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OH AG Asks Judge to Block FirstEnergy Nuke Bailout Rate Increases
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost continues to hammer FirstEnergy Corporation. In November Yost filed a lawsuit to block the collection of $150 million provided for under House Bill (HB) 6, aimed at propping up FirstEnergy’s unprofitable nuclear power plants in the state (see OH AG Files 2nd Lawsuit to Block FirstEnergy $150M Nuke Payments). Yost has just filed another lawsuit, this time aimed at preventing a rate hike from going into effect on FirstEnergy customers across the state.
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A member of the PA Senate, Sen. Wayne Langerholc (R), and a member of the PA House, Rep. Jim Rigby (R), together penned a response to an 
FirstEnergy is up to its metaphorical rear-end in alligators. Not only has the Ohio Supreme Court blocked (for now) the collection of annual $150 million payments from the residents of Ohio given to FirstEnergy to prop up its uneconomic nuclear power plants, but multiple (over a dozen) lawsuits have been filed against the company by some of FirstEnergy’s biggest investors alleging fraud that has caused the company’s stock price to plummet.
Anti-fossil fuelers have a new favorite lie to tell: Any kind of power plant or pipeline that uses natural gas is racist. It’s a sick and twisted lie, but that’s the line they now use. For example, the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board recently approved a permit for the construction of a new 17-megawatt natural gas power plant to power the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia. Environuts are hollering it’s racist.
The State of Connecticut’s “Siting Council” changed its mind in July 2019 and approved NTE Energy’s proposed project to build a 650-megawatt natural gas-fired electric plant in Killingly, after initially rejecting it (see 
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and his Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) continue to push a plan that will raise Pennsylvania residents’ electric rates by 50% or more, a carbon tax scheme called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The DEP is in the midst of conducting virtual public hearings until Dec. 14. PA’s trade labor unions, dead set against RGGI, are participating to make sure Wolf knows of their opposition.
Tomorrow the Harrison County Commission will consider (and most likely approve) an extension for an option to purchase property at the site of a proposed natural gas-fired power plant in Harrison County. Energy Solutions Consortium (ESC) currently has an option to buy the site of a proposed 550-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant, but the option expires on Dec. 31 of this year.
Yesterday MDN brought you a post about the dramatic increase in natural gas-fired electric plants in the Marcellus/Utica, particularly Pennsylvania (see 
Natural gas-fired electric generation has increased in most U.S. regions since 2015, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Annual electricity generation from natural gas power plants in the U.S. increased by 31% in the Northeast region, by 20% in the Central region, and by 17% in the South region between 2015 and 2019.
If there’s a bad cold snap in New England this winter forcing residents to use more natural gas (leaving less natgas for power plants), blackouts may occur. That’s the prediction from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) in their just published 2020-2021 Winter Reliability Assessment (full copy below). If blackouts do occur, the residents of New England can thank Gov. Cuomo and their own politicians, like Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, for blocking natural gas pipeline projects to the region.
There are those in the non-thinking, arrogant, ignorant Big Green movement who demand (they always demand) that everyone (except themselves) stop using fossil fuels. Now. Or the earth is dead in 10-20 years. (It’s always 10-20 years, ever notice that?) And then there are those who kind of believe there may be something to man-made global warming who are looking for ways to reduce carbon emissions realistically. Those in the latter camp, people who actually think rationally, say there is one way to reduce CO2 emissions over the next 30 years: by using more (not less) natural gas.
The plot thickens in the $60 million FirstEnergy nuclear subsidy bribery scandal. Last week MDN brought you the news that Ohio’s Attorney General, David Yost, had filed a second lawsuit to stop the collection of money from ratepayers that funds $150 million annual payments to FirstEnergy provided for under the law known as House Bill 6 (see