Appalachian Leftwing Group Turns Against Hydrogen Power
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 Antis Begin to Turn Against Blending Hydrogen in NatGas Pipes). It seems the word has gone out to the mind-numbed, leftist robots who blindly follow the lead of their overlords. It appears everyone on the enviro-left is now beginning to turn against hydrogen. Case in point here in the M-U region: The leftwing, highly partisan nonprofit Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI) published an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday trashing hydrogen energy.
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NATIONAL: New administrator confirmed for EIA; Blamed for high gas prices, oil executives defend themselves at a House hearing; Congress rounds up the usual Big Oil suspects; Financial officers from 27 states demand Biden bolster domestic energy production; INTERNATIONAL: As Ukraine war squeezes energy, UK looks again at fracking.
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.
Yesterday the NYMEX Henry Hub futures price (front month) contract rose $0.32 (5.3%) to close at $6.03/MMBtu. That’s the first time since January the price has broken $6. Why the bump in price now? Is it because of the war (everything is blamed on the Ukraine war these days)? Nope. At least, mostly not because of the war. As always, the factors that drive the price of natural gas here in the U.S. are complex. A number of things together are responsible, but mostly (as is usual) it is the weather driving the higher price.
MiQ, one of three major certification authorities that puts its stamp of approval on “responsible gas” production (i.e. low methane leakage), announced two bits of news yesterday that caught our attention. First is that MiQ’s Digital Registry of Independently Certified Gas currently has 350 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of “responsibly produced gas” ready for buying and selling. Second is that MiQ has launched a new certification service called the Certified Supply Chain.
For years (more than a decade) we’ve heard the left criticize shale companies as a “Ponzi scheme” that’s not profitable–drilling new wells to make up for declining production in old wells–all the while bilking investors. People like Ian Urbina of the New York Times tried to paint shale companies as fraudsters, going back more than ten years (see 
Last week Pennsylvania issued 14 new shale well permits, with EQT Corp. grabbing eight (seven of them on a single pad in Fayette County), and Coterra Energy (formerly Cabot Oil & Gas) receiving three (all on the same pad in Susquehanna County). Ohio issued ten new permits last week, with three going to a relative newcomer, Utica Resource Operating (same pad in Guernsey Count) and three for Encino Energy (same pad in Harrison County). West Virginia got skunked and shows no new shale permits issued last week. Pity.
New York’s corrupt Governor, Kathy Hochul, learned well from her mentor, sexual predator (and extremely corrupt) Gov. Andrew Cuomo, when it comes to forcing her will on the citizens of New York. Cuomo snuck a permanent fracking ban into the state budget two years ago (see 
In March the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), corrupted by the Bidenistas, said it will begin to force all publicly traded companies to disclose their so-called greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the imaginary climate risks their businesses face (see 
We keep hearing how much Joe Biden now loves natural gas. He promised Europe the U.S. would send the Continent an extra 15 bcm (billion cubic meters) of natural gas this year (see 
Yesterday the Pennsylvania State Senate failed to override a veto of Gov. Tom Wolf of a resolution that would have stopped PA from entering the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), an obscene carbon tax scheme. The override failed by a single vote. Wolf’s patsy, Dept. of Environmental Protection Secretary Pat McDonnell, gushed that he was “pleased” with the failure of the override. What happens now? A lawsuit lingers that can still block RGGI, but if that doesn’t work, PA residents will begin paying MUCH higher rates (a new tax) for their electricity beginning July 1st.
We keep hearing how the Bidenistas have softened their hardcore opposition to natural gas (and all fossil energy) given the war in Ukraine. We hear words mouthed by the administration, and Biden himself, that seems to indicate maybe, just maybe, the administration will stop its targeting of natural gas–at least for a while. And yet the actual actions we see coming from the administration, like the actions of the Bidenistas at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), say otherwise. Example: Biden’s FERC recently released a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Commonwealth LNG export facility located in Louisiana (full copy below). The draft EIS says the facility will have “significant impacts” on so-called “environmental justice communities.” That’s a loud and clear signal that this much-needed LNG project will have trouble getting approved by the hardcore leftists at Biden’s FERC.