Hope Gas Gets Ready to Roll Out WATT Fuel Cells to WV Customers
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 2023, 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 last October another 5,300 WATT units will be distributed to its customers as part of the hydrogen hub award given to West Virginia and its partners (see Hope Gas to Use ARCH2 $$ to Distro 5,300 Hydrogen Fuel Cells in WV). We have details on Hope’s plan to roll out the WATT units in 2025. Read More “Hope Gas Gets Ready to Roll Out WATT Fuel Cells to WV Customers”
Kentucky has seen unprecedented economic growth in recent years like other southern states. Data centers are looking to Kentucky for future expansion. Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities Company (KU), both part of PPL Corporation, are forecasting in their Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) the need for additional power generation due to the expected influx of data centers and economic development across their service territories. The companies want to build two new natural gas combined-cycle generation units—one in 2030 and another in 2031. 
It is just coming to light for us now that back in August, Hope Gas, a large local utility company that provides gas service to more than 131,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-seven West Virginia counties, filed a rate case with the state Public Service Commission (PSC) looking to convert customers who use a “farm tap” gas system to either propane fuel or electric heat for their homes. The change would affect around 600 customers, removing them from the ability to use local natural gas. 
In September 2023, 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 
Last week, MDN brought you an article from RBN Energy detailing how more electricity and natural gas will soon be needed in Virginia and the Carolinas for a plethora of new projects in the works (see 
According to an announcement from Georgia Natural Gas (GNG), the utility company’s “Greener Life” program, which helps customers make their natural gas usage carbon neutral, has reached a new milestone of 500 million pounds of carbon emissions offset from the atmosphere. That amount is equivalent to taking over 50,000 cars off the road for a year. GNG buys natural gas from producers (in the Marcellus/Utica) that certify their gas as low-emissions using the MiQ protocol.
This is a case of everybody pointing at somebody else. Natural gas with contaminants (dirty gas) flowed through pipelines to Fairmont State University (in Marion County, WV), which “significantly damaged boilers, gas lines, valved and regulators and other structures and equipment on the college campus” in September 2021. The university sued the local utility company providing the gas, Hope Gas. In return, Hope said that *if* the gas was not clean, it was not their fault. They got the gas from Eastern Gas Transmission and Storage (EGTS), formerly owned by Dominion Energy but now owned by Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
Anti-fossil fuel zealots from the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and from an Indian tribe as far away as Nova Scotia (Canada) are opposing a $12 billion plan by Washington Gas to fix leaky (very old) natural gas pipelines that cross under the streets of our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. An article from the Big Green propaganda outfit Public News Service (PNS) opens with this line: “Washington D.C. residents are pushing back on a plan to build out existing fossil fuel infrastructure.” There’s no mention of how many D.C. residents object. And as if there aren’t enough residents who object, the article quotes an anti from Nova Scotia! What do antis from N.S. have to do with this?
For all of the griping and complaining and moaning from the radical left (and uppity Virginia horse farmers) about the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) being unnecessary and a blight against humanity, wonder of wonders, customers are WAITING for the gas that will flow through MVP! In fact, the CEO of Roanoke Gas Co. says “We were out of gas literally.” Roanoke Gas desperately needs the new supplies that will flow through MVP. In addition, Summit View Business Park in Franklin County will receive gas from MVP, which will boost the park’s efforts to market its 13 available sites.
Hope Gas, a large local utility company, provides gas service to more than 131,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-seven West Virginia counties. The company monitors and maintains over 7,000 miles of pipelines that safely deliver West Virginia natural gas to many homes and commercial and industrial sites. Hope employs over 450 employees, all working in WV. The company has been expanding like crazy, purchasing and integrating five companies over the past year. Yesterday, Hope announced a deal to buy a sixth company — Consumers Gas Utility Company — which will add another 8,500 customers to Hope’s growing natural gas customer base.
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 
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 
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?
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