Dominion Energy Experiments with Adding Hydrogen to NatGas
Dominion Energy is a huge company. Once upon a time, Dominion owned major pipeline assets throughout the Marcellus/Utica region. But in July of 2020 Dominion decided to sell their pipeline assets (and part of the Cove Point LNG export facility) to Warren Buffett for $9.7 billion (see Dominion Cancels Atlantic Coast Pipe, Sells Pipe Biz for $9.7B). These days Dominion focuses on their utility business–serving more than 7 million customers in 16 states (including parts of PA, OH, and WV) with electric and gas. Dominion is going all-in on becoming “carbon neutral” and “net zero greenhouse gas emissions”–whatever that means. The company has begun to experiment with mixing in small amounts of hydrogen (H2) with natural gas with an eye toward increasing the mix and eventually using all hydrogen instead of natural gas.
Read More “Dominion Energy Experiments with Adding Hydrogen to NatGas”
We’re kind of speechless and dumbfounded–but perhaps we shouldn’t be. Last week President Biden announced a new program to be funded with $109.5 million aimed at figuring out how to convince fossil fuel workers to be happy taking a huge pay cut and installing solar panels and windmills instead of making far more money in a far more meaningful job working in fossil fuels. Brian Anderson, director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), headquartered in Pittsburgh, will lead the effort. How enormously sad that Anderson, someone we greatly admire, is out in front selling Biden’s bill of goods–the end of fossil energy.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Oil production in Alaska reaches lowest level in more than 40 years; NATIONAL: Moody’s outlook for global energy industry revised to positive on higher prices, demand recovery; Natural gas price prediction – prices rise despite warm weather forecast; Propane markets writhe due to supply/demand uncertainty; INTERNATIONAL: EU admits it can’t go net-zero without natural gas; Climate change has shifted the axis of the Earth, study shows.
Here’s a new truism of life you may not have heard before: Be careful that the corporation you climb into bed with actually has a spine. Interestingly, U.S. Steel in East Pittsburgh, whom you would assume has a steel spine, doesn’t have a spine at all! Merrion Oil & Gas found that out the hard way. Merrion, a privately-owned oil and gas company headquartered in New Mexico, signed a lease with U.S. Steel to drill a series of up to 18 shale wells on the Edgar Thomson Works property in Allegheny County. Following blowback from loud-mouth anti-fossil fuel nutters, U.S. Steel decided the project isn’t worth the negative press. So they caved and canceled the lease with Merrion. Shame on U.S. Steel.
The issue of expired leases has once again reared its head for EQT–this time in West Virginia. In 2006 a group of WV landowners/rights owners sued Equitable Production Company (now EQT) claiming, among other things, “damages for improper deductions of post-production expenses from their royalty payments and damages for breach of lease agreements, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, violation of the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act…violation of the flat rate royalty statute… and punitive damages, all related to the improper payment of royalties.” That case was settled in 2010. However, a subgroup within the larger class action group has a new/different claim: that EQT let leases lapse and then reentered and drilled on property out-of-lease. It’s called trespass.
The Biden-controlled U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has just granted anti-fossil fuel zealots enough rope to strangle the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, or enough rope to strangle themselves. We hope it’s the latter, we fear it may be the former. The “rope” in this case is time. The Army Corps announced Friday it will give antis an extra 30 days to comment on (complain, manipulate, lie about) a proposed water crossing permit for MVP in West Virginia and Virginia. Even with the extra 30 days antis still are not satisfied.
Here’s an interesting twist on building new oil and gas pipelines in Ohio. Due to a late filing made by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA), from now on interstate pipeline builders will *not* need to seek and receive a federal section 401 water permit under the Clean Water Act from the Ohio EPA to build the pipeline. Instead, the pipeline builder can just ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP12). Ohio EPA has been problematic for pipelines in the past (see 
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 is accused of bribing state legislators to pass, and keep passed, HB 6 by paying out $61 million (see 
In 2019, a truly dreadful, jobs-killing piece of legislation in New York State was passed (see 
Recently the U.S. EIA (Energy Information Administration) predicted natural gas production in 2021 will increase, slightly, over 2020’s dismal performance (see 
It’s nice to see Pennsylvania’s Republican legislators playing hardball with the out-of-control governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf. Yesterday PA Senate Republicans wrote a letter to Gov. Wolf to advise him they will reject all future nominees to the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) until he withdraws his executive order joining the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax scheme aimed at shutting down coal and natural gas-fired power plants in the state.
MPR Supply Chain Solutions (i.e. Mountaineer Products Inc.) operates a 20-acre transloading facility along the shore of the Ohio River in Belmont County (barge, truck, and rail). In 2015 MDN wrote about MPR expanding its frack sand terminal at that location (see 
Yesterday our illustrious president, Joe Biden, shot off his mouth announcing plans to cut so-called greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in the next 10 years while creating millions of “good-paying, union jobs.” It’s an anti-fossil fuel pig in a poke. Biden announced his latest brainstorm during a “climate summit” with some 40 other world leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. We’re pretty sure both Xi Jinping and Putin were snickering at the prospect of America committing energy suicide, something they have no intention of doing.
The Chester County, PA District Attorney, Democrat Deb Ryan, has pressured and bullied Energy Transfer (ET) and its Sunoco Pipeline subsidiary into signing a “consent decree” that guarantees if ET spills one cup of drilling mud or creates any kind of “public nuisance” in finishing up work on the Mariner East pipeline, the DA gets to haul the company into county court and charge it with a crime. The consent decree means in addition to the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) breathing down their necks, ET now gets a second master (AG Ryan) breathing down their necks too. Joy.