On Friday, representatives of a “dark money” political action committee called Generation Now signed a guilty plea admitting their part in the biggest bribery scandal to ever hit Ohio. Generation Now was set up as a social welfare nonprofit but in reality was a shell organization that received “tens of millions of dollars” from FirstEnergy
Read More...On Joe Biden’s first day in occupying the White House, he signed an Executive Order (EO) suspending new oil and gas leasing while the Interior Department reviews existing leases and permitting practices for 60 days. The aim is to make the federal lease ban permanent. However, some permits on existing leases will continue to be
Read More...Ohio AG Dave Yost We continue to peel back the layers of the rotten, smelly, stinky onion that is Ohio’s House Bill (HB) 6, a law granting billions (plural) to FirstEnergy in an attempt to prop up the company’s economically failing nuclear power plants. FirstEnergy is accused of bribing legislators to pass, and keep passed,
Read More...In 2016 a group of business and government leaders from Ohio and West Virginia in the Mid-Ohio Valley banded together to form an economic development group called Shale Crescent USA, or SCUSA (see Group Promotes Mid-Ohio Valley for Petrochem: Shale Crescent USA). The aim of the group is to attract manufacturers (particularly petrochemical manufacturers) to
Read More...Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost continues to hammer FirstEnergy Corporation. In November Yost filed a lawsuit to block the collection of $150 million provided for under House Bill (HB) 6, aimed at propping up FirstEnergy’s unprofitable nuclear power plants in the state (see OH AG Files 2nd Lawsuit to Block FirstEnergy $150M Nuke Payments). Yost
Read More...click for larger version Two weeks ago Trumbull County, OH’s Board of Commissioners sent a letter to Gov. Mike DeWine requesting DeWine order a feasibility study on a “lake-to-river natural gas pipeline” project that will extend along the State Route 11 corridor from Columbiana County all the way to Ashtabula Harbor on Lake Erie. The
Read More...FirstEnergy is up to its metaphorical rear-end in alligators. Not only has the Ohio Supreme Court blocked (for now) the collection of annual $150 million payments from the residents of Ohio given to FirstEnergy to prop up its uneconomic nuclear power plants, but multiple (over a dozen) lawsuits have been filed against the company by
Read More...Dunkleosteus terrelli We’ve heard of fossil fuels, but until we spotted a press release from Ohio, we’d never heard of a fossil fish. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has just signed a bill into law designating the fossil fish species Dunkleosteus terrelli (a mean-looking critter) as the official Fossil Fish of Ohio. Dunkleosteus is the second
Read More...The Ohio Supreme Court just delivered a decision that affects one particular landowner (and former mineral rights owner), but also has implications for all Ohio landowners and rights owners. And by extension, implications for drillers that pay royalty payments. The Supremes found in Gerrity v. Chervenak that the landowners in the case (the Chervenaks) did
Read More...Anti-fossil fuelers love to protest things. Fine. Let them protest. This is (still) America. But when antis tip over into illegal acts like blocking legal activities of building pipelines or drilling wells, or when antis tip over into acts of vandalism like destroying equipment, that’s NOT okay. Antis call it “protesting.” We call it criminal
Read More...Yesterday MDN brought you a post about the dramatic increase in natural gas-fired electric plants in the Marcellus/Utica, particularly Pennsylvania (see NatGas-Fired Power Plants in M-U See Dramatic Increase 2015-2019). Today we have another post (also from the U.S. Energy Information Administration) about gas-fired electric power. Gas-fracking giant Pennsylvania was the largest net exporter of
Read More...click for larger version Each year Cleveland State University publishes a report for JobsOhio looking at how much money has been invested by the private sector in the Utica Shale (and related) industry. The CSU’s eighth report (full copy below) was recently released and shows some eye-popping numbers. Total shale investment from July through December
Read More...click for larger version FirstEnergy continues to get battered over its alleged role in a $60 million bribery scandal in Ohio. The latest blow comes from the country’s three main ratings agencies, Fitch, Moody’s and S&P, which have all downgraded FirstEnergy’s credit rating to ‘junk’ status. This post appeared first on Marcellus Drilling News.
Read More...In July, now-former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four of his associates were indicted for felonies related to an alleged $60 million bribery scandal in passing the hugely unpopular House Bill 6 (see FirstEnergy Involved in Bribery Scheme to Pass $1B Nuke Bailout Law). HB 6 gives Energy Harbor, a FirstEnergy subsidiary, $150 million
Read More...This is extremely frustrating. FirstEnergy subsidiary Energy Harbor is accused of bribing former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and several of his associates to pass (and stay passed) a $1.1 billion bailout bill that funnels electric ratepayer (i.e. taxpayer) money into the hands of FirstEnergy, to prop up two uneconomic and failing nuclear power plants
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