NATIONAL: USA shale drilling set for 20 percent drop at current prices; Biden blocks mineral mining his clean-energy goals require; INTERNATIONAL: Italy moves to cut Russian gas with new floating LNG terminal.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Mar 23, 2023”
It seems like every March we write about the same topic when budget hearings begin in Pennsylvania. That topic is a recommendation by Republican State Senators, including Gene Yaw (from Lycoming County, PA), recommending to the Democrat administration they should seek to lease more state-owned land for shale drilling (see PA Senators Ask DCNR to Lease Extra 22K Ac. State Land for Drilling and Sen. Yaw Tells DCNR to Lease More PA State Land for Gas Drilling). And every year, the state Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) Secretary, Cindy Adams Dunn (former president of the radical PennFuture organization), resists and refuses to expand drilling under state land (see PA DCNR Secretary Chilly to Suggestion of More State Forest Drilling). It happened again yesterday.
Read More “PA Senators Push DCNR to Lease More State Land for Drilling”
A Boston-based fossil fuel hating group called HEET (Home Energy Efficiency Team) paid big money for a “research report” written by a card-carrying “research activist” targeting Philadelphia Gas Works’ (PGW) plan to upgrade its aging and (in some cases) failing 6,000 miles of natural gas pipelines that make life possible in the City of Brotherly Love. The HEET-funded “study” says PGW should slap a 10-year Band-Aid on leaky pipes because, you know, renewables will take over the world after that. What a load…
Read More “Boston Anti-Gas NGO Says Philly Should Not Upgrade Bad Gas Pipes”
Last April, MDN told you about Nopetro LNG’s plans to construct and operate as many as three liquefaction trains in Port St. Joe, Florida, that will liquefy up to 3.86 billion cubic feet per year of natural gas for export and delivery to markets in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America (see Small Florida LNG Export Facility NOT Subject to FERC Regulation). That’s 3.86 Bcf for an entire year, not per day. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said it does not have jurisdictional authority over such a tiny facility. Along came Big Green (i.e. Public Citizen) to sue FERC, asking the court to force the agency to step up and conduct a full review of the facility (which would kill it).
Read More “Big Green Challenges Small Florida LNG Export Facility in Fed Court”
Energy in Depth (EID) is publishing a series that exposes the activist group Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) and its extensive actions behind the scenes in New Jersey municipalities to recruit, support, and initiate climate litigation. CCI has tried, according to emails obtained by EID, to remain hidden in the background. EID is turning a bright spotlight on their unethical (and borderline illegal) activities in manipulating New Jersey officials, encouraging (goading) them to sue oil and gas companies using public funds.
Read More “Center for Climate Integrity Manipulates NJ Officials Against O&G”
A blow-the-doors off expose by Kevin Mooney, an investigative reporter with both the Commonwealth Foundation and the Heritage Foundation, exposes serious undisclosed conflicts of interest and potential ethics violations for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Commissioner Allison Clements. SERIOUS issues. From Day One, when Clements was nominated by the Democrats, we raised a big red flag. Clements is a leftist who worked for the fringe group NRDC for ten years as a lawyer, launching multiple lawsuits aimed at blocking fossil fuel companies from engaging in business (see Trump Nominates 2 New FERC Members – One an NRDC Lemon). It appears Clements’ connection to the NRDC and other Big Green groups was never severed when she joined FERC.
Read More “FERC’s Clements Tied to Big Green in Potential Ethics Violations”
The nightmare we can’t wake up from, called New York State, keeps getting darker and worse. In January, Hochul proposed banning the sale of all new natural gas appliances across the state, along with an outright ban on hooking up new homes and businesses to gas, by 2030 (see NY Gov. Hochul Loses Her Mind – Wants to Ban Gas in New Buildings). She also wants to cap so-called greenhouse gas output and require companies to buy “allowances” (i.e., indulgences) for their carbon emissions sins. This is hard to believe, but Democrat legislators are adding new requirements of their own, making it even harder for companies to meet emissions standards, stay under the caps, and/or pay for allowances. The legislature’s proposed changes will drive even more companies out of the state.
Read More “NY Lawmakers Aim to Make Hochul’s Anti-Fossil Fuel Plan Worse”
Is Kamala Harris the dumbest Vice President of the United States…ever? No. We think that dubious distinction goes to her boss, Joe Biden, when he was VP under Lord Obama. But she ranks right up there near Biden as the dumbest. Do you ever listen to any of her talks? Or her cackling laugh? Talk about nails on a chalkboard! One of cackling Kamala’s latest pronouncements is that there is a “mental health crisis” because of the climate. This time we tend to agree with her. There IS a mental health crisis–abject fear and panic–because of people like Harris screaming lies that the planet is about to end unless we dump fossil energy.
Read More “Climate Fearmongering Causing National Mental Health Crisis”
The most recent day of active trading was Tue., Mar. 21, 2023. The numbers below reflect yesterday’s closing numbers.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: California win in bid to curb oil profits; Republican lawmakers pan offshore wind plans at NJ event; NATIONAL: Pimco sees banking turmoil as threat to USA oil, gas production; Serial gas stove user Stacey Abrams joins group that wants to ban them; INTERNATIONAL: Carbon-sucking tech to use more energy than all homes; Russia becomes China’s biggest oil supplier; U.S. company seeks $20B from Canada over nixed LNG project.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Mar 22, 2023”
Back in January, three Marcellus/Utica companies–Chesapeake Energy, EQT, and Equitrans Midstream–launched what the three call the Appalachian Methane Initiative (AMI), a coalition committed to further enhancing methane monitoring throughout the Appalachia Basin, with an aim to reduce methane emissions throughout the region (see EQT, Chessy, Equitrans Form M-U Methane Monitoring Club). During the recent CERAWeek event, EQT CEO Toby Rice said AMI is evaluating “about six” satellite providers to help with the monitoring task. EQT’s top lawyer, Will Jordan, said AMI would decide later this year whether to outsource or develop satellite tech in-house for methane monitoring.
Read More “AMI Evaluating 6 Satellite Services to Monitor M-U Fugitive Methane”
MiQ, a certification authority that monitors for methane (and other) emissions and issues responsible gas certifications, announced today it has launched the world’s first certification to cover all GHGs (greenhouse gases) from the LNG supply chain. LNG buyers are now able to compare exporters and choose lower emissions cargoes for the first time–ever. MiQ’s new framework tracks 100% of methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide emissions from every segment of the LNG supply chain–including production, gathering and boosting, processing, pipeline, liquefaction, shipping, and regasification.
Read More “MiQ Launches World’s 1st LNG Cert and Registry Covering All GHGs”
Sempra Infrastructure, a subsidiary of Sempra, announced yesterday it had reached a positive final investment decision (FID) for the development, construction, and operation of the Port Arthur LNG Phase 1 project in Jefferson County, Texas. Sempra closed on all of the remaining financial aspects of the deal–selling a piece to KKR and forming a joint venture with ConocoPhillips. It also has all of the customers it needs lined up (see Port Arthur LNG Now has All Customers Needed to Build Phase 1). With all of the i’s dotted and t’s now crossed, Sempra made the FID and told its contractor, Bechtel, to rev up the bulldozers and begin construction. Let’s gooooo!
Read More “Port Arthur LNG Pulls Trigger on FID, Tells Builder to Start Work”
If leftists can redefine what is and what is not “waters of the United States” (WOTUS), they can pretty much control you and what you can and can’t do with your own private property. WOTUS, according to the Bidenistas, is pretty much anything down to mud puddles, as they proposed earlier this year (see EPA Makes Another Attempt to Regulate O&G via Waters of US). We told you about 24 states, led by West Virginia, that banded together to file a lawsuit against this latest overstep by the EPA (see WV Leads 24-State Coalition Against EPA Waters of US Reg 2nd Time). What we didn’t know is that there were two other states–Texas and Idaho–that filed their own separate lawsuit against the EPA’s new WOTUS rule. A federal judge on Sunday issued a decision that freezes (blocks) the new WOTUS rule from going into effect yesterday in Texas and Idaho.
Read More “Federal Judge Hands Defeat to Biden EPA, Blocks New WOTUS Rule”
The United Nations’ (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published an updated climate change (global warming) report yesterday. It is the hardest of hard-core dictatorial screeds we’ve seen yet out of the UN, an agency that desires to rule the world. The out-of-control UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, said in releasing the report that “Humanity is on thin ice – and that ice is melting fast. Our world needs climate action on all fronts – everything, everywhere, all at once.” Cute–invoking the name of this year’s Oscar winner for Best Picture. Guterres’ preferred solution? “Ceasing all licensing or funding of new oil and gas,” and “stopping any expansion of existing oil and gas reserves.” You read that right. No more new drilling anywhere for fossil fuels, if the UN gets its way.
Read More “UN Calls for Ban on Fossil Fuels to Avoid ‘Climate Time Bomb’”
From time to time, we notice stories about ammonia, which crop up in our natural gas news feeds. Ammonia (NH3) is produced commercially via the catalytic reaction of nitrogen and hydrogen at high temperature and pressure. Some 95% of all hydrogen is produced by cracking methane (natural gas). Ergo, ammonia is ultimately made from natural gas. One particular story caught our attention. A startup company in Brooklyn, NY, is working on converting an old tug boat from burning diesel to burning ammonia. The company, called Amogy (a portmanteau of ammonia and energy), says the future of shipping is ammonia for fuel.
Read More “Amogy Using Ammonia to Power World’s 1st Zero Emissions Tugboat”
