf outing, and welcome reception. Last year, Encino created the event to thank its vendors and contractors who choose to work with the company, crediting its partners as being the reason for its success in the Buckeye State. With 33 sponsors, Encino and its vendors raised $80,000, which was split evenly between four charitable organizations.
Read More “Encino Energy, Vendors Donate $80,000 to Four Ohio Charities”
In early 2021, MDN told you about a so-called “research report” issued by a front organization for the Heinz Endowments called the Ohio River Valley Institute (see Heinz Endowments Launches Another Fake ‘Report’ Bashing the M-U). ORVI published a “report” that purported to show the fracking miracle in the Marcellus/Utica hadn’t actually created all that many jobs or economic benefits. The first tip that the report was a scam and a sham is that the lead “researcher” doesn’t live in the Ohio River Valley nor anywhere near the M-U; he’s a playwright who lives thousands of miles away on the Left Coast, in Washington State. In other words, the report was fiction. But that hasn’t stopped the left from recycling it. ORVI recently released Frackalachia Update, an updated (recycled) version of the same old fiction from two years ago.
Read More “ORVI Updates Fake Report Claiming No $ Benefits from M-U Fracking”
The stench coming from inside the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is growing. Since early this year, Kevin Mooney, an investigative reporter with the PA-based Commonwealth Foundation and D.C.-based Heritage Foundation, has been digging into potential ethics (and legal) violations by FERC commissioners. His work has focused on FERC Commissioner Allison Clements, a former attorney for the radical National Resources Defense Council (see FERC’s Clements Exposed for Questionable Ethics, Ties to Big Green). Now the investigation has widened to include the actions of former FERC Commissioner Richard “Dick” Glick.
Read More “Potential Ethics Violations at FERC Spur Court Orders, Hearings”