Ohio Grange: Fatal Blow for OH Farmers if Biden Bans Fracking
Although Joe Biden is protesting (the lefty doth protest too much, methinks) that he would not ban “all” fracking if he’s elected president, his own words and the words of his pick for VP (Kamala Harris) say otherwise. Biden has endorsed most of the Green New Deal platform pushed by crazy Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Occasional-Cortex (AOC). So yes, if Biden is elected, fracking is pretty much done. Over. Fini. If fracking is banned, according to the Ohio State Grange it will be a catastrophe for farmers in the Buckeye State. Some farmers (many) will simply go out of business.
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There’s potential trouble brewing for pipeline companies that own and operate big interstate pipelines that flow Marcellus/Utica Shale molecules to other regions. (Trouble for gas pipelines in other regions, too.) Some of the contracts for the earliest pipelines built or repurposed to flow M-U molecules out of the northeast are expiring. The customers, in many cases, were the drillers themselves (instead of utility companies and other gas customers). Drillers are pulling back and not likely to renew those contracts, at least not at the prices they signed originally.
The anti-fossil fuel zealots at the Scranton Times-Tribune (in Lackawanna County, PA) are doing their darnedest to try and stop an $800 million LNG liquefaction plant (generating hundreds of jobs) planned for nearby Bradford County. On Monday we told you the zealots were attempting to whip up a frenzy of opposition to the plant, based on trucks that would travel through the borough of Clarks Summit, a suburb of Scranton (see 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: California extends life for four coastal natural gas-fired plants; Approvals for new oil and gas wells up in California; NATIONAL: Demand for jet fuel in the U.S. is recovering faster than in many other markets; Power burns drive record U.S. natural gas consumption for June despite pandemic, production slide; U.S. LNG exports expected to bounce back, near capacity in months ahead; 30 years of drilling data points to a rebound in U.S. oil production; Schlumberger sells U.S. fracking business, and who can blame them?; The surprising jump in U.S. natural gas prices.
When the world’s largest oilfield services (OFS) company, Schlumberger, decides to call it quits in the fracking business, you have to ask the question, Is this the end of shale? (It’s not, but that’s what reporters at Bloomberg are hinting.) Yesterday Schlumberger announced a deal to turn over the keys to their U.S. and Canadian fracking business to Liberty Oilfield Services in return for 37% interest in Liberty.
Last December Columbia Gas of Ohio (NiSource) announced a new $135 million pipeline project to bring new supplies of Utica-sourced natural gas to homes and businesses located north and west of Columbus, in central Ohio (see 
According to one Appalachian producer, small operators of conventional oil and gas wells in Appalachia are facing “an economic Armageddon.” Prices for natural gas are so low operators can’t afford to do anything but the most critical maintenance work. Yet our intrepid operator is hopeful nonetheless. He’s using a new method of “acidizing” wells that (in at least one case) triples gas output. How’d he do it?
What will happen with major natural gas (and oil) pipeline projects after the November Presidential election? You might guess if Biden wins (God perish the thought) there will be no new pipeline projects anywhere, and if Trump wins (our lips to God’s ears) new projects will appear out of the blue. But it’s not quite that simple according to S&P Global Platts.
New York City is home to some 15 “peaker plants”–small electric generating plants that fire up to provide electricity during times of high demand when the regular electric grid can’t handle the load. The plants are fueled mostly by oil, some are fueled by natural gas. NRG Energy wants to convert its old oil-fired peakers with natural gas, which is far cleaner and more efficient. However, a group of hardened Socialist Democrats (actually Communists) who have won primaries over the summer, unseating more moderate Democrats, are demanding all of the peakers be shut down. How’s that for stupid?
MDN is updating our Calendar page more frequently to bring you the latest news on events of interest that have either been canceled, postponed, or in some cases, have gone virtual. We encourage you to review the list. A number of free and low-cost webinars and online events have popped up as an alternative to in-person meetings.
In early June an Obamadroid federal judge vacated a permit for the Weymouth compressor station, the last piece of Spectra Energy/Enbridge’s Atlantic Bridge pipeline project–a project which took years to build (see 
We don’t often see news about a Marcellus producer called Alta Resources. Alta was one of the first drillers we wrote about just after launching the MDN website back in 2009 (see 
What is wrong with West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice? Last week we told you about Justice trash-talking a proposed natural gas-fired electric plant planned for Brooke County (see 
