by Ben Hunkler | Feb 14, 2022 | Blog Posts, Clean Energy, Shared Prosperity
The newly announced initiative to develop a carbon capture and hydrogen hub in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia is a gamble in the guise of opportunity. The project, announced last week by a partnership of major oil and gas companies, would deploy costly,...
by Ben Hunkler | Jan 20, 2022 | Blog Posts, Clean Energy
A recent story in the Columbus Dispatch reported that “two small eastern Ohio counties in the heart of Ohio’s natural gas country posted the biggest economic gains among the state’s counties in 2020” and that “other counties in Appalachia also were among...
by Joanne Kilgour and Eric de Place | Dec 21, 2021 | Blog Posts, Clean Energy
When President Biden signed the bipartisan infrastructure bill into law, he authorized billions of dollars in new federal spending to support the development of hydrogen and carbon capture utilization and sequestration (CCUS) across the country. Although the spending...
by Eric de Place | Nov 29, 2021 | Blog Posts, Clean Energy, Shared Prosperity
Bitcoin is on the verge of going mainstream, with some companies — and even countries — recognizing the cryptocurrency as legal tender. The market cap of Bitcoin now surpasses both Facebook and Tesla, and it also recently became the 13th largest currency...
by Sean O'Leary | Nov 19, 2021 | Blog Posts, Clean Energy
January 25, 2022 may become the day the music died for a number of the remaining Appalachian coal-fired power plants. That’s when PJM, the regional transmission operator (RTO) that manages wholesale energy markets in all or parts of 13 mid-Atlantic and midwestern...
by Sean O'Leary | Nov 16, 2021 | Blog Posts, Clean Energy
I’m old. And for nigh on to fifty years I have been listening to politicians and oil and gas executives soberly invoke “energy independence” as a a noble goal that is necessary to preserve our freedom and way of life. Starting in the 1970s, a decade...
by Ben Hunkler | Aug 31, 2021 | Blog Posts, Clean Energy, Fair Democracy, Shared Prosperity
The Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI) launched one year ago, in August 2020, as an independent, nonprofit think tank designed to equip the region’s residents and decision-makers with the policy research and practical tools they need to advance long-term solutions to...
by Sean O'Leary | Aug 27, 2021 | Blog Posts, Clean Energy
According to a recent report from S&P Global/Platts, “PTTGC America’s final investment decision on a new petrochemical complex in southeast Ohio remains on indefinite hold until the company secures a new partner in the project, the company said in an email...
by Eric de Place | Aug 16, 2021 | Blog Posts, Clean Energy
In the last few months, hydrogen has garnered serious hype across the Ohio Valley as the zero-emissions fuel of the future. But should proponents’ claims be taken at face value? Is more skepticism warranted? What is hydrogen, really, and what are its uses and...
by Eric de Place | Jul 29, 2021 | Blog Posts, Clean Energy, Fair Democracy
Pennsylvania has officially soured on fracking. A groundbreaking new opinion poll released today by the Ohio River Valley Institute shows that, by wide margins, state voters support a serious crackdown on fracking operations. The poll shows that voters across all...
