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Clean Energy Future Sells Lordstown Power Plant to ArcLight Capital

In June 2016, Massachusetts-based Clean Energy Future broke ground on an $800 million, 940-megawatt Utica gas-fired electric plant in Lordstown (Trumbull County), OH (see Lordstown Energy Center Breaks Ground on $890M Electric Plant). The plant was completed and went online in October 2018 (see Lordstown (OH) Energy Center Now Online, Generating 940 MW). In 2019, the super-efficient, low-emission plant won an award from POWER Magazine (see Utica-Fired Lordstown Energy Center Wins POWER Mag Top Plant Award). And that’s all we had heard about that project, which continues to hum along, producing electricity for 850,000 homes. Until now.
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OH Supremes Revive Lawsuit Against ODNR for Closing Injection Well

Here’s a story we haven’t written about in over three years. American Water Management Services (AWMS) owns a wastewater injection well in Trumbull County that supposedly caused a low-level earthquake (that nobody could feel) in 2014. Actually, there are two injection wells located at the site, both operated by AWMS. They were both “temporarily” shut down by the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources following the quake nobody could feel (see ODNR Temporarily Shuts Down Injection Wells After Low-Level Quake). ODNR allowed AWMS to reopen one of the injection wells but denied it the right to reopen the second well. AWMS appealed the closure of the second well all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court in 2018.
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Trumbull County Injection Wells Resume Operation After 2015 Shutdown

Trumbull County, OH

In 2015, MDN told you about five injection wells in Trumbull County, OH, that had been shut down by the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) following a finding that some of the frack wastewater intended for the wells had been found in a local wetland and nearby pond (see ODNR Shuts Down 5 Injection Wells in Vienna, OH After Spill). As it turned out, the injection wells themselves were not to blame, but a salvage yard located at the same facility was the source (see Trumbull Injection Wells NOT the Source of Wetland Contamination). Fast forward seven years, and it appears the wells (or well, not sure if it’s just one well or multiple wells) are now operating again. Finally.
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Trumbull Energy Center Secures Financing, Construction Begins ASAP

Rendering of Trumbull Energy Center distributed when it was first announced (click for larger version)

In January 2017, Clean Energy Future (CEF), based in Massachusetts, announced it would build a second Utica gas-fired power plant in Lordstown next to the Lordstown Energy Center (see Details on Newly Announced Trumbull Energy Center Electric Plant). The second project, called the Trumbull Energy Center, was forecast to cost $900 million to build. The original announcement said the project would have financing in place by December 2017, break ground in January 2018, and be up and running by May 2020. None of that happened for various reasons. However, we have terrific news to share. Yesterday, the project finished securing its financing (now a $1.2 billion project). Construction should begin “in four to six weeks.”
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Utica-Fired Trumbull Energy Center a Go After Vote by Warren, OH

In January 2017 Clean Energy Future (CEF), based in Massachusetts, announced it would build a second Utica gas-fired power plant in Lordstown next to the (then) under construction Lordstown Energy Center (see Details on Newly Announced Trumbull Energy Center Electric Plant). The second project, called the Trumbull Energy Center, was forecast to cost $900 million to build. The original announcement said the project would have financing in place by December 2017, break ground in January 2018, and be up and running by May 2020. None of that happened. However, the project is now due to complete its financing and begin construction by early August. We’re finally almost there!
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OH Supremes Say ODNR Guilty of Takings re Trumbull Injection Well

Here’s a story we haven’t written about in two years. American Water Management Services (AWMS) owns a wastewater injection well in Trumbull County that supposedly caused a low-level earthquake (that nobody could feel) in 2014. Actually there are two injection wells located at the site, both operated by AWMS. They were both “temporarily” shut down by the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources following the quake nobody could feel (see ODNR Temporarily Shuts Down Injection Wells After Low-Level Quake).
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Glimmer of Hope for Utica Drilling in Northeastern Ohio

Eastern OH counties

Aubrey McClendon, then-CEO of Chesapeake Energy, was the first major shale driller to recognize the promise of the Utica Shale play in Ohio (see Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon Talks to Jim Cramer About the Utica Shale in Eastern Ohio). He once famously said the Utica is “the biggest thing to hit Ohio since the plow.” While McClendon rightly deserves credit for launching the development of the Utica, he guessed wrong on the best places to drill in the Utica.
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Utica-Fired Lordstown Energy Center Wins POWER Mag Top Plant Award

Lordstown Energy Center (click for larger version)

For more than four decades, POWER magazine has honored the top performers in the electricity-generating industry with annual power plant awards. Plants that have distinguished themselves by innovative design or engineering upgrades, producing power more reliably or economically than comparable plants, or demonstrating a new generation or environmental controls technology are considered. The Utica-fired Lordstown Energy Center, which went online last October, has just received POWER magazine’s prestigious “Top Plant” award in 2019.
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1st Casualty of OH Save Nukes Law – $1.1B Lordstown NatGas Plant

The boneheaded new law passed by the Ohio legislature known as House Bill (HB) 6, meant to save a couple of failing nuclear plants along with a few coal-fired electric plants, has just claimed its first casualty. And it’s major. Clean Energy Future Inc. which has already built two natural gas-fired power plants in Lordstown (Trumbull County, OH) announced it is canceling a project to build a third Lordstown power plant–costing the state $1.1 billion of investment. What a disaster.
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Legal Dispute Resolved for 2nd Lordstown Utica-Fired Elec Plant

There had been an ongoing legal squabble in Trumbull County, OH over a proposed Utica gas-fired electric plant in Lordstown, located next door to another gas-fired plant (see Squabbling Over 2nd Lordstown Utica-Fired Elec Plant Near an End). The squabbling ended Friday when the two sides agreed to settle their differences.
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Highland Begins Drilling New Injection Well in Trumbull Co., OH

Brookfield location in Trumbull County

MDN recently received a tip from a reader that Highland Field Services (subsidiary of Seneca Resources, which itself is a subsidiary of National Fuel Gas Company) began drilling a new wastewater injection well in Brookfield (Trumbull County), Ohio. This is the third (of five) injection wells Highland has received permits to drill in Highland.
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Looks Like Radicals have Scuttled Patriot Water Deal w/Warren, OH

In June 2017, MDN reported that the Fresh Water Accountability Project (FWAP), a radical anti-fracking group based in Michigan, had filed a lawsuit against the Patriot Water Treatment facility and the City of Warren, OH, claiming the two treat frack chemicals at their respective facilities that don’t get processed enough–and consequently get released into the Mahoning River (see Radical Enviro Group Sues Warren Frack Wastewater Plant). Patriot processes frack wastewater at it’s Warren plant and then (used to) dispose of the wastewater by using the local Warren municipal sewage treatment plant. That is, Patriot strips out all of the really nasty stuff, and then the sewage plant would finish off the process releasing clean water into the Mahoning River, near Youngstown. Unfortunately, it appears the FWAP lawsuit has permanently stopped that beneficial practice.
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ODNR Says Trumbull Injection Well Can Reopen with “Acceptable” Plan

American Water Management Services (AWMS) owns a wastewater injection well in Trumbull County that supposedly caused a low-level earthquake (that nobody could feel) in 2014. Two wells located at the site, both operated by AWMS, were “temporarily” shut down by the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources following the quake (see ODNR Temporarily Shuts Down Injection Wells After Low-Level Quake). AWMS appealed the closure of the wells all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court. ODNR is still trying to block one of the two wells from opening by saying AWMS *could* open the well–if they submit an acceptable (comprehensive) plan.
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Lordstown (OH) Energy Center Now Online, Generating 940 MW

Lordstown Energy Center

It’s time for Bill Siderewicz, president of Clean Energy Future, to stand up and take a bow. In June 2016, Siderewicz’s Lordstown Energy Center broke ground (see Lordstown Energy Center Breaks Ground on $890M Electric Plant). The 940-megawatt, Utica gas-fired power plant has officially flipped the switch and is now generating enough electricity for 850,000 homes. Lordstown Energy is one of 10 such large gas-fired power plant projects announced or built in Ohio (see today’s companion story). It is the largest gas-fired plant, so far, to go online in the Buckeye State. In addition to going online, Lordstown Energy announced the appointment of a former nuclear sub guy to become the plant manager.
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Hubbard Twp, OH Still Trying to Block Injection Well

Two weeks ago MDN told you that liberal Democrat State Rep. Glenn Holmes (from Girard, Trumbull County, OH) is attempting to use a hammer to kill a fly (see Ohio Democrats Float Bill to Cap Injection Wells at 23 per County). Holmes is sponsoring House Bill 723 to cap the number of injection wells at 23 per county, in an attempt to block a single new injection well from getting built in Hubbard Township. Currently Trumbull County has 17 live and functioning wastewater injection wells. Five more are currently under construction. If the bill passes, it would prevent a newly-proposed well in Hubbard from getting built. Holmes has some company in his opposition. Hubbard township officials are “bitterly opposed” to the injection well and raising their own fuss to try and stop it. The preferred solution for Hubbard officials is for the state to allow local towns to write their own oil and gas zoning laws–a prescription for NIMBY disaster. No town would allow it, which is why the review and authorization of injection wells is a joint process between the federal EPA and the state. But that well-thought-out solution of federal/state review doesn’t stop the locals from kicking up a fuss…
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Ohio Democrats Float Bill to Cap Injection Wells at 23 per County

Liberal Democrat State Rep. Glenn Holmes (from Girard, Trumbull County, OH) is attempting to use a hammer to kill a fly. That is, he’s floating House Bill 723 to cap the number of injection wells at 23 per county, in an attempt to block a new injection well from getting built in Hubbard Township. Currently Trumbull County has 17 live and functioning wastewater injection wells. Five more are currently under construction. If the bill passes, it would prevent a newly-proposed well in Hubbard from getting built. Come here fly, see this hammer? Instead of debating the merits (or lack thereof) of the single well in Hubbard, how many wells are too many in Trumbull County, Holmes wants to limit injection wells everywhere in the state as his preferred solution. Right now Trumbull and Ashtabula counties are tied for the top spot with 17 active injection wells each. Nearby Portgage and Stark counties both have 16 injection wells. Meigs County, in southeast Ohio, has 14 active injection wells. Here’s the latest Democrat shenanigan aimed at stifling the Utica (and Marcellus) industry in Ohio…
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