US Supreme Court Reinstates Trump WOTUS Rule…for Now
The Barack Hussein Obama administration went crazy with over-regulation in many areas. One of them was to redefine “waters of the United States” (or WOTUS) as everything down to, no exaggeration, mud puddles (see EPA Power Grab: Redefines Waters of the U.S. to Include Everything). When Donald Trump took office, he set about to correct some of the insane abuses of the Obama era, including WOTUS. He finally got it fixed (see EPA & Army Corps Publish Final WOTUS Regs – Obama Overreach Fixed). However, last fall a radical federal judge appointed by Obama once again plunged the country back into madness by re-enacting Obama’s abuses under WOTUS (see Obama Fed Judge Shackles Country with Obama WOTUS Once Again). On Wednesday the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated (for now) the Trump-era rule. Wednesday’s decision does not block the Bidenistas from doing a rewrite of WOTUS, which they’re working on now.
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Last week the Energy Workforce & Technology Council, a national trade association for the energy technology and services sector representing those who work in the technology-driven energy value chain, released data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that show March employment in the U.S. oilfield services and equipment sector rose by an estimated 2,698 jobs to 608,702. We’re still almost 100,000 jobs down from a pre-pandemic high of 706,528, but the numbers are moving in the right direction.
According to RBN Energy, 2021 was the most profitable year in at least the last two decades for oil and gas producers (i.e. drillers). Oil and gas producers reported income two-thirds higher than the previous peak in 2014, when commodity prices were significantly higher. There’s every indication that 2022 will be even better for the bottom line of O&G companies. What about Marcellus/Utica drillers? Yep, they’re on the list of phenomenal results too.
Two weeks ago MDN brought you the news that New Fortress Energy (NFE) has withdrawn a request to extend a previously-issued permit required to build an onshore LNG liquefaction plant in Wyalusing, PA (see 
NATIONAL: Wind energy company kills 150 eagles in US, pleads guilty; U.S. solar expansion stalled by rural land-use protests; U.S. natural gas prices just hit a 13-year high; INTERNATIONAL: Global energy spending to exceed $2T with O&G leading the way.
On Tuesday, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court ruled that Gov. Tom Wolf’s obscene carbon tax, called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), will not go into effect until “pending further order of the court.” What further action from the court is necessary was not disclosed. What is obvious is that Wolf’s attempt to force the state to join RGGI is now on a very long pause, until more court cases are filed. The end game (for Republicans) is to run out the clock until a new governor is elected in November (hopefully a Republican). Either that, or convince the 5-2 liberal majority of the PA Supreme Court (which is likely where this will end up) to rule against Wolf’s unilateral attempt to force the state into the RGGI compact.
We recently received a couple of recent issues of a monthly news/analysis newsletter from 
According to Reuters, at least a dozen U.S. shale gas executives met yesterday in Houston, TX, with European energy officials to discuss expanding U.S. fuel supplies to Europe. Among those in the meeting were “top executives” from Chesapeake Energy, Coterra Energy (formerly Cabot Oil & Gas), and EQT Corp., the largest natural gas producer in the U.S. Individual meetings are planned between the execs and representatives from Latvia, Estonia, and Slovakia. It seems that Europe has finally opened its eyes (and its mind) to the benefits of American natural gas.
In January MDN reported comments by a Shell representative who said the mighty ethane cracker the company is building in Monaca (Beaver County), PA was 95% complete (see 
Analysis by S&P Market Intelligence notes that new shale drilling permits issued in Pennsylvania dipped in February 2022 when compared to February 2021 (and dipped compared with January of 2022). Fair enough. The question is, Why did permits dip in February? The article alludes to a possible reason–a dip in the Henry Hub NYMEX price in February, going below $5/MMBtu. While price may have played a role, we believe there’s another contributing factor to the permit dip in February.
We spotted two different articles published over the past couple of days about the recently nixed Marcellus LNG export plant that was planned for Wyalusing (Bradford County), PA (see 
Yes, you read it first on MDN. Two days ago MDN pointed out our observation that anti-fossil fuel cultists have begun to turn against the use of hydrogen, fearing it would mean boosting the use of natural gas in the process (see 
There’s a lot of finger-pointing going on about why a project to build a tiny $60 million LNG plant in South Philadelphia has come off the rails (i.e. dead). The developer for the project, Liberty Energy Trust, says Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), the owner of the site, dithered around and took too much time to settle on a plan and now the “opportunity has passed” to build the project. Liberty has moved on to bigger and better things. PGW says developer Liberty Energy Trust tried to make “unacceptable changes” to the terms of the deal to develop the site and blames the company for not sealing the deal. Neither side has declared the project 100% dead, but it sure looks that way to us.