Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide VA | Virginia
Va. Board Rejects Air Permit for “Racist” MVP Southgate Pipeline
Once again Democrat politics rear their ugly head to pressure the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board, which voted last Friday to reject issuing an air permit for a compressor station in southern Virginia for the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline Southgate extension that will run 75 miles from Virginia into North Carolina. The permit would have allowed a compressor station to be built in the Virginia town of Chatham (Pittsylvania County). And according to critics of the pipeline, that’s just plain racist.
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On Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a new temporary emergency certificate to the Spire STL pipeline, a 65-mile pipeline that connects to and flows Marcellus/Utica gas from the Rockies Express (REX) pipeline to residents and businesses in the St. Louis, MO area. The temporary certificate means the pipeline will not have to shut down just as winter sets in, endangering the lives and property of more than half a million residents in the St. Louis area. Whew.
Last Thursday CNX Resources reached a plea deal with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office over alleged violations of the Air Pollution Control Act and bad recordkeeping. Yeah, you read that right. State Attorney General Josh Shapiro (a real putz) leveled criminal charges against CNX over miscounting how many times the company used a pig (pipeline inspection gauge) to clean out a pipeline in Washington County, PA. An anti-fossil fuel zealot who lives near the pigging station complained about noise and emissions and ran squealing to the AG (pun intended).
So many lawsuits and appeals of actions have been filed against the Mariner East pipeline system (being built by Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Sunoco Logistics) we’ve lost count. Dozens? Hundreds? Who knows! We try to highlight some of them–the more important ones that have the potential to slow or stop work on the 99% done system. Here’s one not even on our radar that got completely dismissed last week: Wilmer Baker and Rolfe Blume vs. Sunoco Pipeline L.P.
A group of anti-fossil fuel zealots, with support from a clueless reporter at the Boston Globe, are targeting a tiny “peaker” gas-fired electric power generating plant in Peabody, Massachusetts (a suburb of Boston). The small 55-megawatt peaker would provide electricity only on the heaviest demand days for short periods of time. It would be powered by clean-burning natural gas. Yet the crazies are out in force protesting this $85 million project. Why? Because it will contribute, so say the crazies, to global warming. What dunces.
FirstEnergy Corp. CEO Steve Strah has an impossible job–to revive the badly tarnished reputation of his company following the biggest bribery scandal in the history of Ohio. Ohio’s House Bill (HB) 6 law granted billions (plural) of dollars to FirstEnergy in an attempt to prop up the company’s economically failing nuclear power plants. FirstEnergy bribed state legislators to pass, and keep passed, HB 6 by paying out $61 million to a small group of insiders, including the now-former Speaker of the House (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Coach for social change leaders offers support to overcome climate anxiety; NATIONAL: Feds fume over Herald’s Jennifer Granholm SUV gas story; API sells out the industry at EPA methane hearing; U.S. poised to become world’s biggest LNG exporter, EIA says; Gas deliveries to U.S. LNG export terminals hit record in November; INTERNATIONAL: The real threat to banks isn’t from climate change. It’s from bankers.
Today, right now, the #1 source of electricity produced in the so-called Empire State is…(drum roll please)…natural gas. By 2040 the state says natural gas will produce zero electricity and the number one source to produce electricity will be huge, ugly, noisy, environmentally-damaging windmills–both onshore and offshore. We plan to be around in 20 years just to laugh and say “we told you so” that such a plan is a pure (and dangerous) fantasy. Yesterday the state’s power management grid, called NYISO (New York Independent System Operator, Inc.) held an Installed Capacity and Market Issues Working Group meeting. From a question asked about the state recently denying permits to upgrade natgas-fired power plants, it was obvious NYISO members don’t have a clue how they will generate enough electricity to keep the lights on in 20 years’ time.
The third quarter was not kind to Marcellus/Utica drillers with respect to the official income statements. Why? In a word, hedging. Take EQT for example. During 3Q, EQT lost nearly $2 billion because of bad hedges–locking in prices to sell production far below current market prices (see 
Chesapeake Energy lost $345 million during 3Q21, which was better than the $745 million net loss in 3Q20 (see 
After signing the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin is reported to have said: “We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” Someone at Consolidated Edison (ConEd) never studied history. ConEd has joined hands with the very people that seek to destroy the fossil fuel industry in a campaign to pressure New York City into adopting a new law prohibiting new customers from hooking up for natural gas delivery. Even though ConEd itself is one of two primary suppliers of natural gas in NYC. Why do such a foolish thing?
The NYMEX “front month” futures contract for natural gas traded on the Henry Hub benchmark has crashed over the past three days, down more than 90 cents, closing at $4.26/MMBtu yesterday. Why? Because weather models predict relatively warm weather in the weeks ahead. Weather trumps all other factors in the price of natural gas. Which exposes the intentional lie (or stupidity, take your pick) of people like U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren who are spreading the false narrative that LNG exports are the cause of high natural gas prices here at home (see