Glick’s FERC Priority: Pipes are Racist & Should be Blocked
Last Thursday the newly elevated Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Richard “Dick” Glick, told reporters about his priorities for FERC moving forward under radicalized Joe Biden. One of the top priorities is “improving the commission’s approval processes for natural gas infrastructure.” Translation: No new natural gas pipelines. Another priority is to “more aggressively fulfill its [FERC’s] responsibilities to ensure our decisions don’t unfairly impact historically marginalized communities.” Translation: Consider new pipelines that come anywhere close to a majority-black community to be racist and worthy of rejection.
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The so-called peak oil theorists have been positively giddy with excitement over predictions about the death of oil. “Just look at how much oil production demand AND supply has decreased since the outbreak of the pandemic. It’s NEVER coming back!” Those are the kinds of things the peakers tell themselves and anyone else who will listen. Mainstream media laps it up and repeats it. But when real researchers delve into the topic of whether or not oil has reached its zenith, the facts tell a far different story.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: US gas midstream sale weighs down Dominion Energy 2020 results; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Black Hills CEO says ‘lethal’ if natural gas bans enacted in service territories; NATIONAL: Helmerich & Payne: clear signs of a turnaround; Is the anti-oil movement installing the next recession?; INTERNATIONAL: Oil prices hit critical threshold for OPEC+.
Believe it or not, today is a New York Stock Exchange holiday (i.e. bank) holiday. MDN rarely takes a day off, so we tend to track with those holidays observed by the NYSE. Have no fear, we are monitoring the news and if anything earth-shattering happens, we’ll bring you the latest. Otherwise, look for full-strength MDN to return tomorrow. In the meantime, we have updated the 
For the past week or so we’ve spotted stories in the Democrat press (i.e. mainstream news) about a so-called “research report” issued by a front organization for the Heinz Endowments called the Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI). The ORVI recently released a report that purports to show the fracking miracle in the Marcellus/Utica hasn’t actually created all that many jobs or economic benefits. Here’s the first tip this report is a scam and a sham: The lead researcher from the so-called ORVI doesn’t live in the Ohio River Valley nor anywhere near the M-U, he’s a playwright who lives thousands of miles away on the Left Coast, in Washington State. In other words, the report is fiction.
Food & Water Watch, the virulent, leftist anti-fossil fuel group, will get its day in court today in the organization’s bid to block a tiny 2.1-mile pipeline looping project in western Massachusetts. But lest you think the lawsuit being argued today before the liberal D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is just about a small pipe project in liberal Massachusetts, think again. FWW is attempting to use this case to shut down all future pipeline projects too. Is the fix in with this case?
Yesterday we told you that natural gas spot (i.e. cash) prices at various pipeline trading hubs had hit fresh, one-year highs, including here in the Marcellus/Utica (see 
Over the past several weeks the Enverus U.S. rig count had rocketed skyward, making gains of more than a dozen rigs added each week. Over the past week that torrid pace slowed. In the past seven days, the active rig count added just one new rig to the national total. The Marcellus lost two rigs, one each in the dry gas northeast and wet gas southwest. The Utica gained one rig, for a net loss of -1 in the M-U region (now at 42 active rigs).
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is once again spinning an error by a major Marcellus driller, Range Resources, as some sort of evil plot to avoid and defraud the DEP. Due to a mistake by a former employee, Range misclassified 42 old conventional wells on acreage it owns and did not plug the wells in a timely (for DEP) fashion. The DEP has just clipped the company $294,000 for the mistake.
A new attack against the Marcellus Shale industry in Pennsylvania comes from fossil fuel haters attempting to dispute permits reissued for existing (NOT new) shale wastewater storage and recycling facilities scattered across the state. Antis seek to shut down pipelines, rail shipments, recycling facilities, injection wells–anything they can to stop to prevent drillers from extracting natural gas from shale in the Keystone State. Sick people.
Last June MDN told you about a plan by McCandless, a township in Allegheny County, PA (near Pittsburgh), to block any and all shale drilling within its borders by getting creative (see 
In late 2018 the final two segments of the already-operational Rover Pipeline went online, making the project 100% complete (see 
The spot price (cash paid for immediate delivery) of natural gas at trading hubs across the country, including in the Marcellus/Utica, continues to hit new highs not seen in over a year. Even though the longer-range NYMEX futures price isn’t moving all that much. Pay no attention to the futures price! Look at the spot price. In the Henry Hub (Louisiana), the benchmark for all natgas prices, the spot price yesterday closed at $3.83/MMBtu, up $0.48 in one day. Dominion South closed at roughly $3.30/MMBtu, up $0.36 from the day before. And Tennessee Gas Zone 4 Marcellus closed at roughly $3.20/MMBtu, up $0.39 from the day before.