Yesterday the Ohio Power Siting Board approved the construction, operation, and maintenance of a Utica-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plant on the main campus of Ohio State University in Columbus. Wonders never cease! Of course, irrational fossil fuel haters are not giving up the fight to try and block it.
Read More “OH Approves Gas-Fired Power Plant for OSU – Antis Pledge to Fight”
There are at least a few honest politicians in Columbus, Ohio. Last week several Ohio state legislators made the case to overturn House Bill (HB) 6. Last year FirstEnergy Solutions (now called Energy Harbor) allegedly paid $60 million in bribes to (now former) Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four of his associates to gain their assistance in passing the hugely unpopular HB 6 (see FirstEnergy Involved in Bribery Scheme to Pass $1B Nuke Bailout Law). HB 6 gives Energy Harbor $150 million per year for seven years ($1.1 billion) in ratepayer funds to prop up the company’s uneconomic nuclear power plants (disadvantaging other energy sources, like gas-fired power plants).
Read More “Ohio Lawmakers Make Case to Repeal HB 6 Nuke Bailout Law”
On Tuesday, Sept. 15 the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB), one of over two dozen boards and committees and commissions part of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), will hold a hearing and cast a key vote on Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposal to force the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The EQB is one of four rulemaking authorities within the DEP–perhaps the most powerful DEP committee, with the power to create new binding regulations affecting every citizen in the state. Although tomorrow’s vote won’t be the final vote enacting Wolf’s plan, it is an important vote, a key vote, and will significantly advance the process of joining RGGI. One EQB member, Mark Caskey, is sounding the alarm on RGGI, pledging to vote against it. MDN interviewed Mark last week. Below is a summary of our talk.
Read More “Exclusive: PA EQB Board Member Speaks Out Against RGGI Carbon Tax”
Justice (with a small “j”) has prevailed in West Virginia. We’ve covered the issue of a proposed new shale gas-fired power plant planned for Brooke County, WV for years. We are down to the wire on some of the final bits needed for this project to advance. One of those bits, the last major hurdle, is a loan guarantee for $5.5 million, covering a tiny part of the financing required to build this nearly $1 billion project. Yesterday the WV Economic Development Authority unanimously approved the loan guarantee.
Read More “WV Approves Loan Guarantee for Brooke County Power Plant”
Yesterday the full Pennsylvania Senate passed House Bill (HB) 2025, a bill already passed by the House previously. The bill now goes to Democrat leftist Gov. Tom Wolf, who says he will veto it. The bill restores democracy to the Commonwealth by giving the legislature–the very people elected to be the voice of PA citizens–a role in deciding whether or not PA should join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)–which is nothing more than an obscenely high tax on carbon meant to kill coal and natural gas-fired power plants in the state–a major customer of Marcellus gas.
Read More “PA Senate Passes Bill Giving Legislators Say in RGGI Carbon Tax”
Behaving like the petulant children they are, anti-fossil fuelers in New Jersey are demanding a face-to-face meeting with the board of NJ Transit so they can make a case (i.e. bully the board) against building a small, clean-burning natural gas-fired power plant NJ Transit will be used to power trains in cases of emergency. It’s a backup plant–not even running all the time. Yet antis, so corrupted by their own hatred of “fossil fuels,” are demanding NJ Transit use unreliable solar instead.
Read More “Petulant Antis Demand Meeting with NJ Transit re Gas Power Plant”
The Republican-controlled Pennsylvania legislature continues its quest to stop Gov. Tom Wolf from illegally assuming powers he does not have to force the state into a carbon tax scheme called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Last Thursday the state Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee voted to report out two bills for a full Senate vote that will block Wolf’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) from joining RGGI without legislative approval.
Read More “PA Senate Advances Bills to Stop Wolf RGGI Carbon Tax”
We should have known that West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is in league with his fellow coal baron Robert Murray. Officials from Brooke County, WV, where Energy Solutions Consortium is planning to build a $1.25 billion natural gas-fired power plant, are blaming the long fingers of Bob Murray for a last-minute delay of a state loan guarantee that was supposed to be made in August (see WV Gov. “Clarifies” Remarks Bashing Gas-Fired Plant, Doubles Down).
Read More “Brooke County Blames Coal Lobby for WV Gas Plant Delay”
New York City is home to some 15 “peaker plants”–small electric generating plants that fire up to provide electricity during times of high demand when the regular electric grid can’t handle the load. The plants are fueled mostly by oil, some are fueled by natural gas. NRG Energy wants to convert its old oil-fired peakers with natural gas, which is far cleaner and more efficient. However, a group of hardened Socialist Democrats (actually Communists) who have won primaries over the summer, unseating more moderate Democrats, are demanding all of the peakers be shut down. How’s that for stupid?
Read More “NYC Communists Pledge to Shut Down Gas-Fired Peaker Plants”
What is wrong with West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice? Last week we told you about Justice trash-talking a proposed natural gas-fired electric plant planned for Brooke County (see WV Gov. Jim Justice Trash-Talks Brooke County Gas-Fired Power). Justice outright questioned the project’s viability. He made some followup remarks yesterday to “clarify” his remarks from last week. Except Justice didn’t really clarify anything. If anything, he doubled down on his trash-talking of the project.
Read More “WV Gov. “Clarifies” Remarks Bashing Gas-Fired Plant, Doubles Down”
Just when you thought West Virginia Governor Jim Justice could be trusted with oversight of the state’s Marcellus/Utica industry, he goes and spoils it. Justice, who made his fortune in coal, is once again trash-talking shale gas. This time Justice is questioning a proposed shale gas-fired power plant planned for Brooke County.
Read More “WV Gov. Jim Justice Trash-Talks Brooke County Gas-Fired Power”
We have chronicled the break between trade unions and Pennsylvania. Gov. Tom Wolf over Wolf’s stubborn insistence on forcing the state to join a carbon tax scheme called RGGI–the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (see our union stories here). Union members know that RGGI will kill the Marcellus industry in the state and lead to massive job losses–all in the name of fixing so-called climate change. Yesterday union members in southwestern PA rallied at a power plant to (once again) voice their strong opposition to Wolf’s highly unpopular plan.
Read More “SWPA Union Members Rally Against Gov. Wolf’s RGGI Carbon Tax”
Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) has built a number of natural gas-fired electric generating plants here in the Marcellus/Utica region. The most recent CPV gas-fired plant to go online in our area was a 1,050-megawatt plant in Cambria County, PA (see CPV Marcellus-Fired Electric Plant in Cambria Goes Online Early). CPV just announced they’ve secured financing and will move forward with building a new plant near Chicago. M-U gas will feed it, at least in part.
Read More “CPV Gets Funding, Begins Building Big M-U-Fired Power Plant in IL”
FirstEnergy Solutions (now called Energy Harbor) allegedly paid $60 million in bribes to (now former) Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four of his associates to gain their assistance in passing the hugely unpopular House Bill 6 (see FirstEnergy Involved in Bribery Scheme to Pass $1B Nuke Bailout Law). HB 6, which became law, gives Energy Harbor $150 million per year for seven years ($1.1 billion) in ratepayer funds to prop up the company’s uneconomic nuclear power plants (disadvantaging other energy sources, like gas-fired power plants). A new ad campaign intends to hold Ohio legislators’ feet to the fire in an effort to completely repeal HB 6.
Read More “Big Ad Campaign Starts in Ohio to Repeal HB 6 Nuke Bailout Law”
We spotted an article that is one of the most salient, relevant, eloquent, and best-reasoned defenses of fossil fuels and using natural gas for power generation we’ve ever read. And it was authored by none other than Pennsylvania State Sen. Gene Yaw! Yaw, from Williamsport, is chairman of the PA Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee. He is dead set against Gov. Wolf’s ill-conceived plan to force the state to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)–a carbon tax on coal and gas-fired power generation that will do nothing to save the planet and everything to kill off what remains of the Marcellus Shale industry in the state.
Read More “Sen. Gene Yaw Makes Strong Case Against PA Carbon Tax”
FirstEnergy Solutions (now called Energy Harbor) allegedly paid $60 million in bribes to (now former) Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four of his associates to gain their assistance in passing the hugely unpopular House Bill 6 (see FirstEnergy Involved in Bribery Scheme to Pass $1B Nuke Bailout Law). HB 6, which became law, gives Energy Harbor $1.1 billion in ratepayer funds over seven years to prop up the company’s uneconomic nuclear power plants (disadvantaging other energy sources, like gas-fired power plants). Ohio’s Attorney General is asking a bankruptcy court to stop those annual $150 million payments.
Read More “Ohio AG Asks Court to Stop Payments to FirstEnergy Nuke Plants”