Talk of Scrapping WV’s New Oil & NatGas Property Tax Valuation Law
Complete confusion continues to reign with respect to West Virginia’s House Bill (HB) 2581, a new law passed 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. There is serious talk of throwing out the HB 2581 law and starting over again.
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Yes, we as a collective society have lost our collective heads. So-called Critical Race Theory (CRT) appears to have brainwashed large swaths of our great land into seeing racism in every interaction and under every rock, tree–and now, even under the ground. Pipelines are racist! That’s the cry of the hard left, which unfortunately now controls our federal government. Three weeks ago we told you the Biden EPA had launched a film flam “investigation” (i.e. witch hunt) into a small pipeline aimed at delivering natural gas to a facility in Brooklyn so the gas can be liquefied and carted around New York City to prevent gas outages (see 
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest Monthly Electric Generator Inventory, between 2022 and 2025 (the next three years) some 27.3 gigawatts (GW) of new natural gas-fired capacity is scheduled to come online in the United States. Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania–states with pipeline access to natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale plays–account for a combined 43% of the natural gas-fired capacity planned to come online. Yes, our molecules will feed almost half of all new gas-fired power plants!
NATIONAL: Top shale producers remain bullish on NGL prices as revenues climb again in Q3; Is the U.S. shale patch refusing to pump for political reasons?; Prepare for volatility in natural gas markets; AEA calls for FTC investigation of anti-consumer behavior by President Biden and his administration; INTERNATIONAL: Climategate: Never Forget (11th anniversary).
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) published a notice in the November 20 Pennsylvania Bulletin that it has signed an oil and gas lease agreement with BKV Operating, LLC (Banpu, Thailand’s largest coal mining company and an investor/operator drilling shale wells here) covering 198.5 acres of the Susquehanna River located in Mehoopany and Washington Townships in Wyoming County.
In early September the Weirton, WV Zoning Board of Appeals rejected a request by Southwestern Energy to build a well pad inside city limits (see 
In February 2020 pipeline giant Williams officially confirmed it was ending its years-long bid to build the Constitution Pipeline, a $683 million, 124-mile pipeline from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie County, NY to move Marcellus gas into NY and New England (see 
Is the glass half empty, or half full? Last Friday MDN told you that the Pennsylvania State Public Utility Commission (PUC) issued a list of 14 new requirements for the Mariner East Pipeline projects, for all three pipelines–ME1, ME2, and ME2X (see 
Vice President Kamala Harris, the disappearing Vice President (her poll numbers are even worse than Biden’s) visited Columbus, Ohio last week to tout the newly-passed so-called $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Wait, you didn’t know she was in Columbus? We didn’t either. She’s virtually invisible these days. At any rate, Harris failed to mention the key role fossil fuels will play in making Biden’s infrastructure plan even remotely possible to implement. Don’t worry, the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program (OOGEEP) has a column in the Columbus Dispatch providing “the rest of the story” that Cackling Kamala left out of her talk…
Double or nothing? More like double “or else.” In July we told you that Energy Transfer’s (ET) Revolution Pipeline in southwestern Pennsylvania was fined an additional $1 million by the PA Public Utility Commission (PUC) on top of previous fines totaling over $30 million because of an explosion (an accident) when the pipeline first went into service (see 
Anti-drilling zealots have hounded the Mariner East (ME) pipeline project from its beginning, attempting to block the completion of the third and final pipeline (ME2X), due to be done by the end of this year. One of the ways the zealots have attacked is via repeated charges brought to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), the agency that oversees and regulates the intrastate ME system. In addition to unloading on Energy Transfer’s (ET) Revolution Pipeline system yesterday (see today’s lead story), the PUC also issued an order yesterday with some 14 actions (we call them todos) that ET must complete with regard to finishing construction of the ME system. Some of the todos deal with the ongoing operation of the ME system.
Yesterday the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Richard “Dick” Glick, told everyone to calm down about extending an emergency certificate to allow the Spire STL pipeline to continue operating beyond Dec. 13 when the existing certificate expires. Then Glick took his knife out and proceeded to knife Spire in the back, calling their action in warning customers they may go without natgas this winter (if FERC doesn’t act) “fear-mongering.” Glick also said the entire situation is “a mess” and there was “no evidence” the pipeline was needed when the Commission, during the Trump years, originally approved it. Hey Dick, if people will go cold (and some may die) this winter without it, don’t you think just maybe it *is* needed after all? Why do you refuse to admit you were wrong in voting against it originally?
The Beech Hollow Power Plant in Robinson Township (Washington County), PA broke ground on construction for a 1,000-megawatt Marcellus-fired project last fall when they began to pour concrete. However, construction stopped. The builder, Robinson Power Company LLC, wanted to resume construction but got caught up in a controversy over issued and withdrawn permit applications. The leftwing radicals at the Clean Air Council (located on the other side of the state, in Philadelphia) challenged a permit by the DEP to allow Robinson Power to resume construction. A few weeks later Robinson, tired of repeated lawsuits, threw in the towel and canceled the project (see