EQT Appeals $40M WV Royalty Lawsuit to 4th Circuit Court of Appeals
As we reported a month ago, a group of West Virginia landowners/rights owners filed a claim against EQT alleging the company had allowed leases to lapse, then at a later date reentered their property and drilled new wells (see Federal Judge Allows EQT Trespass Lawsuit in WV to Advance). The federal judge in the case, U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin, rejected EQT’s motion to dismiss and is allowing the case to advance. EQT is now appealing his decision to let it play out to the next level up, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
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MDN has been writing about a privately-owned dump near Scranton, the Keystone Sanitary Landfill, for the past decade (
Last Wednesday the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) held its Spring Meeting for 2021–in person! The meeting convened at Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh. The several hundred who attended got the pleasure of hearing people talk positively about oil and gas and fossil fuels in general. PIOGA President Dan Weaver said, “Don’t be afraid to stand up and speak out.” CNX CEO Nick DeIuliis said, “This industry is a noble one. You are doers that should be celebrated by all and appreciated by the informed.” God bless them both! Isn’t it great to be affirmed for the good work you do, rather than smeared and lied about?
NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas generation in 2021 sees its first year-over-year decline in three years; LNG’s role in decarbonizing the shipping industry; INTERNATIONAL: Can the U.S. compete with Qatari LNG?
We’re devastated. We know you’re not supposed to have favorites, but we do. Our favorite Marcellus/Utica driller for years has been Cabot Oil & Gas. We know some great folks who work for Cabot. It has been a peerless operator in the northeast Marcellus–making money when nobody else could. Cabot treats its landowners well, cares about the environment, gives big money to local nonprofit causes, and in general is the best kind of corporate citizen anybody could wish for. We suppose it was only a matter of time before Cabot became a target in this merger mania we’re currently going through. This morning Cabot announced a “merger of equals” with Cimarex, a big driller in the Permian and Midcontinent. The truth is Cimarex is buying out Cabot.
NGL (natural gas liquid) revenues for U.S. drillers soared in the first quarter of 2021–up 100% (i.e. doubled) over the same quarter in 2020, which was the quarter when COVID-19 began to seep into the public consciousness. In particular international demand for U.S. liquefied petroleum gas (LPG, or propane) helped propel NGL revenues higher in 1Q21. Guess which company posted the highest year-over-year increases for both NGL prices and revenues?
The Democrats in Congress are making another run at punishing (eliminating) the use of fossil fuels. About a month ago Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (wacko from Oregon) and 24 fellow Senate Democrats introduced a bill called “The Clean Energy for America Act”–an overhaul of the federal energy tax code, aimed at combating nonexistent human-caused climate change. This time around the Dems are targeting (among other things) repeal of the percentage depletion allowance that landowners and investors use in offsetting royalty payments for tax purposes. In other words, mom and pop landowners that receive royalties will see their federal income tax bills go up. Unless you stop this disgusting bill now, before it becomes law.
Every time the Weymouth, Massachusetts compressor station experiences an unplanned shutdown, as it did for the fourth time last week, it gives anti-fossil fuel activists more ammunition to try and convince the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Congress, and anyone else who will listen that this compressor should be permanently shuttered. Shutting it down now would have dire consequences for natural gas customers in places like Maine (see 
Democrats and RINOs just hate it when someone else uses the same tactics against them that they so frequently use themselves. The shoe tends to pinch when it’s on the other foot. Such is the case with a bit of brilliant political maneuvering last Thursday at the most recent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) open meeting when one of the Republican Commissioners, James Danly, insisted (at the last minute) on appending language for approvals of two western pipeline projects that says, in essence, considerations of man-made global warming played no role in approving or disapproving the projects. Danly’s last-minute sandbagging enraged FERC Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick and his fellow far-left Democrat sidekick Allison Clements. It also had Republican-in-Name-Only (and backstabber) Neil Chatterjee spitting and sputtering. In the end, the three Republicans, including Chatterjee, went ahead and approved the two projects, over fierce objections by Glick. Three cheers for James Danly!
Headquartered in Philadelphia, PECO (a subsidiary of Exelon Corp.) is Pennsylvania’s largest electric and natural gas utility, delivering power to more than 1.6 million electric customers and more than 532,000 natural gas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania. Last fall PECO floated a plan to build a natural gas reliability station in Marple Township (Delaware County, PA) to allow the company to distribute more natural gas into Delaware County through 11.5 miles of new natural gas main lines. As you might expect, the neighbors in the densely populated area of the reliability station are up in arms over the plan (see 
On March 19 Williams petitioned the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to extend the time to build the FERC-approved Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project in the New York City area by an extra two years (see 
In February the Democrat-controlled Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said it would accept comments from the public on whether or not the Commission should willy nilly shut down a legally permitted, already built, and successfully running compressor station in Weymouth, Massachusetts (see 
Back in March MDN told you about supposed violations by Chesapeake Energy of the federal Clean Water Act and the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law and Dam Safety and Encroachments Act by failing to identify and protect swamps (i.e. wetlands) at a number of oil and gas well sites in Pennsylvania (see 
Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) has Kentucky state approval to build a new 12-inch, 12-mile pipeline near Louisville to supply gas to 62 homes and businesses that can’t connect to LG&E’s local natgas utility system. The local Bernheim Arboretum has resisted attempts to build across three-tenths of one percent (0.028%) of Arboretum land–along an existing cleared path where electric lines already go (see