https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/sandridge-energy-names-industry-vet-paul-mckinney-as-ceo/
Monday, January 28, 2019
SandRidge Energy Names Industry Vet Paul McKinney As CEO
SandRidge Energy Inc. (NYSE: SD) said Jan. 28 that oil and gas industry veteran Paul D. McKinney has been named as the Oklahoma City-based E&P’s next president and CEO. McKinney will join SandRidge, effective Jan. 29, from Yuma Energy Inc., where he served as the company’s president and COO. He succeeds William M. Griffin, who took over as SandRidge’s president and CEO last year after James Bennett was ousted in a victory for activist investor Carl Icahn. SandRidge came under pressure from Icahn, who had objected to Bennett’s compensation and the company’s $746 million bid to buy rival Bonanza Creek Energy Inc. (NYSE: BCEI). Julian Bott, the company’s CFO, was also pressured to leave by Icahn in early 2018.
Why Most Green Energy Schemes Are Doomed to Fail
Natural Gas NOW
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There’s a huge problem with green energy schemes that no one is talking about; they rely upon planned government activity rather than spontaneous innovation.
Almost all green energy schemes rely upon government support and/or government direction. Dogma is their foundation and coercion of one form or another is their standard operation procedure. The combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, by contrast, is a matter of spontaneous innovation; a combination of two previous innovations that together have produced the shale revolution.
This innovative combination, moreover, involves no coercion, no subsidies, no renewable portfolio standards and no mandates. It is constantly changing, improving and upgrading with no limits and no end in sight. Meanwhile, the promise of green energy delivered on its own, absent government propping it up and forcing its use, is somehow always in the future, so close we’re told, we can taste it, except that it never happens.
All this came to mind over the weekend as I was finishing a wonderful book called “The Tyranny of Experts,” by William Easterly. He makes an impassioned case for why so many of the efforts by World Bank types, and specifically, the Rockefeller Foundation, to bring poor countries out of poverty have been utter and complete failures. Along the way, he refers to another of my favorite books, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” by Jane Jacobs. Both books are highly critical of top-down planning and argue for individualism and for freedom to invent, innovate and renew.
Cast-iron buildings in SoHo that were once decrepit old factories and are now part of a very expensive trendy scene
Jacobs made the point, long ago, that attempts at conscious direction of city life as in urban renewal projects then being proposed for a destitute area of New York City were doomed, whereas organic, spontaneous development was the very nature of city life. She was proven correct years later when that destitute area became what is now known as the trendy SoHo part of Manhattan, where apartments sell for multiple millions of dollars.
We see the same dynamic with green energy schemes. Most of the green energy development we’ve witnessed to date is anything but organic. Rather, it’s planned by supposed experts in government and forced upon us. We’re told we have to do it and we have to pay extra to do it. This means, of course, there is no real incentive to innovate. Why experiment with an alternative idea or a different approach when you’re assured of a market for what you’re doing now?
Compare this to the way the natural gas industry works, with no significant subsidies or requirements that your product be used. The only way to get ahead to is to constantly innovate by finding a better, less expensive way to get your product to market. This is why natural gas development has changed dramatically since I first got involved in promoting it. Then, we were talking about a well pad for every 40 or 160 acres. Now, we’re seeing 1,280 acre units and laterals going out miles with absolutely minimal land disturbance. We’re seeing multi-level drilling, recycling of almost all water used and other innovations too numerous to mention.
This happens, of course, partly due to competition that government guarantees invariably obliterates. But, there’s a bigger factor as well and it is that focusing the attention of 100 green energy experts on a single idea is never as effective as 100 people pursuing 100 ideas. Innovation cannot be planned or forced. It has to be spontaneous to be innovative, something no one thought of before. That only happens when large numbers of people are pursuing large numbers of ideas, with lots of failures and those occasional successes that take everything in an entirely different direction.
This could be happening in green energy, too, but is it? Not really. It’s much too easy to secure tax incentives from Congress for old uneconomical energy. It’s much too easy to get states to impose requirements that utilities use what is produced by the same old green energy schemes. There is no reward in green energy for fooling around with crazy ideas that just might work. Take away the mandates and the subsidies and a thousand new ideas might bloom because some eccentric entrepreneurial mind out there and others like him suppose they know how to turn rain into carbonless gasoline.
But, that’s not happening with green energy schemes. No, all the scheming is going into how to grab government money, which involves zero innovation. The natural gas industry, where there’s not only freedom to pursue new ideas but potentially huge rewards for doing so, is innovating all over the place. This is why green energy schemes never quite materialize as projected. Every advance in green energy is matched by two or more in natural gas. Incentives matter. Spontaneous innovation stimulated by a combination of freedom and competition will always trump the best efforts of the experts trying to plan and mandate it on behalf of government.
The post Why Most Green Energy Schemes Are Doomed to Fail appeared first on Natural Gas Now.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/why-most-green-energy-schemes-are-doomed-to-fail/
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Tesla, gasoline-powered cars line ’em up
I must come clean upfront: I am a Baby Boomer.
I grew up during a time when so-called muscle cars really had muscle. There’s never been a better sound to these ears from a non-human source than sitting at an intersection when a 1967 Pontiac GTO, or a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda, pulls next to me. The rumble from the V-8, gas-guzzling engine permeates my ears, and I watch slack-jawed as the entire car vibrates from the potential under the hood.
Today, while muscle has returned to the U.S. automobile industry, with 700 horsepower Hellcats and Demons, Shelby Mustang GT 350s, and Camaro ZL1s, hybrid power plants and all-electric vehicles led by Elon Musk’s Tesla, get more press.
Tesla touts looks, speed and technology that matches any gasoline-fired vehicle, but also mathematics, proving it costs less to charge a Tesla, than to fill the gas tank of a comparable car, Kallanish Energy reports.
Maybe – but maybe not. Last week, an article in the publication Techspot raised legitimate questions about whether a match still favors Tesla.
Charging rate jumps
The electric-vehicle maker recently announced what would have averaged a 33% increase in its Supercharging station rates, ironically happening during a time of tumbling gasoline prices, according to energy technology website Electrek.
Since Oct. 10, the national average price for regular gas has fallen 23%, to roughly $2.25 a gallon, according to consumer gasoline website gasbuddy.com.
The drop comes as Tesla also ends its so-called referral program, which provided free Supercharging to qualified buyers. Effective last November, all new Tesla owners must pay the new, higher rates at Supercharging stations.
Price increase rethought
Following a very vocal outcry from its adherents, Tesla rethought the 33% charging price increase, and backed it down about 10%, from $0.31 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), to $0.28/kWh, on average.
Based on average prices, a fill-up and a charge cost nearly the same, running $27 and $28, respectively. (At $0.31/kWh, charging would have been $31.)
Yet, in many states the price of a gallon of gas remains far below the national average, which alters the math in favor of gasoline.
Low gasoline prices hurt comparisons
For example, at Jan. 27, you could find regular gasoline for as low as $2.14 a gallon in Pennsylvania, $1.66/gallon in Texas, $2.01/gallon in Florida, and $1.50/gallon in Oklahoma.
Using those prices, it’s cheaper to fill a car with regular gas than its batteries with electricity at a Supercharger station.
Industry analysts also question whether some of the recent cost comparisons are fair, claiming key factors and certain nuances are being overlooked.
For example, most Tesla owners charge at home — where rates are cheaper — not at the public Superchargers. On the other hand, most homes aren’t wired to handle 120 kW chargers, which are likely not cheap to install.
Premium gasoline price has dropped
Tesla backers also say when comparing cost, consumers should pair Teslas with equivalent-cost luxury vehicles – Teslas aren’t cheap.
That’s fine, but the Tesla website uses $2.85/gallon for premium – hi-test to Boomers – gasoline, when doing its price comparison. According to AAA, there currently are 33 states in which the average price for hi-test is under $2.85/gallon.
There’s also the matter of the status of the federal electric vehicle tax credit, which had been as high as $7,500, but which depends on how close the manufacturer come to selling 200,000 vehicles since 2010. Tesla actually went over the 200,000-vehicle mark in the third quarter of 2018.
So the Tesla backers and gasoline guzzlers continue verbally sparring, “my car’s better than your car.”
Both are correct – it all depends what a buyer wants. For me, give me that V-8-shaking GTO or ‘Cuda. I like the feel.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/tesla-gasoline-powered-cars-line-em-up/
New Yorkers Grapple with the Real Life Impacts of Pipeline Opposition
Natural Gas NOW
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An article in LoHud exposes the real life impacts of pipeline opposition and the lack of critical thinking abilities on the part of so many New Yorkers.
Yesterday, I noted a Westchester County, New York Assemblywoman by the name of Amy Paulin was experiencing some sort of awakening with respect to the impacts of Andrew Cuomo’s maddening pipeline opposition. They have resulted in ConEd imposing a moratorium on new gas connections. “We just can’t stop all economic development, all affordable housing projects, all residential development, which is what this moratorium will do,” she said.
Paulin was, of course, aiming her remarks at ConEd, rather than her fellow Democrat, the governor of New York. The message was, nonetheless, clear; Cuomo’s green appeasement strategy is starting to impact real lives and he’d better be more careful. It was a not so subtle suggestion to rethink his pipeline opposition.
An article in LoHud brings things into focus and here are a few of the moist relevant excerpts:
“The state’s misguided blockade against natural gas infrastructure is hurting New York’s economy through lost jobs and a higher cost of doing business,” said Peter Kauffmann, the spokesman for New Yorkers for Affordable Energy, a trade group representing labor and business leaders in the natural gas business.
ConEd’s announcement may have come as a surprise to many but over the past two years, the company has repeatedly told state regulatory officials a moratorium was looming.
“The Company forecasts that in the near term it may be unable to meet demand from new customers on extremely cold days, resulting in the need to institute moratoriums on attaching new firm customers in areas where pipeline capacity is severely constrained,” the company wrote in a petition to the state Public Service Commission in September 2017.
ConEd noted that over the six years that ended in 2017, the utility’s natural gas peak day demand had increased more than 30 percent and it’s expected to grow an additional 23 percent in the next 20 years.
Much of that growth is being spurred by efforts to wean customers off dirtier heating oil options. Between 2011 and 2016, ConEd converted more than 6,500 buildings to natural gas, an effort the utility says has reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
“In short, natural gas is playing an important role in New York’s path to a clean energy future and has contributed to the highest air quality in New York City in the last 50 years,” the company noted.
ConEd contracts with six interstate pipelines which connect to the utility’s distribution system at multiple points. The company delivers gas to more than 1 million customers in New York City and parts of Westchester County through 4,300 miles of mains and 370,000 service lines.
In recent years, efforts to increase pipeline capacity bogged down.
“Since 2014, the Company has worked with various pipelines to develop new projects that would increase the pipeline to New York City gates,” the company wrote in 2017. “When pipeline development projects in New York recently encountered increased difficulty in securing necessary pre-construction permits, the projects on which the Company was working were not considered viable and therefore not initiated.”
Unfortunately, this part of the article, which tells the truth of the situation doesn’t appear until towards the end of the article. Even then, it doesn’t squarely put the blame for the moratorium on Andrew Cuomo’s demagogic strategy of killing pipelines. It tends, instead, to suggest ConEd might be exaggerating its problems to leverage the situation and secure more gas. It gives radical Food & Water Watch a platform to argue that cutting of pipelines is essential to “get us off fossil fuels altogether” and implies, with no factual support, that renewables could easily substitute for natural gas, which isn’t even vaguely true.
What really stands out to me about this article, though, are two facets of the article.
The first is the real world pain of Cuomo’s misbegotten strategy of pipeline opposition. That comes through loud and clear in the comments made by builders and local officials which echo those made by Amy Paulin.
The second thing that comes through to someone like me reading the article from far across the other side of the Hudson River in Pennsylvania, is the extent to which New Yorkers are capable of denying reality, even in the direct face of it, for the sake of green political correctness. County Executive George Latimer suggests it could be just a matter of how the counting was done:
“We need to understand what led to this moratorium, how the calculation for gas is made, how many customers exist in each municipality, which slated projects are in jeopardy, which are not, the duration of the moratorium, how that calculation was determined, an overview of the regulatory process, and Con Edison’s plan for developing and implementing alternative energy sources,” Latimer said.
Notice there is no mention of Cuomo decisions to kill one pipeline after another to appease a handful of his green-obsessed Westchester County constituents; decisions solely responsible for the crisis. There’s a lot more of this head in the sand mentality throughout the article. Even those most aware of the real problem are generally afraid to state the truth or express anything that’s not green certified. Therein lies the real problem, of course; trendy peer pressure demanding green conformity.
No, all eyes are averted from the reality there’s no way to economically heat the above 27-story mixed-use project in New Rochelle without natural gas or electricity made from gas. All ears are closed to the reality that it’s the governor, stupid!
The post New Yorkers Grapple with the Real Life Impacts of Pipeline Opposition appeared first on Natural Gas Now.
Saturday, January 26, 2019
MDN Weekly Digest – Jan 26, 2019
The latest edition of the MDN Weekly Digest is now ready. The digest is the meat and “essence” of each... Continue reading
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/mdn-weekly-digest-jan-26-2019/
Natural Gas 101: The Story on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)
Cabot Oil & Gas
External Affairs, Pittsburgh
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Kelsey Mulac provides a primer on compressed natural gas or CNG and how it is offering another outlet for dry gas as another face of the Shale Revolution.
Compressed natural gas, or CNG, is natural gas that has been compressed to 1 percent of its original size. After removing impurities like water and natural gas liquids, natural gas is considered dry. This means it’s primarily made of methane, which is necessary for the compression process.
The most common method for compressing natural gas is a diaphragm compressor, which uses a series of chambers to constrict the volume of the natural gas. Natural gas travels through a number of containers that increase pressure and decrease volume until the gas has reached the necessary pressure. CNG is stored and transported under pressure.
Compressed natural gas is known as a great fuel choice for vehicles for its economic and environmental benefits.
America’s abundant supply and strong production of natural gas offer price stability and affordability for CNG. And because CNG is made primarily of methane, its main byproducts are carbon dioxide and water vapor. It does not produce pollutants like nitrogen and sulfur dioxide, and natural gas carbon emissions are relatively low compared to other fossils fuels. Simply put, CNG is a win-win – for both wallets and the environment.
Vehicles that run on natural gas are known as NGVs, or natural gas vehicles. There are three types of NGVs: dedicated vehicles that run on natural gas only, as well as bi-fuel and dual fuel. Bi-fuel systems allow the vehicles to run on either natural gas or gasoline/diesel. Dual fuel vehicles blend natural gas with diesel.
CNG maximizes cost efficiency for vehicles because it leaves less residue than other fuels. This reduces damage to engines and contamination to motor oil as well as maintenance costs. CNG can save a consumer almost 50 percent over traditional petroleum products: you can even calculate potential savings from converting a fleet to CNG.
Safety is also a major factor. CNG has very limited flammability and is lighter than air. In event of a vehicle accident, CNG safely dissipates into the air rather than creating a fire hazard by pooling on the ground.
Cabot’s CNG Use
Cabot has a host of CNG investments. Because of the quality of dry gas that Cabot can produce, up to 97% methane, it has lots of potential as fuel. In 2013, Cabot opened a CNG fueling station in Susquehanna County and began operating bi-fuel vehicles that can switch between gasoline and CNG with the flip of a switch. Cabot also operates drilling and hydraulic fracturing equipment using CNG. All of these measures decrease production costs and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
CNG in the News
In early 2016, PennDOT announced its partnership with Trillium CNG to design, build, finance, operate, and maintain compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations across Pennsylvania. These new CNG stations will supply gas to more than 1,600 public-transit buses at the 29 sites. Click here to see the map and the implementation timeline.
Lebanon, PA
On January 22, 2019 the Wolf Administration announced the formal opening of service at the facility at 200 Willow Street, Lebanon. Under the program, Lebanon Transit will convert eight buses to CNG. The authority estimates saving roughly $50,000 annually based on current diesel costs and their diesel usage of roughly 35,000 gallons per year.
Gettysburg, PA
Rabbittransit launched a CNG fueling station in Gettysburg, PA in October. According to officials, the new station will meet the needs of the transits growing CNG fleet of buses.
Indiana, PA
In October, new public-private CNG fueling station opened its doors in Indiana County, Pa. It will primarily serve IndiGO’s fleet of CNG buses, but it’s also open to the public, including for light-, medium- and heavy-duty trucks.
To date, stations have also opened at:
- Cambria County Transportation Authority, Johnstown Facility, includes public fueling.
- Mid Mon Valley Transportation Authority.
- Central Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, York Facility, includes public fueling.
- Cambria County Transportation Authority, Ebensburg Facility
- Westmoreland County Transportation Authority
- Centre Area Transportation Authority
- Beaver County Transit Agency
- Crawford Area Transportation Authority
- New Castle Area Transportation Authority, includes public fueling.
- Altoona Metro Transit
- Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority, Allentown Facility
In other news, in November, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) awarded more than $2.6 million in grant funding to municipalities and businesses statewide for 16 clean energy vehicle projects.
As discussed on Natural Gas Now, the program involves buying or converting 99 CNG vehicles, upgrading a CNG station, buying or converting another 33 propane vehicles (propane being a natural gas derivative) and four electric vehicles that will run on electricity mostly made from natural gas. According to the press release, the projects are expected to reduce emissions by more than 2,800 tons and save more than one million gasoline gallon equivalents annually.
As you can see, CNG is working hard throughout Pennsylvania to put dry natural gas to further use, all while reducing costs, improving safety, and helping the environment.
Reposted, with permission, from Well Said Cabot.
The post Natural Gas 101: The Story on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) appeared first on Natural Gas Now.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/natural-gas-101-the-story-on-compressed-natural-gas-cng/
Friday, January 25, 2019
Exxon Mobil Addresses License To Operate Amidst Permian Basin Growth
SUGAR LAND, Texas—With 45 rigs operating in the Permian Basin—more than any other company—and plans to triple its production in the basin by 2025, it is no secret that Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) is bullish on the long-term potential of the largest oil-producing region in the U.S. “We see clear value for the development today and even more so as we consider what new technology and enhanced development approaches will do to value for the future,” said Staale Gjervik, senior vice president of Permian integrated development for Exxon Mobil subsidiary XTO Energy. Speaking during American Association of Petroleum Geologists’ Permian-focused Global Super Basins conference on Jan. 24, Gjervik told the crowd that nearly 1,000 of the more than 6,000 horizontal unconventional wells the company has drilled are in the Permian. The Irving, Texas-headquartered company has amassed more than 1.6 million acres in the basin.
Green Energy Being Abandoned As Economics Go Red
Natural Gas NOW
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Green energy quickly fades whenever the costs suddenly become readily apparent and no one wants to pay. China and Germany provide the latest evidence.
As the mush for brains and wolf-crying millennial Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez preaches the world is about to end in 12 years and the cost of green energy is, therefore, somehow irrelevant, two countries are saying otherwise. And, they’re not just any countries; they’re two of the nations cited by green energy advocates as world leaders we should all emulate with the greatest urgency. They are China and Germany. Both are stuck on coal as the U.S. has moved to cleaner gas that actually makes a difference.
If you listen to AOC long enough, 30 seconds or so, you realize she really has it in for her homeland. She supposes the U.S. is the cause of a global warming crisis and must spend whatever it takes to pursue a green energy revolution; her green new deal.” That attitude ignores reality. It is the U.S. that has “bent the curve downward,” on emissions as AOC-like politicians are prone to say. We have shifted from coal to gas to do so. China and Germany are sticking with coal because green energy can’t compete with it as gas does (although China is now fracking, too).
Here’s the story from China via our friends at the Institute for Energy Research:
China recently put the brakes on solar and wind energy, indicating that it will no longer approve wind and solar power projects unless they can compete with coal power prices. In late May 2018, China issued “2018 Solar PV Power Generation Notice,” imposing caps on solar energy and reducing feed-in tariffs on those projects. More recently, China’s National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration provided a series of conditions under which new solar and wind projects would be approved through the end of 2020. Conditions include that the price must match or undercut the national coal benchmark and that the projects must show that the grid can handle their output. In 2017, 12 percent of wind generation and 6 percent of solar generation was curtailed due to lack of transmission capacity…
China is cutting back on solar and wind units due to their cost, the ballooning subsidies the state owes the solar and wind power builders, and the lack of grid-connected transmission capacity. It has now placed the financial responsibility for the units on the local governments and required any solar or wind power built to be cheaper than the benchmark coal price.
And, here’s the latest from Germany via Platts:
Germany needs to retain half of its coal-fired power generation capacity until 2030 to offset the closure of all its nuclear reactors by 2021/22, economy and energy minister Peter Altmaier said Tuesday…
Altmaier said half of Germany’s current hard-coal and lignite capacity of just over 40 GW would still be operational in 2030, with any agreed phase-out timetable needing a periodic review based on security of supply and affordability criteria.
German power prices could be 8%-13% higher between 2022 and 2030 under an accelerated coal phase-out compared with a base scenario, analysts at broker Bernstein said Tuesday…
The minister virtually excluded additional coal closures in 2021 and 2022 as over 4 GW/year of nuclear capacity are set to close.
Altmaier warned of blackout risks under various scenarios, but praised grid operators in securing grid stability to date.
Germany, of course, put all its eggs into its Energiewende, which has spectacularly failed to reduce emissions as intended, but has spectacularly increased electric prices. The inability to phase down the use of lignite or dirty brown coal is directly attributable to ideological decisions to get out of clean nuclear energy and to never touch clean natural gas development. Compare this idiocy to the U.S., where the shale revolution has simultaneously lowered emissions and energy costs. But, don’t expect the girl wonder from the Bronx to get any of this. That would demand the ability to think rather than preen.
The post Green Energy Being Abandoned As Economics Go Red appeared first on Natural Gas Now.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/green-energy-being-abandoned-as-economics-go-red/
Thursday, January 24, 2019
U.S. to Achieve Net Energy Exporter Status Two Years Earlier Than Expected: EIA
Less than a year after predicting the United States would become a net energy exporter by 2022, the Energy Information Administration issued a new forecast this week: Thanks to record-shattering oil and natural gas production, the United States will actually achieve this status by next year.
EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) found the United States will reverse its status as a net energy importer for the first time since 1953, based on every scenario the agency considered. From the AEO:
“The United States becomes a net energy exporter in 2020 and remains so throughout the projection period as a result of large increases in crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas plant liquids (NGPL) production coupled with slow growth in U.S. energy consumption.”
In addition, EIA predicts that despite a substantial increase in electricity generation, the use of natural gas and renewable sources will help emissions from that sector remain relatively flat.
Oil and Natural Gas Liquids Production
Led by growth in shale production, especially in Texas’ and New Mexico’s Permian Basin, EIA predicts:
“U.S. crude oil production continues to set annual records through 2027 and remains greater than 14.0 million barrels per day (b/d) through 2040.”
For perspective, crude oil production was 11.9 million b/d as of January 11, according to EIA. The forecast calls for a more than 17 percent increase in production over the next 8 years, which follows 112.5 percent production growth since January 2011.
In fact, a new report from research firm Rystad Energy predicts U.S. oil and hydrocarbon liquids production will surpass that of Saudi Arabia and Russia combined by 2025.
EIA forecasts that natural gas production liquids (NGPLs) will comprise one-third of total liquids growth, and alongside natural gas, will have the highest production growth of all fossil fuels through 2050.
According to the report:
“The continued development of tight oil and shale gas resources supports growth in natural gas plant liquids (NGPL) production, which reaches 6.0 million b/d by 2029 in the Reference case.”
Natural Gas Production
Natural gas is poised to have the largest increase in production of all fossil fuels through 2050. From the report:
“Natural gas production in the reference case grows 7% per year from 2018 to 2020, which is more than the 4% per year average growth rate from 2005 to 2015.”
The Marcellus and Utica Shales in the East will continue to drive this production growth, along with strong contributions from the Eagle Ford and Haynesville plays in the Gulf Coast, according to EIA.
Natural gas produced from tight oil formations will also increase according to EIA’s projections:
“Growth in drilling in the Southwest region, particularly in the Wolfcamp formation in the Permian basin, is the main driver for natural gas production growth from tight oil formations.”
Natural gas consumption will be led by the industrial sector, which “becomes the largest consumer of natural gas starting in the early 2020s. This sector will expand the use of natural gas as feedstock in the chemical industries and as lease and plant fuel, for industrial heat and power, and for liquefied natural gas production.” Additionally:
“U.S. natural gas exports to Mexico and U.S. liquefied natural gas exports from Gulf Coast facilities also rise. As a result, the Gulf Coast will become the fastest-growing demand market in the United States.” (emphasis added)
After 2020, the growth of production will outpace that of consumption in most scenarios, the AEO found. This will lead “to a corresponding growth in U.S. exports of natural gas to global markets.”
Additionally, low natural gas prices will also lead to a growth in liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports:
“Three LNG export facilities were operational in the Lower 48 states by the end of 2018. After all LNG export facilities and expansions currently under construction are completed by 2022, LNG export capacity increases further as a result of growing Asian demand and U.S. natural gas prices remaining competitive.”
Low natural gas prices will also help drive “a notable shift” in electricity generation fuel sources, according to the AEO:
“The share of natural gas generation rises from 34% in 2018 to 39% in 2050, and the share of renewable generation increases from 18% to 31%.”
Notably, EIA explains, “the level of emissions remains relatively unchanged in the Reference case from 2018 to 2050, despite a 30% increase in generation during the projection period.”
Conclusion
The 2019 Annual Energy Outlook forecasts the strengthening of U.S. energy security, as record oil and natural gas production continues to reduce American dependence on foreign energy. This abundance of U.S. energy will not only provide domestic benefits, but will enable the United States to have an important role in improving the world’s access to energy and decreasing global emissions. And we’re poised to do it more quickly than previously imagined.
Rep. Jonathan Fritz Leads the Charge in Exposing DRBC/SRBC Double-Standard
Managing Editor of EndlessMtnLifestyles.com
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Rep. Jonathan Fritz has, in two short years, proven to be an exceptional leader in exposing Pennsylvania’s double-standard in regard to the DRBC and SRBC.
Jonathan Fritz, Pennsylvania representative of the state’s 111th district struggles daily with the fact that half of his constituents are enjoying a robust economy and reaping the benefits, while the other half have limited employment options and earning potential as the state and federal government prevents natural gas development there.
It’s also the tale of two watersheds. Most of Susquehanna County, the eastern half of which is part of the 111th District, is in the Susquehanna River Basin. Wayne County, the upper two-thirds of which Fritz represents, is in the Delaware River Basin. The commissioners of both are made up of federal and state officials. The Susquehanna River Basin Commission allows drilling and hydraulic fracturing in Bradford, Susquehanna and Wyoming counties, but the Delaware River Basin Commission has yet to allow natural gas production in Wayne County.
“We feel that it is very much an injustice to the people who live there,” Fritz said of his eastern constituents. “They can look over to Susquehanna County and see the opportunity and the jobs – the economic liberty that exists – and at the same time be deprived of it.”
Fritz describes himself as a country boy from Wayne County, proud to have grown up on a dirt road as the son of a life-long water well driller. After two terms as mayor of Honesdale and two terms as a Wayne County Commissioner, he successfully ran for the state seat in 2016. He draws unique parallels between his family’s business and the natural gas industry.
“We would drill into the earth to bring to the surface an essential-to-life natural resource,” Fritz offers. “I really look at natural gas through that same prism. It is an essential-to-life resource that lies underfoot. It can be extracted safely.”
In Susquehanna County, Fritz sees improved roads, an expanded health network, and people finding family-sustainable employment. Act 13 funds (aka – impact fees) have helped municipalities purchase new equipment and build new structures. “That increases the quality of service to the resident,” he stated. “It also levels the tax liability for the people who live there.”
At the county level, there have been no new taxes since Act 13 was established, and funds allowed for a much-needed renovation at the courthouse that effectively tied together three old buildings that now operate seamlessly.
The infrastructure improvements, he noted, result from a combination of the use of impact fees by municipalities and the energy companies themselves. “With the industry comes the realization that we need to enhance our roads. That has been a very serious endeavor by the industry,” said Fritz. “When they come in and repair a road, they often leave it in much better condition than it was prior to their starting to work in the area. That’s a benefit to everybody that travels over that road. Our roads are better now than they have ever been.”
Fritz related that he is often asked by Wayne County residents about the negative impacts of the industry. He tires easily, he explained, of exploitation and misrepresentation of facts put forth by anti-gas activists. They talk about heavy traffic, contamination, and disruption of tourism. While acknowledging the changes brought by natural gas development, he assures them, “the benefits of responsible industrial development far outweigh any negatives.”
He has come to see the increase in traffic as indicative of a healthy economy. “That’s a sound job for that person driving that truck that embodies the opportunity that comes along with it. That’s how I temper the reality that I’m going a little bit slower on this road because of that truck.”
To those with environmental concerns, he maintains “Pennsylvania has some of the tightest and strictest regulations in the country. Negative impacts become easier to identify and mitigate over time.”
His take on tourism and the impression of visitors to Susquehanna County is particularly unique. Noting that spending by visitors has increased steadily throughout the growth of the industry, Fritz suggests, “You want to go where you are warmly received. When you have a region that is doing well economically, the people are happier. Whether that’s the waitress that you encounter at the diner, the checkout clerk at the supermarket, or the person pumping gas, you find that they are happy and smiling, and you have a pleasant exchange with that individual.”
To me, those people are all ambassadors for your region. As a tourist, you’re able to tap into some of that positivity, that would compel you to return,” Fritz continues. “Where the natural gas industry is, people are content.”
Fritz wants his Wayne County neighbors to also enjoy lower unemployment, higher wages, greater job diversity, and the recognizable renaissance of their Susquehanna County counterparts and vows to continue the work with the DRBC to ease the restrictions on natural gas development.
How they can vote and act in one way for one basin and then act and vote in an entirely different way in the other basin…speaks to hypocrisy. It’s very much unfair,” he stated. “We’re going to continue to fight. We feel that there is no reason and logic. The fact that the industry has been very positive overall is the justification to move forward with responsible natural gas development in Wayne County.
Reposted, with permission, from Well Said Cabot.
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The post Rep. Jonathan Fritz Leads the Charge in Exposing DRBC/SRBC Double-Standard appeared first on Natural Gas Now.
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
New Fortress Energy To Likely Attempt IPO Shutdown Workaround
New Fortress Energy LLC will likely attempt a workaround to go public amid the U.S. government's partial shutdown, the Wall Street Journal reported on Jan. 22, citing people familiar with the matter. The company, which builds natural gas-fired power plants, is likely to attempt an initial public offering without the Securities and Exchange Commission's explicit green light, in a move that will involve changing language in its IPO paperwork to make it automatically effective after 20 days, the Journal reported. RELATED: Integrated LNG Company New Fortress Energy Launches $400 Million IPO The company was preparing for its IPO when the government shut down in December over President Donald Trump's demand for $5.7 billion to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, in what has become longest shuttering of federal agencies in U.S. history.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/new-fortress-energy-to-likely-attempt-ipo-shutdown-workaround/
A Rhode Island Gas Lesson: Pipeline Obstruction Is Very Costly
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.
We’re getting a Rhode Island gas lesson that illustrates the foolishness of courts and regulators who suppose “just enough” pipeline infrastructure is smart.
There was a time a couple of decades ago when “just in time” warehousing was all the rage in business planning. We don’t hear so much about it these days. “Just in time” turned out to be penny-wise and pound foolish in many situations as companies found being unprepared for demand carried high costs and discouraged customers from coming back. Yet, today, we see precisely the same “just enough” philosophy being applied to pipeline capacity by courts and regulators. The result is the sort of Rhode Island gas crisis we’re seeing this week.
Aquidneck Island is the island the state of Rhode Island is thought to be named after. It’s official name, in fact, is Rhode Island. It includes Newport and is currently in the midst of a natural gas crisis known as the Aquidneck Island Gas Incident. The incident is explained by natural gas distributor National Grid, which serves the island (emphasis added):
National Grid expects to deploy upwards of 1,000 gas workers and support personnel to assist in restoring gas service on Aquidneck Island as quickly as possible. In the meantime, updates will be provided here.
On Monday evening, out of an abundance of caution, National Grid began suspending gas service to 7,100 gas customers in Newport and Middleton. This interruption in service is due to a low transmission supply issue from our natural gas supplier—Algonguin Gas Transmission Co.
Please note that the area is safe, and National Grid has the situation under control. We know how important your gas service and safety is, and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused, especially in the cold weather.
It’s way too early to know the precise nature of the problem, but National Grid says it’s a supply issue and from that we can probably conclude more supply would have helpful. That is to say, if Algonguin Gas Transmission Co. (a subsidiary of what is now the Enbridge pipeline system) had alternate sources of natural gas that couldn’t have hurt. And, Algonguin has been attempting to add that supply, according to this June, 2018, story on Main Public Radio, but it’s been damned difficult:
New Hampshire’s largest utility hopes regulators will revisit two big energy proposals – one dealing with natural gas and the other with Northern Pass – in the wake of a recent state Supreme Court decision.
…Eversource wanted permission to invest in a proposed, multi-state natural gas pipeline, known as Access Northeast, for electric grid reliability purposes…
The PUC dismissed both of those petitions in 2016. It said the pipeline investment would go against restructuring – and that it couldn’t approve the Northern Pass request if it had rejected the pipeline…
In that light, Eversource has asked the PUC to… prepare to receive an updated version of Eversource’s bid to invest in the proposed Access Northeast pipeline…
The PUC’s ratepayer advocate, Don Kreis, writes in a letter responding to Eversource’s filings that he wants the commission to reject the requests…
Kreis notes that the Massachusetts Supreme Court has since blocked the Access Northeast pipeline, making Eversource’s assertion that the proposal faces changed circumstances “an understatement.”
The New Hampshire Ratepayer Advocate, much like New Jersey’s, and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has effectively adopted a “just enough” pipeline capacity philosophy. He argues it’s all about restructuring and competition, but the reality is that he’s building on the foundation of a horrible decision made by the Massachusetts Supreme Court in 2017, a decision that made the Access Northeast pipeline economically unfeasible:
Eversource and National Grid, the two biggest utilities in the state, are shelving a $3.2 billion natural gas pipeline project known as Access Northeast until they can find a way to pay for it.
Their partner in the project, pipeline operator Enbridge Inc., notified the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Thursday of the decision to withdraw the application for the project...
In August, the state Supreme Judicial Court struck down a plan put forward by the Baker administration to have electricity ratepayers pick up the tab for the pipeline expansion, ruling it wasn’t permissible under state law. As a result, other New England states put similar proposals on hold…
Access Northeast is the second massive natural-gas project in New England to be shelved because of financing problems. Kinder Morgan suspended a major pipeline plan last year.
Natural gas expansion has become one of the most hot-button issues in Massachusetts politics, with opponents fighting pipelines at every turn…
McKerlie said the hope was to start construction next year on Access Northeast, a 125-mile project that mostly involves replacing pipes with larger ones in Massachusetts and Connecticut to expand the capacity of Enbridge’s Algonquin Gas Transmission line…
Last year’s Massachusetts court decision was a setback for the two utilities, but they said at the time that they would continue to seek a way to pay for Access Northeast.
They say Access Northeast could reduce electric bills by as much as $1 billion a year across New England. They argue that a new infusion of lower-cost natural gas would more than offset the cost of a tariff, allowing power plants to burn gas on cold days, when that gas is often diverted for heating and isn’t available for making electricity…
Grid operator ISO New England, which is responsible for making sure the six states have enough electricity, remains concerned about the region’s increased reliance on natural gas as older coal-fired and nuclear power plants shut down. The utilities will play up that concern as they lobby for a change in state law that could allow Access Northeast to go forward.
“It’s clear that the New England ISO is gravely concerned about reliability in the region,” said John Flynn, a senior vice president at National Grid. “The need for this project is not in doubt. …Hopefully, we can get cooler heads to prevail and get the votes we need.”
The Access Northeast pipeline was mainly about providing natural gas to New England power plants and that’s why electric customers were being asked to help pay for it in their rates. The Massachusetts Supreme Court wouldn’t allow it, though, meaning the costs would have to be paid by other natural gas users, which makes no sense, of course, unless electric users of natural gas also pay.
These natural gas users would appear to include natural gas users on Aquidneck Island as well as other recipients of Algonguin gas. That’s because natural gas, like money, is fungible: put more of it into the system and everybody benefits. Put it in one place and someplace else will have more gas. It’s safe to say, therefore, National Grid and Aquidneck Island would have access to more gas, even if turns out this wasn’t the immediate problem in this instance.
No, a project that might have helped avoid the current Rhode Island gas crisis was killed by regulators who suppose their first duty is to green political correctness rather than the health and safety of the citizenry. And, who can forget the pols such as New York’s Gov. Cuomo and Senators Schumer and Giilibrand who fought an earlier upgrade to the Algonquin system to the bitter end in a bid to appease a handful of NIMBYs and greens? The Northeast is plagued by perhaps the worst class of politicians ever. God save the people of New York and New England; their governments are seemingly out to destroy them.
The post A Rhode Island Gas Lesson: Pipeline Obstruction Is Very Costly appeared first on Natural Gas Now.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/a-rhode-island-gas-lesson-pipeline-obstruction-is-very-costly/
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
EQT Chasing Higher Returns In The Marcellus
With a new management team in place for only about two months, EQT Corp. (NYSE: EQT) is making fundamental changes, the company’s CEO told analysts Jan. 22. Instead of being driven by volume targets, capital efficiency will take the lead. Correcting 2018 missteps, which led to operational issues, involves running wells in more of a manufacturing mode, according to Rob McNally, who joined EQT as CEO in October. The company—one of the biggest natural gas producers in the U.S. with a large footprint in the Appalachian region—plans to run six frack crews and seven rigs this year. EQT’s focus in 2019 will include “not trying to jump through hoops to get to volume targets and importantly also being realistic about lateral lengths,” McNally said. The Pittsburgh-headquartered company has been known to drill super laterals and plans to drill the majority of its wells in the Pennsylvania Marcellus with 13,200-ft average laterals.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/eqt-chasing-higher-returns-in-the-marcellus/
The Real Cost of Pipeline Obstruction to the Northeast
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.
The real cost of pipeline obstruction to New York and New England is becoming ever more clear in natural gas spot prices as compared to the Midwest.
It gets more clear ever day; pipeline obstruction is imposing an extraordinarily heavy cost of the middle class residents of New York and New England. The crisis is coming, as I noted here the other day, but the pain is already here. One only needs to look at daily spot prices for natural gas during this cold January. Northeasterners are paying four and five times what they need to pay as a result of pipeline obstruction.
NGI Data puts out daily natural gas price information and graphs it by location. The graphs coming out with respect to New York and New England look like the world’s greatest roller-coaster or, perhaps more accurately, the landscape silhouette of some distant moon with rapidly raising mountain peaks. They provide a whole new definition of volatile.
Take, for example, these three average hub prices in the Northeast as of this morning:
Transco Zone 6 (New York): $19
Algonquin Citygate (New England): $14
Northeast Regional Average: $14
Now, compare these prices to Midwest gas prices, where it’s also cold:
Chicago Citygate: $3.50
Michigan Consolidated: $3.50
Midwest Regional Average: $3.50
Northeast gas prices are four and five times those in the equally cold Midwest. The difference is the pipeline infrastructure the Northeast lacks to get plentiful Marcellus and Utica Shale gas to Northeast markets that desperately need it. When demand is high and supply is constricted by pipeline obstruction, the result is inevitable. Natural gas and electric prices go up dramatically and utility costs have to eventually be reimbursed by ratepayers.
Notice New York and New England are still paying pre-shale revolution gas prices during colder months because pipeline obstruction has prevented their access to the bounty of that shale revolution, even though it happened next door.
It’s a huge unnecessary tax being imposed on the middle class in the name of green political correctness and making wilderness playgrounds by a gentry class that never feels the pain. More than that, it’s a huge disincentive to economic development and job creation, creating a vicious cycle of decline with ever fewer people with ever less money to pay ever higher bills. Yet, natural gas achieves the biggest reductions in emissions with the greatest economic efficiency.
What’s the matter with New York and New England, anyway?
The post The Real Cost of Pipeline Obstruction to the Northeast appeared first on Natural Gas Now.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/the-real-cost-of-pipeline-obstruction-to-the-northeast/
Monday, January 21, 2019
Iraq’s Southern Oil Exports Hold Near Record In January
Oil exports from southern Iraq are holding close to a record high so far in 2019, according to shipping data and an industry source, which could raise questions over whether OPEC’s second-largest producer is following through on a deal to cut output. Southern Iraqi exports in the first 21 days of January averaged close to 3.6 million barrels per day (bbl/d), according to tanker data on Refinitiv Eikon and separate tracking by an industry source. That's close to December's 3.63 million bbl/d—a monthly record. The figures suggest there is little sign yet of lower supplies from Iraq, despite a deal by OPEC and allies to reduce output by 1.2 million bbl/d as of Jan. 1 to support the market.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/iraqs-southern-oil-exports-hold-near-record-in-january/
Pigs to Rigs Lawsuit Brings Out the Sheer Lunacy of Dimock Fractivism
Natural Gas NOW
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Hard as it is to imagine, the Pigs to Rigs lawsuit brought by Cabot Oil and Gas against Ray Kemble continues bring forth ever more lunacy from fractivists.
Act V in the “Pig to Rigs” lawsuit regarding pig farm suer Charlie Speer’s attempt to grab a new plaintiff in already settled Ray Kemble, is shaping up. It will happen on February 4 at 8:45 AM in the Susquehanna County Courthouse in Montrose, Pennsylvania. I reported on Act IV back in May of last year. It was an utter debacle, complete with a failed attempt by Kemble’s new lawyer to withdraw from the case after a stuoid frack trick by his client and judicial use of Forest Gump’s “stupid is as stupid does” line. It was so bad as to be unbelievable, unless you were there to see and hear the whole thing. Act V, it appears, may be even more bizarre, if one takes Bill Huston at his word.
Yes, that Bill Huston, who, together with Craig Stevens and Ray Kemble, tried that boneheaded frack trick without ever telling Kemble attorney Rich Raiders what they were doing. That was enough to cause Raiders to petition the court for permission to withdraw from the case. The judge, though, wasn’t about to let Kemble do another “I can’t find an attorney” dog and pony show. He cajoled/ordered Raiders to stay involved, but it appears things have gone from bad to worse.
By that I mean that, according to Huston, Raiders is again asking to withdraw:
“Oh, and Ray’s attorney Rich Raiders has botched this case badly. Do you watch the Ring of Fire segment, where they talked about the “opportunity of Discovery” upon Cabot Oil and Gas? Well Rich Raiders hasn’t made ONE SINGLE discovery request upon Cabot! he has also divulged confidential, privileged info to Cabot’s atty multiple times, even placed a confedential email from Ray ON TO THE RECORD! and now WANTS OUT.”
The whole post has to be read to be believed, but it appears Raiders is so frustrated with his pigs to rigs client that he is asking for a second time to be released from having to represent Ray Kemble. Not only that, but it seems Kemble must have put something in writing that’s so bad Raiders feels compelled to file it as evidence of the inability to deal with his client.
Then, of course, there is the news that Bill Huston apparently uses propane. There is, too, the “Ring of Fire” video where trial lawyer Mike Papantonio, who regularly appears on RT (Russia Today) as “America’s Lawyer,” does a short rant on the pigs to rigs lawsuit suggesting more discovery. Oddly enough, though, it is Kemble’s friends who are fighting discovery with every breath. They’ve filed motions to quash discovery subpoenas, in fact, which are the subject of the February 4 hearing. Here’s what I wrote last month about that, which is worth repeating:
Not only were Kemble and Speer. subpoenaed, but Craig Stevens, Bill Huston and a woman named Julanne Skinner were also summoned. Skinner was on the Montrose Borough Council in 2013 when she apparently failed to disclose she was working for Charlie Speer who was then representing Craig Stevens in a lawsuit against the Borough. See what I mean by all the rustling in the bushes. It’s been going on a very long time.
Stevens, of course, has a long history of working with Charlie Speer and his local attorneys, Fellerman and Ciarimboli. He and Bill Huston also have very close relationships with Ray Kemble. Stevens, in fact, was given power of attorney by Ray Kemble in a public document witnessed by Bill Huston. Yes, Craig Stevens is Ray Kemble, legally speaking, which explains why Cabot wants all their depositions; to find out what’s rustling in the bushes and why.
What in the world are these folks so determined to avoid being questioned about? We have an attorney apparently begging to get out. We have a frantic Bill Huston who seemed (from his directions where to mail communications) to be living at Ray Kemble’s house although Bill also says he stills lives in New York. We have several actors in an on-going drama fighting to say they know nothing and shouldn’t be questioned. It certainly looks like Cabot attorneys are getting awfully close to the truth about something. I can’t wait to read whatever it is Rich Raiders filed with the court and be there on February 4th in Montrose. There’s something rotten in Dimock and it’s not in the water.
The post Pigs to Rigs Lawsuit Brings Out the Sheer Lunacy of Dimock Fractivism appeared first on Natural Gas Now.
Sunday, January 20, 2019
Stored working gas remains below 5-year average
The volume of working gas pulled from underground storage during the week ended Jan. 11, continued a roughly seven-month trend of in-ground gas remaining below the five-year average.
The latest Energy Information Administration survey revealed 81 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of working gas was pulled from storage during the week, with more than 2.53 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) remaining underground.
The Jan. 11 total was down 77 Bcf, or 3.0%, from the year-ago total of 2.61 Tcf, and was down 327 Bcf, or 11.4%, from the five-year average of 2.86 Tcf, Kallanish Energy reports. (All numbers are rounded.)
All five regions EIA divides the Lower 48 U.S. states into when tracking stored working gas reported a drop in product. The biggest draw was from the Midwest region, down 34 Bcf, or 4.5%, with 729 Bcf remaining in storage at Jan. 11.
The most recent Midwest total actually is up 3 Bcf, or 0.4%, from the year-ago total of 726 Bcf, but was down 40 Bcf, or 5.2%, from the five-year average of 769 Bcf.
Close behind the Midwest was the East region, down 31 Bcf, 4.8%, from 651 Bcf in storage during the week of Jan. 4, to 620 Bcf one week later.
The 620 Bcf East region total was down 1 Bcf, or 0.2%, from the year-ago total of 621 Bcf, and was down 46 Bcf, or 6.9%, from the five-year average of 666 Bcf.
The Mountain, Pacific and South Centra regions recorded just 17 Bcf pulled from underground.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/stored-working-gas-remains-below-5-year-average/
The Coming Fuel and Heat Crisis in New York and New England
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.
Two recent articles in the Boston and New York press reveal the fuel and heat crisis about to hit New York and New England. And, just guess who’s to blame.
New York and New England politics consist mostly of non-stop demagoguery on the part of preening elected officials bent on securing their next higher office. Andrew Cuomo is perhaps the worst of the lot, of course, but hardly the only culprit. Eager to put on his Carhartt jacket during any storm and rush out to the cameras for the purpose of issuing meaningless bromides, he’s more responsible than anyone for the approaching fuel and heat crisis facing his state and those to his east.
Yes, there is a coming fuel and heat crisis; shortages of fuel to make electricity and power businesses and gas heat homes using natural gas. It’s being created with every second of delay in approving critical pipeline infrastructure the wannabe emperor of New York keeps crowing about halting. He’s more eager to appease the NRDC gang and friends than head off a fuel and heat crisis he hopes doesn’t happen until he’s President.
January 2018 Nor’easter
He’d better hope for especially good luck. The country is unlikely to find anything appealing about a guy with corruption quotient several multiples his IQ and the crisis is just about here. Check out this New York Post editorial from yesterday:
On Thursday, Con Ed notified regulators that, come March 15, it won’t accept new gas customers in most of Westchester, thanks to supply shortages. National Grid has been issuing similar warnings. New-customer cutoffs in the city may be just around the corner…
Cuomo hasn’t officially banned new pipelines; his staff just doesn’t OK very many, often citing lame excuses for nixing them. Team Cuomo reportedly has urged Con Ed to find alternatives to pipelines, and Cuomo himself has been pushing for a shift away from all fossil-fuel energy sources…
Meanwhile, New York City is requiring customers to switch from higher-emission fuel oil, driving up the demand for far “cleaner” natural gas. Con Ed has already converted 5,000 buildings in the area from oil to gas.
Oops: climate-change warriors now oppose gas, too. And Cuomo is only too happy to do their bidding and effectively ban pipelines, in exchange for their political support. The gov and the greenies pretend that power from renewables — like solar, wind and geothermal sources — can replace natural gas, especially with steps to boost “efficiency” and conservation. Maybe one day that’ll be true, but not anytime soon.
New York needs gas today, and pipelines to deliver it, to keep the economy healthy and growing. Cuomo has already socked New York with his ban on fracking and his Indian Point shutdown. Just how much more can its economy take?
That’s the question, isn’t it? How much more can New York take? The Southern Tier is dying as the governor throws pork bones around and tells its residents to use them for some stone soup or something. When he’s not doing that, he’s trading a Buffalo Billion in taxpayer money for some graft and some plaudits from the world’s greatest huckster, Elon Musk. Meanwhile, Musk is slowly walking away, reducing both expectations and jobs as he moves onto the next scam.
But, Corruptocrat, is doubling down, fighting pipelines and the natural gas development— development that has cleaned New York City’s air, lowered its energy costs and made the U.S. increasingly energy independent—every step of the way. He’s creating a fuel and heat crisis and it isn’t just New Yorkers that are going to pay the price. It’s also New Englanders, as this article in this Boston Business Journal article by Don Santa, the President and CEO of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America:
The saying goes “there’s no place like home for the holidays.” Unless that is, the heating is set to frigid because the energy bill is too high, and the tree lights are flickering because of rolling blackouts.
As far-fetched as this may sound, it is an increasingly real risk for New Englanders. On average, people here face some of the highest energy rates in the country, paying 29 percent more for natural gas and 44 percent more for electricity than the national average. But the problem isn’t a lack of natural gas supply; it’s a lack of infrastructure that reduces people’s access to affordable and clean energy supplies from nearby sources.
The region has steadily moved toward natural gas as its dominant fuel source over nearly two decades, and rightly so — natural gas is more efficient, reliable, and cleaner than many alternatives. It should also be cheaper: New England sits close to one of the largest natural gas supplies in the world, the Marcellus Shale, which spans upstate New York, through Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and into Ohio.
Despite this huge resource on the region’s doorstep, there simply aren’t enough pipelines to bring supplies here, leaving power suppliers to manage annual shortages, especially in the winter months when demand for gas is at its peak.
This isn’t a new problem. As readers will know, energy prices have surged year after year. And it’s about more than just price. Last year power plants were forced to use fuel oil, relying on an energy source that is far less efficient than natural gas. When that wasn’t sufficient, they had to import liquefied natural gas from Russia. Let that sink in: a lack of pipelines means Ohio and Pennsylvania are effectively further from New England than Siberia.
Worse still, research suggests that the region is moving closer to an energy abyss. Not only has the independent electric grid operator, ISO New England, predicted that rolling blackouts will be more common by 2024, but the cost to the region’s consumers and its economy will likely continue to increase as well…
Since 2016, two major pieces of infrastructure that would have directly benefitted Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire have been cancelled due to unnecessary lawsuits and political pressure…
And, ultimately, stopping new infrastructure will not change the reality that New England is dependent on natural gas for power and heating. Without improved access to natural gas, energy bills will rise, blackouts will become an increasingly greater likelihood, and more lives will be at risk during extreme weather events.
Don Santa is correct. He just doesn’t name the guilty politicians, But, we know who they are, don’t we, and they’re not all New Englanders. Indeed, the big green godfather of pipeline obstruction is one Andrew “Corruptocrat” Cuomo and when the fuel and heat crisis finally hits in a big way he’ll put on that Carhartt jacket again, run out to the cameras, blame someone else and tell us he’s the only one who can save the day; for a price, of course.
The post The Coming Fuel and Heat Crisis in New York and New England appeared first on Natural Gas Now.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/the-coming-fuel-and-heat-crisis-in-new-york-and-new-england/
Saturday, January 19, 2019
Municipalities Suing Energy Companies Could Get Burned By Their Own Lawyers
The municipalities suing energy companies for the effects of climate change may ultimately see only a “pittance” of any potential reward or settlement from their suits, according to a new report by the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA). The report warns that the rest of the money would be sucked up by the trial lawyers representing the municipalities in their lawsuits.
Citing the climate liability lawsuits and the attorneys who are driving them, ATRA outlines how this litigation is motivated by a desire for big-dollar awards and settlements, rather than rectifying the purported public nuisance. The report also suggests the litigation is a distraction from real solutions, with real consequences for taxpayers and employers alike.
We break down the key findings of the report at EID Climate.
Fractivists Don’t Really Give A Damn About Climate Change
Keep It Grounded In Fact
(American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers)
Fractivists not only won’t recognize natural gas contributions to reducing emissions but now reject even carbon capture; talk about climate change denial!
The centerpiece of the Green New Deal proposal is the promise of “a jobs guarantee program to assure a living wage job to every person who wants one.”
This federally guaranteed jobs program—which seeks to retrofit the nation’s energy, transportation, and housing infrastructure to prepare it for a “post-carbon era”—is inordinately popular with the general public. But it has riled a number of union organizations who recognize it as simply the populist version of the “Keep It in the Ground” (KIITG) movement that seeks to put the oil and natural gas industries out of business.
“When the conversation is, ‘Close them all down,’ that’s not a conversation that we actively take seriously,” said Donnie Colston, a director at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. “The wages that are being paid by the third party who is installing some of this technology is about half of our wages with no benefits and no insurance. So what it is is how do we convince our membership to take a job with half the wages and no insurance?”
The good news is they don’t have to. According to a recent Barron’s op-ed, “investments by Big Oil in carbon reducing technology are now outpacing those of venture investment into clean tech a recent report suggests that by 2035, big oil could have invested as much as $350 billion in wind and solar to retain its advantage in the energy sector.”
Ironically, by actively trying to shut down the oil and gas industries, the KIITG movement is attacking one of the biggest investors in renewable energy.
But that argument has never stopped them before. In fact, the KIITG movement has always placed a greater value on opposing America’s energy industries than addressing climate change.
Net Power’s new zero emissions gas-fired power plant in La Porte, Texas
Take carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, for example, which is the process of capturing carbon dioxide before it gets into the atmosphere and storing it underground. Many people on all sides of the debate are vocal supporters of this promising technology.
Even noted climate-change expert, Myles Allen, who was one of the two dozen attendees of the 2012 La Jolla Conference, said, “A global ban on fossil fuels is neither affordable nor enforceable, so capture and disposal of CO2 is the only option.”
But KIITG extremists, including Friends of the Earth and 350.org, oppose CCS technology as well as any other efforts by the oil and gas industries to address climate change.
The “People’s Demand for Climate Justice” specifically calls on policymakers to “reject Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) projects, and other technofixes.” They also want to “prohibit industries that profit from fossil fuels and the climate crisis from influencing international and national climate policy forums,” despite the fact that the oil and natural gas industries are investing billions of dollars in technology to address climate change.
The KIITG movement’s anti-industry rhetoric may be helpful in their perpetual fundraising efforts, but it is doing harm to the environment and our collective efforts to address climate change. And, sadly, that speaks more to their true agenda than anything they’ve ever put on a sign.
Editor’s Note: Watch the actions, not the words, of those who latch onto climate change as a political cause. If they gave a damn about climate change they’d recognize natural gas development as the signal biggest cause of emissions reductions. Moreover, they’d be standing up and doing a slow clap for innovations such as carbon capture and storage, which shows huge promise. That they don’t is the proof they don’t give a damn about climate change and have other agendas driven by thirst for power and the profits they say are so horrid when oil and gas companies earn them for pension funds and other shareholders. They’re the deniers.
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The post Fractivists Don’t Really Give A Damn About Climate Change appeared first on Natural Gas Now.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/fractivists-dont-really-give-a-damn-about-climate-change/
Friday, January 18, 2019
Let’s Take A Closer Look at the Boulder Air Quality Study
Can a study link high ozone levels to oil and gas development without actually modeling ozone or analyzing its source? Based on the headlines generated by one preliminary research project, the answer seems to be yes.
In presentations of air monitoring data from the Boulder, Colo. area, researchers have drawn connections between high ozone levels in the region and oil and gas development east of the city in Weld County. The study has not yet been published or peer-reviewed, and the raw data have not yet been made available to the public.
But there are a couple of things to note about the study before assuming that operations in Weld County are the root cause of poor air quality in Boulder.
First off, the researchers’ modeling did not include ozone or analyze for particular sources.
As lead researcher Detlev Helmig, associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, told at a Boulder County Commissioner’s meeting in October,
“We did not do ozone production modeling here. We did not do a study that would attribute ozone to particular sources. This monitoring we did actually did not even include ozone. But I find it so interesting and the connection is so important that I kind of threw this in to the data in context and also illustrate the value of these observations.” (emphasis added)
The study has actually been monitoring for methane, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) at the City of Boulder Reservoir since February 2017.
During yesterday’s presentation to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Air Quality Control Commission, Helmig did note that the project was only funded to monitor and collect data and not to conduct analysis:
“We’ve really only poked around. The dilemma here is… we’ve been funded by Boulder County basically to do the monitoring, provide numbers and data and put them in a table and that’s been it. All of this, we’re not funded to do this, we just kind of do this during our lunch breaks. We have no funded research to do any of this analysis. But you know the crazy scientists we get carried away and we want to get the most value out of this. All I showed is preliminary. It’s research in the works.”
Notably, this ongoing monitoring is being sponsored in part by the extremist anti-fracking group Earthworks. Their own previous ozone research has been directly disputed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. As the Fort-Worth Star Telegram reported in 2016, “operations associated with the energy industry in Fort Worth and Dallas contribute 1.8 parts per billion to ozone levels on the worst days, from May to September, while planes, trains and automobiles contribute 14.1 parts per billion.”
Colorado Ozone
Colorado’s unique topography, elevation and weather create specific ozone challenges that make this issue much more complex than what simple correlations may suggest. As the Greeley Tribune Editorial Board recently said in reference to the study:
“We don’t doubt, to some extent, oil and gas activity here does affect surrounding areas. But like most things oil and gas related, we also think the reality of the situation is quite a bit more complex and nuanced than these results, as delivered, seem to indicate.”
There are a multitude of potential emissions sources and other factors that could contribute to elevated ozone levels, such as seasonal or time of day effects, or trapping emissions from emitters as far away as China.
A 2017 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) study “found that increased pollution from Asia, which has tripled its nitrogen oxide emissions since 1990, is to blame for the persistence of smog in the West, despite American laws reducing the smog-forming chemicals coming from automobile tailpipes and factories. Smog has decreased overall in the eastern United States, even though levels can spike during heat waves.” And a 2015 Center for Regulatory Solutions report explained:
“Air quality officials also report higher levels of background ozone in Western states than other parts of the U.S.”
Despite these challenges, Colorado has made great strides in ozone reduction and air quality improvement over the past few decades—a testament to the state’s collaborative nature and ability to bring together different stakeholders to find solutions. At a time where Colorado’s economy has boomed, oil and gas production has seen a great increase, and population has swelled, the state’s air quality has improved and ozone levels have continued on a downward trendline.
Colorado Ozone and the Oil and Natural Gas Industry
It may be tempting to extrapolate from Helmig’s data that the oil and natural gas industry is to blame for elevated ozone levels in Boulder, but a 2016 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) study found that oil and gas emissions account for an average of only 17 percent of daily VOCs that create ground level ozone.
Further, a recent study found that, “zone transport from outside of Colorado is largest contributor to high ozone in the Denver/NFR NAA ” while “70-75 of the ozone was due to non-Colorado sources for the average of the 10 highest 2011 modeled days.” Meanwhile, sources from within state borders only contributed 13 – 34 percent to the high ozone days.
Yet, emissions reductions remain a key priority for Colorado’s oil and natural gas industry. According to the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA), Colorado’s oil and gas industry has halved its emissions of VOCs in the Denver area over the past six years, during a time when production quadrupled statewide. Operators have also adopted a voluntary program to further reduce emissions during summer months when ozone levels tend to spike.
Conclusion
Colorado has a long history of elevated ozone that has specific and unique challenges. Coloradans – including the oil and natural gas industry – have made real efforts and strides to improve the state’s air quality. Helmig deserves credit for being open about the limitations of his own data gathering. Hopefully once Helmig’s raw data is available they can be used to further reduce regional emissions from a variety of sources, but let’s not be too quick to place all the blame on oil and gas operations.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/lets-take-a-closer-look-at-the-boulder-air-quality-study/
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