Author Archives: Tom Shepstone

Lisa Baker’s Eminent Domain Bill Recommended by Committee!

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natural gas nowTom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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Lisa Baker’s eminent domain bill, the one that started it all last session, just got reported out by the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.

Great news! Readers who have following Lisa Baker’s bill since she first introduced it last session, know that Rep. Jon Fritz has been pushing a version of it in the Pennsylvania House and it is awaiting a vote as H.B. 827, with the DRBC furiously opposing. Meanwhile Senator Lisa Baker has re-introduced her original version as S.B. 305. The legislation is labeled as:

“An Act designating certain activity by the Delaware River Basin Commission as the exercise of the power of eminent domain that entitles the owners of the property in question to appropriate and just compensation.”

The news out of Harrisburg this afternoon is that Lisa Baker’s eminent domain bill has also now been reported out of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee on a bi-partisan 7 to 3 vote. Hallelujah!

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Combined-Cycle Natural Gas Power Beats Everything Else

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natural gas nowTom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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Combined-cycle natural gas power plants offer lower cost electricity than anything else, especially renewables, the true costs of which are never counted.

Our friends at the Institute of Energy Research have come out with a study that finally examines the true costs of renewables, including their impacts on the efficiencies of other energy sources. The Energy Information Administration has long studied the “levelized costs of electricit” or LCOE of different sources of power but hasn’t accounted for all the hidden subsidies, which often take the form of indirect costs on other electricity producers. Combined-cycle natural gas power plants typically come out best anyway, but the spread is minimized by failure to consider these indirect costs. This latest study does address them and natural gas comes out way ahead.

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NY Post Editorial Explodes Cuomo Renewables Delusion

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natural gas nowTom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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NY Post readers were treated to the one of the best editorials it has yet to write on the subject of energy. It demolishes Cuomo’s renewables delusion.

The NY Post has neatly summarized the immense problems with Andrew Cuomo’s renewables delusion. Indeed, I have to wonder if some of the NY Post editorial board members don’t read NaturalGasNOW. Whether they do or don’t, they’re obviously understand the issues.

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H.B. 827 Draws Phony Attack from Delaware Riverkeeper Stooge?

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Tom Shepstone
Natural Gas NOW

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H.B. 827, Rep Jonathan Fritz’s bill to compensate DRBC landowners for their huge losses from the taking that would result from a fracking ban, is attacked.

Former English teacher and now Rep. Wendy Ullman is from Bucks County, Pennsylvania where the average household income in 2017 was $108,848 compared to $64,598 in Wayne County where Rep. Jonathan Fritz and I live. That’s a 68% difference but she’s determined to ignore it in her opposition to Fritz’s H.B. 827. It appears she’s a stooge for the Delaware PovertyKeeper, though, so economic fairness isn’t on the agenda, if a recent opinion piece supposedly written by her is any indication. Rather, the agenda is anti-growth and strategic parkification on behalf of the gentry class financiers of the Delaware PovertyKeeper.

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Northeast Gas Shortages Are the Issue; The One Issue That Matters

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Tom Shepstone
Natural Gas NOW

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Northeast gas shortages are what really matter when it comes to fighting back against fracking bans, pipeline obstruction and other fractivist initiatives.

There is no doubt the Northeast (everything east from Pennsylvania) is at war over natural gas. Fractivists have been able to successfully demagogue the issue in places such as New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Those of us who have a different view have had few wins in this corner of America, despite the fact we’re living in the golden age of gas internationally and within those parts of the U.S. that actually have natural gas to develop. Yet, we’ve been handed two political gifts that show how to start winning. Both involve Northeast gas shortages.

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Coal to Gas Switching Reduces CO2 Emissions by 15%

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Tom Shepstone
Natural Gas NOW

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Coal to gas switching in electric generation has averted 95 million tons of CO2 emissions and reduced them by 15% from what they would have been.

Anyone worried about CO2 emissions ought to absolutely love natural gas. Coal to gas switching with respect to electric generation has had a major impact on global CO2 emissions according to the International Energy Agency. Its “Global Energy & CO2 Status Report” for 2018 is remarkably straight-forward on this point.

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Range Resources Reducing Emissions and Impacts Everywhere

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Tom Shepstone
Natural Gas NOW

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Range Resources just put out a 2018 Corporate Sustainability Report that highlights just how fast and how far it has gone in reducing emissions and impacts.

We have often noted here how the natural gas industry is always three steps ahead of its opposition with respect to technology and advancements. A new “2018 Corporate Sustainability Report” from Range Resources demonstrates this with compelling data. The company is, in fact, on a path to zero emissions, which is quite astounding.’

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Panama Canal Activity Demonstrates American Energy Dominance

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Tom Shepstone
Natural Gas NOW

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The Panama Canal is changing its rules to adapt to LNG, recognizing that American energy dominance is the foundation and future of the Canal itself.

A recent article in The Panama Perspective demonstrates how the glorious shale revolution continues to change everything. It reports the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) is rapidly gaining LNG ship traffic and the U.S. is dominating. Reading the facts, it is impossible not to appreciate how far the shale revolution has come and how the U.S. and much of the rest of the world is benefitting.

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Methane Emissions Going Down, Despite Cornell Hype from 5 Years Ago

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Tom Shepstone
Natural Gas NOW

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Remember when Cornell’s Bob Howarth proclaimed natural gas was worse than coal due to methane emissions? Well, the latest data says those emissions are down.

Methane emissions, about five years ago, became a trendy subject among those desperate to stop natural gas development. They had previously hung their hat on CO2 emissions, but when it became clear natural gas substitution for coal had achieved the only meaningful reductions in CO2 anywhere in the world, they shifted the argument to methane emissions.

Cornell professor and anti-gas advocate Bob Howarth (also a Food & Water Watch board member) was part of that. He published an article titled “A bridge to nowhere: methane emissions and the greenhouse gas footprint of natural gas,” in which he claimed “shale gas and conventional natural gas have a larger GHG than do coal or oil.” It was more an advocacy piece than science and assumptions from the study are now being proven wrong.

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