Kentucky Utilities Want to Build 2 New NatGas Power Plants
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. Read More “Kentucky Utilities Want to Build 2 New NatGas Power Plants”

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.
AES Indiana, formerly known as Indianapolis Power & Light Company, is a utility company providing electric service to the city of Indianapolis. It is a subsidiary and largest utility of AES Corporation. In August, AES Indiana said that it wants to invest $1.1 billion in Pike County, IN, to convert the company’s two remaining coal-fired power plants to run natural gas instead (see
Air Products, headquartered in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania (Allentown area), once manufactured huge rocket-looking “production trains” or “heat exchangers,” which are pieces of equipment that turn natural gas into liquefied natural gas (LNG), in a plant in Wilkes-Barre, PA. The heat exchangers manufactured by Air Products in Wilkes-Barre were two-thirds of a football field long (180 feet) and used by plants all over the world to condense natural gas into a liquid. Air Products shut down the Wilkes-Barre plant in 2017. However, it kept operating a second LNG manufacturing plant in Port Manatee, Florida. A few weeks ago, the company announced that it had completed the process of selling its LNG technology manufacturing business, including the Port Manatee facility, to Honeywell for $1.8 billion (see
For more than three years, MDN has called out the International Energy Agency (IEA) and its executive director, Dr. Fatih Birol, as nothing more than tools of Big Green. We’ve reported on many of the IEA’s fake predictions about peak demand for oil and natural gas (see
Net zero is a goal to balance the amount of so-called greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted into the atmosphere with the amount removed. Mythical net zero can be achieved by reducing emissions and removing carbon from the atmosphere. One of the ways net zero dreamers think they can save Mom Earth is to eliminate natural gas-fired power plants and replace them with alternatives like unreliable solar and wind. According to an article by law firm Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC, “The primacy of natural gas is not likely to change soon.” Translation: Natgas isn’t going anywhere.
Feedgas flowing from the Marcellus/Utica to the Cove Point LNG export facility located on the shore of Maryland fell to zero on Friday, Sept. 20, as the facility began its planned annual maintenance outage (see
Just two days ago, MDN brought you a story about a developing issue of who, ultimately, should pay to build out new electricity sources for data centers (and AI) that increasingly use huge amounts of power (see
The environmental left continues to try and co-opt the term “Evangelical Christian,” defined as protestants who tend to be pro-life and conservative in their political views. We’re talking about the so-called Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN) and its political lobbying arm, EEN Action. The group continues to pressure Pennsylvania’s political leaders to adopt unreliable renewable energy (by government fiat) and to force residents to dump their use of fossil energy. We previously exposed them for who they really are (see
Shale energy has been an astonishing miracle, made possible exclusively due to the ingenuity and tenacity of America (specifically one American, George Mitchell). The shale miracle resulted in, get this, North America adding 15 million barrels a day (bpd) of liquid hydrocarbon and 50 billion cubic feet a day (Bcf/d) of gas production to the global market since 2005. How much more will the world need in the next 15 years, and how much of that will be supplied by North America? 
In August, some two dozen states asked the U.S. Supreme Court to place a temporary block on new EPA regulations that will put all coal plants out of business and block most (if not all) new gas-fired power plants from getting built (see
In November 2022, PA’s then-Governor, Tom Wolf, signed into law a bill providing $142 million annually in state tax credits for several purposes, including clean hydrogen hubs, natural gas use, semiconductor manufacturing, and milk processors (see
An assistant professor of data science at Saint Vincent College in Westmoreland County, PA, recently published a study (based on hospital records) examining whether some chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing affect the occurrence of pre-term births (PTB) and low birth weights (LBW) in the United States. She looked at data from several counties in southwest PA. The researcher says she found that “counties that had more hydraulic fracturing wells that utilize chemicals that target certain hormones also had greater amounts of PTB and LWB.” Yet her data shows just the opposite!
The northeast, particularly New England, has some of the highest energy costs in the country. We are the poster child for inadequate fuel supplies and lack of energy. Yet we have embarrassing riches of energy under our feet in the Marcellus/Utica! The problem? “The Northeast is the most extreme example of demand/supply mismatch in recent years, thanks to local court decisions and policy changes that have brought gas infrastructure developments to a screeching halt. Challenges facing the region will only persist, if not get worse until adequate infrastructure is built to bring energy into the region.”
In May 2023, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) announced that it would convert the Kingston Fossil Plant (coal-fired plant) in East Tennessee to a natural gas-fired plant capable of generating 1,500 megawatts of electricity (see