It’s Columbus Day! MDN will not publish our regular list of stories today–but have no fear, we will be back tomorrow (Tuesday) with a full lineup.
Take a moment today to celebrate the world’s most famous Italian–the guy who started it all, the guy who discovered the Americas and what would one day become the greatest country on earth: The United States of America!
We’ve heard of vegetable gardens. We’ve heard of flower gardens. We’ve heard of rose gardens. Remember the Lynn Anderson song, “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden”? We’ve also heard of rock gardens, raised gardens, herb gardens, and indoor gardens. One garden we hadn’t heard about until today is a “rain garden.” Ever heard that term? Rice Energy (now part of EQT Corporation) is paying a big fine, $147,250, for work done at a well site in Greene County, PA, in 2019 that allowed erosion and soil to contaminate not one but three rain gardens. I beg your pardon!
Read More “DEP Clips Rice (EQT) $147,250 for Polluting Rain Gardens in SWPA”
Shipping giant UPS recently opened its fourth-largest U.S. distribution hub (a “superhub”) outside of Middletown, PA, in Lower Swatara Township (Dauphin County, near Harrisburg). It is UPS’s largest natural gas fueling station in the country, and it is fed by a pipeline built by UGI for that purpose. While the press announcement says the gas is “renewable natural gas” (RNG), there is no doubt the actual molecules feeding the plant come from the Marcellus.
Read More “UGI NatGas Supplies Largest UPS CNG Station – Near Harrisburg”
There have been a number of project proposals by Marcellus/Utica states (PA, OH, WV), and even proposals by private companies within those states, to attract one of the 6-10 regional hydrogen hub projects on offer from the Bidenistas as part of the so-called Infrastructure Bill passed last year. While we think it’s important that one of those hubs ends up in the M-U region, we have not (will not) root for any particular effort (we love all our children equally). However, as a purely outside observer, it sure seems to us that a recently announced effort by West Virginia called ARCH2 (Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub) has pulled into the lead among a number of competing proposals.
Read More “Which M-U Hydrogen Hub Proposal has the Best Shot So Far?”
Energy Capital Ventures (ECV) is a venture capital firm focused on investing in startups that in turn, will focus on ESG (environment, social, governance) imperatives and digital transformation of the natural gas industry. ECV trademarked the term “green molecules™”–a term it developed to describe technologies spanning decarbonization, sustainability, and digitization of the natural gas industry. ECV announced it had received $61 million to fund its Fund I initiatives. Many of the investors come from the M-U region.
Read More “ECV Closes on $61M Investment to ESG-ify Natural Gas Utilities”
There’s little doubt that Vladimir Putin ordered the bombing of his own undersea natural gas pipelines, the Nord Stream pipelines, for some sort of political purpose. Crazy? Sure. But also calculated. In a brilliant column on the Forbes website, author Dan Markind, a Philadelphia-based attorney, compares Putin’s actions in sabotaging his own pipelines to the politicians in New York and New England who are sabotaging pipelines to their respective regions.
Read More “NY, New England Moral Equivalent of Putin re Sabotaging Pipelines”
The federal government is falling all over itself to spend YOUR money on hydrogen and carbon capture projects. The so-called Infrastructure Bill from last year allocates $8 billion on hydrogen projects (with $7 billion being spent on 6-10 regional hubs). The misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes roughly $369 billion in incentives for energy and climate-related programs, including tax credits, research loans, and more. In other words, there are mountains of money available that companies can potentially access. Why shouldn’t M-U companies participate? Learn how to tap into all of that dough at the Appalachian Hydrogen Carbon Capture Conference being held in Canonsburg, PA, on Nov. 10.
Read More “Get Your Slice of the Hydrogen Billions Pie – Learn How Nov. 10”
Just nine new permits to drill shale wells were issued across the three Marcellus/Utica states for Sept. 26 to Oct. 2. Pennsylvania turned in the second week in a row of very low new permits–just three issued, all of them to different companies in different counties. Ohio issued just four new permits, with two of them going to Encino Energy in Carroll County. And West Virginia issued just two new permits, both to Southwestern Energy in Brooke County.
Read More “9 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Sep 26-Oct 2”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Plan to drop Erie County sales tax on heating fuels includes natural gas; Business groups call on Biden to strengthen U.S. energy production; NATIONAL: Biden turns to Venezuela as Europe commits economic ‘suicide by genuflecting to green utopia’; INTERNATIONAL: Nord Stream leaks caused by detonations; The radical plans to counter high oil prices.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Oct 7, 2022”
So what happens now that Joe Manchin’s plan to get his fellow Democrats to vote for a bill to finish up the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a “permitting reform” bill, is dead (see “Save MVP” Permitting Bill is Dead – Manchin Pulls it From CR)? Manchin and his buddy Chuck Schumer have said they will try to resurrect Manchin’s bill, called the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2022, for a vote by the end of this year. Good luck with that. We give it a 0% chance. Back here in the real world Equitrans Midstream, the company building the 94% complete MVP, has to deal with the hand they’ve been dealt. What does their plan to complete MVP look like?
Read More “What are Next Steps for Mountain Valley Pipe? Will it Get Done?”
The Millennium Pipeline, which stretches 263 miles from Corning, NY, to just outside New York City, delivers Pennsylvania Marcellus and Utica gas to utility and power plant markets across New York State and into New England. Several companies jointly own the pipeline, which operates under its own corporate structure. Among those with an ownership interest are TC Energy (formerly TransCanada), utility giant National Grid, and pipeline company DT Midstream. Last week DT Midstream announced it would double its ownership stake in the Millennium from 26.25% to 52.50%. DT will pay $552 million to become the majority owner of the Millennium Pipeline.
Read More “DT Midstream Becomes Majority Owner of Millennium Pipeline”
On Monday, MDN told you that the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) Graduate School of Public Health and the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) had “suddenly” pulled out of an event scheduled for yesterday to update the public on Pitt’s research on the potential health effects of hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania (see First Signs Appear that Cancer/Fracking in Kids Study in Trouble). The update session was organized by virulent anti-fossil energy groups, which prey on the emotions of parents who have lost their precious children to cancer, blaming it on fracking. Until recently, Pitt and the DOH were scheduled to participate, but then they disappeared. Why?
Read More “We Now Know Why Pitt, DOH Pulled Out of Fracking/Cancer Update”
West Virginia University classmates Kyle Gillis and James Carnes founded Iconic Air in 2020 in Morgantown, WV, to help the oil and gas industry “decarbonize faster and smarter.” The company recently secured $5 million in seed funding and has launched its SaaS (software as a service) platform to help drillers, pipeline companies, and others in the oil and gas industry track and manage carbon dioxide emissions.
Read More “WV Startup Helps Drillers, Pipelines Track Carbon Emissions”
Eureka Resources, which operates three frack wastewater treatment facilities in the Marcellus Shale, is doing really cool stuff. In October 2019, the company began extracting lithium from Marcellus wastewater at one of its plants in Bradford County, PA (see Marcellus Wastewater Plant in PA Extracts 1st Batch of Lithium). The company claims its plants can theoretically supply up to 25% of the country’s annual lithium demand, solely with lithium recovered from Marcellus wastewater (see Eureka Can Supply 25% of US Lithium Demand from Marc. Wastewater). Others are now noticing that lithium can be extracted from wastewater (i.e. brine).
Read More “Extracting Lithium from Oil & Gas Wastewater Brine”
BlackRock, which encourages investors to divest from companies that refuse to tow the ESG line (i.e. fossil energy companies), is feeling the heat. That is, BlackRock is beginning to lose money. Big money. First, West Virginia announced that all state-run pension plans would divest the divestors of BlackRock (see WV Ends Business with 5 Banks Guilty of Boycotting Fossil Fuels). Texas, the second largest (by population) state in the country, was next (see TX Blacklists BlackRock & 9 Others – State Pension Funds to Divest). Then Florida, the third largest state in the country, announced it will divest from BlackRock (see Florida Follows WV, TX in Banning Investments in Woke ESG Funds). And now Louisiana has announced it will divest all BlackRock holdings–which total as much as $800 million!
Read More “Boom! Louisiana Divesting $800 Million from BlackRock Funds”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Yaw talks energy independence during visit to Bradford County; NATIONAL: Enbridge names new President and CEO; INTERNATIONAL: OPEC+ tries to keep oil above $90 with large cut; White House freaks over OPEC plan to cut 2M barrels per day; European gas moves from bad to ugly; The green energy scandal exposed in Britain.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Oct 6, 2022”