WV Legislature Takes Up Bungled NatGas Property Tax in December
West Virginia, the state legislature in particular, is up to its collective neck in a mess of its own making. The legislature passed House Bill (HB) 2581 on the last day of the annual WV legislative session in April. HB 2581 changes how the State Tax Department values producing oil and gas wells for property tax purposes (see WV Passes Bill to Change O&G Well Valuations for Taxes). The bill was supposed to streamline and provide a fairer system for assessing taxes on oil and gas production. It seems to have done the opposite, creating a complex system that is currently mired in controversy with both drillers and landowners confused about how much of a tax bill they will owe next year. Next month the legislature will revisit HB 2581 and decide whether to fix it, or throw it out and start over.
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Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s (TGP) plan to flow more Marcellus gas to Westchester and New York City is called the East 300 Upgrade Project. The project involves upgrades at two existing compressor stations (in Pennsylvania), along with building a brand new compressor station in West Milford (Passaic County), just across the border and not far from Westchester County, NY. For a second time this year, Passaic County commissioners have refused to vote in favor of a resolution opposing the project.
Something strange is happening–has been happening for years now. When we first started to cover the Marcellus/Utica on the MDN site in January 2009, the received wisdom was “the more active rigs, the more production,” and conversely, “fewer active rigs will lead to less production.” But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. Drillers got better at drilling. More efficient. And more production could be had from fewer wells and less drilling of wells. Even though rig counts go down and stay down, production stays the same or goes up. That’s the situation we find ourselves in currently.
Leftists are not only anti-fossil fuels and anti-freedom, they’re also (when they eventually don’t convince others with their inane arguments) violent. Case in point: David Suzuki, the so-called godfather of the Canadian environmental movement, warned over the weekend that if politicians don’t act to reverse climate change, there could be attacks against oil and gas infrastructure. He flat-out threatened to blow up pipelines. Why is this man not in jail?
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Gas well project would be a benefit to Weirton; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Three years before ban takes effect, state banning most fracking permits; NATIONAL: Manchin calls on Biden to restore Keystone XL pipeline; Biden’s blunder could send oil prices to $100; Biden administration released its fed land leasing review on Black Friday; John Kerry’s phony climate accomplishments; Is Jennifer Granholm even qualified to be U.S. Secretary of Energy?; INTERNATIONAL: Keystone XL developer seeks $15 billion in compensation; How Europe triggered an energy crisis.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is (surprisingly, under the current regime) sticking up for its decision made during the Trump administration to allow Equitrans’ 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from West Virginia into Virginia to continue working on completion of the 92% done project. A coalition of Big Green groups has repeatedly, viciously challenged and tried to block completion of the pipeline, more than doubling costs for the project due to court delays. On Friday, FERC filed a defense of its orders from late last year to allow MVP to restart construction on all but a very few locations still being litigated (primarily a small section through Jefferson National Forest).
What the heck? Did we just wake up in Stalinist Russia? The Missouri Public Utility Commission (MoPSC), which regulates public utilities in the state including the largest natural gas utility in the state (Spire, serving some 632,000 residents), has ordered Spire to send an email to customers fixing, retracting, correcting (whatever you want to call it) a previous email sent by Spire that warns customers they may soon be without natural gas because of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Even though Spire’s original email warning is 100% the truth. Does MoPSC have that kind of tyrannical power, to force speech?
Earlier this month we shared the exciting news that Nacero Inc. will build a $6 billion refinery on the site of a former coal mine in Newport Township and Nanticoke in Luzerne County, PA (see 
An interesting back and forth took place (we’d call it squabbling) at a technical conference last Friday hosted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). FERC Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick pontificated that so-called global warming considerations must be made when evaluating new pipeline projects. He has used that excuse for years to vote against every single new pipeline project brought before him. Another FERC Commissioner, James Danly, pushed back and revealed flaws in Glick’s reasoning.
Last week Pennsylvania issued 15 new permits for shale well drilling, up nicely from the prior week of just 2 new permits. Ohio issued 9 new permits last week, and West Virginia issued 8 new permits. All totaled, the M-U saw 32 new permits issued last week, the most we’ve seen in a single week for some time. More drilling on the way!
The environmental radicals on the left continue their push to defeat the construction of an $800 million liquefaction plant in Wyalusing (Bradford County), PA, meant to liquefy and ship LNG to a planned facility on the Delaware River, for exporting to other countries. The left’s latest ploy? Antis are proclaiming a special permit issued during the Trump administration that allows LNG from the Wyalusing plant to be shipped via special rail cars is about to expire at the end of this month and almost certainly won’t get renewed. In addition, antis have stirred up some of the liberal locals near the port facility where the LNG would get safely loaded onto ships. It is a continuing, coordinated two-pronged attack against the project.
The front-month futures contract for natural gas trading at the Henry Hub in southern Louisiana (called the NYMEX) has taken a pretty serious dip in recent days, falling by $0.28 yesterday to just $4.79. However, the physically traded spot price that natgas is fetching at trading hubs near Boston and New York City was through the roof yesterday. And although the spot price in places like northeastern PA (Tennessee Gas Zone 4 Marcellus) and the Tri-State corners area (Eastern Gas South) are down a bit from a month ago, those prices are relatively high too. What’s going on with the price of natgas?