Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Washington County
SWPA Beech Hollow Power Plant Begins Construction – Radicals Oppose
Unknown to us, 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 has stopped. The builder, Robinson Power Company LLC, wants to resume construction but is now caught up in a controversy over issued and withdrawn permit applications.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) are challenging a permit by the DEP to allow Robinson Power to resume construction.
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Here’s a paradox for you that we can’t explain. Last week we reported the latest U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) predicts natural gas production in the U.S. will hit an all-time high in 2022 (see 
Natural gas drillers, particularly in the Marcellus/Utica, are finally financially healthy. Some are healthy for the first time ever, some for the first time in years, since the severe 2018 and 2019 downturn when natgas prices collapsed. Things are going well in the M-U with most companies focused on fiscal discipline and producing free cash flow. However, there’s a big, black cloud on the horizon–the Joe Biden administration. A number of people in the administration have signaled their disdain, even outright hatred for natural gas, because it’s a “fossil fuel.” The Biden administration aims to cripple the use of natural gas nationwide.
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 planned for Charles City County (near Richmond, Va.) in June 2018 (see 
Not only is the $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill bad for the country (see 
A group of some 200 oil and gas executives and “bitcoin miners” mixed, mingled, drank beer, and talked shop on a recent Wednesday night in August in Houston, Texas. The main topic of discussion: Using “stranded” natural gas to power bitcoin mining rigs, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions and makes money for the gas providers, as well as the miners. Bitcoin mining is becoming a big thing in the oil and gas patch. What is it?
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) voted to approve the final Environmental Quality Board regulation to slap an insanely high carbon tax, euphemistically called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), on PA’s coal and natural gas-fired power plants. The partisan vote was 3-2 (Democrats voting for, Republicans against) in favor of hiking electric rates by an extra $2.36 billion over the next 10 years. Is there any way to stop Gov. Tom Wolf’s illegal entry into RGGI?
Some interesting facts and figures from our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). In 2011 the U.S. had 317.6 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired electric generation capacity. About 88.7 GW (28%) of that capacity was retired from 2011 to 2020. The primary reason? Marcellus/Utica natural gas. Cheap, abundant, and clean-burning natural gas began to be used in electric generating plants. Another fun fact: Of the 93.5 GW of natural gas capacity built in the U.S. from 2011 to 2020, 14.3 GW (15%) is located in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
In March 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to enter the public consciousness, some 500 people from labor unions and industry met in Pittsburgh to launch an organization called Pittsburgh Works Together (PWT), dedicated to fighting back against those who want to end southwest PA industries including steel, natural gas, and petrochemicals (see 
A natural gas-fired electric power plant planned for Charles City County (near Richmond, Va.) by NOVI Energy known as C4GT (Charles City Combined-Cycle Gas Turbine) is officially dead as of last month (see 
Since 2017 we’ve had our eye on a proposed natural gas-fired power plant, tracking the project in our “best of the rest” stories. The Nemadji Trail Energy Center would be built near Superior, Wisconsin but provide much of its electricity to nearby Minnesota. We don’t believe any of the molecules slated to flow to the plant will come from the Marcellus/Utica, so the project has never risen to the level of getting its own dedicated post here on MDN–until today. No, we still don’t believe M-U gas will power the plant, but a recent court decision about the plant caught our eye and gave us hope that other places like New York may yet be salvageable.
On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee approved a letter to the state’s Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC), asking the IRRC to oppose the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), an obscene carbon tax aimed at closing down coal and natural gas-fired power plants in the state. Democrats on the committee railed against the vote calling it meaningless when they know it’s anything but. If the IRRC turns against RGGI, the left’s carbon tax scheme will die.