Long Island Gas Moratorium Blocks “Hundreds of Millions” in Projs
We previously told you New York Gov. Andrew “man-child” Cuomo is getting desperate in his bid to deflect blame from himself for his own actions in blocking new natural gas supplies to the New York City/Long Island area. He’s so desperate he threatened utility company National Grid with kicking them out of the state and giving their franchise to another company (see Psychotic Cuomo to Cancel National Grid Gas Franchise in 2 Weeks). Cuomo gave National Grid a deadline of next Monday to hook up all remaining requests for natural gas service or else. Why is the man-child so desperate? Because of stories like the one below that say, “National Grid’s moratorium on new natural gas hookups has stalled hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of local development and pushed some businesses to build projects off Long Island.” Cuomo doesn’t like the deserved label: economic hit man.
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In a speech delivered October 31 to the P4 Climate Action Summit in downtown Pittsburgh, Mayor Bill Peduto declared his hatred for the petrochemical industry. He doesn’t want any more Shell crackers junking up his regional backyard. The highly negative reaction to Peduto’s idiotic (and pandering) remarks was swift. What petchem company wants to build in a region where the mayor of its largest city is trash talking the industry? In a bid to counter Peduto’s economically damaging remarks, some 20 county officials from Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Lawrence, Mercer, Washington and Westmoreland counties issued a joint statement on Wednesday to show their support for the petrochemical and shale industries in the region.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: FERC approves three LNG export projects, additional liquefaction train in South Texas; Restaurant group sues over Berkeley’s natural gas ban; NATIONAL: Fracking Ban?! (video); US oil, gas rig count up 1 ahead of holiday season start; Harold Hamm: Private equity’s rush to get into shale development helped push oversupply issues; Gas prices languish as storage falls to near-record lows; Fossil fuels create jobs so why do Democrats hate them?; US agencies to push LNG by rail in 2020.
During the proxy fight earlier this year to control EQT Corporation’s board–and ultimately its management team–Toby Rice threw some sharp barbs including talk that EQT’s existing management was not up to the task of effectively running the company. The Rice boys said so, their board nominees said so, and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) said so. There will be change (i.e. personnel change) at the “operational level” said ISS. Imagine our surprise when, after assuming control, Toby said there would *not* be a wholesale replacement of top management (see 
The Sierra Club is a radicalized, far left “environmental” group that seems to have endless mountains of cash to finance frivolous lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit against any project or company with the moniker “fossil fuel” attached to it. The Clubbers have made trouble for both Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline project, and now for Equitrans’ Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) by convincing lefty judges in a federal court to overturn previously issued permits from the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Equitrans has had enough of the Clubbers and their interference and recently unloaded on the group in a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
JobsOhio, a private, nonprofit corporation that works works on behalf of the state to drive job creation and new capital investment in Ohio by attracting business, contracts out economic research to Cleveland State University (CSU)–to keep tabs on the Utica Shale industry. Last year CSU researchers found that from 2011-2017 the Utica Shale had attracted an amazing $70 billion in new private sector energy investments (see 
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced yesterday it has awarded grants totaling $1,891,000 for 12 clean energy vehicle projects through its Alternative Fuels Incentive Grants (AFIG) program. What’s striking about the list of winners is just how many of them are for natural gas vehicles/technology, as opposed to electric. The DEP has another $3 million to blow on these grants by the end of the year, with a deadline for applications of Dec. 13. Line up to get yours!
As a country, we’re still struggling to correct the great harm done by the Obama Administration when it comes to fixing messes like the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule. What is and what is not a “water” that comes under federal jurisdiction? In the Obama years everything down to mud puddles (we’re not kidding) could be considered WOTUS (see 
It’s been a while since we’ve update our calendar of events page. We just have. The list below includes events related (or of interest) to the Marcellus, Utica and other Appalachian shales happening from now through the end of this year. Be sure to check it out!
Yesterday a bipartisan group of Pennsylvania House and Senate members held a press conference in Harrisburg to introduce parallel bills to prevent Gov. Tom Wolf from following through on his insane plan to tax carbon dioxide from natural gas-fired power plants–yet another attempt by Wolf to raise ~$300 million a year for Harrisburg politicians to spread around to voters in an effort to get themselves reelected. The proposed bills will prohibit the state from joining the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) without express permission from the PA legislature.
Anti-fossil fuel nutters who so often turn to criminal activity in the name of “protecting” the planet have struck again–this time at the Cricket Valley Energy Center in Dutchess County, NY. The natural gas-fired power plant is nearing completion and with every rivet punched and bolt that gets turned, it drives the nutters even more insane than they already are. Some 29 protesters, some of them not local, were arrested by Dutchess County sheriff’s deputies on Saturday for blocking the entrance to the facility. Four of them climbed a 275-foot smokestack to hang banners. We have the names and ages of all 29 who broke the law.
As we pointed out in our post yesterday about the U.S. EIA’s latest Drilling Productivity Report, natural gas production in the U.S. is slowing down (see EIA Nov ’19 Drilling Report: Permian Gas Grows More than M-U). No surprise in that bit of news as we’ve been reporting for months about various drillers in the Marcellus/Utica (and other plays) announcing their intent to spend less on drilling both this year and next. Production in the M-U is expected to grow 8-9% this year over last year. But what about next year?
Diversified Gas & Oil owns close to 8 million acres of leases with some 60,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. Their focus has been to acquire quality production and cash flow–regardless of the well or commodity type (gas or oil). They currently have over 400 shale wells in their portfolio. Diversified has just closed on a deal to raise more money via securitization–meaning to issue securities (“notes”) based on the value of their gas wells. It will raise a reported $200 million for the company. The securitization transaction is being called “groundbreaking.”
Shame on Joe Manchin, who once considered leaving the leftist Democrat Party to become a Republican (but didn’t). Now he’s showing his true colors by pushing a far far far left radicalized candidate for an empty seat on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)–a former “senior attorney” for the odious National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). No way, no how Joe.