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Country’s Biggest NatGas Power Plant Beginning Construction in OH

Artist rendering of Guernsey Power Plant (click for larger version)

Construction on what we believe to be the country’s largest natural gas-fired electric plant, the Guernsey Power Station (being built in Guernsey County, Ohio), is set to begin “immediately” according to the company hired to do the engineering, procurement and construction activities (EPC). Last week Caithness Energy, the project developer, announced it has closed on $1.6 billion worth of financing for the project and has given the green light to Gemma Power Systems to begin construction of the plant.
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PA Gas-Fired Electric Going from 30% to 45% of Capacity Next 3 Yrs

click for larger version

Believe it or not, dry and sterile reports from government agencies, like the “Electric Power Outlook for Pennsylvania” issued by the state Public Utility Commission, can be exciting! The latest edition of the EPO report predicts natural gas-fired electric generation in PA will go from a current 30% of all electricity produced in the state today, to 45% of all electricity produced in just three years–by 2023. That represents an enormous opportunity for drillers (and landowners) to sell locally produced gas to new, local customers.
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FERC Approves Dominion Eastern Market Access Project for Startup

In October 2016, Dominion announced a new pipeline project called Eastern Market Access Project (see Dominion Announces $145M Project to Expand Gas Supply to DC & MD). The $145 million project was slated to beef up two compressor stations in Virginia, build a new compressor station in Maryland, and add a couple of pipeline taps near Washington, D.C. The new compressor station was eventually axed, and along with it some of the extra capacity. But Dominion completed the other work and last Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave the OK to begin service.
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FirstEnergy Runs Attack Ad, Claims China Controls OH NatGas Plants

“Bizarre” is the only word that comes to mind to describe a despicable, lowest-of-the-low, lying attack ad being run in Ohio by a front group for FirstEnergy meant to defend and preserve a horrible corporate welfare bailout law passed to prop up FirstEnergy’s economically dying nuclear (and coal) power plants. The $1 million ad campaign claims if the new law is repealed (a good chance of that happening), that somehow China will be in charge of the electric grid in Ohio. It is totally wackadoodle and an outright lie.
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Another $319K in Fines Levied on Mariner East 2 Pipeline in PA

Sunoco Pipeline, a division/part of Energy Transfer, has just been fined (again) for work related to the construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline project. This time around Sunoco got two fines: One for problems with their work in 2018, to the tune of $240,840, and one for work done back in 2017, to the tune of $78,621. Total bill: $319,461. So far the Mariner East project (ME1, ME2, and ME2X) has incurred over $13 million in fines with over 80 violations.
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FERC Asks USFWS to Pull/Review Permit for Mountain Valley Pipe

Last week the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to “reinitiate consultation” (i.e. reconsider) its earlier finding that the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project would not significantly harm protected fish and bats in its path. FERC believes there is new information on which USFWS should consider when issuing a permit that allows the pipeline to accidentally kill a few threatened species during construction.
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WV Pipeline Snitches Find Minor Problems with MVP Construction

Must be it was “pile on Mountain Valley Pipeline” week last week. In addition to FERC requesting U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to pull a permit for the project (which happened), a small group of leftists fanned out and snapped pictures of supposed “violations” of the MVP project in West Virginia. The “volunteers” are spun by lefty media outlets as concerned, salt of the earth citizens. We call them pipeline snitches.
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Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, Sep 3, 2019

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Investors are hoping for a great Rice 2.0 at EQT Corporation; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: FERC staff to prepare Environmental Assessment for Louisiana XPress project; NATIONAL: Fewer U.S. oil & gas rigs can’t slow record production; Baker Hughes takes a different path in struggling oilfield services sector; Battery Fantasy (video); INTERNATIONAL: China aims to rev up shale gas drive, wean itself off imports amid U.S. trade row; U.S. to help Poland, Ukraine disconnect from Russian gas.
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