Shale Gas News – October 26, 2019

Bill desRosiers
External Affairs Coordinator, Cabot Oil & Gas

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The Shale Gas News, heard every Saturday at 10 AM on 94.3 FM, 1510 AM and Sundays on YesFM, talked about our electricity future, public land drilling, Trump’s speech at Shale Insight and much more last week.

The Shale Gas News has grown again; welcome Gem 104 as our FOURTH station! Gem 104 helps to solidify the Shale Gas News coverage in an important Marcellus region, PA’s northern tier. The Shale Gas News is now broadcasting in Bradford, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Luzerne, Lycoming, Pike, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga and Wayne Counties, as well as in greater central PA. The Shale Gas News is aired on Saturday or Sunday depending on the station.

Every Saturday Rusty Fender and I host a morning radio show to discuss all things natural gas. This week, as a guest, we had Rick Hiduk, managing editor of Endless Mountains Lifestyle, and candidate for Wyoming County Commissioner.

We also played two interviews from Fox News. One with Rick Perry, Secretary of Energy and one with David J. Spigelmyer, president of the Pittsburgh, Pa.-based Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), the region’s largest shale development trade association.

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The Shale Gas News, typically, is broadcast live. On the October 26th show (click above), we covered the following new territory (see news excerpts below):

• Natural Gas And Renewables Will Rule America’s Electricity Future. As much as wind and solar are increasing, natural gas is increasing more. And gas will continue to grow faster than all other energy sources in the United States for some time. Over the past fifteen years, coal has decreased from over 40% to 27% of our electricity generation and gas has increased from 17% to about 35%. As a result, greenhouse gas emissions in America dropped to a 25-year low two years ago, although they are now rising again with increased economic activity and an ever-increasing number of gas-guzzling SUVs.
• Revenue from drilling on public lands increased by a third last year. Revenue collected and dispersed assets from energy production on public lands rose by billions in fiscal year 2019, according to new data released by the Interior Department Thursday. Revenues from energy sources, such as drilling of oil and gas on and offshore, rose to nearly $12 billion, an increase of 31 percent over the previous year. Disbursements rose to $11.69 billion compared to the previous year’s $8.93 billion with 35 states receiving more than $2.44 billion, according to the data.
• Moratorium on natural gas would be a wake-up call. A moratorium on this crucial energy supply would be disastrous, risking potential outages and hitting working families’ pocketbooks by raising prices.  In Pennsylvania, shale development has helped cut residential electric bills by 40%-we’d see them skyrocket back up overnight if a moratorium were put in place. These candidates might claim to be taxing the rich to pay for their proposals, but raising our electric bills sounds like a tax on everyone.
• Natural-Gas Prices Rise on Expectations for Cooler Fall Weather. The price of natural gas posted a third consecutive session of gains on Thursday, buoyed by expectations for cooler-than-usual fall weather in some parts of the country. Natural-gas futures rose 1.5% to trade at $2.316 per million British thermal units amid predictions of lower-than-normal temperatures in parts of the Central and Western U.S. Demand for natural gas tends to climb when people use their heaters in the winter and air conditioners in the summer, and changes in the weather and weather forecasts can precipitate price swings.
• President Trump’s Speech to the Marcellus Shale Coalition. As a public service in our role as a natural gas news journal, we offer below President Donald J. Trump’s entire speech to the Marcellus Shale Coalition yesterday in Pittsburgh. The most important parts are highlighted if you merely wish to scan the speech. “Thank you very much. What a nice group. Ah, you’re much happier. I was here three years ago; you’re much happier now. And you’re much wealthier, and you’re providing a lot more energy than you used to, that’s for sure. Right? Thank you.”
• Is Marcellus/Utica Gas Production Finally About to Peak? If you’ve read MDN for any length of time, you know we’re not much for “peak” anything–peak oil or peak gas–the theory that we’ve hit the top and either supply or demand will decrease. There are those who espouse both peak oil and peak gas theories (the tinfoil hat brigade in our book). In point of fact, October is the 34th consecutive month for which natural gas production in America’s shale plays has increased. The rate of increase may have slowed a bit, but each month production (and use) still goes up.
• NY Police State: Cuomo Orders Natl Grid to Hook Up Gas Customers. Sounding like North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday “ordered” National Grid to connect 1,157 new natural gas customers previously denied service because National Grid won’t have enough natural gas on the coldest days in winter to service everyone. New York has descended into a police state, with our Dear Leader ordering around companies in contravention of established law. Yet not a peep from mainstream news organizations about Cuomo’s excessive abuse of power.

The Shale Gas News sponsored by Linde Corporation