Appalachia’s power plants by net generation and capacity factor
In all, the states of Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia have 85 non-peaker coal and gas-fired power plants with capacities of 100 MW or greater. The following chart lists the plants alphabetically and indicates each plant’s owner, location, start date, nameplate capacity, fuel, 2023 generation, and 2023 capacity factor.
You know that thing about how expensive renewable energy is?
Almost three years ago I wrote a blog post titled, “Renewable Energy: The New Texas Tea.” In it, I compared changes in electric rates in Texas, where what would become a rapid transition to renewable energy was gathering steam, with changes in rates in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, where, in Ohio and Pennsylvania at […]
Revisiting Pennsylvania’s Bad Bet
The Shell Polymers Monaca petrochemicals complex shadowing the banks of the Ohio River in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, has become something of a symbol in Appalachia. To the many families nearby, it represents a constant, draconic threat, belching episodic flames, discharging headache-inducing smells, and triggering air quality warnings for dangerous particulate matter and volatile organic compounds. […]
Pennsylvania’s Opportunity to Cut Industrial Pollution and Create Jobs
Heavy industry is Pennsylvania’s biggest source of climate pollution and a principal cause of various environmental health concerns in frontline environmental justice communities. A new program known as Reducing Industrial Sector Emissions in Pennsylvania, or RISE PA, could help curb hazardous pollution while creating jobs and drawing new investment to the Commonwealth. RISE PA is Pennsylvania’s […]
Job Opportunity: Senior Communications Strategist
The truth, well told, can speed progress toward change. The Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI), an independent nonprofit providing research and solutions for a more sustainable, equitable, democratic, and prosperous Appalachia, is hiring for the newly created position of Senior Communications Strategist. This is not a traditional communications role. Words, images, and metaphors help us […]
Housing Rebuild After Kentucky Flood Still Lacks Funds
After the 2022 flood in southeast Kentucky, the Ohio River Valley Institute worked with the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center to do an initial estimate of the cost to rebuild housing damaged by the flood and found that the cost far exceeded the funds that had been secured for rebuilding at the time. Since we published […]
Addressing Pennsylvania’s Orphaned Well Crisis
Pennsylvania, like several other oil and gas producing states, has a broken system when it comes to preventing orphaned and abandoned wells. Its inadequate bonding and regulatory systems incentivize the indefinite delay of plugging responsibilities and the orphaning of aging oil and gas wells. As a result, Pennsylvania holds the dubious distinction of being at […]
The Tri-State CCS Hub and The Return of The Bad Deal
Do you know a bad deal when you see it? Possibly not, if the deal has to do with something as arcane as leasing underground pore space to an oil and gas company that wants to dispose of carbon dioxide. But that’s the kind of deal property owners and elected officials need to start figuring […]
LNG Exports Are a Rotten Deal for Appalachians
In a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece, former Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan decried President Biden’s recent decision to pause liquified natural gas (LNG) export authorizations. Ryan, tugging on heartstrings, claimed that LNG exports and other new avenues for natural gas buildout are a “crucial bridge to a clean-energy future.” To hear well-paid gas industry […]
The Rhodium Group’s Economic Impact Report on Carbon Capture and Storage
Attorneys who specialize in contracts know that a single phrase or just a word can completely alter the meaning and effect of a contract. The same is true . . . maybe even more true . . . of economic impact reports, which by their nature are speculative and rely heavily on assumptions, caveats, […]