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Sale of East Ohio Gas Co. from Dominion to Enbridge Now Complete

Last September, Dominion Energy and Enbridge co-announced that Dominion had agreed to sell the company’s remaining natural gas local distribution companies (LDCs) that Dominion owns to Enbridge for $14.0 billion, which includes $9.4 billion in cash plus the assumption of debt (see Dominion Energy Loses Mind – Sells Remaining LDC NatGas Businesses). The deal includes three LDCs — The East Ohio Gas Company, Public Service Company of North Carolina, and Questar Gas Company (along with Wexpro Company). The first of the three, the East Ohio Gas Company, officially changed hands yesterday. Of the $14 billion being spent for all three, East Ohio Gas represents $6.6 billion — roughly half.
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Rhode Island Neighbors Prefer Gas Outages to Permanent LNG Plant

In 2019, the Rhode Island Energy Facility Siting Board waived a licensing requirement for a “temporary” LNG storage facility in Portsmouth to prevent another gas outage episode from happening again (see With “Backs Against Wall” Rhode Island Approves LNG Facility). Board members complained they had no choice, that “we have our backs against the wall” and “people’s lives could be in danger” if they didn’t approve the LNG facility. The “temporary” facility has remained operating since that time. Rhode Island Energy recently submitted a proposal to make the facility permanent instead of an ongoing temporary installation. The people who live nearby and for whom it keeps them warm in the winter oppose the plan. They prefer to freeze.
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Hope Gas Continues to Expand – Seeks to Buy 2 Small WV Utilities

Hope Gas provides natural gas service to approximately 131,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-five West Virginia counties. In October, Hope closed on acquiring the West Virginia division of Peoples Gas for an undisclosed amount, giving the company another 13,000 customers (see Hope Gas Closes Acquisition of Peoples Gas WV – Adds 13K Customers). The company also closed on a deal to buy Southern Public Service Company with another 6,400 customers across six WV counties in December (see WV’s Hope Gas Buys Southern Public, Adds 6,400 Customers). Hope is growing yet again…
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New City Council Members Want to Destroy Philadelphia Gas Works

The New Year brought with it four new members of the Philadelphia City Council. All four are radical leftists who want to destroy the city-owned Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) by forcing it to dump sales of natural gas. The inmates are running the asylum! Three of the four new members are radical left Democrats. One is from the Working Families Party — essentially the same thing as the Communist Party (and no, we’re not exaggerating). The new council members say the city (the world) is “in an emergency place” and “we’ve got to take emergency, immediate actions” in order to save the planet. Is anyone listening to these nutters? How in the world did they get elected?
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Hope Gas Fights FOIA for Detailed Maps of 30-Mile Gas Pipe in WV

Hope Gas is a Local Distribution Company (LDC) that provides gas service to approximately 125,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-five West Virginia counties. The company owns and maintains more than 6,900 miles of pipelines that safely deliver West Virginia natural gas to many homes and commercial or industrial sites. In September, Hope Gas asked the WV Public Service Commission (PSC) of West Virginia for permission to build a new 30-mile pipeline in Monongalia County (see Hope Gas Seeks to Build 30-Mile Gas Pipe in Monongalia County, WV). Hope says the project, with an estimated price tag of $177 million, is necessary to meet the growing demand for natural gas in the Morgantown area and to ensure reliable service for existing customers.
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WV’s Hope Gas Buys Southern Public, Adds 6,400 Customers

Hope Gas provides natural gas service to approximately 131,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-five West Virginia counties. In October, Hope closed on the acquisition of the West Virginia division of Peoples Gas for an undisclosed amount, giving the company another 13,000 customers (see Hope Gas Closes Acquisition of Peoples Gas WV – Adds 13K Customers). Hope is growing again! The company has just closed on a deal to buy Southern Public Service Company with another 6,400 customers across six WV counties.
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Hope Gas to Use ARCH2 $$ to Distro 5,300 Hydrogen Fuel Cells in WV

WATT Fuel Cell

A fuel cell manufacturer located in Westmoreland County, PA — WATT Fuel Cell — manufactures Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (“SOFC”) stacks and systems that operate on common, readily available fuels such as natural gas and propane. Instead of burning and combusting natural gas (or propane), those fuel sources are subjected to an electrochemical process that produces electricity. In July, the company announced it would distribute 500 of its units to customers of Hope Gas, a West Virginia-based natural gas utility (see NatGas-Powered WATT Fuel Cells Provided to 500 West Virginia Homes). Hope Gas announced yesterday another 5,300 WATT units will be distributed to its customers as part of the recent hydrogen hub award given to West Virginia and its partners.
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Chesapeake Utilities Files to Build $80M LNG Peaker in Maryland

Worcester Resiliency Upgrade project map (click for larger version)

According to Jeff Householder, CEO of Chesapeake Utilities Corporation (not to be confused with Chesapeake Energy), “Demand for natural gas continues to increase in our Delmarva service territories, where our customer additions are above national averages.” For those unfamiliar, Delmarva is the peninsula along the East Coast where the states of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia share borders. Chesapeake Utilities (a local utility company) operates a subsidiary called Eastern Shore Natural Gas Company. Eastern Shore recently filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build an LNG storage facility in Bishopville, Maryland, called the Worcester Resiliency Upgrade project.
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WV’s Hope Gas Parent Hearthstone Rebrands as Hope Utilities

In August 2022, MDN brought you the news that Hearthstone Utilities, a Naperville, Illinois-based company, was planning to move its corporate headquarters to Morgantown, West Virginia (see Hearthstone Utilities Moving HQ to WV to Leverage Marcellus/Utica). The move finally happened in June of this year (see Utility Co. Hope Gas Transfers HQ from Illinois to Morgantown, WV). Why move? According to CEO Morgan O’Brien, “We’re very bullish on West Virginia and the idea of having a gas utility sitting on top of the Marcellus and Utica shales, and what that could mean.” Hearthstone operates local natural gas utilities in Indiana, Maine, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, and with the purchase of Hope Gas from Dominion Energy earlier this year, it now operates in West Virginia (see Dominion Selling WV Utility – Deal Incl. 2K Miles Gathering Pipes). The parent company is changing its name from Hearthstone Utilities to Hope Utilities.
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Hope Gas Closes Acquisition of Peoples Gas WV – Adds 13K Customers

Hope Gas, a Local Distribution Company (LDC), otherwise known as a utility company, provides gas service to approximately 112,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-five West Virginia counties. In January, Hope announced it was buying the West Virginia division of Peoples Gas, currently owned by Essential Utilities, for an undisclosed amount (see Hope Gas Cuts Deal to Buy Peoples Gas of West Virginia). The deal will add another 13,000 customers to Hope’s customer base. The Hope/Peoples deal finally closed yesterday.
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Western NY NatGas Utility EnergyMark Buys Crown Energy Services

Local natural gas utility EnergyMark, LLC located in Williamsville, NY (provider of natgas to the Buffalo Bills stadium), announced the acquisition of the assets of another gas utility, Crown Energy Services, Inc. of West Seneca, NY. The two energy supply companies are among the longest-standing suppliers of natural gas in Western New York. Both companies have provided natural gas supply service to industrial, commercial, and residential clients in New York and Pennsylvania for over 20 years.
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Hope Gas Seeks to Build 30-Mile Gas Pipe in Monongalia County, WV

Hope Gas, a Local Distribution Company (LDC) or a utility company, provides gas service to approximately 112,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-five West Virginia counties. Hope Gas recently received approval from the Public Service Commission (PSC) of West Virginia to acquire nearly 900 miles of gathering pipelines in northern West Virginia from Equitrans Midstream and add the pipeline to the 2,000 miles of WV gathering pipes it already owns (see Equitrans Selling 900 Miles of WV Gathering Pipes to Hope Gas). Hope is expanding again. The company has asked the Public Service Commission of West Virginia for permission to build a new 30-mile pipeline in Monongalia County.
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Dominion Energy Loses Mind – Sells Remaining LDC NatGas Businesses

Yesterday, Dominion Energy and Enbridge co-announced that Dominion has agreed to sell what we think (not 100% sure) are the remaining natural gas local distribution companies (LDCs) that Dominion owns to Enbridge for $14.0 billion, which includes $9.4 billion in cash plus the assumption of debt. The deal includes three LDCs–The East Ohio Gas Company, Public Service Company of North Carolina, and Questar Gas Company (along with Wexpro Company). The three LDCs serve about 3 million homes and businesses in Ohio, North Carolina, Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho and include 78,000 miles of natural gas distribution, transmission, gathering, and storage pipelines and more than 62 Bcf of working underground and LNG storage capacity. Dominion wants to shed its natgas businesses and focus solely on electrifying everything.
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PHMSA Issues New Gas Utility Pipeline Regs to “Improve Safety”

Columbia Gas of Massachusetts (NiSource) never quite recovered from a series of explosions in September 2018 that occurred with its local delivery pipelines north of Boston (see Local NatGas Pipes Explode Near Boston Killing 1, Injuring 25). The explosions and resulting fires tragically killed one teenager and injured 25 others. It left some 8,600 households and businesses in the Merrimack Valley without natural gas for months. Several class action lawsuits were filed against the company, which got settled for $143 million (see Columbia Gas Pays $143M to Settle Lawsuit from Mass. Explosions). The company reached a plea deal to (a) sell the company and (b) pay the largest criminal fine ever imposed under the Pipeline Safety Act (see Columbia Gas of Mass. Sentenced to $53M Fine, Probation, Sell Co.). The Biden Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is using the Merrimack Valley episode to float a raft of proposed new regulations that will supposedly ensure the safety of millions of miles of local natgas delivery pipelines.
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NatGas Utility Co. Eversource Cancels American Gas Assoc. Membership

The American Gas Association (AGA) is a trade organization founded in 1918 that represents and advocates for local energy companies that deliver natural gas throughout the United States. With more than 200 members (BIG companies), the AGA educates the public about the importance of natural gas, supports natural gas utilities in their efforts to make their operations safer, more efficient, and more environmentally friendly, and serves as a resource for local, state and federal policymakers when it comes to regulating the natural gas industry. The AGA is one of the country’s premier natural gas associations. The AGA says its members “support the safe, reliable, affordable and sustainable delivery of natural gas to millions of Americans.” Although Eversource, the largest utility company in New England serving 4 million customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, provides its customers with electricity and natural gas, it has quit its membership in the AGA.
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Eversource Still Trying to Build Tiny 5-Mile NatGas Pipe in Mass.

Eversource wants to build the Western Massachusetts Natural Gas Reliability Project in Springfield, Massachusetts, to prevent winter gas outages. The purpose of the tiny 5.3-mile pipeline is to function as a backup–to prevent natural gas from being turned off for 58,000 Eversource customers (200,000 people) in the region. The existing pipeline in that area is 70 years old with no backup. If the existing, old pipeline has an issue and the gas gets turned off, that’s 200,000 people with no natural gas in the dead of a New England winter. Yet the radicalized Massachusetts Energy Secretary Rebecca Tepper (far-left Democrat) has told Eversource its draft environmental impact report for the tiny pipeline isn’t good enough for her. She wants Eversource to cut down more trees to create a supplemental report to answer her nit-picky questions.
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