Leftists Pressure Philadelphia Gas Works to Stop Selling…Gas!
As we so often say, there’s no fixing stupid. And stupid was on full display in Philadelphia yesterday as a small group of Democrat Socialists of America members (i.e. Communists) protested ahead of a budget review at the headquarters of Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW). Philly Gas Works is the country’s largest municipal-owned NATURAL GAS company. And yet the Commies demand that PGW quit selling natural gas and instead change over to, what? Coal? Horse manure? Who knows?!
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We were shocked last December when Consolidated Edison, one of the top natural gas utilities in New York City (in the entire country), threw its support behind a plan to eventually ban the use of natural gas in all of NYC’s buildings (see 
National Grid is desperately trying not to run out of natural gas for its customers in Brooklyn and Queens (on Long Island). For several years the company has fought a battle to run a tiny pipeline to its Greenpoint, Brooklyn facility, to provide extra natural gas. That project is being investigated by the Biden administration on charges of racism (see 
Consolidated Edison (Con Ed), the local gas and electric utility serving Manhattan Island and Westchester County in the New York City region, has proposed increasing electricity rates by 17.6% and natural gas rates by a stratospheric 28.1% beginning Jan. 1, 2023. Why so high for both? Lack of natural gas in the region. Why is there a lack of natural gas? Lack of pipelines from the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale.
Dominion Energy is divesting itself from a natural gas utility company it owns in West Virginia–Hope Gas, Inc. Dominion is selling Hope to investment firm Ullico Inc. for $690 million. Ullico plans to combine Hope Gas with another company it owns, Hearthstone Utilities, Inc. The reason this deal caught our attention is that Hope Gas owns and operates “2,000 miles of gathering pipelines” in the Mountain State.
After signing the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin is reported to have said: “We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” Someone at Consolidated Edison (ConEd) never studied history. ConEd has joined hands with the very people that seek to destroy the fossil fuel industry in a campaign to pressure New York City into adopting a new law prohibiting new customers from hooking up for natural gas delivery. Even though ConEd itself is one of two primary suppliers of natural gas in NYC. Why do such a foolish thing?
Yesterday, National Grid issued its Natural Gas Long-Term Capacity Second Supplemental Report (full copy below). The report reaffirms the company’s commitment to achieving a mythical so-called “net zero carbon” future. Whatever. The report provides an update on the short- and long-term energy needs of downstate New York customers, reviews the status of targeted solutions identified by the company in 2020, and emphasizes the importance of ensuring that no customer is left behind during the transition to a magical net zero future. How will they accomplish it? According to this updated report, with *more* natural gas.
From the “mankind has gone collectively insane” file: Some two dozen utility companies, including Dominion Energy and Sempra Energy, are experimenting/dipping their toe in the water of mixing super-explosive hydrogen with methane (natural gas) in extremely small quantities on the theory that one day, hydrogen can replace natural gas in existing pipelines and infrastructure. H2 can’t and won’t replace CH4, but hey, these companies at least have to show they’re trying or risk being sued into oblivion by woke leftists who claim mankind is burning the earth by burning fossil fuels. Yes, collectively mankind has officially gone mad…
Headquartered in Philadelphia, PECO (a subsidiary of Exelon Corp.) is Pennsylvania’s largest electric and natural gas utility, delivering power to more than 1.6 million electric customers and more than 532,000 natural gas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania. Last fall PECO floated a plan to build a natural gas reliability station in Marple Township (Delaware County, PA) to allow the company to distribute more natural gas into Delaware County through 11.5 miles of new natural gas main lines. As you might expect, the neighbors in the densely populated area of the reliability station are up in arms over the plan (see 
It honestly is one of the most bizarre things we’ve ever seen. The largest publicly-owned natural gas utility in the country, Philadelphia Gas Works, is actually looking at and considering the best ways it can kill itself. The implications are many. First and foremost it’s completely racist, as ending the sale of natural gas so will skyrocket the utility bills of its 500,000 customers, who are primarily people of color (44% African American, 14% Latino, 7% Asian = 65% in total). There is no way a majority of Philly residents can afford to wholesale replace their stoves and furnaces at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars. Yet there’s no mention of racism in reporting on this bizarre issue.
We spotted an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about South Jersey Industries (owner of South Jersey Gas and Elizabethtown Gas utilities) announcing a commitment to eliminate all so-called greenhouse gas emissions from its own operations by 2040. This is what is often called net-zero carbon. Even with this major effort by SJI, the nutty Sierra Club refuses to give the company an attaboy. Instead, the Clubbers say the company should just close down all of its natural gas utility operations and…what?…let everyone freeze to death in the winter?
In yet another pathetic attempt to deflect attention away from his own crimes while in office (groping women, forcing nursing homes to accept COVID patients who infected other residents who died), Andrew Cuomo’s office yesterday announced a “settlement” with utility company National Grid (provides natural gas to half of New York City and all of Long Island). Cuomo’s office claims National Grid failed to protect underground gas pipelines from corrosion, which translates into $21 million of fines disappearing into the black hole of the Cuomo administration.