Landscaping – Energy – Environment
Explainer: So Why Does A Susquehanna County Gas Company Have To Raise Rates 33.2% When Susquehanna County Is The #1 Shale Gas Producer In PA? By David E. Hess | PA Environment Digest | September 9, 2022 On September 19, the Public Utility Commission is holding… Continue Reading “Susquehanna County Gas Company Raising Rates 33.2% Even Though County is Top Gas Producer”
In a state that produces so much coal and natural gas, most people would never expect these sorts of utility rate increases. An August 28 story in the Wall Street Journal begins with the headline, West Virginia’s Coal Dependence Drives Up Consumer Electric Bills… Continue Reading “West Virginia Utility Rates Surge Despite Fossil Fuel Abundance”
Price Increases Caused By Spike In Natural Gas, Energy Costs, and Hot Weather By David E. Hess | PA Environment Digest | August 10, 2022 On August 10, the Public Utility Commission warned customers of five major electric utilities will increase their electricity prices,… Continue Reading “PA PUC: Four Major Electric Utilities Have Double-Digit Electric Price Increases Coming Sept. 1st”
Guest blog by David E. Hess | PA Environment Digest | August 17, 2022 The cost of natural gas provided to customers by the seven largest natural gas utilities in Pennsylvania increased from 31 percent to 154.6 percent over the last year, according to… Continue Reading “Cost of Natural Gas Provided by Major Utilities in PA Increased as Much as 154% Over Last Year”
An August 10, 2022 story by Zachary Mider on Bloomberg, Methane ‘Loophole’ Shows Risk of Gaming New US Climate Bill points out how “several energy companies have adopted an unorthodox interpretation of EPA rules to slash their reported methane emissions.” “An unorthodox reading of a single word… Continue Reading “TODAY’S FOCUS: Range Resources Methane Reporting”
Misplaced Faith: How Policymakers’ Belief in Natural Gas is Driving Rural Pennsylvania Into an Economic Dead End by Sean O’Leary | Aug 8, 2022 | Ohio River Valley Institute Key Takeaways: Policymakers’ pursuit of natural gas development is failing rural Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania policymakers of both parties are driving efforts to… Continue Reading “NEW REPORT: Ohio River Valley Institute”
GUEST POST: An Industrial Machine Moving Across the PA Countryside Leaving Behind Big Liabilities and Spreading Pollution Everywhere It Goes By David E. Hess – PA Environment Digest – August 3, 2022 On July 30, Gov. Wolf directed the Department of Environmental Protection to… Continue Reading “Conventional Oil & Natural Gas Drilling”
PBS FRONTLINE Series Links to all 3 videos: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/the-power-of-big-oil/ DESCRIPTION In an epic three-part documentary series, FRONTLINE investigates the decades-long failure to confront the threat of climate change and the role of the fossil fuel industry. Part One charts the fossil fuel industry’s early… Continue Reading “WATCH: The Power of Big Oil – 3 Parts”
Homeowners have faced a steady stream of rising energy costs from fossil fuels as global situations have devolved. Meantime, our utility bills have been dropping. Americans have come to find that just because we sit on large reserves of coal and natural gas, that… Continue Reading “‘Paying it Forward’ with Solar Energy”
One of the major U.S. hubs for LNG processing, storage and pipeline transportation is located at the center of Marcellus Shale country in western Pennsylvania near Houston, Washington County, Pennsylvania. The hub began with the construction of MarkWest’s cryogenic gas plant, which also includes… Continue Reading “Bottom of the LNG Chain – Independence from Meaningful Taxes”
Today’s Pennsylvania Bulletin includes an “Intent to Issue an Operating Permit under the Air Pollution Control Act” for the Welling Compressor Station at 165 Carlisle Road, Claysville, PA 15323. The Welling is one of the largest compressor stations in our county, one of over… Continue Reading “AIR POLLUTION: Welling Compressor Station in Washington County, PA”
News out of Germany yesterday points to how many nations have been hamstrung by their reliance on natural gas, as supplies tighten and prices whipsaw. Since renewables aren’t quite where they need to be yet, the current crisis, with heating season a scant 12… Continue Reading “Coal, not Gas, as the ‘Bridge Fuel?’”
The June 8, 2022 explosion and fire at the FREEPORT LNG export terminal in Quintana, Texas, dropped the Henry Hub commodity price for natural gas, from $9.34 two days before the incident to $7.26 a week later, a huge 23% price drop. Conversely, LNG… Continue Reading “LNG Export Outage Helping US Prices”
Have you fallen victim to the oil and gas industry’s disinformation campaign? Have a listen to this new Podcast, or read the transcript, to find out for yourself: New Research: Big Fossil’s Disaster Capitalist Response to Russia-Ukraine“In the response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,… Continue Reading “Oil and Gas Industry’s “Disaster Capitalism””
In addition to a tornado warning —that had us eating supper in our basement at 6:00PM Tuesday evening— the third segment of this PBS Frontline documentary aired later that same evening. I recognized a couple powerful allies in the oil & gas air pollution… Continue Reading “‘The Power of Big Oil: Part 3 – Delay’”
On April 28, the Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Concerned Health Professionals of New York released their Eighth Compendium of Scientific, Medical and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking and Associated Gas and Oil Infrastructure. The Compendium is a collection of… Continue Reading “Risks and Harms of Fracking and Oil and Gas Infrastructure”
Now that more of our home electricity requirements are provided by solar energy, it was time to upgrade our HVAC system to a heat pump, instead of just replacing the old central air conditioning unit. A far more efficient gas furnace was also installed… Continue Reading “HVAC Update with Heat Pump”