Warren

Jim Willis on NGL Pipelines
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

[Editor’s Note: There is no more demagogic person in the U.S. Senate than Elizabeth Warren, who is a proven fraud and is attacking others for an issue she helped foster!]

Finally, someone with the intestinal fortitude to push back against the insane ramblings of Pocahontas, aka U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, regarding her latest effort to blame LNG exports for the high price of natural gas in Massachusetts and other New England states. Pocahontas wrote a nastygram to 11 big natural gas producers, including EQT, blaming them for the high prices. EQT says Pocahontas is a stark-raving-lunatic, er, a no, they actually said (much more diplomatically) that Pocahontas is being “reckless” with her “scapegoating of LNG and the oil and gas industry.”

Senator Warren’s registration with the State Bar of Texas, where she indicated her race was “American Indian.” And, now, she has the nerve to accuse the natural gas industry of fraud?

The real root of the current problem, according to EQT CEO Toby Rice, is “a global underinvestment in traditional energy resources and associated infrastructure.” According to Rice, “We need more LNG [exports], not less” to help our allies in Europe.

As for high utility prices for natgas in Taxachusetts and elsewhere in New England, Warren has no one to blame but herself. She has steadfastly opposed any new (or expanded) pipelines that would deliver more “fracked gas” from Pennsylvania to her state (see Mass. Sens. Markey & Warren Intro Bill Blocking Weymouth Compressor). Warren is a typical sleazy politician. She creates a problem, then finds others to blame for the problem that she herself created.

The Pittsburgh Business Times has EQT’s reaction to the letter:

The country’s largest natural gas producer, Pittsburgh-based EQT Corp., is pushing back against U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren taking aim against the industry for what she said was an increase in exports at the expense of rising gas prices.

Warren, who represents Massachusetts and was a former Democratic presidential candidate, wrote letters to the top 11 gas producers in the nation urging answers to specific questions about the companies’ exporting of liquified natural gas to other countries at a time when gas prices have shot up. Some, like Warren, are concerned about the impact rising gas prices will have on American consumers and manufacturers.

Warren targeted EQT (NYSE: EQT) as well as other big names in Appalachian natural gas production, including Range Resources Corp. (NYSE: RRC), Southwestern Energy Co. (NYSE: SWN), Ascent Resources, Coterra, Antero Resources (NYSE: AR) and Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK). The others were ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, BP and Occidental Petroleum.

“I am writing regarding my concern about rising natural gas prices for American consumers, the impact this will have for families struggling to pay their bills and keep their homes warm this winter, and the extent to which these price increases are being driven by energy companies’ corporate greed and profiteering as they moved record numbers of U.S. gas out of the country,” Warren wrote to the CEOs of each of the companies.

Appalachian and other gas companies have long talked up the potential impact of LNG to not only their bottom lines but also for the cause of American and democratic-nation energy independence, pointing out that every BTU of American-produced natural gas is one less that is sold by totalitarian countries. EQT CEO Toby Rice, who received a letter from Warren, told the Business Times in October that a lack of pipelines and LNG production in Appalachia was not only harming the region but also missing an opportunity to ease the brewing global energy crisis.

“Our lack of pipeline infrastructure and LNG facilities have contributed to this energy crisis that is taking place in Europe and Asia right now,” Rice said then. “These are our allies.”

Warren’s letters alleged the LNG exports were harming consumers and asked for information from each company including the total amount and percentages of gas exported over the last 10 year years, as well as the profit margin for exported natural gas and domestic-sold gas. Warren also asked whether each company had thought of reducing exported gas or taken other measures to lower gas prices in the United States.

EQT, in a statement to the Business Times, said it was concerned about Warren’s message given that the three years where gas prices were higher than now over the past 10 years occurred before gas exports had gained traction.

“The lowest natural gas prices on record occurred during the period when we were an exporter. A global underinvestment in traditional energy resources and associated infrastructure, influenced by policymakers, is the root cause of our current pricing environment, not LNG exports,” EQT said.

EQT said the scapegoating of LNG and the oil and gas industry was reckless, and said that LNG was an important step in reducing reliance on coal and in addressing climate change.

“Curtailing export would have a dramatic, likely irreversible negative impact on the potential for the United States to influence global emissions,” EQT said. “We need more LNG, not less.”

Range declined to comment on the letter, which requested the information by Dec. 3. Other natural gas companies in the region didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Why do we call Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas”? Because she lied about having Native American heritage on her application to Harvard Law School. She’s a fraud. Yet mainstream media refuses to remind people of her fraud and lies. That’s OK. We’ll remind you from time to time.

Editor’s Note: Jim, as usual, nails it. Warren is a total demagogue and, once again, it makes me wonder about three things:

1. How is it possible for one individual to have this much gall? She blames natural gas companies for high prices she directly helped create by fighting natural gas development and pipelines at every turn. How can such politicians look in the mirror, realizing what they’re doing?
2. How is it possible Bay State voters are so gullible and ignorant to elect an individual such as Warren and buy her totally obvious lies, projection and blame-shifting? This is the home of Harvard and when you realize how many of our politicians went there you begin to appreciate just how far we’ve fallen.
3. How is it possible so few industry people have the wherewithal to do even what Toby Rice is doing here and typically take the dead-end road tp appeasement? What has all the feckless API catering to global warmists and demagogues such as Warren accomplished? Precisely nothing. It only emboldens our enemies to do what Warren is doing.

Read just the last page of Warren’s letter to appreciate how bad it is and why it’s high time the industry recognized it’s at war and took up the battle:

This corporate greed is inexcusable, and represents the results of a rigged system that enriches energy company executives and investors, and leaves American families struggling to pay the bills. In order to better understand the actions of oil and gas companies and the rationale for decisions to export record amounts of natural gas while imposing massive price increases on Americans families and small businesses, I ask that you provide answers to the following questions no later than December 7, 2021:

1. For each of the last ten years, including 2021 to date, please provide the following information: a. The total amount of natural gas that your company has exported. b. The percentage of your company’s total natural gas production that was exported.

2. For each of the last ten years, including 2021 to date, please provide the following information:

a. Your company’s average profit margin for exported natural gas.

b. Your company’s average profit margin for domestic sales of natural gas.

c. The amount your company has invested in clean, renewable energy.

3. Has your company considered cutting, suspending, or ending exports of natural gas to help ease spiking domestic prices?

4. Have any of your top company executives, in the last decade, been awarded bonuses or other compensation based on increasing exports of natural gas? If so, please provide a list of all such executives and the bonuses or other compensation awarded.

5. What other actions has your company taken to help ease spiking domestic natural gas prices?

There is but one proper response to such a letter and it is this:

“Pocahontas, when you drop your opposition to pipelines that would deliver cheap Pennsylvania natural gas to your constituents, you can be quite sure the price will drop because there’ll be more supply to meet demand. Until then you have no one to blame but yourself. Sorry, but you did this. As for your ridiculous questions, we are returning our copies and suggest you burn them to keep warm.”

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