Debt Deal has Potential to Modernize NEPA Reviews, Maybe
On June 3, President Joe Biden signed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (FRA), which raises the debt ceiling into the stratosphere, into law. The FRA contains a critical provision to force the Mountain Valley Pipeline project completion in West Virginia and Virginia (see Equitrans Announces Mountain Valley Pipe to Get Completed in 2023). The new law also contains what we would call a baby-half-step toward “permitting reform,” making it easier and taking less time to build new pipelines and other kinds of energy projects.
Read More “Debt Deal has Potential to Modernize NEPA Reviews, Maybe”
MDN has repeatedly warned you that the International Energy Agency (IEA) has become a political shill for the extreme left environmental movement. Two years ago, the IEA published its laughable Net Zero Roadmap (see 
NATIONAL: More than two-thirds of Americans, including Dems, oppose ban on gas stoves; Rubio, Cassidy introduce bill to expand gas exports to U.S. allies; Summer’s arrival to prompt surge in natural gas demand.
Very quietly, without issuing a press release, CNX Resources, headquartered in Canonsburg, PA (near Pittsburgh), filed a Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission to say that on June 15, the company entered into a “definitive purchase sales agreement” to sell various non-operated producing oil and gas assets primarily located in the Appalachian basin to a third party for $125 million. And that’s about the sum total of what we know.
The weekly rig count in the U.S., particularly in gas-focused plays, continues to be of concern. That is, it keeps decreasing and then not recovering the decrease. Last Thursday, Baker Hughes said the U.S. lost another eight rigs total (oil and gas)–the seventh week in a row the rig count has decreased. Two weeks ago, the cumulative Marcellus/Utica rig count was even at 49 rigs (see 
Early last week, we published a post about the possibility that Equitrans would revive its moribund project to build the 75-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) Southgate project from the current MVP terminus in Pittsylvania County, VA, to Alamance County, NC (see 
An article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tackles the issues of permit reform, environmental justice, and the intersection of the two. The article asks and attempts to answer the question, “How does one shape the other?” Based on quotes and comments in the story coming from the Shapiro administration, particularly from Acting Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), Rich Negrin, it’s obvious that Shapiro intends to redefine “environmental justice” so broadly that it will become meaningless. The aim seems to be to turn environmental justice into a blunt force instrument the left can use to deny any energy permit they don’t want to issue.
Those part of the environmental left were some of the biggest supporters of electing then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro as Pennsylvania’s next governor. But it seems the wacko environmental movement is not happy with their boy Josh. They have buyer’s remorse. It all started when, shortly after last November’s election, Shapiro announced a deal with Coterra Energy (formerly Cabot Oil & Gas) to settle a criminal case against the company for the decade-old matter of methane migration in Dimock, PA (see 
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse in New York, the “Empire State,” it does! In May, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (Democrat) signed a budget into law that includes provisions to ban gas stoves and furnaces in new residential buildings (see 
Today, June 19th, is a stock exchange and bank holiday. Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the U.S. commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Juneteenth marks the anniversary of the announcement of General Order No. 3 by Union Army General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, proclaiming freedom for enslaved people in Texas. Originating in Galveston, the holiday has since been celebrated annually on June 19 in various parts of the United States, often broadly celebrating African-American culture. The day was first recognized as a federal holiday in June 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. As with other bank holidays, MDN will not publish today.
In the summer of 2021, Patterson-UTI Energy, which operates 21 active rigs in the Marcellus/Utica (out of 49 active M-U rigs, nearly half of all active M-U rigs!), announced it was buying a smaller competitor, Pioneer Energy Services Corp. (see 
Even as the Bidenistas at the Dept. of Energy are deciding which regional hydrogen hub proposals to fund, and even though Pennsylvania, with its parochial application that competes against a much better application from West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, the Democrats in the PA House are attempting to force any new hydrogen projects in the Keystone state to NOT use fossil fuels–namely Marcellus Shale gas. Yes, they are insane! PA Dems (led by State Rep. Greg Vitali) are about to screw up PA’s already long shot at grabbing one of the 6 to 8 regional hydrogen hub projects and $1 billion in funding by promoting House Bill (HB) 1215–written by the radicals of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Talk about dumb. Wow!
In October 2021, Cimarex Energy, a Permian driller, and Cabot Oil & Gas, a Pennsylvania Marcellus driller, merged and renamed the company to Coterra Energy (see 
For individuals, discretionary income is what’s left after you pay your taxes and fixed costs like housing, food, and clothing. For shale drillers, the equivalent to discretionary income is cash flow from operating activities (CFOA), which is the net income a company generates adjusted for non-cash expenses like depreciation and stock-based compensation, and for changes in working capital. Drillers can use their extra cash to grow production by spending more for drilling new wells (capital expenditures or capex). Or drillers can send some of the extra cash back to investors via share buybacks and dividends. How did Marcellus/Utica drillers spend their CFOA during the first quarter of 2023?