Invenergy Proposes Deal to Elizabeth Twp to Move Gas Power Plant
In January 2016, Invenergy announced their intention to build a natgas-powered electric plant in Elizabeth Township, in Allegheny County (see Invenergy Eyes SWPA for Second Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant). Compared to Invenergy’s other PA plant now under construction in Jessup, PA (1,480 megawatts), the proposed Elizabeth plant is much smaller, at 550 megawatts. It would be built on a brownfield site near Pittsburgh. Even though the site is a former landfill where fly ash was dumped, making it unusable for just about any other purpose, a group of local residents would prefer to keep the site a contaminated dump rather than convert it to a beneficial use like generating electricity (see Invenergy Gets Pushback on Proposed Natgas Power Plant in SWPA). Such is the kooky world of antis. Unfortunately, the local antis enlisted the support of Elizabeth Township’s zoning board, which rejected the plan in June (see Elizabeth Twp Rejects Clean Invenergy Power Plant at Dump Site). So Invenergy sued the town in October (see Invenergy Sues Elizabeth Twp to Allow NatGas-Fired Electric Plant). Rather than drag out the lawsuit, causing Elizabeth taxpayers big money to defend a defenseless decision, Invenergy has offered an olive branch. Invenergy is proposing to locate the plant at a new, more rural location about 10 miles away. If Elizabeth Twp agrees to the plan, Invenergy will drop the lawsuit. The new location is a junk yard–so Invenergy is proposing to change locations from one kind of dump to another. Meanwhile, the residents who live near the first location will continue to live near a contaminated dump instead of a cleaned-up, clean-burning natural gas plant…
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When reporting on the flurry of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approvals from last Friday, before Commissioner Norman Bay resigned in a huff over losing the chairmanship of the agency (and leaving the Commission with only two Commissioners, not enough to vote on more projects), we noticed there was one major Marcellus/Utica pipeline project that didn’t receive a final approval: the NEXUS Pipeline project. NEXUS is a $2 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that will run from Ohio through Michigan and eventually to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada. It is a critically needed pipeline to move Utica and Marcellus Shale gas from an over-saturated market in the northeast to markets in the Midwest and Canada. It is a joint venture between DTE Energy and Spectra Energy. In December FERC issued a positive final Environmental Impact Statement (see 
A bright and enterprising graduate student at Penn State University cooked up an interesting research project for her graduate thesis. With all this talk about “fracked gas” having boatloads of radon in it, would using such radon-laden gas as the source fuel for a gas-fired electric plant pose a risk to those who live near it? In particular, could the gas-fired plants on Penn State’s own campus be posing a danger to students, faculty and staff that live and work on campus? Alison Stidworthy, a former graduate student in the Department of Meteorology at Penn State (and now employed as a site manager for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection), led the research effort, which was the topic of her master’s degree thesis (copy below). What did Alison find? High levels of radon do not leak from the plants and pose no health issues to those living and working nearby. Which makes perfect sense. How do you get rid of radon in your basement when it’s present? You vent it to the outside, where it quickly dissipates and becomes inert. Alison, along with several of her professors, recently published her work as a study in the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association...
We’ve caught a fair bit of criticism (kind, but firm criticism) from MDN subscribers about our views that global warming (a) doesn’t exist, and (b) if it does exist to any small degree, it’s certainly not something being caused by mankind and not something we can influence, even if we tried. Believing such things marks us as being radical, fringe, kooks, for many. Perhaps you’ll now reconsider. You might think if someone inside the epicenter of global warming science–the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) were to announce to the world he has evidence that other scientists at the agency had faked data to support the theory of man-made global warming, it would be the lead article in every newspaper and the lead story on every newscast. Such a thing has just happened–a whistle-blower has stepped forward. Unfortunately our country is plagued with fake/manufactured news–CNN, The New York Times, Washington Post, ABC/NBC/CBS, etc. Not a single so-called mainstream news source has or will run the story that Dr. John Bates, the recently retired principal scientist at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, has admitted that others in the agency rushed the numbers and published unverified data in what is known as the Karl study, which was used “to discredit the notion of a global warming hiatus and rush to time the publication of the paper to influence national and international deliberations on climate policy.” The Karl study was released to influence world leaders ahead of the Paris Climate Agreement last year. Once again, scientists with a left-leaning political agenda have been caught, red-handed, faking the numbers–and our media is SILENT…
Did you watch the Superbowl on Sunday? What’s that? You didn’t?! Admission: We did not watch. We decided to “take a knee” this year and skip the Superbowl. You know, take a knee–like loser Colin Kaepernick, backup quarterback for the San Franciso 49ers. Every time he plays in a game he kneels when the National Anthem is played–in an act of obscene disrespect for our country. The NFL needs to get its house in order and we won’t watch until it takes care of papered jerks like Kaepernick. At any rate, we’re guessing a great many MDN readers did, in fact, watch (we won’t hold it against you). If you watched, you may have seen a 30-second commercial from the American Petroleum Institute called Power Past Impossible–an effort to highlight how natural gas and oil provide enormous value to Americans’ everyday lives. If you didn’t see it, or want to watch it again, we have it below…
You know those sleazebag companies that sell their products to two opposing sides in a war–just to make a buck? Here’s a new twist on it. How about a sleazebag with a lot of money to invest who funds anti-fossil fuel groups (by paying protesters to destabilize our country), and at the same time invests money in the very fossil fuel companies whose projects the protesters are protesting? Such a loathsome creature has a name: George Soros…
Looks to us like Donald Trump’s faith in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur was well-placed. As we previously noted, Trump has put LaFluer in charge of the agency as Chairman, which caused the existing Chairman of FERC, Norm Bay, to resign in a huff (see 
In December the Bureau of Land Management proceeded with an online auction for BLM-controlled land in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest (see 
We caught sight of an interesting new study just published in the journal BMC Microbiology by researchers at the University of Arkansas/Fayetteville. Researchers studied (did in the field studies) of streams both near and far from fracking activities in the Arkansas Fayetteville Shale. No, the research is not directly about the Marcellus/Utica, although our shale plays are mentioned several times in the study. However, the research and its results apply to our region as well as all shale plays. In the study just published titled, “Do biofilm communities respond to the chemical signatures of fracking? A test involving streams in North-central Arkansas” (full copy below), researchers looked to see if the chemistry of streams was altered by nearby fracking activity. They evaluated “benthic biofilm community composition as a proxy for stream chemistry” to see if bacteria and other tiny critters that show up under a microscope display differences between the streams near fracking, and those not near fracking activity. What did they find? No difference. No change. No impacts from fracking on streams and the microbiology of those streams. What they did find is that streams are affected by agriculture and urbanization…
According to rumors floating around the Pennsylvania environmental wacko movement, today is the day the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) will issue the final permits needed by Sunoco Logistic Partners to begin construction of the Mariner East 2 NGL pipeline that will stretch across the entire state. Neither Sunoco nor the DEP would confirm the rumor, but the wackos are agitated and saying their “inside sources” (of which they appear to have many) are telling them it’s today. And what if it happens? According to Maya van Rossum (THE Delaware Riverkeeper), the antis will employ their two favorite tactics: Sue in court, and whip up the more radical folks in the movement into a frenzy so they “rise up in protest.” You know, like the “protesters” (i.e. criminals) did in North Dakota–the ones who fired shots at police officers, burned tires, and engaged in illegal actions to stop work on the Dakota Access Pipeline (see