WV Coal Power Plant Roars Back to Life, Will Convert to Hydrogen
The old Energy Harbor coal-fired power plant in Pleasants County, WV, which had been offline since June 1 and was scheduled to be demolished, has roared back to life under new ownership. Omnis Fuel Technologies invested $800 million to restart operations at the plant, which is now back online and producing electricity. Omnis’ plan is to transition the plant, renamed to Quantum Pleasants, to use hydrogen instead of coal.
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UGI, a diversified energy company with midstream (pipeline) operations in the Marcellus and one of PA’s largest utility companies, is looking to sell or spin off its propane subsidiary into a new company. UGI’s propane subsidiary is AmeriGas, the nation’s largest retail propane marketer, serving nearly 1.3 million customers in all 50 states from approximately 1,400 locations. This is pretty big news in our book.
Last week, MDN told you about the third and final public hearing held by the Pennsylvania House Philadelphia LNG Natural Gas Export Task Force (see 
Hurricane Idalia made landfall in the “big bend” region of Florida on the morning of Aug. 30 as a Category 3 storm, then lost speed as it crossed the state, downgrading to a Category 1 as it pushed into Georgia, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers and reducing power and natural gas demand along with power prices. One of the consequences of the storm was/is an impact on the shore of Georgia, where the Elba Island LNG export facility is located. While we don’t have a post-storm update (yet), we can tell you that the Marcellus/Utica flowing to Elba Island was reduced by roughly 30% going into the storm.
A couple of major changes to alert you to at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC). The PUC is the public utility commission in Pennsylvania. The PUC has five commissioners appointed by the Governor with the consent of the state Senate. The PUC oversees public utility and services operations in the Commonwealth, in sectors including water, energy, telecommunications, and transportation. The decisions made by the PUC impact the Marcellus/Utica–particularly pipelines, including the Mariner East pipelines. Consequently, any changes at the agency are of concern. This week, the PUC got a new Chairman and a new commissioner, both Harrisburg swamp dwellers, appointed by Gov. Josh Shapiro and confirmed by the Republican-controlled state Senate.
NATIONAL: Boys & Girls Clubs of America national partnership with Chevron; Oil is going to $300 a barrel; Oil price calm might be deceptive; Shale E&Ps in high-gear consolidation: big fish seize top-tier acreage; Natural gas significantly more affordable than electricity; Is responsibly sourced natural gas about to take center stage?; INTERNATIONAL: LNG imports from Russia rise, despite cuts in pipeline gas; Three more countries began importing LNG this year, more will follow; U.S. LNG exports to take center stage at G7 meeting.
A Repsol well located on a pad in Troy (Bradford County), PA, experienced uncontrolled natural gas venting. The situation began around 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27. It continued to vent “sporadically” until about 2:30 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 28. Repsol called the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to report the situation at 2:02 a.m. on Monday. A DEP inspector was at the site within hours, at 5:55 a.m. The venting caused a brief evacuation order for several homes within a half-mile radius of the well pad, which was lifted hours later when the DEP determined the venting had stopped.
Last week, MDN brought you information about what happens next when (not if) the mighty 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline gets completed (see 
Equitrans Midstream, the builder of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, proposed to extend the pipeline by an extra 75 miles from the current terminus in Pittsylvania County, VA, to Alamance County, NC, to provide natural gas for heating and electric generation. The extension is called MVP Southgate. In typical fashion, Democrats oppose it (see 
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration is once again signaling its intent to block shale drilling in certain regions of the state by using a new “environmental justice” (it’s racist to drill there) policy. We told you about Shapiro’s intent two weeks ago when the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued new so-called environmental justice (EJ) policies to go into effect in September (see 
Is there now a truce in the long-running dispute between Epsilon Energy and Chesapeake Energy over drilling new wells in Susquehanna County, PA? Perhaps! Yesterday, Epsilon, a small publicly-traded energy company that joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy, with the other company doing the drilling, announced that “the operator of our upstream assets in the Marcellus recently notified us of near-term drilling plans on our acreage.” While not named, the “operator” must be Chessy. Epsilon has an ongoing lawsuit against Chesapeake for refusing to drill new wells on its jv acreage.
MiQ, one of four major certification authorities for so-called responsible gas, issued its First Half 2023 update yesterday to mark the organization’s major milestones. Among them, MiQ now claims it is THE largest methane emissions certifier in the country, certifying 20% of all U.S. natural gas production. MiQ continues to expand its geographical footprint, independently certifying 18 facilities from 11 natural gas producers during the first half of 2023. The organization also launched the world’s first comprehensive greenhouse gas certification and registry for LNG to enable buyers to track 100% of emissions along the supply chain.
In May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to permanently restrict the powers of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the agency’s attempt to control new construction throughout the country (including oil and gas construction) by gutting overly restrictive WOTUS (Waters of the United States) regulations issued by the EPA (see 
At the regular Murrysville, PA (Westmoreland County) town council meeting on August 16, the council voted to adopt Ordinance No. 1075-23, an ordinance amending the town code to add a provision allowing wastewater injection wells in the town. The new ordinance limits injection wells to properties zoned for business use. The prospective site must be at least five acres, and the well’s borehole cannot be within 250 feet of a property line. Other restrictions apply too. Needless to say, antis are not happy.
Two weeks ago, University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) researchers released three studies commissioned by the State Dept. of Health supposedly investigating whether or not there is a connection between shale drilling and childhood diseases, including cancer (see