OH Dems Propose Bill to Ban Fracking Under Lake Erie, State Parks
Ohio Democrat House members have introduced a bill to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. House Bill (HB) 399 would ban fracking under Lake Erie (which has NEVER been proposed or even thought of), and ban fracking under state-owned parks, which is now happening. With respect to drilling under (not on) state-owned parks, when it happens, nobody knows it’s happening (see Drilling Begins Under Salt Fork State Park – “No Signs of Fracking”). There is no noise, no pollution, nothing. There *are no* impacts to the parks themselves as all drilling is done from adjacent properties. Yet the Dems want it banned. We have to ask, why? What possible reason is there to ban something that isn’t doing any harm yet brings revenue to the state? Read More “OH Dems Propose Bill to Ban Fracking Under Lake Erie, State Parks”
Pennsylvania state Rep. Greg Vitali, a radical Democrat and the majority chairman of the state House Environmental & Natural Resource Protection Committee, introduced legislation (H.B. 1946) this week that would increase the current setback distances for unconventional oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania from 500 feet to 2,500 feet, effectively banning all new shale drilling in the state. Period. End of sentence. And Vitali (and the other radicals who have signed on to the bill) know it. The bill doesn’t stand a chance in the Republican-controlled Senate, but that’s not the point. The point is (a) fundraising, and (b) there is no other reason, except fundraising. 
We’re not big fans of the American Petroleum Institute (API), which tends to do the bidding of the Big Oil companies that fund it. Big Oil’s aims are sometimes at odds with those of smaller, independent oil and gas producers—the innovators who discovered shale drilling. Yet there are state chapters of the API that do a good job. One of them is the Pennsylvania API chapter. The executive director of PA API, Stephanie Catarino Wissman, recently published an excellent article in Broad+Liberty that calls for fast-tracking the effort to pass federal permit reform so Pennsylvania can get back to building. 
Unintended (but entirely predictable) consequences are now happening in New York State. In January 2023, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a leftist Democrat, floated a plan to ban natural gas hookups in every single new home and business across the “Empire” State (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Panelists warn data centers, oil and gas threaten water resources; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Long Island Senate GOP delegation urges Gov. Hochul to advance NESE; N.Y. Democrats urge Hochul to reject NESE pipeline over climate concerns; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas futures slip ahead of storage data; America confronts its next great energy crisis – rare earth minerals; INTERNATIONAL: Oil slips to five-month low; Gunvor CEO says oil oversupply finally emerging; Oxy CEO sees tight oil price range through 2026; UK sanctions major Russian oil producers; Who’s afraid of American LNG?; Net-zero squeeze on oil firms ‘losing steam’, says energy executive. 
In August, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) reissued a certificate for the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project, a billion-dollar-plus project designed to increase Transco pipeline capacity and flows of Marcellus gas heading into New York City and other northeastern markets by an extra 400 MMcf/d (see 
On August 17, Eureka Resources’ Williamsport Second Street facility (one of the three wastewater treatment plants previously operated by Eureka) leaked some of its stored untreated frack wastewater, which ended up in the nearby Susquehanna River via a storm drain (see 
Each fall, typically in September/October, Cove Point LNG (along the shore of Maryland) shuts down for a few weeks for annual maintenance. According to a notice posted on the Berkshire Hathaway Energy Informational Postings website, reductions in flows to the Cove Point facility would happen between Monday, September 15, and Friday, October 10 (see 
In September 2022, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), a dysfunctional, hot mess of an organization, voted to extend a permit to build a special LNG export dock along the shoreline of the Delaware River in New Jersey by an extra three years (see 
Commonwealth LNG is developing a 9.5 MTPA (million tonnes per annum) liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal project located near Cameron, Louisiana. In September, Commonwealth announced it had signed a deal with EQT Corporation to provide 1.0 MTPA of LNG for EQT to resell (see 
Don’t say we didn’t warn them, because we did. Chevron is complaining that Venture Global is behaving like Venture Global—screwing over its contracted customers so it can make billions by selling LNG to uncontracted customers while pretending its LNG export facility isn’t commercially ready. We have to ask, what the heck did Chevron *think* would happen? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice… 
After gaining rigs for four weeks in a row, the Baker Hughes U.S. national rig count stayed even two weeks ago, neither gaining nor (more importantly) losing any rigs (see