NYISO Stumbles & Bumbles with How to Replace NatGas Electricity
Today, right now, the #1 source of electricity produced in the so-called Empire State is…(drum roll please)…natural gas. By 2040 the state says natural gas will produce zero electricity and the number one source to produce electricity will be huge, ugly, noisy, environmentally-damaging windmills–both onshore and offshore. We plan to be around in 20 years just to laugh and say “we told you so” that such a plan is a pure (and dangerous) fantasy. Yesterday the state’s power management grid, called NYISO (New York Independent System Operator, Inc.) held an Installed Capacity and Market Issues Working Group meeting. From a question asked about the state recently denying permits to upgrade natgas-fired power plants, it was obvious NYISO members don’t have a clue how they will generate enough electricity to keep the lights on in 20 years’ time.
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We told you in October 2020 that a pair of natural gas-fired power plants in and near New York City were fighting for their lives (see 
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest Monthly Electric Generator Inventory, between 2022 and 2025 (the next three years) some 27.3 gigawatts (GW) of new natural gas-fired capacity is scheduled to come online in the United States. Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania–states with pipeline access to natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale plays–account for a combined 43% of the natural gas-fired capacity planned to come online. Yes, our molecules will feed almost half of all new gas-fired power plants!
The Beech Hollow Power Plant in Robinson Township (Washington County), PA broke ground on construction for a 1,000-megawatt Marcellus-fired project last fall when they began to pour concrete. However, construction stopped. The builder, Robinson Power Company LLC, wanted to resume construction but got caught up in a controversy over issued and withdrawn permit applications. The leftwing radicals at the Clean Air Council (located on the other side of the state, in Philadelphia) challenged a permit by the DEP to allow Robinson Power to resume construction. A few weeks later Robinson, tired of repeated lawsuits, threw in the towel and canceled the project (see 
WT Data Mining and Science Corp. wants to set up a bitcoin mining operation at a compressed natural gas (CNG) facility owned by Geopetro in Darlington Township (Beaver County), PA. WT Data Mining proposes to build an electric generator at the CNG site and use natural gas to generate massive amounts of electricity required to power the company’s computers that mine bitcoin. Some of the neighbors are concerned about noise.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his successor Kathy Hochul have blocked new natural gas pipelines from the “fracked gas” fields of neighboring Pennsylvania. They seem to be congenitally allergic to fossil fuels. Haters of natural gas. Cuomo also hates nuclear energy. He insisted on shutting down the Indian Point nuclear power plant that once provided 25% of New York City’s electricity. All that juice has to come from somewhere. Thus far, one type of energy is standing in the gap to increase electricity production and prevent mass blackouts: natural gas-fired power plants.
Ohio’s House Bill (HB) 6 law granted billions (plural) of dollars to FirstEnergy in an attempt 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 the now-former Speaker of the House (see 
We were encouraged in September when the Connecticut State Supreme Court upheld the Connecticut Siting Council’s approval for NTE Energy’s proposed project to build a 650-megawatt natural gas-fired electric plant in Killingly, CT (see 
Our new governor in New York is just as corrupt as the old one. Some things never change. The New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), instead of being an independent, science-based organization, is nothing more than a political tool for whoever sits in the Governor’s Mansion. Current Gov. Kathy Hochul instructed the DEC to reject issuing air permits for two badly-needed natural gas-fired power plants, one in Queens and one in Newburgh. The reason for rejecting the permits? The state’s recently passed “the sky is falling because of man-made global warming” law, misnamed the Climate Community Protection Act (CCPA).
Are labor unions so in-the-tank for *any* Democrat candidate that they can be lied to, to their faces, again and again, year after year, and still vote for the Democrat? Apparently yes. Pennsylvania’s Attorney General, the very corrupt Josh Shapiro, someone who has demonstrated a hatred for the Marcellus Shale industry (he’s prosecuting multiple Marcellus companies for “crimes” that are in fact accidents), is using the same tired playbook politicians always use–an outright lie-to-the-face. This time the lie is about his position on whether or not he supports Tom Wolf’s efforts to force the state to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a tax on carbon dioxide that’s meant to force coal and gas-fired power plants out of business.
Last week MDN told you about a clever play by Republicans in the Pennsylvania House and Senate to box in Democrat Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is running for governor next year, on the issue of whether or not it is legal for current Dem Gov. Tom Wolf to force the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), an obscene carbon tax meant to kill coal and gas-fired power plants in the state (see