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Several members of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee met in Pittsburgh for a hearing on methane, the main component of natural gas and a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
It takes aim at states like New York that have blocked pipeline projects that would carry Marcellus Shale gas to markets in the Northeast.
“We want to make sure you have the appropriate skilled, trained personnel on-hand to deal with providing that reliable service.”
How a young team at CMU helped expand the fledgling field of robotics.
Pittsburgh researchers are working on potentially cheaper ways to capture carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants. So-called “clean coal” technology is expensive, but some experts say it’s crucial to address climate change.
Of the eight million vehicles registered in Pennsylvania, just 15,000 of them are electric. The state Department of Environmental Protection has released a plan several years in the making that outlines how the state can boost that number. Education is a key component.
As residents of the mid-Atlantic and Midwest stayed indoors this week to avoid the Arctic air that swept the region, they used a lot of electricity and natural gas to keep warm.
Gov. Tom Wolf kicked off the new year with an ambitious climate change goal: reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions 26 percent by 2025, and 80 percent by 2050.
The fee Pennsylvania collects from natural gas drillers is expected to reach a record $247 million this year, according to figures released Thursday by the state’s Independent Fiscal Office.
Gov. Tom Wolf has set a new goal for the state to combat climate change: reduce greenhouse gas emissions 26 percent by 2025.
Long-term, the governor wants to see an 80-percent reduction by 2050.
Peoples Gas in western Pennsylvania has outfitted a vehicle that will drive over 950 miles of the utility’s pipelines in Pittsburgh this year using a high-tech system to find places where methane leaks into the air.
Natural gas production in Pennsylvania is expected to reach a new high by year’s end: 6 trillion cubic feet. Drillers extracted 13 percent more gas in the first three quarters of 2018 than during the same period the previous year, according to a recent report from the state’s Independent Fiscal Office.
While the bulk of solar energy in Pennsylvania exists in the eastern half of the state, co-ops are popping up across western part of the commonwealth to help people go solar.
If power plants that burn fossil fuels could capture their carbon emissions and store them somewhere, it would go a long way toward preventing greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere.
Pennsylvania environmental officials have come out with a plan to reduce leaks from thousands of the state’s oil and gas wells.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA — State environmental officials have fined natural gas operator EQT for drilling into an old mine in 2017 and releasing 4 million gallons of abandoned mine drainage into the Monongahela River and surrounding wetlands in Allegheny County.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York who’s weighing a presidential bid in 2020, visited Pittsburgh and Philadelphia on Sunday to announce that both cities will receive up to $2.5 million to combat climate change.
Hunter Park in the Pittsburgh suburbs can’t compare in size or prestige to the Gettysburg battlefield, but the two attractions have a common funding source in their past.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – A federal indictment filed this week alleges Russian hackers targeted a nuclear power company near Pittsburgh beginning in 2014, in addition to anti-doping agencies throughout the world.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – By including more pipelines in Pennsylvania’s one-call law and creating a more robust enforcement system, state officials hope to cut down on incidents where residents or excavators accidentally hit pipelines and cables when digging underground.
Utilities need to be acting now to better prepare for severe weather, an expert said
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – State environmental officials have ordered three companies to plug more than 1,000 abandoned oil and gas wells.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Clean energy advocates and environmental officials say bringing solar farms to Pennsylvania needs to happen if the state wants to significantly boost how much energy it gets from the sun.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – A new report shows that jobs in most parts of Pennsylvania’s clean energy industry grew over the past year.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Pennsylvania conservation officials have released a plan to confront climate change on public land as flooding, wildfires and warmer bodies of water pose threats to wildlife, landscapes and recreation.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – When President Donald Trump’s solar tariff took effect four months ago, it sent shockwaves through the solar energy industry.
More than 2 million people work in energy efficiency across the United States. It makes up the largest sector of the nation’s clean energy workforce. Virginia McGrath has held one of these jobs for three years. She’s an energy auditor for Pittsburgh’s Conservation Consultants Incorporated.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Pennsylvania will use the $118 million it received in a settlement with Volkswagen to fund grants and rebates for cleaner vehicles and engines.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Environmental advocates in Pennsylvania want to see a faster switch to electric buses to help eliminate emissions that can worsen asthma and cause other health problems.
HARRISBURG, PA (WSKG) – Some Pennsylvania lawmakers are introducing legislation, again, to impose a severance tax on natural gas production.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Gasoline prices in Pennsylvania will likely hit the $3-per-gallon mark this week, their highest level since 2014.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – More than 100 spills have occurred during the construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline, and now, another troublesome spot has emerged in Delaware County outside Philadelphia.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Authorities are searching for explosives that were stolen last weekend from an Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline worksite in Lancaster County.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Six months after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, 200,000 residents still lack electricity, the mayor of the island’s capital city told a crowded Carnegie Mellon University ballroom Wednesday night. Carmen Yulín Cruz, who received a master’s degree from CMU in the 1980s, came back to the campus to speak at “Energy Week” alongside Pittsburgh’s mayor. She said the situation in Puerto Rico is still dire for many. “You have no idea what it is to spend months and months and months with not a flicker of light,” she said. “We don’t want energy to be able to bathe in warm water or to have air conditioning, we want it so our children can go to school.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Across Pennsylvania, four in 10 registered voters say they have personally experienced problems related to climate change, according to a recent poll from StateImpact Pennsylvania and Franklin & Marshall College.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Pennsylvania landowners for years have tried and failed to get the Legislature to protect royalties they receive from natural gas companies, but mineral owners in West Virginia just scored a victory.
As Pennsylvania’s gas boom helps propel the United States away from coal-fired power, one energy researcher says the impact on climate change will be a wash. Burning natural gas for electricity emits less carbon dioxide than burning coal. That’s good news for climate change in the short term, but a number of other factors negate the long-term benefits of transitioning to more natural gas power, said Daniel Raimi, a senior research associate with the think tank Resources for the Future. Read full story here.
I stumbled across a Washington Post story this morning that describes how Russia’s Internet Research Agency tried to manipulate the debate over energy-related issues in the United States via social media.
As Pennsylvania moves into the latter part of winter, 13,500 households that started the season without a safe source of heat still don’t have one.
Activity in Pennsylvania’s gas fields slowed in recent years amid low prices, but operators ramped up drilling in 2017, and they’re expecting to drill even more in the new year. The site of some of the state’s newest gas wells lies atop a Washington County hill in Frank Brownlee’s backyard. Brownlee, 68, lives a quarter-mile away and operates a trucking business next to his house. Read Full Story Here