Environmental Movement Uses Global Warming as “Moral Blackmail”
Rupert Darwall, a senior fellow at RealClearFoundation, was recently interviewed by NTD News (associated with The Epoch Times newspaper). It was an outstanding interview (watch it below). Darwall said environmentalists use a version of McCarthyism to stifle opposition–a form of “moral blackmail.” If anyone deigns to disagree with the accepted catastrophic global warming party line, that person is hounded until they shut up. And if they don’t shut up, their job (and social standing) is threatened. Free speech is dead in the environmental movement. Free thought is too.
Read More “Environmental Movement Uses Global Warming as “Moral Blackmail””
NATIONAL: Biden admin taking additional energy measures; Sales of natural gas trucks up, number of stations down; Propane continues to lead US petroleum product exports; INTERNATIONAL: Shell closes UK hydrogen filling stations; Erdogan says he agreed with Putin to form natural gas hub in Turkey.
Although there are multiple (and complex) factors that work together to drive the price of natural gas up or down, there is one factor that typically stands head and shoulders above the rest: weather. Even though Europe is still in a pickle with lack of natgas supplies and bidding against Asia to attract said supplies from the U.S., and even though domestic demand from sectors like power generation and even home heating is on the increase, and even though domestic natgas in storage is way below the five-year average, all of which would normally indicate higher demand and therefore higher prices–the weather trumps everything. Warm weather predictions (meaning less demand) have caused a drop in the price of the NYMEX front month contract by 71 cents in the past two days. The price is now at a three-month low.
The Pennsylvania Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee was busy yesterday. In a companion post today, we told you about opposition to a bill by Sen. Carolyn Comitta that would do nothing more than study the concept of exporting LNG from the Philadelphia region (see PA Sen. Carolyn Comitta, Anti from Philly, Confuses LNG and NGL). A second bill that Comitta and her pal on the Environmental Committee, Sen. Katie Muth (also a left-wing Democrat), opposed yesterday is a bill that withholds impact fee (tax) revenue from counties that ban fracking on or under public lands, like parks.
There are eight so-called Ivy League institutions: Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University. At this point, most of them have made moves to divest their massive endowments from any company that is even remotely connected to the fossil energy industry. One of them has not, yet: the University of Pennsylvania. A group of brainwashed children at UPenn are behaving like spoiled rotten brats, demanding UPenn divest from any company with a whiff of oil or natural gas about it. They even want the school to ban fossil energy companies from recruiting on campus (no free speech at UPenn).
Once upon a time, a few years ago, Europe turned its nose up to American “fracked” gas as filthy and vile, preferring to buy its gas from Vladimir Putin instead. American companies fell all over themselves to win the love of arrogant Europeans for our natural gas–primarily by “proving” our gas (turned into LNG) is “responsible.” Responsible gas certification programs appeared overnight and have been adopted by most (if not all) of the major drillers in the Marcellus/Utica (see 
We spotted a must-read article from Scott Tinker, the director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at The University of Texas at Austin. In his column, Tinker points out the failure of Europe’s energy policies for the past quarter century–policies that shut down energy options like nuclear, coal, and natural gas, believing that wind and solar would take their place. It hasn’t worked. The brilliance of Tinker’s column is in comparing what’s happening in states like California and New York to what happened in Europe. Those two states (among others) are following in the footsteps of Europe, doing the same things–eliminating energy choice before alternatives can handle the load. And we are seeing the same identical results in CA and NY that we see in Europe–energy scarcity and skyrocketing energy prices.
As happens at the beginning of most winters (at least in recent years), we are beginning to see articles with warnings from the electric grid operator in New England, ISO New England Inc., that if the region experiences “an extremely cold winter,” it’s a pretty safe bet there will be electric blackouts. The region relies almost exclusively on natural gas to generate electricity. The reason there will be blackouts is due to Maura Healey. Healey is the Attorney General of Massachusetts. During her tenure as AG, Healey has blocked two different natgas pipeline projects–because she irrationally hates (yet still uses) fossil energy. Healey is now running for governor of MA and is likely to win. You know what? Massachusetts residents will get the blackouts they deserve if they elect Healey.
U.S. natural gas production is projected to increase a big 4% this winter, but lower-than-average storage along with an estimated 2% increase in demand will combine to place upward pressure on natural gas prices compared to last winter. So says the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) in its 22nd annual Winter Outlook forecast of the wholesale winter natural gas market (an executive summary of the NGSA report is embedded below).
Researchers at the West Virginia University (WVU) Energy Institute presented an update on their latest work to reporters yesterday on the Evansdale campus in Morgantown. According to Sam Taylor, assistant director for the WVU Energy Institute, the university is leading the way in research of technologies that can help move the state to a cleaner environment while still using the natural gas produced in the state. WVU professed its love for natgas, but it loves loves loves hydrogen.
In December 2020, Dan Rice IV, former CEO of Rice Energy and a member of the EQT board of directors, launched a “blank check” acquisition firm, called Rice Acquisition Corp., to invest in various energy ventures. Dan found his something-to-invest-in just a few months later in the form of acquiring and merging together Archaea Energy and Aria Energy into a single company focused on providing renewable natural gas (RNG) and “green” hydrogen (see 
The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently published its Winter Fuels Outlook for 2022-2023. Major media outlets are picking up on this statistic: The U.S. average household that heats with natural gas will pay $931 this winter, up 28% (or $206) from what that same household paid last winter. Although production (supplies) of natural gas is increasing, demand is going up even more. Yes, LNG exports play a role in that, but so too does an increase in demand from domestic power generators, industrial users, etc. But here’s what we want to point out about this news, some context that’s missing in the stories we see: Other Western democracies, like Germany, are paying far more for natural gas than we are. FAR more.