Dick Glick’s FERC Reappointment for 5 More Years NOT a Sure Thing
On Monday MDN brought you the news that Joe Biden is renominating Richard “Dick” Glick to serve yet another undistinguished term at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see Joe Biden Renominates Dick Glick for Another FERC Term). Glick, a Democrat and former wind lobbyist who is an extreme anti-pipeline radical, was first appointed under Donald Trump. Glick is currently the Chairman of the Commission. But what’s this? Republicans (and possibly Joe Manchin) are pushing back. Glick may not be able to garner 51 votes to keep his job. That’s the buzz around the D.C. swamp.
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Just last week MDN told you we will, from now on, bring you new permit data for the previous week on Fridays. Yet here it is Thursday and we’re sharing the permit data for last week. What gives? MDN and its author, Jim Willis, are taking a break Friday (tomorrow) and next Monday for the Memorial Day holiday. Well, we’re taking Monday off for the holiday. We’re taking Friday off because there’s a wedding in Jim’s family this weekend. There are preparations to make, and celebrations to partake in. So we’re bringing you the permit data today, on Thursday. Speaking of which, there were 24 new permits issued last week, with 14 of them going to Pennsylvania, seven to Ohio, and three to West Virginia. We break it down below.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Stop New York’s climate madness before it drives electric rates into orbit; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Why Bill Spadea opposes plans to eliminate natgas in NJ; NATIONAL: Cheniere and Posco pen long-term LNG supply deal; Former energy chief Rick Perry touts fossil fuels, nuclear; ESG’s power grows as banker is canceled for talking sense on climate change; INTERNATIONAL: Finland leases floating LNG terminal for 10 years to break free from Russian gas.
The radicals of the Clean Air Council (CAC) are claiming a (very small) victory in their campaign against processing NGLs at the Marcus Hook refinery located near Philadelphia. CAC is CACkling that they have forced Energy Transfer, builder of the mighty Mariner East (ME) pipeline system (a pipeline that CAC couldn’t stop), to back down on how permits are issued for the Marcus Hook facility–the place where NGLs from ME end up for processing and loading for export. The end result is…well…not much. Nothing will really change. The same volume of NGLs will still flow to Marcus Hook, and the same volume of NGLs will be loaded onto ships and exported to other countries. The only thing that changes is that ET spends more time and pays more money to obtain a single large permit instead of two separate, smaller permits. We’ll explain.
Northeast Natural Energy (NNE) is a “top 10” shale driller in West Virginia, headquartered in Morgantown, WV (see 
When a pipeline company considers whether or not to build a new pipeline, the company conducts an “open season”–a time when drillers (producers), traders, buyers, and others who want guaranteed capacity along that pipeline can sign long-term contracts. Such contracts guarantee pipeline companies will be able to make back the considerable amount of money they have to spend to build the pipeline. What happens when those 5-, 10-, and 20-year contracts expire?
In a post on EIA’s Today in Energy, the now-politicized EIA attempts to prop up the tattered reputation of the Biden administration with respect to natural gas using the headline, “FERC approves new natural gas pipeline projects to increase U.S. exports.” We excitedly read the post hoping to spot a project or two that had escaped our notice, something that would end up flowing more Marcellus/Utica molecules to other regions. It wasn’t until the very last sentence we discovered the truth that even EIA could not ignore: “In 2021, we estimate that the United States added 7.44 Bcf/d of new pipeline capacity, the lowest amount added to interstate transmission since 2016.” In other words, new pipeline additions haven’t been this low since the last days of the Lord Obama administration.
You have to hand it to West Virginia Joe Manchin, he doesn’t much care what the snobby intelligentsia think about him. For whatever reason Manchin is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It’s an event where all the smarter-than-you-are people go to pronounce they’re smarter than you are. According to the WEF website, “The World Economic Forum brings together decision-makers from across society to work on projects and initiatives that make a real difference.” Errr, right. Most of the attendees are fossil fuel haters, so it was with interest we read Manchin’s comments at Davos in front of the haters, sticking up for fossil energy.
For the better part of a decade, MDN has brought you stories about shale development in the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD), an agency formed in 1933 to help control flooding and promote water conservation in the Muskingum River watershed area of Ohio, an area that covers 8,000 square miles. Over the years MWCD has leased thousands of acres for Utica Shale drilling and cut deals to sell water to drillers for fracking. It’s been a while since the last lease announcement. MWCD has just completed negotiations to lease more of its land for drilling. We have all the details.
We’ve tackled the issue of why there isn’t more oil and natural gas drilling happening in the Marcellus/Utica and beyond even with prices for both commodities through the proverbial roof. Not that many years ago prices were a fraction of what they are now and yet the drilling industry would not, could not stop drilling new wells, flooding the market with product and crashing prices. Now, it’s the reverse! It seems nothing will incentivize drillers to drill any new wells beyond enough to keep production steady. Why? An article in the Wall Street Journal seeks to answer the question, definitively.
The world’s so-called leaders will meet in Stockholm, Sweden, on June 2-3 to commemorate the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment and celebrate 50 years of failed global environmental action. It will be another attempt at establishing a Green World Order–subjugating all of humanity under the banner of “saving” us from global warming. It’s all a sham, of course. Stockholm+50, as it’s called, is the rise of the parasitic New Communism using the environmental movement as its host. Here’s something for the delegates at Stockholm+50 to consider and debate: How will the world react to half of its population, around 4 billion people, dying from starvation if fossil energy is outlawed?