NY Gov. Hochul Makes it Clear That She Hates Fracking
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 A Plea to NY Gov. Hochul to Overturn the Ban on Fracking in Upstate). Perhaps Harris’ supposed change of heart would inspire (give excuse to) Hochul to do the same. And then we woke up from our dream and said, nah, ain’t ever gonna happen. And we were right! Yesterday, maybe after reading the NY Post article we quoted, Hochul expressed her hatred of fracking at an energy summit in Syracuse, quipping, “We’re not fracking, we’re not burning coal.” Comrade Hochul’s words were spoken like a true dictator wannabe. Read More “NY Gov. Hochul Makes it Clear That She Hates Fracking”
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.
One month ago, MDN told you that although the New York Senate had 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, had still not signed the bill into law (see 
The grid operator overseeing New York State is warning that the Democrats’ green energy agenda is pushing the grid toward blackouts. The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), which oversees and manages the state’s power grid, published its 2024 Power Trends report last week, assessing the outlook for energy supply and demand in the region over the next several years. The report warns that the electrification agenda pursued by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and her fellow Democrats is pushing the state’s grid toward conditions for blackouts as soon as this summer.
Here’s a truism you can take to the bank. Anti-fossil fuel nutters need (crave) a public forum where they can prance around like peacocks making a spectacle of themselves. Deny them that forum, and they get grumpy — fast. Such was the case at an information session held Tuesday at the Athens (NY) Elementary School. A company hired to work on upgrading a compressor station in Athens for the Iroquois Gas Transmission pipeline tried to share important information about the project. However, protesters made it impossible, and the session was dismissed early due to the bad behavior of the petulant protesters.
Isn’t this interesting? Two days ago, MDN published a post pointing out that a bill passed by both houses of the New York State legislature to ban so-called carbon dioxide (CO2) fracking had still not been signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul (see 
The odious and disgusting Food & Water Watch (FWW) organization (anti-fossil fuel fanatics) has taken point on the left’s effort to block Iroquois Gas Transmission’s plan to upgrade compressor stations in the Empire State. Iroquois’ Enhancement by Compression (ExC) project increases horsepower at three compression stations — two in New York and one in Connecticut — by an extra 125 MMcf/d, flowing more Marcellus/Utica gas into New York City and New England. Less than two weeks ago, FWW announced it had recruited 5,000 drones (no doubt paying some of them) to write comments against ExC in an effort to give New York’s weak Governor, Kathy Hochul, political cover to reject ExC (see 
We’re sad but not surprised. The last time we reported on Williams’ Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) Project slated for New York was last June when Williams asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a time extension to build it (see 
As we told you earlier this month, the radicals who run the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) are gearing up to block the Iroquois Gas Transmission system from completing its Enhancement by Compression (ExC) project (see 
A local community receiving a federal grant of $14 million (arranged by a local Congressman) to improve natural gas infrastructure, like replacing worn-out gas pipes, is a fairly common occurrence across most of the country. But it’s not a common occurrence when the community receiving the grant and doing the work is located in New York State — a state that is utterly hostile to even a single square inch of new natural gas infrastructure. That’s what makes this story so unusual, so “man-bites-dog” in nature. Bath and Woodhull (both in Steuben County, NY) are receiving a combined $14 million to replace nearly 18 miles of natural gas pipelines.