Why Trump’s Rollback of Obama’s Methane Regs is a Good Thing
At a ceremony in Pittsburgh last week, federal EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Administrator Andrew Wheeler unveiled two new rules for the oil and natural gas industry that removes ineffective and duplicative methane detection requirements while streamlining others (see EPA Rolls Back Obama Methane Overregulation at Pittsburgh Ceremony). The histrionics by the environmental left was predictable. They’re stroking out. Without reason. The methane emissions rules Obama inflicted on the nation on his way out the door in 2016 added insanely high costs to fossil fuel companies with “almost no” benefits to the environment.
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MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Marcellus multistep workflow helps operators assess parent/child well interactions; Belmont College builds skilled workforce in the tri-state region; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Blackouts expose perils and costs of California’s ‘electrify everything’ push; NATIONAL: Henry Hub rally continues, supported by stumbling production, rising demand; Biden presidency could spur change in climate litigation; AEA endorses Donald J. Trump for President of the United States; INTERNATIONAL: U.S. sanctions said unlikely to halt Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Yesterday our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), issued our favorite monthly report, the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). The DPR estimates how much oil and natural gas each of the country’s seven largest shale plays produced in the previous (i.e. current) month, and how much each will produce in the coming (i.e. next) month. The August report, which predicts production for the coming month of September, estimates natural gas production in the Marcellus/Utica will decrease by 203 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d)–the biggest (by far) decrease in any of the seven shale plays tracked.
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy, The Conservation Fund, and Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) yesterday issued a joint announcement that MVP is paying $19.5 million to the Conservancy to “conserve land along the Trail corridor and support outdoor recreation-based economies in Virginia and West Virginia.” It is the largest “funding package” in the Conservancy’s history to advance conservation efforts in a single geography.
“Hurry it up, will ya?” That was the upshot of a message sent by TC Energy to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) with respect to giving final approval for its Louisiana XPress project. FERC granted the project a favorable environmental assessment (EA) on February 6 (see 
Last week, in one of the biggest news stories (for us) so far this year, Southwestern Energy announced it is buying out and merging in Montage Resources (see 
Please don’t come to Boston. If you do, you may experience blackouts from an unreliable electricity grid powered by so-called (very unreliable) renewables. That’s our takeaway on the obtuse attitudes that pervade New England and the Communist politicians that run that section of the country.
Why is the Chester County, PA District Attorney hell-bent on persecuting (i.e. prosecuting) security guards who have done nothing more than protect nutty environmentalists from hurting themselves at Mariner East 2 pipeline construction sites? Former Chester County, PA District Attorney Tom Hogan (RINO), and his successor Deb Ryan (Democrat) were 100% humiliated after a Chester County Magisterial District Judge in June dismissed the entire case against the local head of security for Energy Transfer in what the DA’s office lyingly calls a “buy a badge scheme” (see 
Nuverra Environmental Solutions (formerly Heckmann) is one of the largest companies in the United States that handles transportation and disposal of shale drilling wastewater and leftover rock and dirt from drilling. The company has major operations in the Marcellus/Utica region. In April the company laid off roughly 100 employees (see 
Epsilon Energy concentrates most of its effort on the Marcellus in Susquehanna County, PA. Epsilon doesn’t actually do any of its own drilling. The company partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy, and the other company does the actual drilling. Epsilon, according to its website, owns ~4,000 net acres in the PA Marcellus. They also own assets in Oklahoma’s Anadarko Basin. Last week the company issued its second-quarter 2020 update.
Last week Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 2X pipeline experienced an “inadvertent return”–nontoxic drilling mud coming up out of the ground where it’s not supposed to–in Chester County, PA (see 
In July 2018 Eagle LNG officially opened its Maxville, Florida (suburb of Jacksonville) liquefaction facility to first liquefy then transport LNG to Crowley’s new LNG bunkering facility at the Port of Jacksonville (Jaxport) where the LNG is used to fuel two Crowley LNG-powered ships designed to carry both containerized and roll-on/roll-off cargo (see