Tag: Energy News

Alan Guebert considers the findings of a recently published paper that suggests renewable energy sources may not be the answer to reversing climate change.

A subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners was fined $140,000 by the Pennsylvania DEP for a landslide and other violations that happened during the construction of a pipeline in Beaver County. ETP is the same company that owns and operates the Revolution pipeline that exploded in September 2018 in Beaver County due to a landslide.

A panel including representatives from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources will discuss how utility-scale solar can and should be integrated into farmland.

Fossil fuel consumption was at its lowest level in 30 years in 2020, while energy consumption from renewables hit a record high. While 2020 was not a normal year, the data point to a changing U.S. energy landscape.

Republic Wind wants another shot at building a wind farm, arguing that the Ohio Power Siting Board put too much stock in local opposition to the project. The Ohio Power Siting Board voted in June to deny the application, finding the proposal would not serve the public interest and could not minimize its environmental impacts.

The Ohio Power Siting Board will hold a local public hearing Sept. 28 regarding a proposal to build a 100 megawatt solar farm in Marion County. The project would cover about 970 acres and include a 20 MW battery storage system.

The $6.6 million collected from ratepayers was part of more than $24 million in payments identified by FirstEnergy as “improperly classified, misallocated or lacked supporting documentation” in a report to the SEC. A dozen of those payments were to Tony George, a Cleveland businessman; two went to Sam Randazzo, former PUCO chief who resigned last fall after the FBI raided his home in connection with the FirstEnergy/House Bill 6 investigation.

Preliminary results of an Ohio State University study show that pipeline installation on farmland negatively impacts crop yields. Soils within the right-of-way also had more rock fragments, lower soil moisture and a higher resistance to penetration, which indicates some amount of soil compaction.

More than 40 ethanol plants said in a letter sent to President Joe Biden that they support the goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2030 and hit net zero by 2050. The list of signatories includes one Ohio ethanol plant, Guardian Lima LLC, in Lima, Ohio.

The Pennsylvania DEP is now requiring all landfills to test leachate for radioactive materials commonly found in unconventional oil and gas waste, even though a department study found "no significant differences in radium levels between landfills that accept oil and gas waste compared with those that do not."