Crescent Dunes Solar Project Disappears Into the Sands

Posted on February 18, 2020 by Natural Gas Now Guest Blogger

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How many times do politicians have to learn they aren’t good at picking winners and losers. Crescent Dunes is the latest solar failure and humility hint.

The Nevada solar-energy plant Crescent Dunes has gone under after receiving a $737 million federal loan guarantee during the Obama Administration. Crescent Dunes, a 110-megawatt facility, was supposed to use molten salt to store heat from the sun, produce steam, and generate electricity even when the sun was not shining.

The Department of Energy finalized its loan guarantee on Sept. 23, 2011—a week before the federal loan program expired. Just prior to the finalization of the loan guarantee, Nevada approved $119.3 million in tax abatements for Crescent Dunes over 20 years. The plant also received roughly $140 million in private investment. NV Energy, the largest electric utility in Nevada, agreed to buy the electricity under a 25-year power purchase agreement.

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DRBC Weeps: No Fracking Relationships and No Fracking Indications

Posted on February 18, 2020 by Natural Gas Now Guest Blogger

1 comment

Jim Willis
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

DRBC members: A study by PA’s DCNR and DEP concludes there are NO quantifiable relationships and NO definitive conclusions of fracking impacts on water.

A brand new study published in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) looked at 25 small watersheds over the course of 2 years in northeastern Pennsylvania, looking for any possible correlation between fracking and local streams. Know what they found? There is NO impact from fracking on local streams. NONE. Those who worked on the study include researchers from the US Geological Survey, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), and the Pennsylvania Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR).

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Free Energy: That’s What the Southern Tier Offers and Cuomo Has Denied

Posted on February 17, 2020 by Natural Gas Now Guest Blogger

4 comments

Victor Furman
Upstate New York Landowner, Shale Gas Activist

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Free energy is what we have to offer in the Southern Tier, if only we had a Governor who gave a damn. Vic Furman says he does care and he has a plan.

What If the nearly 12 acre Stow manufacturing plant, that was once a bustling manufacturing site in the 60s and 70s, yet now sits empty, what if it could once again grow into thousands of stable high paying jobs?

What if we set aside the Conklin industrial Park, or a few hundred acres of land near the triple cities, to build a real industrial park that produced something more than all those tax deals Andrew Cuomo throws out to wealthy corporations in hopes of attracting them to New York at our expense?

What if, instead of 10 year tax breaks under the failed Start Up NY Campaign, we offered something else? What if Governor Cuomo made the promise of free energy instead of lower taxes?

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Shale Gas News – February 15, 2020

Posted on February 17, 2020 by Natural Gas Now Guest Blogger

Bill desRosiers
External Affairs Coordinator, Cabot Oil & Gas

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The Shale Gas News, heard every Saturday at 10 AM on 94.3 FM, 1510 AM, 1600 AM, 104.1 FM and Sundays on YesFM, talked about Cuomo’s pipeline ban, S&P credit ratings, Baupu stops drilling and much more last week.

The Shale Gas News has grown again to the Williamsport area on stations WEJS 1600 AM & 104.1 FM. The Shale Gas News is now broadcasting in Bradford, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Luzerne, Lycoming, Pike, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga and Wayne Counties, as well as in greater central PA and now the Williamsport area. The Shale Gas News is aired on Saturday or Sunday depending on the station.

Every Saturday Rusty Fender, Matt Henderson and I host a morning radio show to discuss all things natural gas. This week we ran some interviews which were recorded in the past couple months. One interview was from Mike Sommers, API President and CEO, from early January at the American Petroleum Institute (API) State of American Energy Event.

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Mariner East Delays Need to Stop: Enough Already!

Posted on February 16, 2020 by Natural Gas Now Guest Blogger

1 comment

Earl Baker
Earl Baker Consulting and Former Pennsylvania State Senator

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The Mariner East pipeline project has been delayed over and over again for what have been frivolous reasons and former Senator earl Baker says it’s enough.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is currently reviewing comments from across the Commonwealth before making a determination on state of the art installation methods being proposed for portions of the Mariner East pipeline.

I myself submitted a comment during the open comment period ending Jan. 28. As agency members gather I encourage each to acknowledge the Mariner East project as a keystone of our state’s energy industry infrastructure future and that the permit modifications being considered are common sense resolutions to complete the project that has suffered years of needless delays.

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CLCPA, Cuomo’s Green Badge of Virtue, Setting Him Up for Failure

Posted on February 15, 2020 by Natural Gas Now Guest Blogger

2 comments

Roger Caiazza
Independent Researcher and Publisher,
Pragmatic Environmentalist of New York

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The CLCPA was set to be Andrew Cuomo’s crowning green achievement, but the law is an ass in this case and Cuomo will probably be the guy who raised CO2.

During the summer of 2019, Governor Cuomo and the New York State Legislature passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) which was described as the most ambitious and comprehensive climate and clean energy legislation in the country when Cuomo signed the legislation. In one of the first implementation tasks the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has started the process to calculate a statewide Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHG) limit for this law. This post addresses that rulemaking.

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BEBs or Bust? Battery Electric Buses Make No Sense at All

Posted on February 15, 2020 by Natural Gas Now Guest Blogger

3 comments

Duggan Flanakin
Director of Policy Research, Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow

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BEBs or battery electric buses make no sense environmentally or economically and offer nothing whatsoever for most geographies. They sound green but aren’t.

Should Americans follow China in a massive commitment to supposedly eco-friendly battery-electric buses (BEBs)? California has mandated a “carbon-free” bus system by 2040 and will buy only battery or fuel cell-powered buses after 2029. Other states and cities are following suit.

Vehicle decisions are typically based on cost and performance. Cost includes selling price plus maintenance, while performance now includes perceived environmental impacts – which for some is the only issue that matters. But that perception ignores some huge ecological (and human rights) issues.

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Natural Gas Now Best Picks of the Week – February 15, 2020

Posted on February 15, 2020 by Tom Shepstone

Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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Readers pass along a lot of stuff every week about natural gas, fractivist antics, emissions, renewables, and other news relating to energy. As usual, emphasis is added.

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RGGI or Not? Only If You Like Hidden Costs and Subsidies!

Posted on February 14, 2020 by Tom Shepstone

Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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Mark Mathis, at the Clear Energy Alliance, has just put out a video explaining how RGGI is but a hidden cost initiative to promote more green eggs and scam.

Here is some more common sense commentary from Mark Mathis of the Clear Energy Alliance, who explores digs into RGGI, the machine created by green eggs and scam promoters to bury costs and issue subsidies so electric consumers aren’t aware how they’re being taken for a ride. Pennsylvania has much lower electricity costs than RGGI states and has done a much better job at reducing CO2 emissions but Gov. Tom Wolf wants some green virtue stamps of approval, which he thinks he can get by forcing us to join RGGI.

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School Finances Study by Penn State Doesn’t Pass Smell Test

Posted on February 14, 2020 by Tom Shepstone

12 comments

Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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Two Penn State researchers have put out a study about school finances that suggests the shale revolution has hurt more than helped but it makes no sense.

It pains me, as a Penn State graduate to criticize my alma mater but I have no choice. Two members of the College of Education faculty have put out a study about school finances and the impact of shale gas development that simply don’t pass the smell test. I’m talking about a story that recently appeared in a blog called The Conservation and an identically titled piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer the other day. The latter is a little more complete, but the message is the same; “fracking has led to a ‘bust’ for Pennsylvania school district finances.” I categorically reject that claim based on what I see with my own eyes.

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