natural gas

President Donald Trump Tuesday toured Shell Chemical’s soon-to-be completed ethane cracker complex in Monaca, Pennsylvania, to tout his administration’s commitment to expanding energy production. The facility is part of what industry boosters hope will be a new plastics and chemical manufacturing base in the upper Ohio Valley, but many residents here worry about the heat-trapping gases and plastic waste such an industry would produce.

Speaking to a crowd of a few thousand construction workers, Trump said investment in plastics and other petrochemical plants in the Ohio Valley could greatly benefit the region. He touted the vast reserves of natural gas and natural gas liquids contained in the Marcellus Shale, which extends throughout much of the Appalachian basin.

The natural gas explosion that killed one and injured six near Danville, Kentucky left behind a crater 50-feet long and 13-feet deep.

The concussive force from the blast was so great, federal regulators shut down two nearby pipelines to inspect them for damage. In the explosion’s wake, flames as tall as 300 feet scorched homes, railroad tracks, trees and vegetation for 30 acres around the site.

Investigators have not yet found the cause of last week’s explosion, but the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration released its preliminary findings in a corrective action report Thursday.

Federal investigators have taken over the site of Thursday’s natural gas pipeline explosion that killed one person and left five injured south of Danville.

The blast ejected 30 feet of pipeline into the air, scorched railroad tracks and burned mobile homes, forcing the evacuation of about 75 people after midnight on Thursday morning. Firefighters battled the 300-foot blaze for hours before extinguishing it.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board took over the scene Thursday and will begin looking for a cause.

Louisville Gas & Electric plans to begin suing landowners who refuse to sell their property for the construction of an underground natural gas pipeline through northern Bullitt County.

The utility will begin filing condemnation proceedings in an effort to purchase the remaining 15 percent of land needed to begin construction, according to a Wednesday press release.

LG&E says it’s run out of capacity on the current gas pipeline and needs to build a second 12-mile-long pipeline in order to keep up with growth in the area around Mt. Washington, Shepherdsville, Clermont and Lebanon Junction.

The city of Danville has for years fought one of the country’s largest owners of oil and gas pipelines to block a controversial project that runs through an elementary school, a main thoroughfare and the city’s water supply.

The proposal would have reversed the flow of the existing Tennessee Gas Pipeline and converted it from carrying natural gas to more hazardous byproducts called natural gas liquids.

Now Kinder Morgan has announced plans to scrap the project saying it will continue to provide natural gas service. The pipeline travels through 18 Kentucky counties stretching from the Ohio state border in the northeast to the Tennessee border in the south.

The Evansville energy company that serves 145,000 customers in southwestern Indiana has released a transition plan that phases out most coal-fired power and replaces it with natural gas and solar.

Vectren says its plan will reduce carbon emissions by 60 percent by retiring three coal-fired plants and retrofitting one remaining coal unit so it's in compliance with Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s combined cycle gas plant in Muhlenberg County has produced more than one million megawatts of energy in its first three months of operation. It’s part of the federal utility’s effort to diversity its energy portfolio.

The natural gas facility in Drakesboro produces about 1,025 megawatts of electricity, or enough power for half a million homes. The cost of the project is estimated at about $850 million. Bob Deacy is a TVA senior vice president and has been building plants for more than 30 years. He said there’s a lot of fuel switching going on across the country, and having a diverse energy portfolio will save consumers money.