Tenaska NatGas Power Plant in Westmoreland, PA Advances
In April MDN reported that a long-delayed $780 million natural gas-fueled power plant in South Huntingdon (Westmoreland County), PA has received a go-ahead and will be built by energy giant Tenaska (see Construction Begins on $780M SWPA NatGas-Fired Power Plant). The project was first proposed in 2009. It has all the necessary permits and now has the necessary funding. Marcellus/Utica natural gas will feed the plant. Black & Veatch is doing the engineering work and acting as the contractor for the project. However, E3 Consulting, another engineering firm, was hired by investors in the project to check out the plans–before the backhoes start digging. The good news is that E3 has looked close and given the project its seal of approval…
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One of the big stories of the past year is the conversion of coal-fired electric generating plants to natural gas, and the construction of brand new gas-fired electric plants. We’ve written plenty about it. Yesterday the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) returned to that theme with a post observing that “many” (we’d say almost all) new gas-fired electric plants that are getting built in the U.S. are getting built in or close to major shale plays. The Marcellus/Utica represents some of the heaviest concentrations of new power plant projects…
We’ve written plenty about President Obama’s draconian, so-called “Clean Power Plan” (
If you happen to believe in the fairy tale of man-made global warming, you no doubt know all about CO2–carbon dioxide. CO2 is the stuff you exhale with every breathe you take, as every mammal does on God’s green earth. Somehow CO2 has been twisted into becoming a dreaded “greenhouse gas”. Go figure. At any rate, aside from breathing, when we burn fossil fuels it creates CO2–which is at the core of the neurosis of anti-drillers. Their kindergartenish solution to “solving” the “problem” of “global warming” is to stop burning fossil fuels. But the thing is, not all fossil fuels are created equal. Natural gas burns relatively clean and produces far less CO2 than other fossil fuels. You might think people who really care about the planet would welcome more natgas–but you would be wrong. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has just published an analysis of the biggest non-breathing cause of CO2 generation–burning fossil fuels to generate electricity. The EIA says in 2015 CO2 emissions were down 12% from baseline levels in 2005. With more population and more electricity being generated, how can that possibly be? Because of the shale revolution–that’s how. So-called renewable forms of electric power generation are still minuscule compared to burning fossil fuels to generate electricity. Because we now use more natgas instead of coal to generate electricity, the amount of CO2 being produced has dropped dramatically. Thanks to the miracle of fracking…
In February MDN brought you the good news that Laclede Group (St. Louis-based natural gas utility) wants to build a 60-mile pipeline from St. Louis through southwest Illinois and connect to the Rockies Express (REX) and Panhandle Eastern Pipeline to grab low-cost Marcellus/Utica Shale gas for Midwestern markets (see 
NTE Energy, headquartered in St. Augustine, Florida, builds new natural gas-fired electric plants. Currently the company is building plants in Southwest Ohio, West Texas and North Carolina. Last Friday NTE announced three more new natgas-fired power plant projects–one in Connecticut, one in North Carolina and one in Ohio. There’s no doubt these plants will use shale gas from the Marcellus/Utica to power them–which is good news for producers in the northeast. Here’s the details from NTE…