16 State Treasurers Threaten Banks that Divest from Fossil Fuels
West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore is leading a coalition of 16 states threatening banks that play politics by refusing to lend money to fossil fuel companies. Moore says WV and the other states are “not going to take it anymore.” We first told you about a similar coalition back in May, when they sent a letter to the haughty John Kerry, telling him to quit pressuring banks to deny loans to fossil fuel companies (see M-U State Treasurers Threaten Banks that Won’t Lend to Fossil Fuels). The coalition (with some new members) is back and is fighting mad.
NOTE: MDN corrected this post to reflect the fact that OH and PA are not a part of this most recent coalition. However, OH and PA previously participated in a similar coalition (back in May) challenging John Kerry and the Biden administration’s calls for banks to divest from fossil fuels. Thank you to a sharp MDN reader for noticing the change in states participating in this new coalition!
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Leftist tyrants are no longer content to block new shale and pipeline projects. They’ve been largely successful doing that. They have now moved on to attacking existing shale and pipeline projects, hoping to shut them down. Completely evil people. Case in point: The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) targeted the Spire STL pipeline, a 65-mile pipeline that connects to and flows Marcellus/Utica gas from the Rockies Express (REX) pipeline to more than 640,000 residents and businesses in the St. Louis, Missouri area. If the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) does not extend an emergency certificate for the project, it will close down on Dec. 13–in two weeks’ time. How does this new development of the left weaponizing our courts against us affect other existing pipelines? Will the darkness grow and threaten other assets?
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Natural gas industry seeking students; Turkish mining group picks region for new plant; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Bill blocking NC governments from banning natgas heads to governor’s desk; Senator Warren’s oil price conspiracy theory; Students, residents protest natural gas plant on University of Florida’s campus; INTERNATIONAL: IEA boss blames “deliberate policies” of energy producers for price spikes.
Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) is expanding its drilling program in Upper Burrell, in Westmoreland County, PA, near Pittsburgh (see 
A reporter with the New Philadelphia (OH) Times Reporter recently chatted with both Mike Chadsey, director of public relations for the Ohio Oil and Gas Association (OOGA), and with MDN friend Jackie Stewart, director of external affairs for Encino Energy. The topic? What’s happening right now in the Ohio Utica Shale, and what do they see coming in the near future for shale energy in the Buckeye State. We’d sum it up by saying the industry is cautiously optimistic.
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 
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?
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.