Big Green Turns Out to Oppose Dominion Chesterfield Gas Plant Plans

Dominion Energy plans to build four small “peaker” electric generating plants in Chesterfield County, VA, near Richmond (see Dominion Plans to Build 1,000-MW Gas Peaker Plant Near Richmond, VA). The Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center (CERC) calls for building four 250-megawatt gas-fired power plants (1,000 MW total) that can jump into action during the coldest and hottest days of the year to help supply enough electricity for 250,000 homes—to keep the lights on because solar and wind are not up to the task. Big Green groups that irrationally hate all fossil fuels, including clean-burning natural gas used at part-time power plants like Chesterfield, showed up at a briefing by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), held before the official public comment period kicked off, to voice their irrational opposition. Read More “Big Green Turns Out to Oppose Dominion Chesterfield Gas Plant Plans”

This is too funny. Antis are up in arms over a bitcoin operation on the edge of Seneca Lake in Upstate New York that refuses to shut down. Even though they demand it. Bitcoin miner Greenidge Generation uses a clean-burning (very small) natural gas power plant to power its 15,300 computer servers at a facility on Seneca Lake in Yates County. The nutters on the enviro-left began carping and complaining about this plant back in 2021 (see
We spotted an excellent post on the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) website about the recent PJM capacity auction, which we reported on a few weeks ago (see
According to an article on the Fortune magazine website, “AI’s endless thirst for power is driving a natural gas boom in Appalachia—and industry stocks are booming along with it.” It looks like the roles are reversing. For all of oil and gas history, oil has been the belle of the ball, the more sought-after hydrocarbon. A change is happening, at least in places like the Marcellus/Utica, where natural gas is the more sought-after commodity. And because of that, the stock price for companies that focus on gas drilling is soaring. The market capitalization (stock value times the number of outstanding shares) for M-U companies has soared 25% to 75% over the past 12 months. Wow!
PJM Interconnection is the electrical grid operator covering Pennsylvania, along with all or parts of 12 other states and the District of Columbia. For months, the Democrat governors of PJM states have been hammering PJM, blaming PJM for higher electricity prices, even though it is their own policies that are driving electricity prices higher (see
In December 2022, Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities Company (KU), both subsidiaries of PPL Corporation, announced a plan to replace 1,500 megawatts of aging coal-fired generation (nearly one-third of Kentucky’s coal fleet) with two 645-MW natural gas combined-cycle units along with several unreliable, intermittent solar projects (see
Data centers are all the rage these days. It seems like a new data center is announced weekly somewhere in the Eastern U.S. Ohio has its fair share of them coming to the Buckeye State (
In January, Constellation Energy (a huge power-generating company) announced a deal to buy out and merge with Calpine (another huge power-generating company). Calpine owns 79 energy facilities across the country, generating some 27 gigawatts (GW) of electricity, with a large number located in the eastern U.S. Many of Calpine’s facilities use natural gas to produce electricity. The two companies combined would own almost 60 GW of nuclear, natural gas, geothermal, hydro, wind, solar, cogeneration, and battery storage. Although several regulatory agencies must sign off on the deal, the primary agency that needs to clear it is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Last week, FERC gave its stamp of approval.
In December 2022, Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities Company (KU), both subsidiaries of PPL Corporation, announced a plan to replace 1,500 megawatts of aging coal-fired generation (nearly one-third of Kentucky’s coal fleet) with two 645-MW natural gas combined-cycle units along with several unreliable, intermittent solar projects (see
Range Resources issued its second quarter 2025 update on Wednesday. Range’s production averaged 2.20 Bcfe/d, approximately 68% natural gas. Range drilled ~285,000 lateral feet across 20 wells, while turning to sales ~156,000 lateral feet across 12 wells. 2Q25 drilling and completion expenditures were $136 million. In addition to D&C spending, Range spent approximately $11 million on acreage and $7 million on infrastructure, pneumatic devices, and other investments. The company announced it is targeting power generation to grab some of the 4-5 Bcf/d of forecasted new demand coming from the powergen sector. 
As we previously reported, a truly mind-blowing event was held in Pittsburgh last week—the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, organized by PA Senator Dave McCormick (see
Danskammer Energy, which had operated a gas-fired peaker power plant along the Hudson River in Newburgh, NY, worked on a project to upgrade the plant since 2018. In June 2024, Danskammer Energy withdrew its permit application with the fossil fuel-hostile state, formally ending attempts to expand after nearly seven years of frustration in trying and receiving rejections from the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Let the idiots who keep the Dems in power sit in the dark and see how that feels. Now, the idiots (and leftist politicians who want to keep their jobs) are waking up and saying, “Oh crap. We might need those gas-fired plants after all.” It sounds so sweet to say: WE TOLD YOU SO!
As we reported on Wednesday, a truly mind-blowing event was held in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit organized by PA Senator Dave McCormick (see
Talen Energy, a leading energy producer in the U.S., which owns and operates approximately 10.7 gigawatts (GW) of power infrastructure, has announced the acquisition of two gas-fired power plants: one located near Wilkes-Barre in northeastern Pennsylvania, and the other in Guernsey County, in eastern Ohio, for $3.8 billion. The PA plant is fed by Marcellus molecules, and the OH plant is fed by Utica molecules. We have followed both projects from inception through commissioning and operation.