WV Bill Promoting New Gas-Fired Power Plants Signed into Law
Last time we visited this topic, West Virginia Senate Bill (SB) 188, aimed at making WV’s gas-fired power generation more competitive with its neighbors in Pennsylvania and Ohio, had passed the Senate and was on a fast track for a vote in the House (see WV Bill Promoting New Gas-Fired Power Plants Nears Final Vote). The good news is that the bill, dubbed the Grid Stabilization and Security Act of 2023, passed the House (March 6) and was signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice (March 22)–over the objections of Big Coal.
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The West Virginia Public Energy Authority (PEA) is a seven-member board that aims to make the best use of WV’s abundant natural energy resources. State code gives the board power to buy, lease, and issue bonds to build electric power plants and natural gas transmission projects. Gov. Jim Justice reactivated the board in the summer of 2021 after it had been dormant for most of a decade. The first meeting of the new board was held in February 2022 (see 
If you support the Marcellus gas industry in Pennsylvania and you voted for Josh Shapiro for Governor last November, believing he doesn’t *really* want to kill the Marcellus industry via an obscene carbon tax (known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI), you were wrong. He does want to kill the industry. And a group of far-left groups are telling him he darned well better stay on the straight-and-narrow and keep RGGI alive. Or else…
Diversified Energy (formerly Diversified Gas & Oil), with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region (and other regions too), owns approximately 8 million acres of leases with close to 70,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. The company’s business model is to buy lower-producing wells on the cheap and find ways to make them more productive. One of the new ways Diversified is looking to make money with old wells is by mining cryptocurrency at wells in remote locations not hooked to a pipeline network. Diversified wants to try it with a well in northwestern Pennsylvania. Unsurprisingly, it’s generating some controversy…
Once again, the Biden administration is attacking the fossil fuel industry. This time it is via one of its favorite blunt force instruments: the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Yesterday the EPA released what it calls its final “Good Neighbor Plan” that forces gas- (and coal-) fired power plants to further reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. It’s either reduce NOx by installing really expensive new equipment, shut the plant down, or option #3…pay an indulgence (tax) to keep sinning (polluting) by purchasing an “offset.” Liberals are so predictable.
Last year natural gas consumption in the United States set new record highs in nine of 12 months. In fact, the U.S. used more natural gas in 2022 than it ever has–a new annual record. Natural gas consumption increased in all sectors last year, but the electric power sector consumed more natural gas than any other U.S. end-use sector, accounting for 38% of U.S. natural gas consumption. Which shows the critical importance of the powergen sector to the natural gas sector. The two are joined at the hip.
Here’s the sad end of a sad chapter in Ohio’s history–a conclusion (of sorts) to the largest bribery scandal in the state’s history. We’re referring to Ohio House Bill (HB) 6, a law granting billions (plural) of dollars to FirstEnergy to prop up the company’s economically failing nuclear power plants. FirstEnergy bribed state legislators to pass, and keep passed, HB 6 by paying out $61 million to a small group of insiders, including former Speaker of the House, Larry Householder (see 
West Virginia Senate Bill (SB) 188, the Grid Stabilization and Security Act, is aimed at making WV more competitive with its neighbors–Pennsylvania and Ohio–with respect to siting more gas-fired power plants in the state. SB 188 directs the Dept. of Economic Development secretary to identify and designate sites considered appropriate for natural gas electric generation projects. It also caps the amount of time the state Air Quality Board has to hear appeals of permits for such projects to no more than 60 days. The coal lobby was not happy with some of the language and focus of the bill, so coal got its own bill, House Bill (HB) 3482, the Coal Fired Grid Stabilization and Security Act, which does the same thing for coal that SB 188 does for natural gas.
New England is heading for an energy disaster. It’s easy to predict. The latest analysts to look at the coming disaster are the sharp folks at RBN Energy. Their language is a bit more diplomatic than our blunt statements, but the conclusions are the same: New England is screwed. Royally. And it’s only a matter of time before massive blackouts begin in the region.
Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) currently operates a gas-fired power plant in the Keasbey section of Woodbridge, NJ. The plant currently generates power for about 700,000 homes. In 2018, CPV proposed adding a second power plant at the same location (see 
Here’s a fact that mainstream media largely ignores: Households in the Boston area pay about 50% more for electricity than households across the nation. On average, Massachusetts residents spend about $276 a month on electricity. That is 37% higher than the national average. An op-ed appearing in the Washington Examiner says New Englanders need to get used to these high prices. High prices for electricity are here to stay (for New England)–at least well into the 2030s. Why? Lack of pipelines, blocked by New England politicians.