Spoiled Kids Threaten OSU re NatGas Power Plant – Stop or Else
Spoiled rotten kids who never receive an occasional spank spank when they throw a temper tantrum while growing up, grow up to be spoiled rotten young adults. That’s what we’re seeing at the overpriced Ohio State University (OSU) where a group of petulant students is demanding the university stop construction work on a combined heat and power plant (CHP) project in the next 72 hours, or else…
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Thanks to a sharp MDN reader/friend, we were alerted to a rather bizarre situation with the current issue of the Youngstown Business Journal. Once upon a time, the YBJ wrote encouraging (and accurate) stories about the Utica Shale industry and its many benefits in the Buckeye State. Lately, the YBJ has been taking potshots at the Utica, claiming it hasn’t panned out as advertised. Take the latest MidSeptember edition where two articles appear. One article boldly states that after 10 years there is “No Gusher of Jobs” in the Utica. Yet another article contradicts the first and states, “It’s Construction Jobs in Gas and Oil.” Bizarre.
LNG, or liquefied natural gas, is increasingly a vital market for natural gas drillers, both in the Marcellus/Utica and in other plays across the country. In the M-U we have two LNG export facilities–Cove Point, Maryland (currently down for maintenance) and Elba Island, Georgia. Most of the other LNG facilities are located along the Gulf Coast, with the largest LNG export facility operated by Cheniere Energy in Sabine Pass, Louisiana. Cheniere received permission on Friday to begin flowing feedgas to Train 6 at Sabine Pass. Train 6 will likely be online by the end of this year.
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 
NATIONAL: FERC Chair Glick wants mandatory winterization standards for power plants; Interior Secretary Haaland hints at fossil fuel extraction limits; Why do ‘fracking’ opponents ignore its moral benefits?; Liberty CEO Chris Wright is happy to talk about ESG and electric fracking; List of 317 wind energy rejections the Sierra Club doesn’t want you to see; INTERNATIONAL: Europe must act to avert an energy crisis this winter; The world’s biggest carbon-removal plant just opened.
Gulfport Energy, the third-largest driller in the Ohio Utica Shale (by the number of wells drilled), emerged from bankruptcy in May with a new board and new top management (see 
In early 2019, EQT, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S. (and in the Marcellus/Utica) settled a class action lawsuit in West Virginia with landowners and rights owners ending EQT’s practice of post-production deductions from royalty checks (see 
We’ve noticed nearly all of the public companies (and many private companies) in the oil and gas space are talking about their ESG (environmental, social, governance) programs. There’s a lot of hot air surrounding ESG programs. How does one separate out fact from fiction? Enverus, the company that produces (in our opinion) the best and most accurate weekly rig count numbers, has a solution. Enverus has developed a new framework/system to compare one oil/gas company’s ESG efforts against its competitors. Of the top 10 best ESG programs in the oil and gas industry are four companies (drillers) in the Marcellus/Utica. Coming in at the #1 position is none other than the largest natural gas driller in the country: EQT.
Enbridge Gas is holding a binding open season for C1 (methane) transportation services from St. Clair (DTE) and/or Bluewater to the Dawn Hub in Toronto, Ontario (Canada) starting Nov. 1, 2023 for a minimum of five years. Shippers seeking access to a reliable, cost-effective means to move gas from St. Clair (DTE) and/or Bluewater to Dawn can submit bids for up to 62,000 GJ/d of annual capacity (12-month term) and up to 107,000 GJ/d capacity for winter only (5-month term). Marcellus/Utica gas is eligible since it finds its way all the way to the Dawn Hub.
Each quarter NGI (Natural Gas Intelligence) runs the numbers and publishes a list of the 25 top natural gas marketers in the U.S. These are not necessarily the top 25 producers of natural gas (although in some cases they are), but the top 25 sellers (vendors, jobbers) of natural gas. NGI’s latest quarterly report shows overall the biggest sellers of natgas lost ground once again in 2Q21, which continues a 2+ year trend of year over year declines in the amount of gas sold.
In April, CNX Resources Corp. announced instead of just blowing smoke about ESG (environmental, social, governance) with pretty slide shows and hoopla, they would donate $30 million to local, underserved communities and populations in the tri-state region (see 
What will happen to the United States if it embarks on sleepy Joe Biden’s “vision” for dumping fossil fuels via regulation and over taxation and instead turns to so-called renewable sources of energy, all in a bid to keep Mom Earth from supposedly toasting? We know what will happen. It’s already happening in the United Kingdom. We have a perfect preview of what will hit us if we adopt the same policies the UK and Europe have adopted: electricity prices out of sight, shortages of natural gas, blackouts and brownouts, high unemployment, and an economy in the crapper.
