April STEO – U.S. Electric Use to Hit New Record High in 2024/25

Once a month, the analysts at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) issue the agency’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), their best guess about where energy prices and production will go in the next 12 months or so. We sometimes poke good-natured fun at the EIA because their predictions go up in one month, and in…

Read More...

Sierra Club Pressures Connecticut to Block Iroquois Compressor

As we told you earlier this week, the radicals who run the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) are gearing up to block the Iroquois Gas Transmission system from completing its Enhancement by Compression (ExC) project (see NY DEC Attempting to Use Draft Reg to Block Iroquois Compressor). The ExC project increases horsepower at…

Read More...

PA Senate Passes Carbon Capture & Sequestration (CCS) Act

With the rapid increase in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects around the country, including right here in the Marcellus/Utica region, a key issue has arisen. Where does one store (sequester) all that carbon dioxide (CO2)? The answer is underground in a Class VI injection well. Class VI wells are a relatively new classification for…

Read More...

Kentucky Experiments with Replacing Sand with Fly Ash in Fracking

Kentucky, like West Virginia, is known as a coal state. When coal is burned it produces (among another things) a fine powdery substance called fly ash that must be disposed of. Fly ash is composed mainly of silica. Sand! Fly ash is often used to make concrete and cement products. Researchers at the University of…

Read More...

PA Slaps Equitrans with $1.1M Fine for 2022 Rager Mountain Gas Leak

In November 2022, one of the ten natural gas storage wells at the Equitrans Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area in Jackson Township, Cambria County (in Pennsylvania), began to leak. Equitrans is the owner/operator of Rager Mountain. The well leaked roughly 100 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of gas into the atmosphere (see Equitrans Gas…

Read More...

CNX Close to Finishing $20M Water Line in Westmoreland County, PA

CNX Resources Corporation yesterday announced that it is nearing completion of its Kiski Water Line project in Westmoreland County, PA, which will serve the company’s local operational needs for drilling and fracking. The new water line, due to be done in June, will reduce the local impact of natural gas development (fewer truck trips), and…

Read More...

ODNR Testing Athens Co. Water Wells for Possible Injection Leaks

The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) “temporarily” suspended the operations of four fracking waste injection wells in Athens County last September (see ODNR Temporarily Shuts Down 4 Injection Wells in Athens County). ODNR said, with no solid evidence, that the wells presented an “imminent danger” to health and the environment. ODNR is finally about…

Read More...

PA Lawsuit Advances – Claims Radioactive Drill Cuttings at Landfill

In January, MDN told you about a long-closed landfill that seeks to reopen in Liberty and Pine Townships in Mercer County, PA (see Group Claims Drill Cuttings for Grove City Landfill “Radioactive”). In 2020, Tri-County Landfill Inc. submitted a permit application for the construction and operation of a municipal waste landfill site that had operated…

Read More...

NY DEC Attempting to Use Draft Reg to Block Iroquois Compressor

The radicals who run the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) are gearing up to block the Iroquois Gas Transmission system from completing its Enhancement by Compression (ExC) project. ExC increases horsepower at three compression stations — two in New York and one in Connecticut — by an extra 125 MMcf/d, flowing more Marcellus/Utica…

Read More...

WV Adds Citigroup, HSBC, TD Bank, Northern Trust to ESG Banned List

In February, West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore sent notices to six financial institutions warning them of potential inclusion on the state’s Restricted Financial Institution List (can’t do business with the state) after his office made an initial determination that the institutions appear to be engaged in boycotts of fossil fuel companies as defined under…

Read More...

Experts Say Buyers “Starved” for Top-Tier NatGas Assets in M-U

Hart Energy is know for its DUG events — Developing Unconventional Gas. In years gone by, Hart would host separate DUG events in their respective regions. This year is different. Hart combined the Marcellus/Utica (called Appalachia), which, of course, covers Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, with the Haynesville, which covers northern Louisiana and East Texas….

Read More...

Pennsylvania House Hears How Biden LNG Pause Hurting Pa. Workers

Yesterday, the Pennsylvania House Republican Policy Committee held a hearing called “Fueling Pa’s Future: Liquid Natural Gas.” In January, Joe Biden announced he would “pause” any approvals for new LNG export plants (currently 17 requests in the pipeline) for at least one year while his people fart around pretending to figure out how to measure…

Read More...

Electric Grid Study Finds NatGas Best for Reliability, Environment

A joint report from Northwood University’s McNair Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy ranks eight key energy industry sectors based on their ability to meet the growing demand for affordable, reliable, and clean electricity generation. The sectors ranked were natural gas, coal, petroleum, nuclear, hydroelectric,…

Read More...

Federal Court Tosses Challenge to WV’s 2022 Forced Pooling Law

Hopefully, we’re now at the conclusion of an effort to overturn a bill passed in early 2022 by the West Virginia legislature, Senate Bill (SB) 694, which finally brought forced pooling for shale wells to the Mountain State after eight years of trying (see WV House Passes Forced Pooling Bill, Done Deal When Gov Signs)….

Read More...