Maine Feeling the Effects of No New Gas Pipes – Electric Bills 2-3X
For years MDN and others have warned of coming shortages for natural gas in New England, including the State of Maine. We told you that natgas and electricity prices will go through the roof due to lack of new pipelines (almost all electricity produced in New England is from gas-fired power plants). Yet New England and Maine have steadfastly refused to allow new gas pipelines to get built. So we don’t feel all that bad for Maine residents who have seen their electricity prices double and even triple since January of this year.
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All this week has been CERAWeek in Houston, Texas, the annual conference where heavyweights in the energy industry, particularly oil and natural gas, meet to hear the captains of industry (and key government officials) deliver speeches, and, more importantly, to chat on the sidelines. S&P is reporting that speaker after speaker at CERAWeek says that while customers want so-called net-zero carbon energy from oil and gas, when it comes to producing electricity with net-zero carbon sources, there is no “silver bullet.” The best option for the foreseeable future is to use natural gas to generate electricity–so says the experts.
On Monday the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a lawsuit filed by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and the attorney generals from 20 states that seek to limit the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and their misinterpretation of the so-called Clean Air Act in order to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power plants. The justices heard more than two hours of arguments over whether to limit the EPA’s power to regulate CO2 emissions from electric utilities. Based on the questions and comments by the justices, anti-fossil fuel cultists are VERY nervous that they may lose one of their favorite tools to limit oil and gas development.
Two Pennsylvania Senators, Gene Yaw (Lycoming County) and John Yudichak (Luzerne County) have sent a letter to the state’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) asking the IFO to audit the modeling done by the inept Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) with respect to the price of credits being sold under the RGGI carbon tax scheme. PA Gov. Wolf intends to force the state, against the will of the people (i.e. the legislature that represents the people) to join RGGI, which slaps in insanely high carbon tax on all coal- and Marcellus gas-fired power plants. Yaw and Yudichak believe the DEP fudged the numbers with their original estimates of how much so-called RGGI credits cost. The senators want a neutral, independent third party to analyze the analysis done by the DEP.
The West Virginia Public Energy Authority 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 last summer after it had been dormant for upwards of a decade. The first meeting of the new board was held yesterday. Our sense is that the board is still trying to figure out what the heck it’s supposed to do.
Here’s an interesting twist. Baker Hughes (BH), one of the biggest oilfield services companies on the planet, is investing in a company that designs and builds natural gas-fired electric power plants. But not just any gas-fired power plants. These plants use new technology so that when the natural gas is burned (to produce heat to spin a turbine), there is no, as in zero, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Technology to lower or eliminate CO2 emissions has been available for sometime, but typically has been too expensive. This new tech BH is backing promises to be much lower cost.
MDN first told you about plans to build the Chickahominy Power Station, a 1,650 megawatt state-of-the-art natural gas-fired power plant in Charles City County, VA, in June 2018 (see 
According to numbers published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2020 Pennsylvania generated and sent more electricity to neighboring states than any other state in the union. More than 230 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity was generated in Pennsylvania during 2020, and nearly 78 million MWh of that electricity was delivered to neighboring states. If PA Gov. Wolf’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme is adopted, much of that electric production will disappear. PA’s neighbors should be VERY concerned.
The Pennsylvania State Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has engaged in some questionable activities in the past, but this time they’ve stepped WAY across the line. Last Thursday the PA DEP filed a lawsuit in Commonwealth Court to force the state to adopt the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a blatant tax on carbon dioxide produced by gas- and coal-fired power plants. Thing is, it’s illegal for the state to adopt RGGI right now while the state legislature still has a window of time to vote on overriding Gov. Tom Wolf’s veto of a resolution that would have stopped RGGI. Constitutionally, legally, statutorily, the legislature has a certain number of days to attempt an override. The DEP’s Secretary Pat McDonnell, Gov. Wolf’s patsy, is trying to circumvent the law by forcing RGGI through now.
