Austin Master Services Frack Waste Cleanup in OH Almost Complete
One of the significant stories of 2024 in the Ohio Utica was about Austin Master Services (AMS), a radiological waste management solutions company in Martins Ferry (Belmont County), Ohio, that handles fracking waste (trucks it for disposal). AMS ran into trouble when it ran out of money. The Martins Ferry facility, where waste is temporarily stored, went from a permitted maximum of 600 tons of stored waste to over 10,000 tons, violating its permit. The Ohio Attorney General’s office filed a lawsuit against the company in March 2024 to force compliance and to force the cleanup of the facility. More than a year later, we are finally near the end of the cleanup process. Read More “Austin Master Services Frack Waste Cleanup in OH Almost Complete”
The name Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) pretty much says it all. PGW is a natural gas utility serving the Philly region. It’s not an electric company; it’s a natural gas company. So, it will probably come as no surprise that PGW belongs to a trade organization called the American Public Gas Association (APGA). Indeed, PGW is the largest member of the APGA. And it would probably not surprise you to learn that the APGA supports President Trump’s efforts to pause and defund much of the money not already distributed from the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was Biden’s Green New Deal aimed at using billions of OUR taxpayer dollars to try to destroy fossil energy, including natural gas. The swampy left, including its apologists in the media (i.e., PBS), are trying to shame PGW into dropping its membership in the APGA, implying PGW is (via APGA) opposed to having its business destroyed using $700 million from the IRA earmarked for Philly. Imagine that! 
Capital Power Corporation, based in Edmonton (Alberta), Canada, a power producer with approximately 10 gigawatts (GW) of power generation at 30 facilities across North America, announced it is buying two gas-fired power plants from LS Power. One facility is the 1,124 megawatt (MW) Hummel Station, a combined-cycle natural gas facility in Shamokin Dam, PA, fed by Marcellus molecules. The other is the 1,023 MW Rolling Hills plant, a combustion turbine natural gas facility in Wilkesville, OH, fed by Utica molecules. We welcome Capital Power to the M-U! 
ArcLight Capital Partners, an infrastructure investment firm focused on energy and related infrastructure, announced it is buying out the ownership interests of Osaka Gas USA Corporation and Kyuden International Americas Inc. (both Japanese companies) in Kleen Energy Systems, LLC. Kleen Energy owns Kleen Power, a 620 megawatt (MW) natural gas-fired power plant in Middletown, Connecticut. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. 
Cayuga Station, owned by Duke Energy, is a three-unit coal-fired power plant built between 1970 and 1993 in Vermillion County, Indiana. The existing plant produces as much as 1,040 megawatts (MW) of electricity. Duke recently filed a request with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) for permission to build two new gas-fired plants at the Cayuga site to replace the coal-fired units. The combined output of the new gas-fired plants will be 1,510 MW. The plan is to build and commission the gas-fired plants first and then shut down the coal-fired plants. 
An interesting report from BTU Analytics connects many of the dots that (for us) have been missing with respect to hydrogen production from natural gas that captures carbon dioxide in the process—called “blue hydrogen.” As you know, we’ve been skeptical of the big push to produce hydrogen as a magic replacement for other forms of energy, particularly natural gas. Environmentalists pay lip service to loving hydrogen because it burns “clean” with no CO2 emissions. Why not just burn natural gas (and capture the CO2) instead of going through the time and expense of converting natural gas into hydrogen? Please, don’t ask such common-sense questions. It marks you as a MAGA extremist. 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: NextDecade strikes LNG supply deal with TotalEnergies for 1.5 million tonnes annually; Stakeholders respond to Mass. proposal to limit cost recovery for gas expansion; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas slumps to nine-week low on record production, expected lower demand; White House ends funding for key U.S. climate body; Sustaining energy dominance in a shifting global market; INTERNATIONAL: Oil prices flat amid trade and Iran talks; OPEC cuts oil demand forecast for 2025 and 2026 on trade war; BMI reveals latest Brent oil price forecasts; Trump has been proven right about pretty much everything.