Posts Tagged ‘City’

Citing job creation, much-needed tax revenue generation, Mayor Ravenstahl opposes shale gas production ban

Canonsburg, Pa. – Despite the fact that no Marcellus Shale operators have any near-term prospects of producing clean-burning natural gas within Pittsburgh’s city limits, earlier today Councilman Doug Shields formally introduced legislation seeking to prevent private city landowners from generating value from their own private mineral rights – potentially setting a dangerous precedent. According to his spokesperson, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl opposes this effort. Kathryn Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), issued the following statement regarding the legislation:

“At a time when Pittsburghers are feeling uncertain about the current state and future direction of our economy, policymakers and our elected officials should recognize that all economic opportunities should be considered in full. The shale gas industry has brought to my hometown new jobs, an expansion of our tax base, and environmental stewardship and a safety culture that pervades our daily work. The effort announced today by Councilman Shields furthers none of these tremendous benefits to Pittsburgh residents and taxpayers – and in the process, attempts to deny residents in the city some of their most basic and fundamental rights.

“The extent to which the promise and potential of the Marcellus Shale is fully realized for our area will depend on a number of things – chief among them, our ability to demonstrate to the public that our operations are safe, and that the benefits they generate stand to improve the lives and livelihoods of every resident in the Commonwealth. It’s a task we take on with pride every day – and one to which the councilman’s legislation seeks to put an indefinite end, very much to the disservice of all who live in our city.

“Environmentally sound, tightly regulated shale gas development on privately-owned land in the region can and will create jobs and and revenues at a time when they’re most needed. Mayor Ravenstahl understands that; and our hope is that councilman Shields will see the merits.”

NOTE:

• The Pittsburg Post-Gazette reports today that “Mayor Luke Ravenstahl also opposes a ban, in part because drilling would create jobs, tax revenue for the state and spinoff revenue — such as earned-income tax — for the financially strapped city, his spokeswoman, Joanna Doven said.”

• This from a recent KDKA segment: “I believe if we can do it in a city like Fort Worth we can certainly do it in a city like Pittsburgh,” Kathryn Klaber, a spokesperson for the Marcellus Coalition, said. In recent years, natural gas companies have extracted gas from wells in the city of Fort Worth, Texas, and Klaber says drilling could be done safely in Pittsburgh. “Pittsburghers for generations have been able to figure out how to do things and I think they can figure out this one as well,” she said.

Copyright: Marcelluscoalition.org

By Steve McConnell (Staff Writer)
Published: June 2, 2010

CARBONDALE – Plans to develop an extensive railroad facility to serve the natural gas industry in Fell Twp. moved forward Tuesday.

The Carbondale Industrial Development Authority unanimously approved a motion to allow Honesdale-based Linde Corp. to purchase a nearly two-acre parcel in the Enterprise Drive business park. The company intends to use it for unloading materials from railcars for shipment via truck. It also would include storage facilities and on-site processing of drilling fluids.

The company is currently developing an adjacent property, purchased from the local railroad authority, that is part of its overall plan to have a suitable staging area for on-site processing of drilling fluids and a railroad facility capable of serving the industry, said company Vice President Christopher A. Langel.

Authority Chairman Bob Farber said there has been ambiguity as to what exactly Linde Corp. intends to develop on the new property since the company has been meeting with the board about it.

“You’ve never given us site plans,” Mr. Farber said.

Mr. Langel said the company has submitted plans and has been meeting with the board since at least October about the project.

Among plans discussed Tuesday, existing railroad tracks, which run through the heart of the city, will be extended to enable off-loading of materials at the site.

The company, which has invested more than $500,000 in the so-called Carbondale Yards Bulk Rail Terminal, is also partnering with Houston-based Baker Hughes to mix sand, water and chemicals into a concentration needed for prospective natural gas drilling sites in the area.

Mr. Langel described it as a nontoxic mixture.

The company also is eyeing the former Wells Cargo building, a large-scale facility inside the business park, as an additional storage and distribution point related to the overall operation, Mr. Langel said.

The authority board tabled a motion that would give Linde Corp. permission to purchase and develop the Wells Cargo property.

In addition, the company is in negotiations with the Susquehanna River Basin Commission to withdraw water from the Lackawanna River for potential use by the natural gas industry. The industry needs an abundance of water to help bust open underground rock formations to release natural gas, a process called hydraulic fracturing.

City administrators have said they support the project for its job-creation potential. It is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

To see this article, click here.

Copyright:  The Scranton Times-Tribune

By JOSEPH B. WHITE The Wall Street Journal

First it was ethanol made from corn. Then ethanol made from twigs and stems and trash. Then, the future was going to belong to hydrogen. Now, the alternative fuel flavor of the month in Washington is natural gas.

You may know this already, thanks to vigorous public-relations campaigns mounted to promote natural gas as a vehicle fuel by energy billionaire T. Boone Pickens and allies such as Chesapeake Energy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Aubrey McClendon. Mr. Pickens touts natural gas as a fuel for cars as part of his broad “Pickens Plan” to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil.

Mr. Pickens, in a television ad, summarizes his case for using natural gas as a vehicle fuel in nine words: “It’s cleaner. It’s cheaper. It’s abundant. And it’s ours.”

Nothing is ever that simple in the energy business. A lot of natural gas isn’t “ours.” It belongs to the same companies that currently supply us with oil, or to big gas utilities such as Ch esapeake. But Mr. Pickens is correct when he says that natural gas is abundant in the U.S. Recent advances in drilling technology have made it possible to exploit gas reserves that weren’t economical to tap before, such as the Marcellus Shale in the Appalachian region of the Northeastern U.S.

The macro problem that Mr. Pickens and gas industry executives need to solve is what to do with all that new gas – assuming it becomes available as forecast. Already, natural-gas prices have slumped about 40 percent since May. Grabbing some of petroleum’s more than 90 percent share of the U.S. vehicle fuels market is a smart strategy for the gas industry.

The question for consumers who don’t own shares in natural-gas companies is whether a compressed-gas fueled vehicle is a better deal than some other green technology, or the status quo.

The only natural gas car on the U.S. market right now is a Honda Civic GX. Honda Motor Co. let me borrow one for a few days to road t est the NGV (natural-gas vehicle) lifestyle.

Driving the Civic GX isn’t different than driving a standard, petrol-fueled car. My white test car had an automatic transmission and the usual bells and whistles. The adventure of driving a natural-gas fueled Civic only starts when the fuel gauge gets close to empty – and that happens fairly quickly because the car’s range is only 200 to 220 miles between fill-ups.

At this point, you’ll need an Internet connection to help you find a public natural-gas vehicle refueling station in your metro area. If you are fortunate will you find one in your ZIP code, because there are only about 1,100 natural-gas refueling stations in the U.S. The closest one to my house was about 18 miles away at a depot owned by the City of Ann Arbor.

The unmanned refueling station had an imposing looking pump with two hoses that dispensed compressed gas at different pressures. The Civic’s manual explained that I should use the one marked 360 0 pounds per square inch. Behind the Civic GX’s fuel door is a nozzle fitting. After a couple of tries, I got the fitting from the high-pressure hose properly locked on, and threw a lever on the pump to “On” to start the flow.

I realize it was irrational and techno-phobic to worry that I would somehow overfill the compressed gas tank on board the car and turn my Civic into an explosive device. Let’s say that I was nervous enough that I had done something wrong that when the pump shut off automatically, I was relieved, even though the system had only refilled the tank to the half-full mark. Mr. Pickens could add another element to his plan: It will create jobs for filling station attendants who can help nervous natural-gas newbies.

On the positive side, my natural gas was about half the price of the equivalent quantity of gasoline – $1.94 a gallon.

The Honda Civic GX illustrates almost perfectly the chicken-and-egg problems besetting efforts to wean personal transportation in the U.S. away from petroleum fuels.

Because there aren’t many natural-gas refueling stations, Honda only builds a couple of thousand natural-gas Civics a year, and other car makers are reluctant to push the technology to consumers. Because there are so few natural-gas vehicles, outside of commercial or government fleets, fuel retailers don’t have much incentive to sink $500,000 to $750,000 into a natural-gas refilling station capable of handling cars as rapidly as a conventional gas station can, says Richard Kolodziej, president of NGV America, a Washington advocacy group that represents about 100 natural-gas companies and other enterprises with a stake in promoting natural gas as a motor fuel.

Because there is little demand for natural-gas vehicles, the ones that are available come with a hefty price premium, in part because their fuel tanks aren’t molded plastic, but are instead heavily engineered, high-pressure tanks. A Civic GX lists for ab out $24,590, compared to about $17,760 for the mid-range Civic LX on which it is based. Tax credits can offset as much as $4,000 of that price. And in some states, natural-gas cars can use high-occupancy vehicle express lanes – a major perk for time-pressed commuters.

The Civic GX achieves about 24 miles to the gallon in the city and 36 on the highway, when its consumption is converted to gasoline equivalent miles per gallon, Honda says. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates the GX’s annual fuel costs at $884 a year, compared to $1,987 a year for a petroleum-fueled Civic. That indicates a payback, after the tax credit, of about 2½ years on the premium over the standard car.

One problem with the natural-gas Civic, Mr. Kolodziej concedes, is that it doesn’t look any different than a normal car. It doesn’t advertise the owner’s green cred the way a Prius does. “Where’s the sex in that?” He asks. “The sex comes in when you fill up for $10.”

Mr. Kolodzie j says he refuels his Civic GX using a Phill home-fueling system. This costs about $5,000 and allows a natural-gas vehicle owner to refuel overnight with gas from the lines running into the house. (A $1,000 tax credit is available for the Phill system.) But the hardware in Mr. Kolodziej’s garage isn’t all that’s different. He also says he doesn’t care that the vehicle has a limited range and takes hours to refill using the home refueling device.

“I go to work. I go to the store,” he says. “That’s what 99 percent of people do. Americans want to be able to drive to California tomorrow. They won’t.”

Mr. Kolodziej would say that. But he’s right. A switch to natural-gas cars would require a change of attitudes and expectations both by consumers and car makers. More of us would need to accept owning a car that can do one job – commuting and running errands in fewer than 200 miles a day. It’s the same fundamental proposition behind plug-in hybrids such as the Chevrolet Volt or plug-in Prius.

The big hurdle for natural-gas vehicles is that somebody will need to invest substantial sums in a consumer refueling infrastructure. The gas industry was hoping that somebody would be Uncle Sam. Unfortunately, Congress just found out last week it may have to spend $700 billion salvaging the global financial system. That could put big federal subsidies for natural-gas cars – and a lot of other worthy ideas – on the back burner.

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Send comments about Eyes on the Road to joseph.white@wsj.com.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Posted At: Times Leader