Project will need new technology and unusual utilization of outputs

From an Essay by Betsy Lawson to Morgantown Dominion Post, August 25, 2023

As reported in The Dominion Post on Aug. 17, the governor announced a big state investment in a hydrogen plant to be built in Mason County by Fidelis New Energy of Houston. The plant, to be called Mountaineer Gigasystem, is designed to generate hydrogen to be used for energy while capturing carbon dioxide to be buried below wildlife management areas.

The impetus behind this project is the money made available by the Inflation Reduction Act, passed last year, which provides tax credits for so-called clean energy. The intention is to reduce greenhouse gases, which trap heat in our atmosphere. Sounds good, but is it really?

Hydrogen gas, which is highly explosive, is made by separating the atoms of water (H2O), which requires a lot of energy. If renewable energy is used to separate the atoms, the hydrogen is “clean.” But the Fidelis project will mostly use fracked gas, whose drilling process and pipelines to transport the gas leak a lot of methane, an 80-times more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Pumping CO2 underground, the second facet of this project, only works in very specific types of porous rock sandwiched between layers of solid rock, preventing its escape. But once the CO2 reaches the cap rock, the captured CO2 can migrate horizontally for a substantial distance. What could go wrong?

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has identified 6,500 known orphaned oil and gas wells but potentially thousands more exist that have yet to be found.  If these unplugged wells should reach into the potential carbon storage field formation, the potential for leakage into the atmosphere is enormous, defeating the purpose of carbon capture. For carbon capture and storage to make any sense in West Virginia, orphaned oil and gas wells must be properly plugged.

So far, carbon capture and storage is a new and commercially unproven technology. Chevron’s CCS project in western Australia, to date the largest in the world, is only operating at one-third capacity after six years of operation. Unexpected high pressures occurred, slowing the process.

It is known with certainty that injecting fracking waste water into porous geological formations increases pore pressure in ways that can trigger stressed fault lines to slip. This also applies to buried CO2. The result can be earthquakes. Further, when CO2 meets water, it becomes carbonic acid, a corrosive liquid. What effect will this have on underground water supplies?

Bottom line: hydrogen gas is expensive to produce, so will there even be a market for it? And, if it relies on natural gas for its creation, methane will be leaked into the atmosphere. Tying it to unproven carbon capture risks leaking more CO2 into the atmosphere via the many abandoned wells in this area.

With the state’s  $62.5 million in forgivable loans and anticipated funding from the federal government, the public investment for this project could already be at $112.5 million before ground has even been broken. Do we taxpayers want to further subsidize a project that has such an unproven and potentially risky technology and continues to add greenhouse gases into the atmosphere? This project defeats the purpose of the Inflation Reduction Act, which is meant to reduce the greenhouse gases that are warming our planet.

>>> Betsy Lawson is the Secretary of the Monongahela Group of the W.Va. Chapter of the Sierra Club.

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Mountaineer GigaSystem Project ~ Memorandum of Understanding with West Virginia Economic Development Authority. Some call this a massive giveaway to an out of state company having no established record of technological quality or concern for our communities!

Residual Waste is toxic brine, as with the diesel truck exhaust gases

From an Article by Michael Barrick, Appalachian Chronicle, September 18, 2022
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WESTON, W.Va. – We read in Ecclesiastes that there is a season for everything, including a time to be silent and a time to speak. By now, I had hoped to be silent. As a pensioner, I was hoping to hang out with my family, do some hiking, and to travel a bit. In short, I’m just trying to live a peaceful life. The only problem is that corruption and violence are so rampant that they can’t be ignored.

Silence in the face of violence is compliance with it. (To hear a beautiful take on that notion, listen to “Medicine” by the Americana band Rising Appalachia). So my season of silence is over.

For nearly a decade, before I tried to step back a few months ago, I had written more than 100 articles about the public health, safety and environmental dangers of fracking and related pipeline development. I’ve also written about Mountaintop Removal and efforts by environmental activists to protect the pristine Appalachian Mountains. What West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and his fossil fuel cronies have inflicted upon the people and land of West Virginia and Virginia in attempting to build the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is nothing short of a violent assault upon the people and land.

In building the now-abandoned Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and the MVP, energy companies EQT, Duke Energy and Dominion and their subcontractors have been ruthless, as the articles below reveal. (Note: some links within articles may no longer be valid). This collective chronicle of the gas industry’s tactics reveal deceit, threats and destruction. The MVP remains uncompleted only because of the people in its path. A coalition of individuals and groups have stalled it primarily through successful legal and regulatory challenges, not to mention dogged determination.

These articles – the first published Aug. 4 2014 – demonstrate what a roller-coaster ride of emotions and betrayal landowners and environmentals have experienced. They succeeded in shutting down the ACP and had the MVP on the ropes. Investors were nervous.

However, it appeared that all of that work against the MVP may have been undone in a behind-closed-doors deal between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin to get Manchin’s essential vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act. That deal was supposed to streamline the permitting process for the MVP.

However, E&E News Energy Wire is reporting that may not be enough to salvage the beleaguered and long-delayed project. According to the article, a primary obstacle may be legislation announced and sponsored by West Virginia’s other Senator, Republican Shelley Moore Capito. The Republican proposal is picking up bi-partisan support. The E&E News article details how legal and regulatory challenges could still derail the MVP should the proposal pass, as it would not allow the MVP to bypass judicial review.

Though this is hopeful news, this fight is far from over. There is simply too much money changing hands. So, keep up with this story and support any effort to thwart the shady dealings of Schumer and Manchin.

These articles would not have been possible without the cooperation of my family and the subjects of the articles. They are the brave souls willing to share their stories, allowing me insight, facts and documents to support my enterprise and investigative reporting; additionally, contributions from other writers have served to enrich our reporting.

So, while it may take you a while, please read through our past articles. You will see that the fossil fuel industry hasn’t changed tactics in over a century. Only this time, instead of using Baldwin-Felt thugs to do their dirty work as they did during the West Virginia Mine Wars in the early 1920s, today’s energy executives hatch their plots on Manchin’s “Almost Heaven” yacht moored on the Potomac River.

Planning for this power plant did not involve the climate crisis

From an Article by Bob Rolley, Lock Haven Express, September 5, 2022

Renovo, Pa — Plans to build a Marcellus Shale natural gas-fired power plant here will proceed despite an Environmental Hearing Board ruling saying state-approved emission limits for sulfur dioxide (SO2) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are too high.

Some eight years in the making, Renovo Energy Center LLC proposes to build a 1,000-megawatt power plant designed to provide electricity to thousands of customers in Pennsylvania and New York.

It would be erected on 68 acres that served as a former Pennsylvania Railroad railcar repair shop and railyard.mThe firm says the project investment could top $850 million, create 700 construction jobs and upward of 30 permanent positions.

REC was granted an air quality permit by the state Department of Environmental Protection, with the plant’s emissions controls based on the best available technology. The Clean Air Council, PennFuture and Center for Biological Diversity appealed that permit approval, alleging it allows “illegal levels of air pollution.”

The Aug. 29 ruling written by Chief EHB Judge Thomas W. Renwand essentially said DEP allowed too high of emission limits without explaining “its rationale for selecting a less stringent emission limit, and that rationale must be appropriate in light of all the evidence in the record.”

Further, he wrote, DEP permit writers retain discretion to set best available control technology levels that “do not necessarily reflect the highest possible control efficiencies but, rather will allow permittees to achieve compliance on a consistent basis. The existence of a similar facility with a lower emissions limit creates an obligation for the permit applicant and permit issuer to consider and document whether the same emission level can be achieved at the (REC) proposed facility.”

“This ruling is vindication for the community,” argued Joseph Otis Minott, executive director and chief counsel of Clean Air Council. “DEP must set pollution limits to protect the public based on science and law, not on the whims of the polluter.”

The REC project has been endorsed by the local Renovo Borough Council, the Clinton County Economic Partnership and the Clinton County Commissioners.

“DEP had simply not done what the law requires to protect the community from these types of emissions,” added Jessica O’Neill, senior attorney at PennFuture. “The Board recognized this clear violation and we will continue to press the rest of our claims against this flawed permit.”

The board granted partial summary judgment on the issues of the sulfur dioxide and volatile organic compounds limits in the permits. High levels of SO2 and volatile organic compounds can cause health risks.

In its application, REC stated that “a facility with the best emissions performance for one pollutant typically cannot meet the lowest emission level for another pollutant.” Rick Franzese, REC project manager, told The Express on Sunday that, “while we’re disappointed by the ruling, we will comply with it and we look forward to commencing construction on the project in a timely manner once the appeal is resolved.”

In statements to the county commissioners during their endorsement of the project this past May, Franzese had this to say: “The REC project remains viable so long as the appeal of the project’s air permit is favorably resolved. Investor interest in the Renovo facility remains high, and increasingly so in light of current events. In particular, the war in Ukraine has highlighted the need for energy security and independence, which for the near-term in the United States can be reliably provided by domestically-sourced natural gas. Renewables, such as solar and wind, are not yet fully reliable baseload power supplies, even when augmented with the most advanced storage technology currently available.

“Increased regulation is making coal-fired generation less viable, he said, so “gas-fired plants such as Renovo are needed to replace that baseload capacity. When state-of-the-art power plants such as the REC project come online, they typically displace electricity that would otherwise have been generated by older and less efficient coal-fired and other older baseload plants with less effective pollution controls, resulting in a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions,” he added.

The groups appealing the permit disagree, with Robert Ukeiley, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, arguing that “trying to build a new methane-gas burning power plant at this point is just absurd. We need to be shifting to clean, cheap energy like solar and wind rather than dirty, expensive power plants which burn methane gas.”

XXX

Senator Manchin struggles to find common ground

From the Article by Karl Evers-Hillstrom, The Hill News Service, August 13, 2022

Coal country is still reeling from Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) decision to back a sweeping climate and energy package that will accelerate the nation’s transition away from coal.

In the Mountain State, the once-burgeoning coal industry says it feels betrayed, displaced coal workers are celebrating the bill’s black lubenefits and Republicans seeking Manchin’s seat in 2024 are licking their chops.

The Inflation Reduction Act includes several Appalachia-centric measures, including subsidies to build renewable energy projects on former coal fields and the permanent extension of a tax on coal companies that funds benefits for miners suffering from black lung disease.

Advocates who fought hard for the black lung fund extension — they warned Manchin that the benefits were at risk when the excise tax expired last year — hailed its inclusion as a breakthrough victory for workers who don’t typically wield influence in Washington.

“We were surprised. We thought it’d be a four-year or 10-year [extension],” said Gary Hairston, a former West Virginia coal miner of 27 years who now leads the National Black Lung Association. “So, when we got it permanently, we might not need to worry about it no more.”

The coal industry, on the other hand, attacked Manchin for making the tax permanent and pushing policies to subsidize alternative energy sources. Leaders of Appalachian coal groups, including the West Virginia Coal Association, wrote in a recent letter that the excise tax will cost them tens of millions of dollars and hurt their ability to compete and keep energy costs stable. “This legislation is so egregious, it leaves those of us that call Senator Manchin a friend, shocked and disheartened,” they wrote.

Backlash from the coal industry, conservative groups and GOP lawmakers has opened up an opportunity for political challengers ahead of Manchin’s upcoming reelection battle. Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) is running television ads accusing the Democratic senator of crossing the state’s coal industry, an apparent signal that he plans to challenge him in 2024. “Alex Mooney won’t let Joe Manchin and Joe Biden destroy our coal industry and devastate West Virginia,” the ad tells viewers.

Cecil Roberts, a longtime Manchin ally who leads the United Mine Workers of America, the nation’s largest coal miners’ union, called those critiques “absolute bull” in a recent statement. He noted that the bill includes tax credits for carbon capture that could extend the life of coal plants and authorizes $4 billion in tax credits exclusively for companies that create new clean energy jobs in coal communities. “I cannot understand how any politician who actually cares about working West Virginians and the quality of their lives can trash this bill,” Roberts said. “They should be thanking Senator Manchin, not attacking him.”

In a response to the West Virginia Coal Association, Manchin noted that the excise tax has consistently been extended at the same rate for nearly four decades and said that coal companies can take advantage of a $5 billion fund in the climate bill to boost their efficiency. “The big pushback I’m getting from the coal operators right now is having to pay the black lung fund, and that’s a shame,” Manchin told reporters on a recent conference call.

Manchin added that despite his best efforts to boost coal, its prevalence has declined under both Democratic and Republican presidents, indicating that his state needs to take advantage of emerging energy technologies to keep up. Hundreds of coal-fired power plants have shut down over the last decade amid the emergence of cleaner and more efficient energy sources, causing pain for Appalachia’s coal mining companies.

At its peak, the West Virginia coal industry employed more than 125,000 employees, a figure that dropped to less than 12,000 in addition to 36,000 independent contractors, according to estimates from the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training.

While they’ve been slow to adopt clean energy policies, West Virginia legislators in recent years passed bills to boost solar projects despite opposition from the coal industry.

The Nature Conservancy and West Virginia Chamber of Commerce released a survey last year finding that most West Virginians believe that the state should reduce its reliance on coal and shift to renewable energy sources, a significant shift in public opinion.

“This is a traditional energy state, but folks in West Virginia are also interested in looking at what the new energy economy can bring to the state in terms of jobs, and economic development and economic diversification,” said Thomas Minney, West Virginia state director at the Nature Conservancy.

As part of his climate deal, Manchin also secured an agreement from Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) that Democrats will pass legislation to expedite approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which spans hundreds of miles in West Virginia and Virginia. Manchin says the natural gas pipeline, which has drawn opposition from local environmental and property rights advocates, would create 2,500 jobs in his home state and help make up for coal’s decline.

Still, it’s not clear whether deep-red West Virginia will embrace Manchin’s climate deal, given that his popularity soared around the time that he told Democrats he couldn’t support the $2 trillion Build Back Better Act.

From the first quarter of 2021 to 2022, Manchin’s approval rating shot up 17 points to 57 percent, the biggest increase among all senators over that period, according to Morning Consult. Nearly 7 in 10 West Virginia Republicans expressed support for the Democratic senator as he railed against his own party’s spending package.

QUOTATION ~ Change is inevitable in life. You can either resist it and potentially get run over by it, or you can choose to cooperate with it, adapt to it, and learn how to benefit from it. Jack Canfield.

Exposed natural gas flames generate hazardous pollutants

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) in Pennsylvania, Texas & Arizona to Provide Webinar Training on “Cooking With Natural Gas”

Gas appliances generate dangerous air pollutants that deteriorate your and your family’s health. It’s important for you to know the signs & symptoms of gas appliance pollution exposure and how to properly address them.

PSR is proud to offer our new webinar “Cooking With Gas: Health Harms from Gas Stoves.” In it, you will learn the primary gas pollutants and their health effects, which populations are the most vulnerable, and the steps you, your family, and patients can take to mitigate the worst of the resulting symptoms. If you are a health professional, this webinar is also Physician CME- and Nursing CEU-accredited.

We hope to see you there and have you join us in the fight to keep fossil fuels in the ground! There are 3 upcoming opportunities to join our webinar training:

May 13 @ 1-2pm ET – Pennsylvania Health Check Up with PSR Pennsylvania;
Physician, Social Work, Pharmacy, and Nursing credits will be offered at this webinar. *Pharmacy and Nursing credits are only available for individuals with a Pennsylvania license.
Register Here

May 16 @ 8pm CT / 9pm ET – Cooking With Gas: Harms to Health from Gas Stoves; presented by Texas PSR and PSR National
Physician and Nursing credits will be offered at this webinar.
Register Here

May 18 @ 7pm PT – Cooking With Gas: Harms to Health from Gas Stoves; presented by PSR Arizona and PSR National
Physician and Nursing credits will be offered at this webinar.
Register Here

>>> Sincerely, Zach Williams, MPH, Health Educator & Campaign Coordinator, PSR

WV geothermal temperature zones at 7.5 km depth (4.7 miles)

From an Article by David Beard, Dominion Post, April 9 & 10, 2022

WV-Department of Environmental Protection permitting issues discussed

The Dominion Post sent WV-DEP some questions relating to issues raised during the permitting process, including during a public hearing held in January. People were concerned about the vague reference to a data center in Marion Energy Partners’ application, and wondered why DEP’s DAQ didn’t demand more specifics.

DEP said, “The application Marion Energy Partners submitted only indicated they were planning to construct and operate a data processing facility consisting of four natural gas-fired engines to generate electric power for the facility. It did not indicate they were going to mine bitcoin.

Regardless, the application was for the emission sources – the four engines – which is the only aspect of this facility that the WVDEP’s DAQ can regulate. MEP is required to construct the facility in accordance with their permit application and meet the emission limits in the permit when they operate.”

DEP continued, “As mentioned, the DAQ’s jurisdiction begins and ends with the emission sources and it cannot regulate or permit a facility based on how it will use the electricity it generates. Please note that the DAQ has permitted several similar emission sources for facilities across the state, ranging from hospitals to government buildings.”

MEP/NNE will have to monitor its emissions from the site and provide the data to DAQ. The Dominion Post asked how DAQ will verify the data and hold MEP/NNE accountable.
DEP said, “MEP will have to perform stack testing within 180 days of startup and every three years or 8,760 hours of operation, whichever occurs first, and report the results to the DAQ. Stack testing is conducted by a third party contractor. MEP is required to obtain prior approval of a stack test protocol, and provide an opportunity for the agency to observe any required stack test.

“MEP is also required to maintain records of operation, and pollution control device parameters, and periodic fuel analysis. The company has to certify the accuracy of reported information. The DAQ will conduct periodic inspections. The facility is a minor source and is required to be inspected at least once every three years.

“The DAQ does not have staff on site when the facility starts up, however, the facility is required to notify the agency within 15 days of the startup of each engine. DAQ staff is notified of, and has the opportunity to observe, the initial stack test which is required to be conducted within 180 days of startup to confirm the facility is operating within permitted limits.

Regarding possible noise pollution, DEP said, “The DAQ has no jurisdiction over noise. Noise is an issue of local jurisdiction.”

The geothermal project promises to drill a deep exploratory (vertical) well

WVU announced its geothermal research project last August (watch for our Progress special section for a full story on the project). While most geothermal reservoirs are located in the western part of the country, WVU said, there is a “hot spot” below north-central West Virginia.

WVU was awarded a $7.5 million Department of Energy grant to drill an exploratory well at NNE’s industrial park site, where MSEEL is already underway. WVU Energy Institute Assistant Director Samuel Taylor told The Dominion Post this is an exploratory well to see what’s down there and what the potential is for future development.

The well will be a vertical bore – with no horizontal offshoot – going down about three miles. No energy will be produced from the well, he said.

Southwestern Energy contributed to Cheat River restoration, but ...

From an Article by Chris Dickerson, West Virginia Record, April 6, 2022

WHEELING – An Ohio County couple have filed a lawsuit alleging an energy company and its contractors continuously trespass on their property adjacent to an oil and gas well pad.

David and Sara Dent filed their complaint April 6 in Ohio Circuit Court against SWN Energy Services Company, Burns Drilling & Excavating Company, Elite Gasfield Services, Halliburton Energy Services, Brownlee Lumber & Supply, Williams Energy Resources and RDR Utility Service Group.

“It is so constant that it has rendered the Dent’s property no longer their own,” attorney Teresa Toriseva said in a press release. “As many of the local residents know, Southwestern Energy is a Texas-based oil and gas corporation.

“In this situation, it is alleged SWN and its contractors have been trespassing on the Dent family’s land for years with no regard for the family’s rights. With no end to this in sight and no response from the oil and gas corporation that it will correct this, these landowners seek a remedy in the courts to regain control of their homestead.”

According to the complaint, the Dents selected their rural property just off GC&P Road near Triadelphia in 2008 for its beauty and tranquility. But in 2012, they say that was destroyed when Southwestern constructed the well pad across from their home.

The plaintiffs say commercial oil and gas trucks servicing the SWN pad trespass on their property to turn themselves around to drive up the access road. “The oil and gas traffic is unrelenting,” the complaint states. “These large trucks trespass on the Dent property every day. The large trucks don’t just turn around, the trucks often sit parked in the Dents’ driveway idling noisily at all hours of the day and night as though they have permission. They do not.

“The Dents, and all West Virginia landowners, have the right to control who is and who is not allowed on their property. This lawsuit seeks damages and to regain that legal control over their property.”

The plaintiffs’ home, according to the complaint, is located at the end of a paved driveway to access the home. The Plaintiffs must travel over a creek bed across a bridge that’s on their property. If this driveway is blocked or unable to be traveled, the plaintiffs are unable to access their home.

“To access the well pad vehicles must travel up a steep and winding hillside on an access roadway to access the well pad,” the complaint states. “As the plaintiffs’ property is across the road from the entrance to the access road, vehicles traveling to the well pad regularly pull into or back down the plaintiffs’ driveway to reposition their vehicle to negotiate the steep access road to the well pad.

“At no time has any of the defendants asked for or received permission from the plaintiffs to enter their property or use their driveway. These vehicles enter plaintiffs’ property without permission and do so at all hours of the night and day without warning or any discernable pattern.”

The Dents say the vehicles could easily travel to a nearby intersection and find a more suitable place to turn around. They say they and their two children under 10 have been awakened countless times by vehicles traveling to the well pad, pulling into their driveway and shining their headlights directly into the home.

As the vehicles often sit and idle in the driveway awaiting clearance to travel to the well pad, the Dents say they have arrived at their property unable to access their own driveway due to vehicles and other equipment either parked in their driveway or blocking their driveway.

“Plaintiffs’ driveway was meant to be an access road to the plaintiffs’ property only, it was not constructed, nor is it maintained to manage heavyweight vehicles,” the complaint states. “At all times relevant hereto the claims made herein the plaintiffs’ property is and has been posted with “No Trespassing” signs and placards.”

The Dents say employees of the defendants have even left their vehicles and trespassed on their property on foot for unknown reasons. In addition to the vehicles blocking and using their driveway, the Dents also say a Williams truck hit their fence, damaging the top rail on July 28, 2021. Another truck left black marks on their driveway as its tires slipped.

And, the Dents say run off from the access road also trespasses upon their property and that black salt used to treat the SWN access road ends up in their yard and the stream in front of their home. They say some large trees have been killed by the run off.

Also, they say when drainpipes are clogged with mud, silt, and other run off, the culvert leading from the access road discharges water violently onto their property and that heavy rains now cause their front yard to turn into a small pond.

To keep up with the damage and erosion, the Dents say they had to buy a tractor to clean the property. “But for the damage to their property associated with the trespass and run off, the plaintiffs would not have been required to spend over $20,000 on a tractor large enough to do the work they needed,” the complaint states.

The Dents say they have talked to SWN officials about the problem, but they say the company “completely disregarded” their concerns and complaints. They accuses the defendants of trespass and nuisance, and they accuse SWN of injury to trees and plants.

“Few concepts are more ‘American’ than the right of landowners to protect their land from unwanted intrusions,” the complaint states, also quoting an 1895 West Virginia ruling in a case styled Haigh v. Bell, which said, “In every case where one man has a right to exclude another from his land, the common law encircles it, if not enclosed already, with an imaginary fence. And to break such imaginary fence, and enter the close of another, is a trespass.”

The Dents seek to have the court enjoin the defendants from trespassing on their property. They request an evidentiary hearing within 10 days whether the emergency temporary restraining order is granted or not. They are being represented by Toriseva, Josh Miller and Michael Kuhn of Toriseva Law in Wheeling. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge David A. Sims.

(Ohio County WV Circuit Court case number 22-C-52)

Foxes here and there are inclined that way ...

From an Article by Joselyn King, Wheeling Intelligencer, August 7, 2021

WHEELING — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice defended his appointment of retired West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney to the State Public Service Commission.

The commission’s mission is to “ensure fair and prompt regulation of public utilities; to provide for adequate, economical and reliable utility services throughout the state; and to appraise and balance the interests of current and future utility service customers with the general interest of the state’s economy and the interests of the utilities,” according to its website.

Justice termed Raney “a great man” and a great choice to be on the commission. “Bill has served this state in every way,” he said. “He worked hand and hand and led the charge with the Coal Association for years and years.

He will absolutely be sworn in in the coming weeks, and I know he will do a tremendous job. “He loves our state beyond good sense — just like I do. I think the world of him. He is so qualified and so well-versed it’s unbelievable.”

Justice was asked if his selection of Raney to join the PSC means the commission is being tilted toward coal producers. “I don’t want us to walk away from coal producers,” he said. “We are an energy producing state, and we should be proud of it. Bill Raney will do a great job in any way I can imagine.”

Raney will assume the seat vacated by former State Sen. Brooks McCabe, D-Kanawha. Brooks’ term expired June 30. He will join Charlotte Lane and Renee Larrick on the commission.

Justice commended the sitting commissioners for their decision this week to approve a certificate of convenience and necessity requested by Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power for the Mitchell Power Plant, the John Amos Power Plant in Putnam County, and the Mountaineer Power Plant in Mason County.

The move is expected to permit the power plants to continue operating until 2040.

“I think it’s the right decision,” Justice said. “We can’t afford to risk our base load generation capacities. We must do everything we can to protect these plants and protect those jobs. … We want to embrace renewables. We want to embrace the clean air efforts, but we’re not ready. Hopefully, we’ll be ready someday. But right now we’re not ready.

“If anybody thinks we can move to renewables and we don’t need coal, we don’t need gas, we don’t need oil … that’s a frivolous, silly thought. It is absolutely wrong. In the meantime we’re going to lose jobs on an experiment that’s going to turn around and bite every last one of us in the butt.”

Justice said he knows, if plans for renewables would fail, people soon would be standing on street corners with signs reading “drill, baby, drill.”

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West Virginia Air Quality Board, WV-DEP Web-Site, April 3, 2022

The West Virginia Air Quality Board is a quasi-judicial Board of review responsible for hearing appeals regarding the issuance or denial of permits, permit conditions, or enforcement decisions rendered by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Air Quality. The Board is composed of seven members, five of whom are appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate and two ex-officio members who are Commissioners of the Bureau for Public Health and the Department of Agriculture.

1. J. Michael Koon, Chair – Public at Large Representative, Appointed: October 1, 1993. Retired Dean, West Virginia Northern Community College, Weirton Campus, and Vice President of Economic and Workforce Development. M.S., Biology – Environmental Studies, West Virginia University, 1977; B.A., Biology, West Virginia University, 1973.

2. R. Thomas Hansen, Ph.D., Vice-Chair – Industry Representative, Appointed: November 17, 1997. Employed by Boyd Oil & Gas, Inc. Attended Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 1976 – 1977, Postdoctoral, Yale University, New Haven, CT 1971 – 1976, Doctorate, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 1967 – 1969, B.S. Chemistry, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 1965 – 1967.

3. Robert C. Orndorff, Jr., Member – Industry Representative, Appointed: November 4, 2009. Managing Director, W. Va. and Exploration & Production, Local Affairs, for Dominion Energy; Master’s degree, Indiana University; Bachelor’s degree, Millersville University of Pennsylvania. Board member for the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Vice Chair of Chamber Energy Committee, Board member of West Virginia Education Alliance, and Board member and past president of West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association.

4. Vacant, Member. 5. Vacant, Member.

Marcellus shale drilling in Bradford County, Pennsylvania

From an Article by Jon Hurdle, StateImpact Pennsylvania, March 31, 2022

Renewed attempts by Pennsylvania House Republicans to boost natural gas production by ending a ban on new drilling on public lands, among other measures, are unlikely to succeed because the industry already owns many unused leases on those lands, and because it lacks the pipeline capacity to take any new gas to market even if it was produced, analysts said.

In early March, GOP members introduced a raft of bills and resolutions designed to increase gas production and so lessen national dependence on imported energy at a time when Russia, a major energy exporter, has invaded neighboring Ukraine.

The measures seek to halt Gov. Tom Wolf’s moratorium on new drilling under state forests; urge the Delaware River Basin Commission to end its ban on fracking in the basin; ask the governors of New York and New Jersey to allow pipeline construction so that more Pennsylvania gas can get to market; and boost domestic consumption of natural gas by stopping Pennsylvania’s plan to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

But all the initiatives are likely to miss their targets, and represent another Republican attempt to enact familiar measures at the behest of the natural gas industry, analysts said.

“All these are things that they have been suggesting on behalf of the natural gas industry for years,” said David Hess, who was secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection from 2001 to 2003 under Republican governors Tom Ridge and Mark Schweiker. “It’s nothing new.”

Hess said that even if the Legislature approves the plan to open up state lands to new drilling, it wouldn’t result in the desired production increase because some two-thirds of the leases already held by drillers are unused, showing that it’s not the ban on opening up public lands that’s holding back production.

In fact, he said, drillers have avoided developing many leases because of low market prices, at least until the middle of 2021. More recently, expansion has been slowed by a labor shortage, supply-chain snarls, and even a shortage of sand for fracking. “It would be a little silly to open more land to leasing when they haven’t developed what was considered prime leasable land back in 2008,” Hess said.

Cindy Adams Dunn, secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, told lawmakers in a Senate budget committee hearing on March 2 that 65 percent of existing shale gas leases in state forests have not been developed.

Quoting data from Pennsylvania’s nonpartisan Independent Fiscal Office, Hess noted that the industry produced gas from 10,322 wells in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared with 13,395 drilled, showing that more than 3,000 wells are shut in.

“Right now, today, they have multiple options if they wanted to increase production out there,” he said. “So far, they have not shown any interest in doing that.”

Despite Republican calls for higher gas production, IFO figures show it actually increased by 6.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared with a year earlier, suggesting more downward pressure on prices.

Natural gas futures prices rose to around $5.50 per million British thermal units in late 2021, their highest in more than a decade, after years when abundant production from the state’s Marcellus Shale kept the price at around $3. On Tuesday, the futures price in New York closed at $5.33.

Before the recent spike, the market slump deterred energy companies from adding new production, even from some wells that they had already drilled, and led some investors to pull back on their support of the Pennsylvania industry after returns had not been all they had hoped.

“Investors in these companies want to get their money out,” Hess said. “They learned their lesson. The finance folks who invest in these companies are holding them on a tighter rein than they did before.”

House majority leader Kerry Benninghoff (R-Center/Mifflin) said the United States should use Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an opportunity to wean itself off energy imports from countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, and instead ramp up domestic production from places like Pennsylvania.

“Gas-producing areas need to do their part to step up; and while President Biden and other world leaders are looking to countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia—countries that do not share our values—to increase production and make up the difference, they really should be looking to places like Pennsylvania,” Benninghoff said at a news conference on March 8.

Legislation to allow new drilling on state lands was made by Rep. Clint Owlett (R-Bradford/Tioga/Potter) who said production from those areas could be increased without disturbing the natural environment by siting well pads outside the preserved area and extracting gas by sub-surface horizontal drilling.

Revenue generated from leasing subsurface rights would “most importantly put us on a path where we as a country are not relying on Russian gas,” Owlett said in a statement on March 7. The next day, President Joe Biden signed an executive order banning the import of oil, liquefied natural gas and coal from Russia to the United States.

Jason Gottesman, a spokesman for House Republicans, denied that Biden’s order undermined the GOP proposals. He argued that the order doesn’t have the force of law, and could be changed by the current executive or the next one. He said Pennsylvania is a victim of years of federal energy policy that has “deprioritized” domestic energy production, but the state now has the potential to make up a shortfall.

“Pennsylvania has the ability right now to once again invest in and export freedom by being a leader in American energy independence, which makes our country and our allies more secure by no longer needing to be reliant on countries like Russia and other geopolitical actors that do not share our values to heat our homes and fuel our cars,” Gottesman said.

Wolf accused the GOP of trying to use the Ukraine crisis to meet longstanding demands from the gas industry. Although he supports bipartisan moves to cut Pennsylvania’s financial ties with Russia, he issued a statement dismissing the plans to boost gas production as “simply ​natural gas industry giveaways.”

Other measures proposed by lawmakers included one from Rep. Jonathan Fritz (R-Wayne/Susquehanna) who highlighted a bill urging the Delaware River Basin Commission to end its ban on fracking in the basin that covers parts of four states, including eastern Pennsylvania. The DRBC is a federal/state government agency responsible for managing the water resources within the 13,539 square-mile river basin.

And Rep. Stan Saylor (R-York) introduced a resolution that would urge the governors of New York and New Jersey to allow construction of natural gas pipelines so that Pennsylvania gas could reach markets in New England, which Saylor said have been “walled off” by anti-pipeline policies in those two states.

Analysts said there was little prospect of New York and New Jersey allowing new gas pipelines, given their pursuit of clean-energy goals, New York’s ban on fracking beginning in 2014, and a decision last year by the PennEast company to end a controversial plan to build a natural gas pipeline from Luzerne County to central New Jersey. That project faced strong community opposition, especially in New Jersey, and was withdrawn after seven years on the drawing board.

“I don’t think a resolution urging New Jersey and New York to change their own energy policy that they adopted for whatever reason is going to have any impact,” Hess said. And he argued that any policy change by the DRBC would require the unlikely approval by the governors of all four basin states – all Democrats – as well as from the federal government.

Matthew Bernstein, senior analyst for shale exploration and production at Rystad Energy, a Norway-based research firm, said lifting the ban on new drilling under state lands would do nothing to boost production because output is restrained by a shortage of pipeline capacity.

“The main issue surrounding increasing production in Pennsylvania is not a lack of land to drill, but rather a lack of the necessary takeaway capacity to bring the gas to market,” he wrote in an email. “No material increase, with or without lifting the ban, is possible in the short-term, and is then dependent on whether future pipelines taking gas out of the basin come online.”

Rystad projects Pennsylvania gas production will remain flat in 2022 because drillers are already producing as much as they can, regardless of the market price, given transmission restraints.

John Walliser, a senior vice president at the nonprofit Pennsylvania Environmental Council, said current gas production is restrained by the industry itself, and not by a shortage of land to drill on.

“There was so much gas being produced that it drove prices down,” he said. “There were questions from the investment side on whether they were getting the return they wanted. I’m personally not of the mind that what’s holding back the industry at the moment is regulation.”

Penna. Republican lawmakers and the U.S. Capitol attack

As part of WITF’s commitment to standing with facts, and because the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was an attempt to overthrow representative democracy in America, we are marking elected officials’ connections to the insurrection.

Reps. Benninghoff and Owlett supported Donald Trump’s 2020 election-fraud lie by signing a letter urging members of Congress to object to Pennsylvania’s electoral votes going to Joe Biden. The election-fraud lie led to the attack on the Capitol.

Jacob Fourier in France understood the “greenhouse effect” in 1824.

From Tom Rodd, Executive Director, WV Center on Climate Change, March 21, 2022

Here’s our final reminder about the upcoming Wednesday, March 23 @ 7 PM live climate science program from Morgantown, WV — featuring a great speaker, Dr. Julie Brigham-Grette.

§§§ — Details and registration are here.

Julie Brigham-Grette is a world-renowned scientist who studies the polar regions. She is tremendously alarmed at the ongoing environmental collapse of these areas that are so vital to our planetary well-being. See her recent article on this topic here.

Dr. Brigham-Grette will be speaking and answering questions about how the polar climate has already changed, what we can expect as global climate change continues, and why we urgently need to address the climate crisis to protect humanity’s future.

Dr. Brigham-Grette will be joined by two West Virginia University Professors, Dr. Amy Weislogel, Associate Professor of Sedimentary Geology, and Dr. Christopher J. Russoniello, Assistant Professor of Geology. More information on all of these speakers is here at the registration page.

Wednesday, March 23rd @ 7 PM — The in-person venue will be a “smart conference room” at the WVU Media Innovation Center, in the Evansdale Crossing Building, 62 Morrill Way, Morgantown WV 26506. There will be audience seating, cameras and microphones for online participation, and a large screen displaying online speakers and audience questions. Doors open at 6:30 PM USET, and the online program will go from 7:00 to 8:00 PM USET. Reservations are not required. WVU COVID protocols currently require masking.

Don’t miss this unique chance to engage with these outstanding scientists who are joining this program to discuss the most important challenge of our time. The stakes could not be higher — let’s make them welcome!

We have more than 130 registrants so far – and for anyone in the Morgantown area, this will be a special gathering with other climate-concerned folks! Please share this invitation with your friends, and I hope to see you, in-person or online!

>>> Tom Rodd, Director, West Virginia Center on Climate Change

### ~ To attend and participate in this program — either online or in person — register here. For more information, email info@wvclimate.org. Thanks for your climate concerns!

P.S. Please share this message with others who might be interested! They will appreciate it!