Radical greens continue to agitate and protest against a tiny 140-megawatt natural gas-fired electric plant for NJ Transit in Kearny, NJ. A group of radical greens (along with leftist politicians they have coopted) will stage a “rally” this afternoon to try and pressure NJ’s lefty governor, Phil Murphy, into finding a way to block the project.
Read More “Radical Greens Protest Clean NatGas Power Plant Project in NJ”
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee held a virtual hearing on Gov. Wolf’s plan to bypass the state legislature and force the state to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a group of northeastern states attempting to assassinate coal and gas-fired power generation by taxing it to death with an insane carbon tax (see Gov. Wolf Goes Bonkers: EO Destroying Gas-Fired Elec, Carbon Tax). Committee Chairman Sen. Gene Yaw (Republican) slammed RGGI in his opening/closing remarks. So too did a number of business leaders who addressed the hearing, telling Senators RGGI will be an economic disaster for the state.
Read More “PA Senate Virtual Hearing Blasts Gov. Wolf’s Carbon Tax Plan”
Last October PA Gov. Tom Wolf, in a naked power-grab, said he would try to force PA to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a group of northeastern states attempting to assassinate coal and gas-fired power generation by taxing it to death with an insane carbon tax (see Gov. Wolf Goes Bonkers: EO Destroying Gas-Fired Elec, Carbon Tax). Wolf signed an Executive Order (EO) tasking his Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) with the job of concocting a plan by July 31. Yesterday Wolf tweaked his original EO and extended the deadline for DEP by an extra six weeks–to Sept. 15.
Read More “PA Gov. Wolf Gives DEP Extra Time to File Carbon Tax Plan”
Talen Energy Corp. subsidiary NorthEast Gas Generation owns two natural gas-fired electric generation plants–one in Athens (Greene County), NY, and one in Charlton (Worcester County), MA. Yesterday Talen/NorthEast filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the third time NorthEast has filed since 2014. The current plan is to hand over ownership to the company’s debtholders.
Read More “2 Gas-Fired Plants in NY, Mass. File Bankruptcy for Third Time”
The Hickory Run Energy Center–an electric generating plant built at a former manufacturing site in New Castle (Lawrence County), PA–finally went online on May 18. It took three years to construct and employs 23 people. The plant is fed by Marcellus Shale gas.
Read More “Marcellus-Fired Hickory Run Power Plant in W PA Went Online May 18”
The Pennsylvania legislature has taken the next step in overturning a naked power-grab by Gov. Tom Wolf in his bid to force the state to join a carbon tax scheme called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Yesterday the PA House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee approved House Bill (HB) 2025 aimed at blocking RGGI without a proper vote by the legislature first. HB 2025 now goes to the full House for a vote.
Read More “PA House Ctte Approves Bill Nixing Wolf Carbon Tax on Gas Plants”
Energy Solutions Consortium (based in Buffalo, NY) has been attempting to build a Marcellus/Utica-gas fired electric power plant in Brooke County, WV for years. In Feb. 2019 we spotted a news story that said the project finally received all of its permits and would begin construction in 2019 (see WV NatGas Power Plant Gets Final Permits, Construction Begins Soon). Construction never happened last year. However, we have new evidence construction may now be on the horizon.
Read More “Brooke County, WV Gas Power Plant Inches Closer to Construction”
Last September construction was set to begin on what we believe to be the country’s largest natural gas-fired electric plant, the Guernsey Power Station being built in Guernsey County, Ohio (see Country’s Biggest NatGas Power Plant Beginning Construction in OH). We have a progress report on the latest construction activity at the site.
Read More “Work Progresses on Country’s Biggest NatGas Power Plant in Ohio”
FirstEnergy, now calling itself Energy Harbor, somehow got into the pockets (via campaign donations) of enough Ohio politicians (many of them Republican) to convince them to pass a horrible law last year–House Bill (HB) 6. HB 6 grants the company $1 billion in corporate welfare over seven years in a deal to prop up its two “unprofitable” nuclear power plants. Now that the first $150 million is about to flow, how will Energy Harbor use it? To pay its so-called high operating costs? No. Energy Harbor will funnel the money right into the pockets of big investors. It was all a scam.
Read More “OH Nuclear Bailout Corruption: Gas Sacrificed for Nuke Investors”
Big time opposition continues to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to force the state to participate in the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a tax on carbon aimed at coal and natural gas-fired electric power plants, with an eye to driving them out of business (see our RGGI stories here). Even Wolf’s own state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), an executive agency under his thumb, doesn’t want the state to join RGGI.
Read More “PA Gov. Wolf’s Own DEP Doesn’t Want RGGI Carbon Tax”
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is trying to slip through yet another unnecessary change to regulations–this time regs that will create big new hoops to jump through and higher fees to pay for Marcellus gas-fired electric plants.
Read More “PA DEP Proposes New Overstrict Regs on Gas-Fired Power Plants”
It becomes more obvious every day that the rank and file (even the leaders) of trade unions are breaking with their Democrat Party bosses over issues like insane taxes on natural gas. The divide is particularly acute in blue states like Pennsylvania, which voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and likely will again in 2020 because the Dems keep shooting themselves in the head with stupid taxes and regulations that kill jobs. The PA AFL-CIO issued a statement yesterday thanking the PA Air Quality Technical Advisory Committee, part of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, for listening to the union’s concerns about Gov. Wolf’s proposed carbon tax at a recent hearing.
Read More “PA Trade Unions Break with Democrats Over Power Plant Carbon Tax”
We previously told you about Gov. Wolf’s executive order (EO) to force Pennsylvania to join with northeastern states in the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional alliance to slap a carbon tax on coal and natural gas-fired electric plants in order to force them out of business (see Gov. Wolf Goes Bonkers: EO Destroying Gas-Fired Elec, Carbon Tax). Eighteen PA State Senators sent a letter to Wolf on April 21 asking him to withdraw his EO (see 18 PA Republican Senators Ask Gov. Wolf to Cancel Carbon Tax Plan). On Tuesday a group of 58 House members, including 10 Democrats, sent a similar letter to Wolf requesting the same thing.
Read More “58 PA House Members – Repubs & Dems – Ask Wolf to Stop Carbon Tax”
Last week MDN told you that the second phase of Sabal Trail, a $3.2 billion, 515-mile interstate natural gas pipeline in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama to deliver (in part) Marcellus gas to the southeast was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and is coming online now (see FERC OKs Extra Compression on Sabal Trail Pipe, M-U Gas to FL). Sabal Trail connects to Williams’ Hillabee Expansion Project, which is a pipeline spur built off the huge Transco pipeline system.
Read More “Phase II of Hillabee Expansion Goes Live, M-U Gas to Florida”
Competitive Power Ventures’ (CPV) Fairview Energy Center, a 1,050-megawatt natural gas AND ethane-fueled combined-cycle electric generating plant in Cambria County, PA, went online ahead of schedule back in December using Marcellus methane (see CPV Marcellus-Fired Electric Plant in Cambria Goes Online Early). However, the plant is designed to mix ethane in with methane and burn the mix. The new plant completed tests and began blending in Marcellus ethane in March (see ‘First of Its Kind’ Methane/Ethane PA Power Plant Now Online). Why blend? To keep costs down.
Read More “PA Gas-Fired Power Plant Hedges NatGas Prices with Ethane Use”
In August 2018 DTE Energy broke ground on a new state-of-the-art natural gas-fired power plant in St. Clair County, Michigan (see DTE Energy’s Michigan Gas-Fired Plant Breaks Ground Today). The gas-fired Blue Water Energy Center will produce 1,150 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 850,000 homes, helping to offset three coal-fired plants set to retire by 2023. Construction on the project, due to go online in spring 2022, was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic. Construction is set to resume on May 4.
Read More “DTE Energy Restarts Construction at Michigan Gas-Fired Plant May 4”