Court Rescinds Approval of WNY Gas-Fired Plant Sale to Bitcoin Co.
In September 2022, the New York Public Service Commission (PSC), which oversees and regulates public utilities in the state, approved the takeover of the Fortistar gas-fired power plant in North Tonawanda, NY, a town close to Niagara Falls, by Canadian crypto mining company Digihost. In December 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) offered its blessing too. All of which prompted the radicals of Earthjustice, representing two other disgusting radical groups—the Sierra Club and Clean Air Coalition of Western New York—to sue (see Green Radicals Sue NYS for Approving Niagara Falls Bitcoin Plant). Fortunately, the lawsuit didn’t stop the transfer, which happened in early 2023 (see Canadian Bitcoin Operator Completes Purchase of WNY Gas-Fired Plant). However, Earthjustice continued to pursue its lawsuit and yesterday got a ruling from a state court to nullify the PSC’s original approval of the sale to Digihost. Read More “Court Rescinds Approval of WNY Gas-Fired Plant Sale to Bitcoin Co.”
Nearly eight months ago, the New York Senate passed a bill the Assembly had previously passed to ban the use of carbon dioxide in shale drilling (so-called “CO2 fracking”). Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul, a reliable anti-fossil fueler, still has not signed the bill into law. What the heck is going on? Why is she missing in action? We’ve written about this a few times, beginning two months after the bill was passed (
Here we go again. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander has put forth a proposal that would stop the city’s three pension funds from future private equity and infrastructure portfolio investments in midstream and downstream fossil fuel infrastructure like pipelines and liquefied natural gas terminals. The prohibition would apply to New York City’s Employees’ Retirement System, Teachers’ Retirement System, and Board of Education Retirement System should their pension boards approve the decision. But here’s the thing… In May 2023, workers from those same three pension funds sued the funds to stop them from divesting from fossil energy companies (see 
What is happening in American politics is shocking. Unfortunately, we are so shocked almost daily that we’re (as a society) becoming numb to it. Never in the history of our country have the members of one political party sought to jail their political opponents. It’s happening now, and the party/movement in question comes from the left. Democrat elected officials in New York City and progressive advocacy groups are pushing New York City’s prosecutors to charge fossil fuel companies AND their executives with crimes for “reckless endangerment” for their supposed role in causing “climate change.” Never mind that the left can’t prove mankind is catastrophically causing global warming (which is what they mean by climate change). They seek to jail people who disagree with them. It’s astonishing. 
A gigantic 91,000-square-foot facility that turns cow poop into CH4 (methane) is set to begin construction, possibly in October, near Seneca Lake in Ontario County, NY. Yes, the beautiful countryside of Upstate New York will soon produce methane, and it will be near the largest of NY’s bucolic Finger Lakes. The facility will use the manure from 12 local dairy farms with a combined 11,000 cows to extract methane through an anaerobic digester process. The methane would then be converted into natural gas and injected into a nearby NYSEG (New York State Electric & Gas) pipeline. Wait…where’s anti-fossil fueler Sandra Steingraber from Ithaca College? Where’s anti-fossil fueler Robert Howarth from Cornell University? They both begin to froth at the mouth whenever the word “methane” is uttered publicly or privately anywhere in Upstate New York! Yet they, and groups like Food & Water Watch, the Sierra Club, and a host of other Big and Little Green groups are completely silent about this plant that will see 91 truckloads of cow poop coming and going each and every day at this plant—12 hours a day. All to produce (gasp!)…METHANE. 
Yesterday, MDN told you that if The Cackler (Kamala Harris) can turn on a dime and supposedly embrace fracking, why can’t leftist New York Governor Kathy Hochul do the same (see 
We spotted an opinion piece in the New York Post with the provocative title, “With Kamala Harris now in favor, Hochul should let upstate NY frack, baby, frack.” It’s part tongue-in-cheek and part serious. If The Cackler can turn on a dime and supposedly embrace fracking, why can’t leftist Kathy Hochul? (Of course, Harris hasn’t really changed her position on fracking. But play along just for kicks…) The Post column outlines the economic devastation that has hit Upstate NY (where MDN is located) and how a simple change in policy to allow fracking would ignite the Upstate economy. The author is right. If Hochul *really* cared about Upstate and seeing it prosper, she would work to allow shale fracking.
Five months ago, the New York Senate passed a bill already passed by the Assembly to ban the use of carbon dioxide in shale drilling (so-called “CO2 fracking”). Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul, a reliable anti-fossil fueler, has still not signed the bill into law. What the heck is going on? A small group (seven, by our count) of environmentalist wackos turned up outside the main gate at the just-opened New York State Fair in Syracuse yesterday to hold signs and protest to remind Hochul she needs to do their bidding. 
New York State has become the North Korea of the United States. It is narrow and parochial and devoid of freedom. If you operate a business in New York and you are not in a protected or favored class, or if your business does not bribe someone in the Democrat Party, you are in danger of losing that business. New York is aggressively hostile to any business remotely connected to fossil fuels. A “bitcoin miner” operating in beautiful Upstate NY, near the shore of Seneca Lake, uses a clean-burning (very small) natural gas power plant to power its 15,300 computer servers. The radical Democrats running the state, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, want it shut down and gone. Last October, NY antis were close to achieving their objective. But what’s this? The bitcoin miner is hanging tough and challenging the state in court. The facility is still online!
We’re forced to report on a bill in New York State that is so stupid, it’s beyond words. We’ll do our best. The Democrats in the NY legislature passed a bill earlier this year that would create a “superfund” (big old pot of money) to be fed by slapping an illegal tax/fee on oil and gas corporations. The fee is to “pay back” the state for causing mythical global warming. (Create a mythical problem out of nothing, then create a faux cause of that problem — burning fossil fuels — in order to justify shaking down specific companies.) The NY bill would extract an astonishing $75 billion over the next 25 years — roughly $3 billion a year. It will never happen (never work) because O&G companies will fight it in court for years to come, but perhaps that is the point: to tie up O&G in court and encourage them to leave the state. You see, NY is closed for business. 
Danskammer Energy, which operates a gas-fired peaker power plant along the Hudson River in Newburgh, NY, has been working on a project to upgrade the plant since 2018 — seven years. On Monday, Danskammer Energy withdrew its permit application with the fossil fuel-hostile state, formally ending attempts to expand after years of trying. It’s time to throw in the towel in NY State and let the idiots who keep the Dems in power sit in the dark.