Canadian Bitcoin Operator Completes Purchase of WNY Gas-Fired Plant
Last September, the New York Public Service Commission (PSC), which oversees and regulates public utilities, approved the takeover of the Fortistar gas-fired power plant in North Tonawanda, NY, a town close to Niagara Falls, by Canadian crypto mining company Digihost. In December, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) offered its blessing too. All of which prompted the radicals of Earthjustice, representing two other disgusting radical groups–the Sierra Club and Clean Air Coalition of Western New York–to sue (see Green Radicals Sue NYS for Approving Niagara Falls Bitcoin Plant). Fortunately, the lawsuit didn’t stop the transfer, which happened yesterday. Digihost now owns the facility.
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Please don’t tell us politicians like Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and U.S. Senator Elizbeth “Pocahontas” Warren give a fig about global warming and carbon emissions. Their actions, along with the actions of other Democrat politicians, have blocked new natural gas pipelines into New England that would supply low-emission fuel to generate electricity for the region. When it gets brutally cold, as it did Feb 3-5, New England turns to burning oil and (yes) coal in order to keep the lights on for residents. It happened in December, and it happened again in February. So much for caring about Mom Earth. The actions of New England politicians speak so much louder than their many lying words…
We spotted a fascinating story out of Los Angeles about the city’s foolish and reckless action in abandoning its largest natural gas-fired power generation plant in favor of using hydrogen instead. Hydrogen is the Holy Grail for the left. At least, for some on the left. Many on the left (and, it seems, on the right too) want to replace natural gas with 100% hydrogen in gas-fired power plants because natgas produces carbon dioxide when it burns, and hydrogen does not. Except (we learned from this article), hydrogen power generation has one huge, glaring, problem…
The supposedly non-partisan U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), which increasingly appears to be influenced (if not corrupted) by the Bidenistas, published a post yesterday on the agency’s daily Today in Energy website with this headline: “Coal and natural gas plants will account for 98% of U.S. capacity retirements in 2023.” The thrust of the article is that dirty fossil energy is being phased out of electricity production in favor of unreliable, intermittent so-called renewables (like solar and wind). EIA says operators plan to retire 15.6 gigawatts (GW) of electric-generating capacity in the U.S. this year, mostly natural gas-fired (6.2 GW) and coal-fired (8.9 GW) power plants. But as usual with the Biden administration, key facts are left out of the article. We have the rest of the story…
The Pennsylvania House Republican Policy Committee held a hearing yesterday in Harrisburg on the increasing energy costs that affect large and small businesses as well as homeowners. Several energy advocates, including Marcellus Shale Coalition President Dave Callahan, shared their thoughts and insights. High on the list of issues creating higher energy prices in the Keystone State are (1) the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI, an obscene carbon tax), and (2) the ongoing issue of red tape from government bureaucracies like the Dept. of Environmental Protection.
Is the coal industry and natural gas industry in West Virginia friends? Or enemies? Or perhaps “frenemies”? We suppose it depends on the issue. In our book, the coal industry has largely been an enemy of the natural gas industry in WV because natgas-fired power plants threaten to displace coal-fired plants (see 
The Long Ridge Energy Terminal, host to a Utica shale gas-fired power plant that went online in November 2021, scheduled brief downtime for routine maintenance during the fourth quarter of 2022. But when the techs started to analyze the equipment, they discovered a problem, turning a couple of weeks of downtime into more than a month.
A Marcellus gas-fired power plant in Nicetown (a neighborhood in North Philadelphia) received a permit to build in 2017 (see 
MDN has highlighted Capstone Turbine Corporation, a California company that manufactures small electric-generating plants that run on natural gas, several times in the past (
Last Thursday, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court dismissed the Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) claim that the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), an obscene carbon tax on gas-fired power plants being forced on PA businesses (and electricity consumers) by former Gov. Tom Wolf and his henchman DEP Secretary Pat McDonnell, was unlawfully delayed by the PA Senate. It is a good news/bad news decision.
On January 18, every single Republican member of the Pennsylvania State Senate signed (and sent) a joint letter to newly-minted Gov. Josh Shapiro urging him to take steps “immediately” to undo PA’s entrance into the insane Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax, a plan forced on the state by Shapiro’s wacky predecessor Tom Wolf. During the campaign, Shapiro prevaricated on whether or not he would pull PA’s plan to enter RGGI.
PJM is the largest electric grid operator in the U.S. It serves 65 million people in 13 states plus the District of Columbia (including PA, OH, and WV). PJM is coming under criticism for an almost-blackout during the recent Christmas cold snap. If not for certain gas-fired peaker plants, like that in the Little Town of Bethlehem, the lights would have gone out during a brutal cold snap (see