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Dunkirk, NY Electric Plant Saved – Converting from Coal to NatGas

Looks like the good residents in Dunkirk, NY (near Buffalo) have dodged a major tax bullet. Last week MDN told you about hypocritical anti-drillers who oppose converting coal-powered electric plants in both Ithaca and Dunkirk into being powered by natural gas–simply because they don’t like fossil fuels (see Anti-Drillers Oppose Converting 2 NY Electric Plants to NatGas). As we pointed out, the plants in Dunkirk and Ithaca provide something like 40% of the tax revenue for the local towns and schools where they are located. Closing either plant would devastate that community and force some residents to leave after taxes skyrocket. The Dunkirk plant has been saved.

In a strange twist of fate, Gov. Andrew “the fracking ditherer” Cuomo slogged through three feet of snow in Dunkirk to crow that a deal has been reached to keep the plant open and convert it from burning coal to burning natural gas. Oh, the plant will burn natural gas fracked in other states and pipelined to NY. Ironic, no? Here’s the story…
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Anti-Drillers Oppose Converting 2 NY Electric Plants to NatGas

This is the tale of two electrical generating power plants. Both are located in New York State–on opposite sides of the state. One is in Tompkins County (near Ithaca, NY), the other in Chautauqua County (Dunkirk, near Buffalo, NY). Both are powered by coal and both will either need to convert to natural gas or close down.

Something else both have in common: anti-drilling nutters want them closed rather than converted  from burning coal to burning natural gas–even though closure means school and property taxes in both areas will go through the roof–higher than the nosebleed rates they already are. In both cases the power plants are the single largest taxpayer in their respective municipalities. Makes no difference to the nutters because most of them don’t live there and could care less. An update for both the Cayuga Power Plant and the Dunkirk Power Plant…
Read More “Anti-Drillers Oppose Converting 2 NY Electric Plants to NatGas”

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New Electric Power Plant in Lancaster Powered by Marcellus Gas

Even though there’s no Marcellus Shale under Lancaster County, PA, the county is about to benefit from the Marcellus Shale. A new electrical generating power plant is planned for Lancaster County that will be powered by cheap Marcellus Shale gas from Pennsylvania–meaning lower electricity prices for the 390,000 homes it will power. It also means a new 9-mile natural gas pipeline will be built, and a 7-mile water pipeline.

Lots of jobs in building the plant and the pipelines, some landowners will benefit from having the pipeline cross their property, and everyone in the region gets lower cost electricity. It’s a win/win/win situation–thanks to the Marcellus…
Read More “New Electric Power Plant in Lancaster Powered by Marcellus Gas”

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P&G’s Only Energy Self-Sufficient Plant is Powered by Marcellus

Consumer goods behemoth Procter & Gamble (P&G) has 150 manufacturing plants worldwide that make things like Pampers diapers, Charmin toilet paper and Bounty paper towels. Only one of those 150 P&G manufacturing plants is 100% energy self-sufficient–providing all of its own massive energy needs without the need to tap into the local utility grid. Can you guess where it’s located? The 100% energy self-sufficient P&G plant is in Mehoopany (Wyoming County), PA, near Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The P&G plant in Mehoopany is powered exclusively by Marcellus Shale gas drilled right on P&G’s own property! In fact, P&G is producing so much electricity by using Marcellus gas that they sell electricity back to the local utility grid–enough electricity to power 20,000 homes! What a tremendously proud, feel-good moment this is.

Northeast PA is showing the world how shale gas is making the U.S. energy independent. Bye bye tinpot dictators in the Middle East who hate our guts! Bye bye messy wars to keep oil flowing. Hello home-grown energy, home-grown jobs and home-grown economic prosperity. Here’s the P&G feel-good story that will keep you smiling while you eat turkey tomorrow…
Read More “P&G’s Only Energy Self-Sufficient Plant is Powered by Marcellus”

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4 Electric Plants Coming to NE PA, Powered by Marcellus Gas

In August MDN told you the news that Chief Oil & Gas has struck up a deal with IMG Midstream (sort of misnamed, IMG is not a pipeline company) to provide IMG with Marcellus Shale gas to power several small regional, super efficient and low-polluting electric generation plants they plan to build in northeastern Pennsylvania (see Chief Strikes Deal to Provide Marcellus Gas for Electric Plants). We have good news: projects to build those plants are moving forward with all due speed.

We now know that there are four plants planned for Pennsylvania and one for West Virginia. We also know where those plants will be built…
Read More “4 Electric Plants Coming to NE PA, Powered by Marcellus Gas”

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Deniers Would Rather Penn State Keep Burning Coal than Use NatGas

Witnessing the psychology of those who are anti-drilling, and the reasons for being anti-drilling, is instructive. Some people are honestly afraid that fracking and an increased use of natural gas will lead to an environmental holocaust. We’ll call them lazily ignorant. They don’t bother to investigate or think through the information being spoon fed to them with a critical, logical mind. They just accept the fantastical yarns they hear as the truth. Then there are the true believer fanatics who have gone on over the edge, believing mythical “renewables” can power the planet–now–if only we had the political spine to man-up and change. Bring back the horse and buggies! We’ll call them dangerously stupid.

Regardless of whether you’re lazily ignorant or dangerously stupid (i.e. regardless of why you believe), what you believe does matter. Case in point: A “few dozen” residents and students who live near Penn State in State College, PA want the university to forget about their plan to convert their electric generation plant from being powered by coal to being powered by cheaper, clean-burning natural gas…
Read More “Deniers Would Rather Penn State Keep Burning Coal than Use NatGas”

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GE Report: Natural Gas Taking the Limelight in World Energy

Last week GE released a new report titled “The Age of Gas and the Power of Networks” (full copy embedded below). In the report, the brains at GE say that natural gas will soon rival coal use throughout the world, and is even starting to take some of oil’s market share away. By 2025 the report says 20% of the world’s natural gas supply will come from unconventional (i.e. shale) gas. Most that will come from the U.S. and Canada, and the majority of that will come from two shale plays: the Marcellus and the Eagle Ford. It shows the incredible importance of the Marcellus to the world’s energy supplies in the coming decades.

Other interesting factoids found in the report: 89% of natural gas is transported via pipelines, the rest by rail or truck or ship. LNG exports will play an increasingly important role as America continues to generate more natural gas that we can use here at home. And not surprisingly, the power sector (electric generation) will be the key future driver of demand for more natural gas, especially with tighter EPA regulations on coal generating plants…
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PA Electric Generation Plant Will Get its Own Marcellus Well

GEI Global Energy Corp announced yesterday they have signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Owl Eco Group to build a 100 megawatt electric generation plant in western Pennsylvania that runs on Marcellus Shale gas.

Not only will this be a massive project taking several years and costing $470 million to build, but GEI says the plan calls for the power plant to get its very own Marcellus Shale well drilled to supply it. Smart…
Read More “PA Electric Generation Plant Will Get its Own Marcellus Well”

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NJ Company Becomes Agent for NatGas to Power PA Electric Plant

In October 2012, Moxie Liberty LLC of Vienna, VA applied for and received permission from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to build Pennsylvania’s first new electric generation plant to use Marcellus Shale gas to power it (see PA DEP Approves 1st New Electric Plant to Use Marcellus Gas). The new plant will be built in Bradford County, PA, the state’s most heavily drilled Marcellus Shale county. A month ago we learned that the project had been sold to Panda Power Funds of Dallas, TX and will now be called Panda Liberty (see Moxie Liberty Sells PA Electric Plant Project to Panda Power). Yes, we childishly made fun of the name!

More “new” news about Panda Liberty. One might think (as we did) that the new power plant will just hook up to whatever local driller or midstream company wants to sell them cheap, locally produced Marcellus Shale gas. However, that would be the wrong conclusion…
Read More “NJ Company Becomes Agent for NatGas to Power PA Electric Plant”

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Chief Strikes Deal to Provide Marcellus Gas for Electric Plants

Chief Oil & Gas announced yesterday they have crafted a deal to supply some of the Marcellus Shale gas they produce in PA to IMG Midstream. You may think IMG is a pipeline company because of the word “midstream” in its name–but you would be wrong. IMG Midstream (formerly known as Iron Mountain Generation) develops, owns, and operates small-scale electric generation plants powered by natural gas. As part of the new deal, Chief will use pipelines from Access Midstream and PVR Midstream to get the gas from their wells to IMG’s new electric plants (to be built) in northeastern PA.

With that explanation to clear up who the players are, here’s the (somewhat confusing) press release announcing the deal…
Read More “Chief Strikes Deal to Provide Marcellus Gas for Electric Plants”

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Moxie Liberty Sells PA Electric Plant Project to Panda Power

Last October, Moxie Liberty LLC (i.e., Moxie Energy) of Vienna, VA applied for and received permission from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to build Pennsylvania’s first new electric generation plant to use Marcellus Shale gas to power it (see PA DEP Approves 1st New Electric Plant to Use Marcellus Gas). The plant will be built in Bradford County, PA–the state’s most heavily drilled Marcellus county. However, Moxie will no longer build it. Word came yesterday that Moxie sold the project to Panda Power Funds of Dallas, TX. Henceforth the project will be called Panda Liberty.

Yesterday’s announcement from Panda Power Funds:
Read More “Moxie Liberty Sells PA Electric Plant Project to Panda Power”

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If NY Electric Plant Can’t Convert to NatGas, School Gets Screwed

As MDN has previously reported, anti-drillers in Tompkins County, NY are making a serious attempt to prevent an electrical generating plant near Ithaca, NY from converting from coal to clean-burning natural gas (see NY Eco Group Protest to Stop Plant Converting from Coal to NatGas). If the utility company is not granted permission to convert, they’ll shut the plant down, which is exactly what the anti-drillers want.

Problem is, if that plant shuts down, it will remove one of the largest sources of tax revenue for the local Lansing school district. But the antis, blinded by their twisted “renewables-only” energy philosophy, don’t care…
Read More “If NY Electric Plant Can’t Convert to NatGas, School Gets Screwed”

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Marcellus Gas to Power Combined-Cycle Electricity Plant in NE PA

A very interesting latest-and-greatest technology is slated to be used in an electricity generating power plant in Jessup Borough (Lackawanna County), PA. The project will use locally produced Marcellus Shale gas from northeastern PA to power a combined-cycle electricity plant. Here’s how combined-cycle technology works: In the first pass, natural gas is burned and the resulting combustion turns a big turbine to produce electricity. The hot exhaust  from that process is captured to boil water, turning it to steam, and the steam turns a second turbine. Very efficient and far less polluting than other types of fuel.

More combined-cycle plants are planned for the greater Scranton-Wilkes-Barre area as well. As coal-fired plants continue to shut down due to strict new regulations from the federal EPA, something has to replace the lost power. Either that or turn off your smart phones and televisions. However, look for short-sighted nimby-types and anti-drillers to try and stop this bit of progress…
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DOE: Climate Change Affects Fracking & NatGas Too

The climate, it’s a changin’. Ought to be a song. Yesterday, the Obama Dept. of Energy (DOE) released a new report on American energy sector “vulnerabilities” that come from  mythical man-made global warming (euphemistically renamed “climate change”). The new report is titled, “U.S. Energy Sector Vulnerabilities to Climate Change and Extreme Weather” (full copy embedded below). It says that unconventional shale drilling either is, or soon will be, affected by global warming from lack of water supplies to use in fracking. It also asserts that as temps rise, less natural gas (and oil) will be used for heating, but more electricity will be used for cooling.

Here’s the DOE press release announcing the study:
Read More “DOE: Climate Change Affects Fracking & NatGas Too”

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New NatGas Powered Electric Plant Coming to Carroll County, OH

Carroll County Energy in Carroll County, OH–a subsidiary of Advanced Power Services–announced Monday they plan to spend $800 million to build a new 700-megawatt natural gas electric generating plant in the county. The new plant will create 500 temporary construction jobs and 25-30 permanent jobs when completed. It will supply electricity to 700,000 homes by using low-cost Utica (and Marcellus) Shale gas to generate electricity–made necessary because some 5,800 megawatts of coal-fired plants are due to retire in Ohio by end of 2015. Look for more announcements like this one to come along in the near future…
Read More “New NatGas Powered Electric Plant Coming to Carroll County, OH”

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NY Eco Group Protest to Stop Plant Converting from Coal to NatGas

It would be hysterically funny if it weren’t so pathetically sad. So-called environmentalists don’t want an electrical generating power plant in Tompkins County, near Ithaca, NY, to switch from burning coal to natural gas because they’re afraid it will mean more fracking. Talk about cuckoo birds. Members of a group called the Finger Lakes Action Network protested at the plant on Saturday…
Read More “NY Eco Group Protest to Stop Plant Converting from Coal to NatGas”