Blog Readers Are Ahead of The Curve -- April 16, 2018 -- The State Of Ohio Has Eleven (11) New Natural-Gas-Fired Power Plants -- Either New And On-Line, Or Under Construction Or Some Phase Of Planning

Wow, wow, wow.

Connecting the dots.

First, re-posting a comment a reader just sent me -- this comment was in response to an earlier post:

To put some context to supply/shortage/US NGL potential ...  feedstock supply is dwindling on the global stage. 

Right now, in the US, oversupply of ethane is resulting in about 600,000 barrels a day rejected back into the pipelines. 

That is, due to the current infrastructure shortage, ethane that could supply 6 large crackers is simply being burned along with methane. 

The US has a HUGE advantage on the world stage with rock bottom, ample supply of feedstocks along with cheap electricity to run the operations.

Now a screenshot of an article from Reuters:

This is quite coincidental. Don sent me an article earlier today. I did not post it because it looked like a lobbyist of the coal industry or the nuclear energy sector or wind/solar energy group had written it. But perhaps not. The writer suggested that there may be risk in the US putting all its eggs in one basket, or in this case, supporting the electricity grid with only natural gas.

To what extent electric vehicles will exacerbate the problem is also of interest.

Anyway, the article Don sent that I am now posting, from TimesReporter.com: are we becoming too reliant on natural gas? From OREGON, Ohio.

The past and present, at least in terms of how Ohio generates electricity, can be found within a few miles along the shores of Lake Erie.

Pressed up to the edge of the water is the Bay Shore Plant, a coal-fired power plant owned by a subsidiary of Akron-based FirstEnergy that rarely runs and is scheduled to be closed by 2020.

Sitting two miles inland is the Oregon Clean Energy Center, a natural-gas-fired power plant that opened last summer and is running most days. It’s owned by Clean Energy Future of Massachusetts, a company that focuses exclusively on building and operating these types of plants.

“We are the next iteration of technology,” said Peter Rigney, the plant manager, referring to how the gas plant takes up less space, has fewer employees and generates less waste than coal or nuclear plants.

Oregon Clean Energy is part of a building boom, one of 11 natural-gas plants built, under construction or in some phase of development in Ohio. Investors are spending billions of dollars on plants that will take advantage of the region’s inexpensive and plentiful natural gas.

People who manage the electricity grid are trying to figure out the risks of increasing reliance on natural gas as old coal and nuclear units are closing or likely to close. At the same time, the people behind this slate of projects tend to downplay the risks and say natural gas will remain plentiful and inexpensive.

I have never thought of Rick Perry as being the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he may be correct. There may be a reason to encourage clean coal technology, which he advocates.

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Speaking of Sharp Knives

I'm sure everyone has heard by now: London, a city with one of the world's strictest gun control laws, now has a murder rate that exceeds a city in which every citizen either already owns a gun or will own a gun eventually, namely, New York City.

So, how are these London murders being committed?

Knives.

Headline:

"After the murder rate passes that of NYC, London mayor Sadiq Khan calls for sharper knife control."

No pun intended, I'm sure. From USA Today.

Apparently Mayor Khan wants to ban knives in public.

"No excuses: there is never a reason to carry a knife," Khan tweeted. "Anyone who does will be caught, and they will feel the full force of the law."

"Never a reason to carry knife."

I'm not exactly sure how chefs will do what chefs normally do.

But our older daughter noted an even bigger problem: how does one bring home a kitchen knife after buying it at Walmart?

Oh, that's right. We can order knives from Amazon.