Energy Groups Gear Up to Oppose Shapiro’s Appeal of Carbon Tax
Last Wednesday, before heading out the door for the Thanksgiving holiday, MDN brought you the sad (but not unsurprising) news that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro had decided to appeal a Commonwealth Court decision striking down his predecessor’s attempt to force the state to implement a multi-billion-dollar carbon tax, called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (see PA Gov. Shapiro Proves He’s Radical Left – Appeals RGGI Decision). As we told you in that post, several Big Green groups immediately posted love letters of support. The case now goes to the PA Supreme Court, which is packed with leftist Democrats. However, the PA Senate, controlled by Republicans and a growing list of energy groups, will make the case before the Supremes that the RGGI carbon tax should be dead once and for all.
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In January 2016, Invenergy announced its intention to build a natural gas-powered electric plant in rural Elizabeth Township, in Allegheny County, PA (see
We’ll say it right up front: We told you so. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced yesterday that he will appeal a decision by the Commonwealth Court that blocks PA’s entrance into the obscene Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme. Are you surprised? Shocked? We certainly aren’t. Shapiro has just revived a huge threat to the future of the Marcellus Shale industry in the Keystone State. Still happy you voted for Shapiro? No, we didn’t think so.
The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), the nonprofit that oversees the state’s electricity system, has warned New York State for YEARS of coming blackouts if peaker plants in New York City are forced to close in 2025 (see
Have you ever noticed how the wacko leftists of the so-called environmental movement behave (and talk) as if they are members of a religion? They use religious language all the time to describe their holy mission of cleansing the earth of evil and sinful fossil energy. Check this out. Environuts say an Indiana utility company is “backsliding” on its clean energy goals with its plan to build a gas-fired peaker plant — a plant that makes unreliable renewables (like solar and wind) possible.
Dominion Energy, a huge utility company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, recently revived a plan to build four small “peaker” electric generating plants in Chesterfield County, VA, a Richmond suburb (see
In December 2017, MDN told you about a second proposed natural gas-fired power plant planned by CME Energy for Oregon (Lucas County), Ohio (see
In 2019, when then-Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced he would unilaterally force the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax scheme aimed at forcing coal- and gas-fired plants out of business, he claimed the tax would only amount to a few dollars per short ton of CO2 (see
Last December, Rice Acquisition Corp II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) started by the Rice brothers (Danny, Toby, and Derek), announced a deal to acquire NET Power — an electric power developer with revolutionary new technology to capture every last molecule of carbon dioxide from natural gas-fired power plants (see
Yesterday, MDN brought you the news that the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) is sounding the alarm that more than half of the U.S. and parts of Canada, home to around 180 million people, could fall short of electricity during extreme cold again this winter (see
In January 2016, Invenergy announced its intention to build a natural gas-powered electric plant in rural Elizabeth Township, in Allegheny County, PA (see
In May, the Bidenistas at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a hellscape of new regulations called the Clean Power Plan 2.0, aimed at forcing coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to close (see
The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) is sounding the alarm that more than half of the U.S. and parts of Canada, home to around 180 million people, could fall short of electricity during extreme cold again this winter. Why? If you read certain leftwing publications, they will say we’re heading for blackouts due to an overreliance on natural gas. According to NERC and its just-released 2023–2024 Winter Reliability Assessment, the coming outages are because we don’t rely ENOUGH on natural gas! That’s right. NERC (and FERC) say we need more pipelines and natural gas to shore up a lack of supplies during the worst cold snaps. The lack of natural gas leads to a lack of fuel for electric power plants (and for people who use it to heat their homes). Both agencies, but NERC in particular, say we need more pipelines, and we need them NOW.
Last December, PPL Corporation subsidiaries Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities Company (KU) announced a plan to replace 1,500 megawatts of aging coal-fired generation (nearly one-third of Kentucky’s coal fleet!) with two 621-megawatt (MW) natural gas combined-cycle units along with several unreliable, intermittent solar projects (see
Last week, on Halloween Day, officials from the PJM Interconnection presented a plan to make up for the retirement of fossil fuel generators and increasing demand on the way over the next five years. The plan includes 72 proposals from FirstEnergy, Dominion, and other companies designed to meet future power needs — for a total price tag of roughly $5 billion. Here is a startling admission from PJM made as part of its announcement: There will be a 7,500 megawatt (MW) increase in demand from now until 2028 due to data center additions to the system in Virginia and Maryland. At the same time, more than 11,000 MW of fossil fuel generation across the PJM footprint of 13 states and Washington, D.C., have or are being retired. Add the two together, and you get a delta of 18,500 MW that we need to cover somehow. Yikes!