Michigan Anti Fossil Fuelers Oppose DTE Gas-Fired Plant Proposal

Last June DTE Energy filed paperwork in Michigan to build a new “state-of-the-art” natural gas-fired power plant in St. Clair County (see DTE Energy Files to Build New Natgas-Fired Elec Plant in Michigan). The gas-fired plant will produce 1,100 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 850,000 homes. If all goes according to plan, the new $1 billion plant will go online in 2022, helping to offset three coal-fired plants set to be retired by 2023. The process is long to approve and then build such a project, with many hoops to jump through. The first major hurdle, perhaps THE major hurdle, is an approval by Michigan utility regulators. The deadline for that approval is almost here–April 27. With the deadline looming, Big Green, with its ongoing, irrational hatred of all fossil fuels, has ramped up opposition to the project. An approval by regulators is being complicated by the fact that DTE filed two months after new energy laws went into effect, but before the Public Service Commission finalized its guidelines under those new laws, in December. Apparently there’s an issue with the application as it relates to the December guidelines–an issue that would potentially delay the project another year or more…
Read More “Michigan Anti Fossil Fuelers Oppose DTE Gas-Fired Plant Proposal”

Duke Energy needs to replace an aging pipeline, built in the 1950s, near Cincinnati, OH–or some people in Cincy will have to go without natural gas. Duke has proposed a 13-mile, 20-inch pipeline along two potential routes. The project is called the Duke Central Corridor Extension Gas Pipeline. Both of the proposed routes are opposed by antis, including a group calling themselves NOPE–Neighbors Opposing Pipeline Extension. We call them DOPEs–Dummies Opposing Pipeline Extensions. Will the DOPEs volunteer to shut off the natural gas to their homes and businesses if the pipeline doesn’t get built? Not on your life! With just weeks before a final approval by the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB), Duke asked the state to push the pause button last August (see
Bet you didn’t know that if a pipeline company waits until antis leave the treetops where they’ve been perched because of concerns about high winds, and then the pipeline company nips in early in the morning and cuts down those vacated trees (legally), it’s considered a “predawn timbering raid.” That’s the hilarious headline given to yet another anti-pipeline, anti-drilling article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, covering news about cutting down three trees on a property in Huntingdon County, PA. For the past two years the Gerharts have used illegal protest tactics to stall tree cutting on their property. Out-of-state Big Green radicals, along with the Gearharts’ own daughter, have lived on-and-off in the tops of three white pine trees, building magic tree houses so they can lay around and do whatever. The tree occupation has prevented Sunoco Logistics Partners from cutting the trees, which are in the path of the Mariner East 2 pipeline project. At daybreak on Sunday, April 8th, after observing the greenie weenies had left the night before scared of impending high winds, Sunoco snuck in and cut down the trees, much to the consternation of the Gerharts who called it a “underhanded and cowardly attack.” We call it funny! And smart. So much for the dedication of antis. They scamper down trees when it gets a tad windy up there–something to keep in mind…
We’ve been monitoring the developing situation in Virginia where anti-fossil fuelers continue to protest against Mountain Valley Pipeline in the Jefferson National Forest. Some of the protesters are fueled by an irrational hatred of fossil fuels (movement people), while others are locals who believe digging a trench for a pipeline will destroy their scenic vistas. The movement people arrived from out of town and whipped up the locals. A mix of both have taken to sitting in treetops (see
As the Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) $900 million Valley Energy Center natural gas-fired electric generating plant in Orange County, NY gets ready to begin service THIS MONTH, antis, including Big Green group Riverkeeper, are desperate to stop it from entering service. Since they couldn’t win any lawsuits to stop it, and since they couldn’t convince the federal government (FERC) to stop it, Riverkeeper and some politicians in Riverkeeper’s back pocket (via campaign contributions) have turned their attention to the Andrew Cuomo-corrupted Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), hoping they can convince the corrupt DEC to revoke the permits issued for the plant. On what basis does Riverkeeper and their colluding politicians claim the permits should be revoked? On the basis that a CPV lobbyist paid money to Cuomo’s closest confidante and aide as a bribe to get the project approved. There’s no evidence that the project got approved because of the bribe, but the stench is certainly there, and hey, if corrupt bribes got it approved, maybe corrupt politicians colluding with Big Green can get it unapproved, right?…
If the American Petroleum Institute (API) were to launch a satellite into space to monitor so-called fugitive methane emissions from oil and gas sites on the ground, would you believe the data they report coming from the satellite? We would, because the API is professional and doesn’t lie. But let’s face it, most people would see a clear conflict of interest. It would be better if a government agency, or perhaps a consortium of universities, were to launch such a research project. On the other hand, the Environmental Defense Fund, a far-left, profoundly biased and anti-fossil fuel organization is proposing to do just that–launch a $40 million satellite that supposedly will monitor methane emissions from oil and gas sites–specifically sites in Pennsylvania. Does anyone really believe that if this happens, the data the EDF will report will be objective? No, NOBODY believes such a thing. But it will give colluding/lying mainstream media an opportunity to continue their false narrative that methane is leaking everywhere causing Mom Earth to catastrophically heat up…
Those who once supported a cutting-edge technology wastewater treatment plant, proposed by Epiphany Water Solutions for Coudersport, PA, are now running away from the project as fast as they can. First was JKLM, the primary (only) customer for the project–the main reason for the project. As we told you on Monday, JKLM, which was rumored to also be the main financial backer, said they are no longer interested (see
Last week MDN reported that two pieces of heavy equipment being used by Sunoco Logistics Partners to build the Mariner East 2 pipeline in Chester County, PA had been severely, intentionally damaged (see
Last November we updated you on a lawsuit filed by a group of radical anti-fossil fuelers in Penn Township (Westmoreland County), PA (see 
Here’s the latest update in the ongoing story of “protesters” who are trying to stop progress in cutting trees for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which will run from West Virginia into Virginia. We previously reported on illegal tree-sitters that judges and law enforcement refuse to remove (see 
In January MDN told you that a new shale wastewater treatment facility that works in tandem with a local sewage treatment plant is on the way in Coudersport (Potter County), PA (see
Earlier this month MDN reported that the Southern Environmental Law Center and Appalachian Mountain Advocates, on behalf of a mishmash of second tier radical groups, filed a “hail Mary” request with the federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to stop construction of Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline until a lawsuit sitting before the Fourth Circuit questioning the validity of the permits granted for the project is played out (see