Dominion Officially Changes Location of Chesterfield Peaker Plant
Dominion Energy plans to build four small “peaker” electric generating plants in Chesterfield County, VA, near Richmond (see Dominion Plans to Build 1,000-MW Gas Peaker Plant Near Richmond, VA). The Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center (CERC) calls for building four 250-megawatt gas-fired power plants (1,000 MW total) that can jump into action during the coldest and hottest days of the year to help supply enough electricity for 250,000 homes. In early June, we told you that Dominion is actively looking at changing the location of the proposed project to locate the peakers at an existing power-generating site where two gas-fired plants now operate (see Dominion Plan to Move Location of 4 Va. Gas-Fired Peakers Advances). Chesterfield County blessed the change in location in July (see Va. County OKs Dominion Plan to Change Location of Peaker Plant). Dominion just made the change in location official. Read More “Dominion Officially Changes Location of Chesterfield Peaker Plant”
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. 
Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) authorization to place the final three liquefaction blocks (7-9) into service in November 2023 (see 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: NextDecade withdraws FERC application for Rio Grande CCS project; NATIONAL: Top U.S. oilfield firm Halliburton hit by cyberattack; At the DNC, the Left’s climate solutions are worse than the problem; Why oil is down by nearly 10% in 2024 and sliding; INTERNATIONAL: World’s first AI drilling engineer is currently in training; BP economist says OPEC+ has limited scope to restore oil output; India bets its energy future on coal. 
A study led by Binghamton University and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) claims it has uncovered that energy companies pressure landowners into allowing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on their properties, “often resorting to persistent and personalized tactics.” In other words, those nasty frackers bully poor landowners into signing leases. We have no doubt there are landmen who twist arms a little too tightly, but this study has a few flaws in our humble opinion. 
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 have news of a second southern gas-fired power plant to share today. This one is tiny, a 75-megawatt peaker plant in Madisonville, Kentucky. The Kentucky Municipal Energy Agency (KYMEA) and the City of Madisonville recently announced the development of the KYMEA Energy Center I, a natural gas electric generating facility. The new facility, with four reciprocating internal combustion engine (RICE) generators, will be able to start up at a moment’s notice. The raison d’etre for the facility? To supplement unreliable renewable energy that can’t meet sudden increases in demand for electricity. 
Recently, we’ve told you about the coming demand for natural gas to generate electricity that data centers and artificial intelligence will need (see 
Despite one of the hottest summers on record, natural gas prices are in the crapper. The abysmal price situation is causing big drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, like EQT and Coterra, to cut back even further on natural gas production, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal. Coterra CEO Tom Jorden recently told investors that “gas markets are oversupplied,” and his company will trim production by an extra 325 MMcf/d (see 
In March, we reported that two Democrats and one anti-drilling RINO who run Bucks County, PA government (a Philadelphia suburb) fell for the bait by Big Green and filed a lawsuit against Big Oil companies for supposedly, knowingly, causing the Earth to toast to a cinder (see 
We spotted news that the Cambridge City School District (in Guernsey County, Ohio) has signed a second lease with Encino Energy (EAP Ohio LLC) to allow shale drilling under 4.8 acres. The first lease (which we missed) was signed in February of this year, allowing Encino to drill under 182 acres. The land is located along Wills Creek Valley Drive, often called the main campus. EGADS! Drilling *under* little chil’ren? Monstrous! (That’s sarcasm, folks. We know of other wells drilled directly next to schools in PA, with zero health and safety effects on the kiddies.)
In late 2021, Diversified Energy (formerly Diversified Gas & Oil) announced it had purchased Next LVL Energy, a well-plugging company that concentrates on plugging mainly old conventional oil and gas wells in Appalachia (see 
According to an announcement from Georgia Natural Gas (GNG), the utility company’s “Greener Life” program, which helps customers make their natural gas usage carbon neutral, has reached a new milestone of 500 million pounds of carbon emissions offset from the atmosphere. That amount is equivalent to taking over 50,000 cars off the road for a year. GNG buys natural gas from producers (in the Marcellus/Utica) that certify their gas as low-emissions using the MiQ protocol.