Court Allows LG&E to Build Tiny Pipe Thru Kentucky Arboretum Land
In May 2021, MDN told you that Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) had won Kentucky state approval to build a new 12-inch, 12-mile pipeline near Louisville to supply gas to homes and businesses that can’t connect to LG&E’s local natgas utility system because it is currently maxed out (see Pass the Jim Beam! Judge Clears Way for Gas Pipe Near Louisville, KY). The local Bernheim Arboretum has resisted attempts to build across three-tenths of one percent (0.028%) of Arboretum land–along an existing cleared path where electric lines already go. LG&E took the Arboretum to court, and last week the court ruled in favor of LG&E and its right to build the pipe through a small section of Arboretum land.
Read More “Court Allows LG&E to Build Tiny Pipe Thru Kentucky Arboretum Land”
In 2022, the first full year after emerging from the worldwide COVID pandemic, the U.S. and world economies rocketed. Inflation rocketed too, but that’s a different story. Because of the high price for natural gas and oil last year (in response to Russia illegally invading Ukraine), U.S. shale drillers increased capital expenditure spending by a whopping 54% over what they spent in 2021. What about this year? The analysts at RBN Energy have analyzed the announced spending by 42 shale oil and gas producers (with a market cap of at least $500 million) and find this year, shale drillers will only expand spending by a “modest” 17%. What about spending in the Marcellus/Utica?
In his first two days in office, Joe Biden declared war on the oil and gas industry. One of the first things he did was to revive an interagency working group on the “social cost” of greenhouse gas emissions and directed the issuance of an “interim” cost (see 
We don’t write much about RNG because, quite frankly, it doesn’t interest us. We’d rather punch holes in the ground to get natural gas than cap a manure pile to collect it. There’s a lot of hullabaloo about RNG these days, some of it coming from shale circles (which we find odd). Here’s the thing: If you believe producing and using RNG is going to address the concerns of anti-fossil fuel nutters, you are deeply mistaken. The wacko left that hates fossil fuels, including natural gas, hates RNG too.
New shale permits issued for Mar. 27-Apr. 2 in the Marcellus/Utica dropped quite a bit from the prior week. There were 21 new permits issued in total last week, down from 32 in the prior week. Last week’s tally included 15 new permits for Pennsylvania, 6 new permits for Ohio, and no new permits in West Virginia. Last week the top receiver of new permits was Ascent Resources with 6 new permits, 5 in Jefferson County, OH, and 1 in Harrison County, OH. Chesapeake Energy took the #2 slot with 5 new permits in Bradford County, PA.
NATIONAL: USA more than doubles EU LNG delivery target; One shale executive correctly called OPEC+ surprise cut; Where will WTI oil price be at end-2023?; Biden NHTSA nominee bundled funds for climate litigation; US cities receive nearly $200M in grants to upgrade natgas pipelines; Rural America needs permitting reform; Banking crisis adds to shale industry pessimism.
Last summer, MDN brought you the news about a lawsuit against Diversified Energy and EQT over the issue of old and “abandoned” wells in West Virginia (see 
Freeport LNG is back online, sucking up 2.1 (or more) billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas, some of it from the Marcellus/Utica, exporting LNG to other countries. Freeport was out of commission following an explosion and fire in June 2022 until several weeks ago (see 
Within two years, LNG replaced all of the gas world markets lost coming from Russia. U.S. export revenues from LNG grew exponentially over the last six years. Export volumes and wealth from LNG could potentially lead to an astonishing $100 billion in new LNG developments in the U.S.! LNG will be a strong driver of U.S. natural gas production over the next seven years. The U.S. may double its exports, or more, from now to 2030. We are, writes author and petroleum engineer Ian Palmer, in the midst of a “Golden Age” for LNG. What is a Golden Age? And what does it mean for LNG?
In March, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) published its Annual Energy Outlook for 2023 (see 
Last week five Republican U.S. Senators introduced the Natural 
This is another in our series of what it’s like living “Behind Enemy Lines.” MDN editor Jim Willis lives in Upstate New York (Binghamton area). Our freedoms in NY are being stripped away at an alarming rate. The radical left is in full control of the state, as is illustrated by a recent debate between Gov. Kathy Hochul (a far-left radical) and others in the Democrat Party even further to the left of Hochul, if such a thing is possible. The people left of Hochul are resisting a reasonable compromise in the current budget that would change the current timeline for methane accounting from 20 years to 100 years.
One of MDN’s favorite organizations is the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Landowner Alliance (POGLA), an organization representing oil, gas, mineral, and royalty owners throughout the Commonwealth of PA. POGLA will host a conference titled 