New Fortress to Build Marcellus-Powered Elec Plant in Nicaragua

New Fortress Energy announced yesterday that it has signed a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement with Distribuidora de Electricidad del Norte, S.A. and Distribuidora de Electricidad del Sur, S.A., Nicaragua’s electricity distribution companies. New Fortress will construct a 300-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant near Puerto Sandino to supply power to Nicaragua’s national electric grid. It is the first natural gas-fired electric plant to get built in the country. New Fortress will provide approximately 700,000 gallons (60,000 MMBtu) per day of LNG to power the plant. Guess where most, if not all, of the LNG will come from?
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Pennsylvania Democrats are complaining about State Senate Republicans using a political tactic against the Dems that they themselves use. Which we find hilarious. We’re referring to a recently passed House Bill (HB) 1100, a bill to encourage new petrochemical plant investment in PA (see
Bills aimed at clamping down on illegal pipeline protests (which pretending to be free speech but aren’t) have been introduced in both the Ohio and West Virginia legislatures. In WV, House Bill (HB) 4615 passed the House last week and is now under active consideration in the WV Senate. In Ohio, Senate Bill (SB) 133 was passed last May. The bill was recently reported out of a House committee and likely to see a full House vote soon. It’s obvious that regular folks are tired of radicals and their illegal attempts to block pipeline projects.
More obsessing and hand-wringing over the low price of natural gas (we can’t help it!). Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) published a post on Friday that points out the NYMEX price of natural gas has hit its lowest level for a February day in the past 20 years, closing at $1.77/MMBtu on Feb. 10 (up slightly since then). EIA also points out these are the lowest absolute prices (for any day in any month) we’ve seen in the past four years–since the price crash of 2016. Again, the price crash is happening in February! Yuck.
In the space of a little over 10 years natural gas has gone from “climate hero” to “climate villain.” In no small part the change has come due to huge amounts of money spent by disgusting Big Green groups like the Sierra Club, Food & Water Watch, NRDC, EDF and others. We’d guess if you were to ask most Americans, they would say fossil fuels (like natural gas) will be replaced “soon” by electricity–not knowing natgas is the single largest source of generating electricity! At the Winter Policy Summit of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) last week, a standing-room-only crowd filled a session moderated by former FERC Commissioner Cherly LaFleur on the topic of how soon the electric sector (along with other sectors) will “wean off gas” here in the United States.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Lamb: Western Pennsylvanians feel ‘betrayed’ by fracking ban legislation; Due process delayed: Tolling orders put pipeline opponents in ‘legal limbo’; Everyone will benefit if Mariner East developers are allowed to make changes to the project; NextEra Energy appoints ex-EQT CEO to board; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Bernie Sanders comes to Colorado to tell state’s oil and gas workers that he wants to eliminate their jobs; PG&E launching big pipeline project in Napa Valley; NATIONAL: BEBs or bust? Battery electric buses make no sense at all; If they are so alarmed by climate change, why are they so opposed to solving it?; Outgoing INGAA chief urges focus on steps along path to clean energy; States need to answer for stubbornly high electricity bills; INTERNATIONAL: EIA revises global liquid fuels demand growth down because of the coronavirus.