Tagged: natural gas

Louisville Gas and Electric is asking the case against the company for its role in a residential gas explosion in December be dismissed. In documents filed with the Kentucky Public Service Commission yesterday, the company disagrees with many of the state's conclusions as to the cause of the explosion.

For the first time since the federal government has begun collecting data, natural gas and coal produce virtually the same amount of the country’s electricity.

The Energy Information Administration just crunched its numbers for this past April, and preliminary data shows that both coal and natural gas make up about 32 percent of the country’s total electricity generation.

Coming up at 1:00 this afternoon, WFPL will air "Gas Planet: The Impact of the Natural Gas Boom on Climate Change." This hour-long documentary produced by The Allegheny Front examines the rise of natural gas, fueled by low prices, abundant resources and a lower carbon footprint than coal.

The Kentucky Public Service Commission has cited Louisville Gas & Electric for safety violations that led to a natural gas explosion in December. The explosion in South Louisville destroyed a house, and the PSC determined that there were problems with LG&E's emergency response. The company was also cited for violations related to gas line pressure in the system.

There's not a lot of natural gas drilling in Kentucky, but nearby West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania have become hotbeds as the Marcellus Shale is tapped.

Coal-producing states like Kentucky are warily eying federal regulations that have begun moving the country away from fossil fuels.

Even so, Sue Tierney says she thinks coal will be around for awhile, though it will be cleaner and make up less of the nation’s energy mix. Tierney was the Assistant Secretary for Policy in the U.S. Department of Energy under President Bill Clinton. She’s giving a talk on what she calls “sustainable energy” in both the U.S. and China next week.