Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell
Green Activists Complain to Wrong Agency re Shell Cracker Violations
Last Thursday around 30-40 environmental activists (anti-fossil fuelers), along with a handful of local residents, rallied in Beaver, PA, before showing up for the Beaver County Commission regular meeting. The protesters, who want the Shell ethane cracker plant shut down, vented their concerns about the plant to county commissioners. The three county commissioners listened while antis vented for more than an hour (they should receive hazard pay). The problem is, the protesters were in the wrong venue.
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According to Baker Hughes, which has tracked rig counts since 1944, drillers cut the rig count once again last week (overall by a single rig), the sixth week in a row when the rig count has gone down. This is the first time the U.S. oil & gas rig count has gone down six weeks in a row since July 2020–nearly three years ago. Oil rigs rose by one last week to 556. Gas rigs fell two to 135, the lowest since March 2022. According to oil and gas expert David Blackmon (who writes for Forbes), a rig count slumping for six weeks in a row is a trend and cannot be ignored. What about the Marcellus/Utica?
Last June (one year ago), the story broke that Penn LNG, headed by Franc James, a native of Philadelphia, had “quietly lined up support to build a $6.4 billion liquefied natural gas export terminal near Philly.” Not wanting this golden opportunity to die from opposition by radicalized environmentalists, Pennsylvania State Rep. Marina White (Republican from Philadelphia, a true rarity) sponsored House Bill (HB) 2458, which passed and was subsequently signed into law by then-Gov. Tom Wolf (see 
Researchers with Ohio Northern University recently published a study that finds that fracking for Utica Shale sometimes (“episodically”) reduces small Eastern Ohio River basin stream levels. The fluctuations in those stream levels “could” (but not necessarily do) negatively impact aquatic life (ecosystems) in those areas. The situation should, according to the researchers, be confirmed by more studies and monitoring.
We spotted a press release from an energy company that works in New York State called 
Last week the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) shared some information that, strangely, has not been written about by mainstream media. Not a mention, not a peep. EIA found that U.S. electricity generation from natural gas was the highest it has ever been this past winter, 2022-23. U.S. electricity generation from natural gas reached a record-high 619 billion kilowatthours (BkWh) during the most recent winter heating season (November 1-March 31), averaging more than 120 BkWh per month and accounting for 38% of the country’s electricity generation mix.
Looks like Shell’s new CEO, Wael Sawan, is capable of rational thought, unlike his predecessor, Ben van Beurden. Previous CEO van Beurden had set the company on the suicidal path of reducing oil and gas drilling in favor of investing in renewable energy. It turns out that’s not making any money for the company. So at an investor meeting this week, Sawan is going to unveil a new strategy–back to more drilling for oil and gas and less dithering with renewables, according to Reuters. In addition, super-secret sources whispering to Bloomberg say that Sawan is trying to cut more deals with China and India to sell more LNG. Sawan “sees a long-term role for natural gas in the world’s energy mix” and Shell is going to help meet that need.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Senator Yaw comments on Virginia Air Board canceling of RGGI.
In 2021 as he was running for the office of Governor in Virginia, Glenn Youngkin pledged if he won, he would remove the state from the onerous carbon tax on coal- and gas-fired power plants called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). True to his word, after winning, Younkin pledged to ax RGGI with an executive order (see 
A radicalized left-wing organization hellbent on forcing the end of fossil energy called Evergreen Action, along with another radical nonprofit called Ceres, partnered and paid a for-profit company called Synapse Energy Economics (that works exclusively for left-wing groups) to produce a completely sham and false “report” that (try not to laugh) claims Pennsylvania residents will pay less for their electricity under the onerous, Marcellus-killing Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax.
Yesterday a group of paid activists and climate zealots showed up at the White House to protest the debt ceiling bill provision that forces the completion of the 94%, very safe, Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. In what has to be one of the saddest things we’ve seen coming from the leftwing nutmob, one parent actually pushed her seven-year-old to the microphone to tear up and declare MVP would ruin the environment. Oh, and the kid doesn’t even live along the path of the pipeline! Not even in the same state!! That’s called brainwashing. What kind of parent scares their kid like this, telling them lies about a simple and safe natural gas pipeline? SHAME on you.
MiQ and Highwood Emissions Management (HEM) yesterday released the world’s first “open-access, measurement-informed methane intensity index” for the U.S. natural gas sector. The MiQ-Highwood Index™ estimates (and the keyword there is ESTIMATES) a methane emissions intensity of 1% leakage from the production sector alone, and 2.2% leakage for the entire natural gas supply chain. Those numbers exceed current national averages suggested by the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory and GREET natural gas pathway models. The aim of the new MiQ-Highwood Index is methane shaming–to shame producers and pipeline companies into spending gobs of money to prevent every last molecule of methane from “escaping” (like a fugitive) into Mom Earth’s atmosphere.
Last December, Rice Acquisition Corp II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) started by the Rice brothers (Danny, Toby, and Derek), announced a deal to acquire NET Power–an electric power developer with revolutionary new technology to capture every last molecule of carbon dioxide from natural gas-fired power plants (see 
New shale permits issued for May 29-Jun 4 in the Marcellus/Utica finally went higher again last week. There were 25 new permits issued, up from the dismal 8 new permits issued the previous week. Last week’s permit tally included 13 new permits for Pennsylvania, 6 new permits for Ohio, and 6 new permits in West Virginia. EQT scored the most new permits with 7 issued in Greene County, PA. Close behind in the #2 position was Antero Resources, with 6 new permits issued in Ritchie County, WV.
Last week, the U.S. House and Senate voted to approve the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, to raise the debt ceiling. President Biden signed the bill on Saturday. A section in the bill forces federal government agencies and courts to complete all necessary authorizations to finish building the 94% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (see