PA Gov. Wolf’s Own DEP Doesn’t Want RGGI Carbon Tax
Big time opposition continues to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to force the state to participate in the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a tax on carbon aimed at coal and natural gas-fired electric power plants, with an eye to driving them out of business (see our RGGI stories here). Even Wolf’s own state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), an executive agency under his thumb, doesn’t want the state to join RGGI.
Read More “PA Gov. Wolf’s Own DEP Doesn’t Want RGGI Carbon Tax”
MDN recently brought you Epislon Energy’s first-quarter 2020 update (see 
According to an S&P Global Platts article, “spending cuts by producers and pipeline operators likely will reshape what and when natural gas midstream infrastructure is developed over the next several years.” The cuts and reshaping will, however, be “uneven.” The experts interviewed say pipeline and other midstream projects in gas-focused plays, like the Marcellus/Utica, are more likely to get built while new gas infrastructure in oil plays like the Permian and Bakken are less likely to get built.
What happens in the oil patch has a direct bearing on the financial health of gas drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, which is why we periodically cover happenings in oil. We’re now beginning to see articles with the theme that the oil price crash is already over. Yesterday West Texas Intermediate (WTI) closed at $32.50/barrel. Still not great, but a lot better than the negative $37.63 we saw a few weeks ago! However, does a higher price for oil automatically mean shale oil drilling will immediately return, and with it more associated gas keeping the price of natgas low?
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Ascent Resources announces new Chief Financial Officer; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Hydraulic fracturing demand expected to bounce back in the fall; Texas fears losing oil-rich lands in Chinese takeover of weakened energy companies; NATIONAL: Biden would ‘stop Keystone XL for good’ if elected U.S. president; FERC Chair Chatterjee for Va. governor?; Rare Earth Emergency #1 (video); Rare Earth Emergency #2 (video).
The nation’s largest natural gas producer, EQT Corporation, is temporarily curtailing or shutting in roughly one-third of its natural gas production in Pennsylvania and Ohio. So says EQT’s main midstream (pipeline) provider, Equitrans (formerly EQT Midstream).
We’ve been eagerly anticipating this month’s edition of our favorite report, the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Drilling Productivity Report (DPR), to see how much gas production in the Marcellus/Utica will decrease. The DPR estimates how much oil and natural gas each of the country’s seven largest shale plays produced in the previous (current) month, and how much each will produce in the coming (next) month.
The weekly new permits issued report below is delayed, showing permits issued for two weeks ago, from May 4-8. The reason for the delay is a website outage for the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR). In fact, ODNR’s site is still down but the good folks at the agency provided MDN the numbers by running a custom report. There is still no forecast for when ODNR’s site will be back online. For the week of May 4-8, PA had 20 new permits, OH had 3 new permits, and WV had 2 new permits.
Pieridae Energy wants to build an LNG export plant in Nova Scotia, Canada. The project is called the Goldboro LNG project. We’ve tracked the project for years hoping Marcellus/Utica gas might one day feed it (
Will this, finally, help convince any fence-sitting Democrats who give a damn about the future of our country and the oil and gas industry that a vote for Joe Biden is a vote to end it all? Biden, the presumptive nominee for the Democrats to run for president (even though he’s senile, really) has appointed both Alexandria Occasional-Cortex, the woman with half a brain, and John “haughty” Kerry, the guy who tried to destroy America with the Paris climate treaty, as co-chairs of his campaign’s so-called climate task force. What a joke! Except…it’s not a joke. It’s real, and it’s very scary.
MDN is updating our 
Is it time to turn the gas off for New York City and let the people there reap the “benefits” of having a dictator, Andrew Cuomo, as their governor? On Friday the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation, thoroughly and completely corrupted by Cuomo, issued yet another rejection for the critically-needed Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project. It was the last straw for Williams, the builder of the project, which has walked away from the project. Gas customers on Long Island, including parts of NYC, now face the real prospect of running out of natural gas (this is not an exaggeration). Andrew Cuomo is the grossest, most corrupt governor in NY’s history.
Yet another lawsuit trying to emasculate the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) by attacking its right to delegate eminent domain authority to pipeline builders has been tossed in federal court. Several of these cases have been tried using Marcellus/Utica pipeline projects. This latest case was brought by uppity, privileged landowners in Virginia against the Equitrans Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project.
In Ohio, it costs drillers $5,500 to file for and receive a permit to drill a new shale well. In West Virginia, the cost is $10,150. In Pennsylvania, it currently costs drillers $5,000 for a new shale well permit. Following an upcoming meeting by the state Independent Regulatory Review Commission on June 3, PA’s permit fee will zoom to the top of the M-U list: $12,500 (2 1/2 times the previous fee).