What Happens to the Marcellus if Josh Shapiro Wins PA Governor?
To answer the question posed in the headline, the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania will be greatly harmed by a Shapiro administration, in our educated opinion. You need to know that before you send in a ballot or vote on election day. Josh Shapiro is no friend of the Marcellus industry. We’ve given you many examples over the years of Shapiro attempting to turn accidents in the Marcellus shale patch into crimes (see our stories here). In addition to Shapiro’s aggressive hounding of Marcellus companies, one of the key issues facing the next governor in PA is what to do about Tom Wolf’s plan to force the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme. Shapiro will ensure RGGI happens.
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Help! We’re in a nightmare, and we can’t wake up! It feels like we’re in one of those interminable Halloween movies (there’s a new one coming out this month called Halloween Ends, can you believe it?). Picture this: A president who already tilts far to the left and has dementia manages to sucker a “moderate” Democrat from West Virginia to vote for a falsely named climate bill (calling it Inflation Reduction), getting the bill passed. And that bill contains $40 BILLION for the federal EPA to use for (among other things) concocting new regulations to impose on the oil and gas industry, circumventing states’ rights as enumerated under the U.S. Constitution. The EPA is about to unleash those onerous new regulations–this week–just in time for Halloween! God help us all.
When oil and natural gas (i.e. methane) are extracted from the ground, inevitably some methane leaks/escapes into the atmosphere. Such leaks cause leftist wackos to go apoplectic, they’re so convinced methane will cause the earth to toast. We don’t like seeing methane leak either–but for a different reason. Every one of those molecules could be harvested and sold! There’s money in that leaking methane! One of the first tasks in solving the issue of leaking methane is to determine its source. Where is the methane originating from? Researchers at the Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) have discovered a way to determine where methane originates by measuring not only methane, but other hydrocarbons present, including ethane.
For years the left has not been able to win debates, nor win the hearts and minds of citizens, because there are conservatives willing to stand up and air an opposing view. The conservative view often makes the most sense. And so conservatives win arguments and win the support of a majority of citizens by using sound and rational reasoning. The left simply cannot compete with common sense. How does the left combat the situation? By demanding an end to free speech. In the same way the left labels some people as racists in order to shut them up and stop any debate, the left now insists that anyone with a viewpoint they don’t hold is spreading “disinformation” and is “dangerous” and must be stopped. It is most noticeable in the debate over global warming. If you say anything other than the accepted leftist meme that mankind is destroying the earth by burning fossil fuels, you are spreading disinformation and are a danger to society. Free speech is very close to dying in this country–because of the left.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: CNX Foundation, CCAC in mentoring partnership; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: California governor calls special session to pass profit tax on oil giants; INTERNATIONAL: Five day oil rally ends as recession fears rebound; New Zealand proposes taxing cow burps, angering farmers; The world’s longest offshore gas pipeline could get the green light next year; No surprise that OPEC-plus sides with Russia over Biden in oil market.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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 
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.
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 
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.