Lordstown, OH Gas-Powered Electric Plant Gets New Owners
UPDATE: After posting this story, MDN received a tip from a subscriber with knowledge of the Lordstown project that our assumption that Clean Energy Future didn’t have the necessary funds to finish the project was incorrect. The plan from the beginning was to bring in other big-money partners. In fact, Siemens was a partner in the project from the start. Thank you to our great MDN audience for setting the record straight!
In April 2014, MDN told you about a proposal from Clean Energy Future to build an $800 million electric generation plant in Lordstown (Trumbull County), OH. The plant will be fired by natural gas from the Utica and Marcellus (see Clean Energy Plans NatGas Electric Generation Plant in Lordstown). In May, Lordstown Village Council gave their blessing for the project (see Lordstown $800M Gas-Powered Electric Plant Gets Village Approval). And last September the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) gave its stamp of approval on the project (see Lordstown $800M Gas-Powered Electric Plant Gets OH State Approval). The project, at that point, had all necessary approvals. It was/is “shovel ready.” The only thing left to do was to begin construction. Except…it appears the project didn’t have enough money to start. That’s now changed. Yesterday Macquarie Infrastructure Partners III and Siemens Financial Services announced they will build the new facility. Which means they now own the majority share of the project because they will ponying up the necessary money to build it. Which means there was an agreement to buy it from Clean Energy Future, although Clean Energy will “retain an interest” in the project. Here are the details, including what kind of turbines and generators will be used to power the Lordstown plant…
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In April 2014, MDN told you about a proposal from Clean Energy Future to build an $800 million electric generation plant in Lordstown (Trumbull County), OH. The plant will be fired by natural gas from the Utica and Marcellus (see 
The Chief of the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management for the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (currently Rick Simmers) is a man with a lot of power. He has the power, according to a ruling just handed down on August 12, to make his own decisions about suspending permits to operate in the absence of specific violations of a law or regulation. In September 2014 Simmers suspended permits for two wastewater injection wells in Trumbull County, OH after a very low level earthquake was detected close to those wells (an earthquake that couldn’t be felt at the surface and caused no damage of any kind). American Water Management Services sued saying they hadn’t violated any laws or regulations on the books and their permits could not just be arbitrarily revoked like that. But the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission said nope–Tom Cruise, er, a, Mr. Simmers can arbitrarily do what he wants when there is no specific rule or guideline or law–because he has the best interests of the people at heart…
Book ’em, Danno!” Remember that phrase from the original Hawaii 5-0 television series that aired from 1968-1980? Jack Lord was great as Steve McGarrett. That’s the image we immediately had when reading a story about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency executing a search warrant at a Vienna Township, OH brine injection well. The EPA was looking for evidence in an “environmental crime.” We have to confess we find the whole concept of “environmental crime” somewhat silly. You have violations of regulations–sometimes egregious and yes, criminal. But we detect a shift by anti-drillers to move the debate into turning what are sometimes pure accidents, other times neglect, but rarely intentional activities into “crimes.” The law-breaking Attorney General of Pennsylvania, Kathleen Kane, is famous for this. After taking office she targeted XTO Energy for what she says is a “crime” that happened several years before she took office. The “crime”? An accidental spill of wastewater. That’s how these people operate. Salem witch hunt kind of attitude–they’re frackers, burn them at the stake! Back to Vienna. The EPA in search of a crime worked with the OH Attorney General’s office and the OH Bureau of Criminal Investigation to raid the injection well facility to find “evidence” of a crime after a recent spill at the facility…
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources last week ordered the operator of five injection wells–all located in one area in Vienna Township (Trumbull County), OH–to close them all down. That somewhat radical action came following a finding that some of the frack wastewater meant to go down into the wells for injection had instead ended up in a nearby pond and wetland, contaminating both. The operator of the five injection wells is Kleese Development Associates of Warren, OH…