WV Bill Promoting New Gas-Fired Power Plants Signed into Law
Last time we visited this topic, West Virginia Senate Bill (SB) 188, aimed at making WV’s gas-fired power generation more competitive with its neighbors in Pennsylvania and Ohio, had passed the Senate and was on a fast track for a vote in the House (see WV Bill Promoting New Gas-Fired Power Plants Nears Final Vote). The good news is that the bill, dubbed the Grid Stabilization and Security Act of 2023, passed the House (March 6) and was signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice (March 22)–over the objections of Big Coal.
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The mighty Shell ethane cracker has had “issues” getting and staying fully up to speed. Since it officially went online last November, Shell had received three separate notices of violation (NOVs) for exceeding allowable air pollution limits, largely related to repeated flaring episodes, as of the end of March (
If leftists can redefine what is and what is not “waters of the United States” (WOTUS), they can pretty much control you and what you can and can’t do with your own private property. WOTUS, according to the Bidenistas, is pretty much anything down to mud puddles, as they proposed earlier this year (see
New York politicians are so consumed with hatred of fossil fuels they are forcing residents to pay an average of $28,000 to convert their homes away from heating and cooking with natural gas, propane, and fuel oil (see
Yesterday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced new proposed federal vehicle emissions standards that will force Americans to give up driving gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles and instead switch to electric vehicles, which are much more expensive to buy. The Biden EPA said the new standards will “accelerate the ongoing transition to a clean vehicles future and tackle the climate crisis.” Which is total B.S. The Bidenistas intentionally use inflammatory language, calling EVs “clean” vehicles, as opposed to fossil energy vehicles which, by inference, are “dirty.” They also claim the new standards will tackle the “climate crisis”–perpetuating an unproven theory that mankind is causing the earth to catastrophically warm.
In January, Ohio House Bill (HB) 507 became law with the signature of Gov. Mike DeWine (see
You knew it was only a matter of time. On March 1, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) issued a 297-page biological opinion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s (MVP) potential impact on threatened and endangered species if the 94% complete pipeline is allowed to finish (see
Last week MDN told you about the long-festering issue of building a shale wastewater injection well in Clara Township in Potter County, PA (see
We’ve often written about “permitting reform” needed to build new pipeline projects and finish existing projects like the stalled Mountain Valley Pipeline. Last year U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (Democrat, WV) tried and failed to get permitting reform passed (see
In January, Ohio House Bill (HB) 507 became law with the signature of Gov. Mike DeWine (see 
An issue that’s been festering for more than two years appears to be coming to a head in western Potter County, PA. In early 2021, Roulette Oil and Gas applied for a Class II Injection Well Permit to drill an injection well in Clara Township. The leftists from Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) immediately began to whisper the siren song of “home rule” into the ears of Clara’s residents (see
During a routine inspection conducted earlier this week by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), an inspector discovered two of 12 Repsol wells on a pad in Susquehanna County were (gasp!) venting methane into the atmosphere. Call the methane police! There’s fugitive methane escaping! The wells were drilled in 2016. Apparently, there has been an ongoing issue with these two wells since 2017, when the DEP determined the wells have defective casing and/or cementing.
This is another in our series of what it’s like living “Behind Enemy Lines.” MDN editor Jim Willis lives in Upstate New York (Binghamton area). Our freedoms in NY are being stripped away at an alarming rate. The radical left is in full control of the state, as is illustrated by a recent debate between Gov. Kathy Hochul (a far-left radical) and others in the Democrat Party even further to the left of Hochul, if such a thing is possible. The people left of Hochul are resisting a reasonable compromise in the current budget that would change the current timeline for methane accounting from 20 years to 100 years.