NYPA Uses Up to 44% Hydrogen Mix in Long Island Power Plant Test
Last Friday, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) released a report of the results of mixing so-called “green” hydrogen with natural gas and using the fuel to generate electricity with reduced emissions from a retrofitted General Electric combustion turbine. The experiment was conducted at NYPA’s Brentwood Power Station on Long Island. NYPA experimented with fuel blends from 5% to 44% hydrogen. The study found CO2 mass emission rates were reduced by approximately 14% by mixing in a 35% blend of hydrogen.
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We are equal parts excited and repulsed by hydrogen as an energy source. We’re excited because, seemingly overnight, everybody and his brother (and sister) are jazzed about converting to hydrogen energy. Mountains of money are being poured into hydrogen research and infrastructure. The federal government is spending $8 billion (out of $1.2 trillion) to establish regional hydrogen hubs. Even companies in the Marcellus/Utica are jazzed because hydrogen production offers a huge new customer for M-U molecules. On the other hand, we’re repulsed because hydrogen is a “poor” fuel that faces “major obstacles” to its widespread adoption. We’re concerned about chasing after the wind–sinking a LOT of money into something that ultimately won’t pan out. Let’s have a hard and honest look at some of the downsides to hydrogen energy.
A few years ago, a trader could buy an LNG cargo for $15-$20 million. Today? It’s an order of magnitude higher. A single “spot” LNG cargo now fetches $175-$200 million! Given the money involved, only a handful of international energy majors and top global trading houses are currently in the game of buying and selling such cargoes. And it appears it will stay that way–in the hands of the big players–at least until 2026. That’s the analysis according to Reuters.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: EQT named one of Pittsburgh’s top 2022 workplaces; Fredonia alum to give talk on Upper Devonian Shale of western NY; NATIONAL: Fitch Solutions raises Henry Hub gas price forecast; INTERNATIONAL: More than 20 countries agree to boost low-emission hydrogen output by 2030.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm attended a gathering of leftist nutballs (she was in good company) in Pittsburgh on Friday at the so-called Global Clean Energy Action Forum to announce the Dept. of Energy (DOE) has finally gotten off its rear-end and has officially opened the application process for states and regions and even private entities to lobby her in an attempt to attract a regional hydrogen hub. The Biden infrastructure bill, signed into law last November, was originally said to be funding $8 billion for “four” regional hydrogen hubs, with each hub getting roughly $2 billion (see 
As we mention in today’s lead article, the Dept. of Energy (DOE) has launched the official application process for states (and coalitions and even private companies) to petition the DOE for a share in a $7 billion jackpot to build a hydrogen hub (see DOE Hydrogen Hub Funding Goes from $2B to Less Than $1B Each). On Friday, the day the DOE made its big public announcement in Pittsburgh, the partisans at Team Pennsylvania Foundation (TeamPA), co-chaired by PA Gov. Tom Wolf, announced the publication of a new report, “Successful Deployment of Carbon Management and Hydrogen Economies in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania” (full copy below). The report has some interesting things to say about how PA can attract one of the hydrogen hub projects.
Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate have, since April 2021, refused to appoint new members to the five-member Public Utility Commission in response to Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf’s unilateral push to force the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme (see 
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, from West Virginia, made a stop at the Global Clean Energy Action Forum (a confab of global warming wackos) on Friday to make a pitch for support of his “save Mountain Valley Pipeline” bill without actually mentioning MVP. At the start of his talk, Manchin was heckled by four wackadoodle protesters who were escorted out by security. Manchin then talked about his bill and how it will streamline the process for renewable energy projects. No mention of fossil fuel projects. Love the one you’re with, right?
The term “woke” is thrown around a lot these days. The left introduces race and alleged racism wherever it can as a bludgeon to justify stripping away more of your Constitutional freedoms. Woke means everything and everyone is racist. The Biden Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just launched a new “Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights” (“woke office”) that will try to paint any new pipeline, any new compressor station, any new fossil energy infrastructure project of any kind as racist and therefore should not get built.
The price for the “front month” NYMEX natural gas contract, which trades based on the spot price of gas at the Henry Hub in southern Louisiana, dropped again on Friday–closing at $6.83/MMBtu. Most predictions we’ve seen say that natural gas will average much higher both this year and next–in the $9 or $10 range. So why is the price dipping right now, and will it stay low?
The natural gas industry is apparently not satisfied with being in the natural gas business anymore. Increasingly, local distribution companies (LDCs, or utilities) are investigating, and in some cases experimenting with, introducing highly explosive hydrogen into the natural gas stream they flow to homes and businesses. Peoples Gas in Pittsburgh is teaming up with the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) to figure out how to mix hydrogen with the natural gas it serves to its customers in Pennsylvania and beyond.
On Monday, local business leaders in Jefferson County, OH, were treated to an update on the Utica Shale and how local manufacturers can benefit from the growth in the shale industry. According to Robert Naylor, executive director for the Jefferson County Port Authority, “the (purpose) of the workshop was to stress or demonstrate how the business community — vendors and manufacturers — could enter the energy supply chain to create jobs, workforce development and overall economic game for our region.” Two powerhouse speakers from