Lackawanna County

The radical group Citizens for a Healthy Jessup is floating a plan to try and prevent any new Marcellus gas-fired electric plants from getting built in the Keystone State. Aided and abetted by a corrupt local newspaper, the group tries to pass itself off as a collection of local concerned citizens. It’s nothing of the sort.
Read More “PA Anti Group Seeks to Block New NatGas Elec Plants with New Law”

Antis on the Jessup (near Scranton, PA) Town Council delight in grilling officials from the Lackawanna Energy Center (LEC) at each monthly board meeting. LEC is a 1,480 megawatt, $1 billion Marcellus gas-fired electric plant still under construction, now 97% complete. When the plant is done it will be Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas-fired electric generating plant. The plant is being built in three trains or units. The first train/unit was done and online producing electricity since June–despite the efforts of a local group of antis who seized power of the local town board last November (see Jessup Town Board Continues Effort to Stop Gas-Fired Elec Plant). The second train went online in late July/early August. The third train will go online this month–in September. Cabot Oil & Gas is supplying all of the gas for the plant from neighboring Susquehanna County. At the monthly Jessup Council meeting last night, anti board members needled and smeared an LEC rep, implying LEC is hiding problems at the plant. Since May, when the plant began testing, there have been six releases of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions that exceeded state standards. On July 31, the plant exceeded the NOx standard of 2.0 parts-per-million (ppm) by a razor thin 0.1 ppm–for a whole 10 minutes. Which is a nothingburger. And yet the anti board members jumped all over LEC for not phoning up the neighbors the minute it happened…
Read More “Jessup Town Board Grills Invenergy re Tiny Emissions Releases”

We spoke too soon. In a story MDN published yesterday, we said that Big Green propagandist mouthpiece PBS StateImpact Pennsylvania was the only “news” outlet reporting on “yellow smoke” released as part of the commissioning process for the Lackawanna Energy Center, a Marcellus gas-fired electric plant being built near Scranton (see Gas-Fired Power Plant Near Scranton Nears Startup; Yellow Smoke). We said yesterday that not even the Democrat-controlled Scranton Times-Tribune found the “yellow smoke” report newsworthy. A day later, the Times-Tribune was shamed into releasing a story about it. Once again, the only people quoted as experiencing ill health effects following the “yellow smoke” are long-time local activists, people who oppose the project…
Read More “More on Yellow Smoke Coming from Gas-Fired Plant Near Scranton”

Invenergy is currently building the Lackawanna Energy Center, a 1,480 megawatt plant in Jessup, PA (near Scranton) that will cost “well over $1 billion” according to an exclusive MDN source working on the project. When the plant is completed (first phase now done), and when it goes online (to be determined), it will be Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas-fired electric generating plant. As with all fossil fuel-related projects, there is a dedicated (small) group of antis attempting to stop the project. They frequently conduct smear campaigns, making all sorts of wild claims, in their futile attempt to stop the project. Here’s the latest example. The plant is, this week, going through a “short” commissioning stage–a time when they test the machinery in preparation to begin operations. As part of the commissioning, there is a “visible vapor plume and audible noise”–but NO chemicals are involved. Yet a local, well-known anti, upon seeing a waft of “yellow smoke” coming from the plant, immediately claimed she felt “burning [in] my nose, throat, sinuses and chest”–even though no chemicals were used during testing. What does that tell you about the veracity of the antis opposed to the plant?…
Read More “Gas-Fired Power Plant Near Scranton Nears Startup; Yellow Smoke”