Carbon County, PA Joins PA Senate Lawsuit Against DRBC Frack Ban
Carbon County, PA is the latest county to join in and support Pennsylvania’s Republican State Senators suing the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) over its ban on hydraulic fracturing. In a brilliant move aimed at boxing in the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), two northeastern Pennsylvania State Senators–Gene Yaw and Lisa Baker–along with members of the PA Senate Republican Caucus (27 Senators in all), filed a lawsuit in January against the DRBC accusing the quasi-governmental agency of “taking” the property rights of PA residents without just compensation under the law (see PA Senators Sue DRBC for “Taking” Property re Frack Ban). A group of 16 left-wing PA Democrat Senators filed to “intervene” in the lawsuit (see Court Lets 16 Anti-Drilling PA Senate Democrats Join DRBC Lawsuit). The battle lines are drawn. PA counties are lining up to support the Republicans in the lawsuit.
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Cheniere Energy, the biggest LNG exporter operating in the U.S., published a “Climate Scenario Analysis Report” last week (full copy below). The report analyzes the long-term resilience of Cheniere’s business and the potential implications for LNG supply and demand in various future climate scenarios through 2040. Cheniere predicts LNG demand and exports to continue growing through 2040, but after that, LNG will decline due to continued global action to reduce so-called greenhouse gas emissions.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Pennsylvania town saved by fracking fears Biden will kill its prosperity; Indian Point is shutting down. That means more fossil fuel.; Plug Power and Brookfield Renewable move forward with green hydrogen plant in PA; NATIONAL: How Oxy’s new carbon venture could become a true game-changer; INTERNATIONAL: For Mexico’s president, the future isn’t renewable energy — it’s coal; Qatar could throw a wrench in America’s ambitious LNG plans.
Dan Rice IV, former CEO of Rice Energy and a board member of EQT Corp. (where his younger brother is now the CEO), is making a big bet–we’d call it a gamble–of $1 billion on so-called renewable natural gas, mainly from landfills. Rice’s “blank-check” acquisition firm, called Rice Acquisition Corp., is acquiring and merging together Archaea Energy ($347 million) and Aria Energy ($680 million) into a single company focused on providing renewable natural gas (RNG) and “green” hydrogen.
MDN editor Jim Willis attended (remotely) yesterday’s 
Last week MDN told you that Epsilon Energy, which concentrates most of its effort on the Marcellus in Susquehanna County, PA, had sued its joint venture partner Chesapeake Energy over Chessy’s refusal to allow Epsilon to drill four shale wells on land Chessy doesn’t want to drill (see 
The Enverus U.S. rig count continues to climb (a good sign). For the week ending April 7, the U.S. rig count climbed another 9 active rigs to 528. The Marcellus lost two rigs and ended the week with 31 active rigs. The Ohio Utica added one rig and now has 13 active rigs. The M-U combined has 44 active rigs. The other major shale gas play, the Haynesville, stayed even with 48 active rigs.
We sometimes wonder if politicians understand how STUPID they sometimes sound (
Last MDN told you that the West Virginia House of Delegates had passed House Bill (HB) 2581, which changes how the State Tax Department values producing oil and gas wells for property tax purposes (see 
Prepare for some mental gymnastics. Limber up your brain so you can follow this story. As you know, some big pension funds and investment firms have been on a “divestment” kick, eliminating their investments in filthy fossil fuel companies (see 
A month ago MDN told you about some of the biggest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica announcing new or expanded ESG (environment, social, governance) programs during their quarterly updates (see 
The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) most recent monthly short-term energy outlook (STEO) contains some disheartening numbers regarding natural gas production and consumption. EIA, with some of the best number crunchers in the business, predicts natural gas production will hit 91.41 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2021 and 93.29 Bcf/d in 2022. The current all-time high was 93.06 Bcf/d, hit in 2019 prior to the pandemic. That’s the good news. The bad news is that consumption (i.e. demand) is forecast to decrease even further this year and next year.
There are those who talk a good game about fighting back against the cultural rot that is consuming our country, fighting back against those who spread the false gospel of socialism and claim that capitalism is somehow evil. There are those who talk a good game about supporting fossil fuel energy. And then, there are those who actually do something about it. Talk is cheap. Action is expensive. You can classify Nick Deiuliis, CEO of CNX Resources, as an action guy. Yesterday Nick announced an exciting new mentorship program for high schoolers.