Turning manure into fuel means dealing with a lot of red tape.

Anybody with a working sense of smell probably would think twice about journeying through a field full of cow dung or a compost heap at all costs. But the secret to generating cheap electricity could be lying within those not so olfactory friendly confines. Despite the efforts of methane harvesters, there have been roadblocks along the way.

In the United States, the harvesting of bio methane gas for electricity generation has been a slow moving process. Even with programs like the U.S. EPA’s AGStar program, that promotes and educates energy producers in the process of producing biogas, the rest of the world is still ahead of the United States. The numbers are not even close.

Currently, the United States, has roughly 150 biogas generators operating, mostly in rural areas. This pales in comparison to 8,000 projects being funded by the European Union and an estimated 8 to 17 million anaerobic methane digesters in China, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

One explanation for the discrepancy in project numbers between the U.S. and other countries is their disparity in the cost of producing electricity through alternate means. The high costs of producing electricity in Europe through more traditional methods provide economic justification for bio methane gas production.  Domestically, however, some farmers do not want to harvest methane because of the high costs to produce, store and transport the bi-product of the waste for burning.

In the case of John Fiscalini, whose farm is located just outside of Modesto, Calif, politics get in the way of generating biogas. The Los Angeles Times recently reported that Fiscalini has enough manure for his anaerobic digesters to supply enough methane to power his entire 530-acre farm, his cheese factory and an additional 200 homes. California Air Quality Control regulators will not issue a license for the digester, claiming that it creates high of levels of carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons in the recovery process.

While biogas burning is considered carbon dioxide neutral and is not supposed to yield additional greenhouses gases that normal fossil fuels would, improperly recovered biogases can contribute up to 20 percent more greenhouses gases than if methane is combusted normally.

The process of harvesting biogas consists of collecting any organic waste, usually manure, and dropping it through an inlet tube that leads to an underground dome or tank. When bacteria eats away at the sludge, a bi-product of methane and carbon dioxide is produced and the gas is gathered through an outlet tube of the tank. From there, the gas is compressed and stored for burning.

Some argue that the need for more biogas digesters is necessary because they make good use of organic wastes, create fertilizer from the residue and can run cooking, heating, gas lighting and gas powered engines. The process does not require that aseptic conditions exist, the risk of explosion is less than that of pure methane and that anaerobic digestion inactivates pathogens and parasites thereby reducing the number of water born diseases.

A study of E3 Biofuels conducted by energy expert and writer, Robert Rapier, tested the ability of the company to produce enough bio-methane to power their entire plant. Their biogas system consisted of: Growing corn, producing ethanol, feeding the byproducts to the cows, harvest, and produce methane from the manure, use the methane to fuel the boilers and then use the remaining residue as fertilizer. Rapier found that even after carrying out all of those processes, additional gas had to be used to power the plant. Rapier noted, however, that the process used significantly less fossil fuel than a grain ethanol plant.

At this juncture though, Fiscalini and others who hope to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels by producing their own bio-methane need to wait for air quality control regulators to approve those projects.

Chet Culver, Chairman of the Governors Wind energy Coalition is leading the charge to push Congress towards minimum wind energy requirements.

An assembly of 29 governors is urging Washington to enact Federal legislation that would mandate electric companies to obtain a minimum of 10 percent of the power they provide through renewable energy within two years.  The proposal, allegedly designed to stimulate job creation as well as climate reform, was presented today by letters to the White House and to Congress from the Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition.

“Right now, this is about jobs,” said Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri (R).

“We don’t want these things to get caught up in the broader debate and discussion [i.e. global warming] that will only slow us down,” added Iowa Gov. Chet Culver (D), chairman of the bipartisan Coalition, which includes the governors of 29 states.

With national attention focused on health reform proposals, the group is concerned that the Federal government has become sidetracked from the agenda of getting Americans back to work.

“Congressional action on the energy bill seems to have stalled,” said Carcieri in a statement. “It is our hope that these recommendations — and the national bipartisan consensus they represent — will advance the energy deliberations now under way in Congress.”

Other recommendations by the governors include:

• Developing new interstate electric transmission system infrastructure to facilitate access to these resources nationwide.
• Greater federal support for coastal and off-shore wind farms; and
• Extending the Treasury Department’s financing program that offers cash up front instead of the Investment Tax Credit, as well as a renewable energy production tax credit.

Senator Chuck Grassley, Iowa (R), thinks the Governors' joint proposal sets unrealistic objectives.

“People want more renewable energy. Congress can’t ask for a clearer signal for what works politically than what’s working at the state level.” says Reid Detchon, executive director of the Energy Future Coalition, told the Christian Science Monitor.  ”These governors coming forward like this is just one more indicator of public sentiment in favor of stronger requirements for renewable energy.”

Congress does not unanimously subscribe to the notion that the Coalition’s mandate presents realistic objectives. Indeed, Culver has not convinced his own State’s senior senator that the mandate can be reached by 2012.

While Iowan Senator Chuck Grassley (R) claims to have supported renewable energy portfolios in the past, he believes the Coalition has bitten off more than can be chewed.  “Probably not ten-percent by 2012,” Grassley says, “I don’t think that that’s possible but I surely think 15% by 2020 is possible.”

Daniel Yergin considers fracking natural gas from shale rock as the most effective means for reducing Americas dependence on oil.

With the advent of gas shales, North America is blessed with three times as much potential natural gas supply as they were in 2007, according to a study released Wednesday by IHS-Cambridge Research associates.

But the question remains whether America is willing to tap its potential.

“This is simply the most significant energy innovation so far this century,” said Daniel Yergin, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power and chairman of IHS-Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

The trick is to convince the public that recently discovered surpluses of natural gas should be relied upon to offset dependence on oil.

The innovation is somewhat hollow unless gas producers can convince Washington and the American public to embrace “fracking for gas”.  Despite recognition that natural gas burns more cleanly than oil, leftward leaning partisans have concerns about possible groundwater contamination resulting from extracting fuel from gas shales.  Accordingly, they would prefer to advance wind and solar energy as the wave of the future.

Natural gas advocates consider talk of renewable energy on a national scale as complete hot air.  “In dealing with climate change, I’m constantly surprised by the tendency to focus on the most complex and expensive measures,” said Helge Lund, CEO of Norway’s Statoil. Lund added that natural gas is abundant, affordable and relatively clean compared to the fossil fuels predominating the market today.

The ramification of America’s capability of using shale to provide its own natural gas has had a significant impact on the international economy.  Russian gas titan Gazprom has stalled in developing its Arctic shipping lines due in large part to growing concerns that the U.S. demand for international natural gas may be a lot lower in the forthcoming years than was expected as recently as three years ago.

In 2000 only 1% of America’s natural gas was harnessed from shale rock.  Today it’s 20% and by 2035 it could be 50% according to the new IHS CERA report, titled “Fueling North America’s Energy Future: The Unconventional Natural Gas Revolution and the Carbon Agenda.”

Wind turbines may spin on American soil but many of them carry the "Made in China" label.

Washington D.C. – The war between members of the U.S. Senate and wind energy investors rages on as lawmakers try to suspend government appropriations earmarked for privately operated wind-energy projects. The complaint, raised by the Committee for Energy and Natural Resources, is that investors are funneling an overwhelming percentage of government funding toward Asian manufacturers, rather than using American companies.

With nearly $2 billion already spent on wind farm projects, several senators are leading the charge against stimulus funds that are suspected of being used for manufacturing wind mills in China that will eventually be used in the U.S. The purpose of the wind stimulus project, proposed by the Obama administration in early 2009, was to help expand the United States goal of producing wind generated energy, as well as create jobs across the country. Now, committee members are investigating the exact nature of the spending so far.

According to a report conducted by Investigative Reporting Workshop, 73 percent of the $1.9 billion in stimulus money that has distributed since Sept. 1, 2009 has been invested in foreign companies.

One particular project, a wind farm in west Texas slated to receive $450 million in government funds, has become the focal point of the debate. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), has been outspoken in his skepticism of the project since its inception last year. Schumer claims that US Renewable Energy Group (US-REG), Texas-based Cielo Wind Power and Chinese Shenyang Power Group, all responsible for financing the venture, so far have not relied on U.S. manufacturing. Instead Schumer claims the investment will provide 3,000 jobs for Shenyang and 330 for Americans -300 of those U.S. jobs being temporary.

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) has hostile words for American companies using government grants to manufacture products abroad.

“It is a no-brainer that stimulus funds should only go to projects that create jobs in the United States rather than overseas,” Schumer’s office said in a statement. “These wind projects have a lot of merit, but the manufacturing should be happening here, not in China.”

In a statement released by US-REG, managing partner Cappy McGarr countered the charges by stating that his company intends to manufacture a minimum of 70 percent of the wind turbines for the $1.5 billion project domestically.  McGarr said that it is incorrect to assume that hundreds of additional jobs created aside from the direct construction and operation of the Texas plant would be outside the U.S.

The U.S. Energy Department released a statement saying that they do not support blocking stimulus payments and if projects that use foreign-manufactured turbines are cut off, even temporarily, the result could be immediate layoffs for American workers.

The current American Recovery and Reinvestment Act requires government run and financed stimulus projects to rely on American manufactured goods. Where the bill lacks coverage for protecting American jobs is in regards to privately operated projects, like the US-REG venture, that do not fall under the same guidelines.

Senate Committee members are pushing for new legislation that would require private project venturers to create jobs in the United States if they are taking advantage of federal grants. Under current law, the government has no jurisdiction to intercede by withholding grants even if the companies relying on government incentives perform all of the manufacturing abroad.

During his trip to Savannah, Obama shared a lunch with a few of the locals.

Savannah, Ga. – Willing homeowners across America may soon be eligible for rebates for making energy efficient improvements to their houses, according to President Barack Obama. Standing in front of the student body and faculty at Savannah Technical College, Obama laid out the general groundwork for implementing his $6 billion HOMESTAR program, commonly referred to as the “Cash for Caulkers” program.

Obama said the plan is focused on providing rebates for consumers that purchase energy saving, home improvement upgrades such as insulation and water heaters. Under the program, vendors ranging from small independent contractors to nationwide home improvement chain stores will offer the on-the-spot rebates that will range between $1000 and $1500. The federal government will then reimburse the vendor for the rebate.

This program would also reward homeowners who have energy audits conducted and then follow through with the necessary improvements to reduce their energy consumption. Audited homes that are improved by cutting their energy costs by at least 20 percent can receive up to $3000 with the possibility of a larger rebate for any reduction over 20 percent.

Obama praised the Savannah Tech’s initiative called the YouthBuild program, geared toward pursuing energy efficient business practices through their specialized classes and training. He also drew parallels between the school’s energy education program and the White House’s current goals.

“In terms of energy usage, 40 percent of it goes into our homes and our building,” Obama said during the speech. “So as we’re looking for additional initiatives to spur hiring, I think we ought to embrace what’s happening on this campus. I think we ought to embrace the incredible potential that awaits us across America in clean energy.”

Cutting residential energy consumption and providing relief to homeowners who would partake in the plan, was not the only item on the agenda. The other task at hand for the White House, according to Obama, is attempting to provide jobs for American’s who will assist in weatherizing these houses.

Obama referred to manufacturers and contractors being ready to work and take on the possible increase in demand for labor, and even joked at one point in his speech about outsourcing.

“It turns out that energy-efficient windows or insulation, those things are products that are almost exclusively manufactured right here in the United States of America. It’s very hard to ship windows from China,” Obama said. “So that creates work for small businesses and contractors like some of the folks who are here today. And obviously construction work that’s been as hard hit as anything during this recession, so you’ve got a lot of skilled contractors ready to go.”

The White House has yet to propose the plan to Congress and several details are yet to be determined, such as its duration and costs.

As noted in DOT’s press release accompanying the announcement, “The TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) Discretionary Grant Program was included in the Recovery Act to spur a national competition for innovative, multi-modal and multi-jurisdictional transportation projects that promise significant economic and environmental benefits to an entire metropolitan area, a region or the nation.”

About half the money will go to transit and rail projects, including $83 million to fund the first phase of the long-anticipated “new Penn Station” in Manhattan.  The new facility will occupy the city’s huge Farley post office building across Eighth Avenue from the current Penn Station and Madison Square Garden.  It will be named for New York’s late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who championed the project while he was still alive.  Moynihan also was the principal author of the landmark 1991 federal transportation legislation that for the first time opened federal transportation funding to community and environmental projects.

What a great and fitting tribute to a giant among legislators.  And what remarkable evidence of this administration’s much-appreciated commitment to efficient, people-oriented transportation.

The group Friends of Moynihan Station hailed the announcement, which completes the funding necessary for Phase One of the project, which will include new entrances to the current, underground Penn Station from the Farley building, major improvements to passenger and visitor concourses, and new escalators, elevators and stairs to the train platforms.  Construction can begin late this year.  Phase Two will include, among other major improvements, an iconic, open train hall in the Farley Building.

Penn Station is the nation’s busiest transportation facility, handling over 600,000 passengers daily.

Those of us who use it, and that includes me when I travel to New York several times each year, know that the current Penn Station leaves a lot to be desired, to put it mildly.  Unlike wonderful stations in DC, Philadelphia, Paris, Berlin, and London, just to name a few, Penn station is cramped, claustrophobic, and completely devoid of natural light.  While there have been some heroic attempts at improving the place over the last 10-15 years, it is not somewhere you ever want to be if you don’t have to.  It doesn’t come remotely close to Grand Central, Manhattan’s iconic station on the East Side.

And that’s a shame, because Penn Station once was itself grand and inspiring (see photo of its interior, below).  It was demolished to make way for the current facility as a result of a litigated decision that was lost by the old station’s proponents but nonetheless galvanized the preservation movement in New York and elsewhere.

When the new project is finished, intercity passengers using Amtrak will be shifted to the Farley building, and local and regional commuters using New Jersey Transit and the Long Island Railroad will be given more space in what is now the current facility. While there is no doubt that the major upgrade to Eighth Avenue will spur additional redevelopment near the new station, the project will focus on its transportation purpose.  The New York Times saluted this decision in a recent editorial, noting that given earlier talk of an elaborate mix of major shopping, housing, and sports facilities in the project, its focus – and, given the recession, perhaps even the whole idea – was in danger of being lost.  New York’s senior senator Chuck Schumer has been credited with reframing the project to place the emphasis on the station itself, and with helping the project seek stimulus funding.

I had the pleasure of hearing Pat Moynihan speak a couple of years before his death, and it was one of the most intellectually impressive speeches by a politician that I have ever heard.  I was sitting at a large dinner with a seasoned lobbyist from the National Trust, who leaned over and said, “There will never be another like him.”  But now at least there will be a legacy.

Here’s a short video – now somewhat dated (Eliot Spitzer was New York’s governor at the time) – that was produced by the Municipal Art Society of New York, explaining the genesis of Moynihan Station and its proponents’ goals:

Principles for a Great New Penn Station from MAS on Vimeo.

A single B&W mPower™ nuclear reactor module inside its own independent, underground containment.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama referred to a “new generation” of nuclear power plants. The President was either exceedingly prescient or he knew more than he revealed because one week later the new generation has arrived–introducing the Babcock & Wilcox reactor. The energy world is taking notice.

Three large utilities, Tennessee Valley Authority, First Energy Corp. and Oglethorpe Power Corp., signed an agreement with McDermott International Inc.’s Babcock & Wilcox subsidiary on Wednesday, committing to get the new reactor approved for commercial use in the U.S.

While the three companies have not yet committed to purchase any of the reactors, their commitment to obtaining regulatory approval for the enterprise is a critical initial step toward implementation.

Approximately one-tenth the cost of conventional nuclear power plants, the newer designs are smaller than a rail car, offer greater flexibility of site location and theoretically can be built in half the time. These advantages, most notably the price, make the Babcock & Wilcox reactor a more attractive nuclear option for energy companies than conventional reactors.

Traditional nuclear reactors may produce more energy than the new “mini-reactors” but they cost many billions of dollars. The Babcock-Wilcox reactor runs closer to $750M. “We think the probability that things will go wrong with these large projects is greater than the probability that things will go right,” said Jim Hempstead, senior vice president at Moody’s Investors Service.

Comparatively, the cheaper reactors offer less risk of financial ruin. The reduced risk translates into a self-fulfilling prophecy for an investing corporation’s financial future. Larger, riskier ventures are more apt to damage a corporation’s credit rating than a more “bite-sized” investment in smaller reactors.

Not every corporation moving toward nuclear power needs to rely solely on strong credit ratings for financing, however. President Barack Obama recently pledged to guarantee 8.3 billion dollars in loans for the construction of large nuclear power plants in Burke, Georgia.

The White House pledge was somewhat groundbreaking for a country that has not built a new nuclear power plant since the Chernobyl meltdown in the Soviet Union several decades ago. It was a particularly surprising development because President Obama is viewed by many as a leader whose primary focus is the environment.

Environmentalists are not happy with the President’s new trend. Between the President’s shifting toward off-shore drilling and nuclear power he seems to be turning on his own political base. The White House’s recent trending toward the right has not passed unnoticed by the left.

Friends of Earth President Erich Pica is not smiling about recent White House decisions.

“Green” enthusiasists like Friends of the Earth president, Erich Pica, feel that Mr. Obama’s recent policy emphasis amounted to “unilateral disarmament.”

“We were hopeful last year; he was saying all the right things,” Mr. Pica said. “But now he has become a full-blown nuclear power proponent, a startling change over the last few months.”

If eco-diehards are disgruntled now, that frustration is likely to build. Some experts believe that introducing small reactors to the industry could pave the way for more pervasive, nuclear power in the U.S. because more utilities would be able to afford them.

“There’s a higher likelihood that there are more sites that could support designs for small reactors than large ones,” said David Matthews, head of new reactor licensing at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The President has gone on record as saying, “the fact is, changing the ways we produce and use energy requires us to think anew, it requires us to act anew, and it demands of us a willingness to extend our hand across some of the old divides.”

That ideology is consistent with the new wave toward mini-reactors.

“If we can’t figure out how to build large plants economically, then small ones may be the way to go,” said Ronaldo Szilard, director of nuclear science and engineering at the Idaho National Lab, part of the Department of Energy.

The SEC filed suit against principles of World Fuel for insider trading.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged five men, including current and former World Fuel Services Corp. (WFSC) executives with insider trading.

According to the complaint, Steven Scoppetuolo, Robert S. Tocci, Sarang Ahuja, Richard White and Eric M. Gordon illegally netted over one million dollars in profits traded in securities for stock in the Doral-based company. The action was brought Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

The SEC alleges that former WFSC CFO Tocci, twice received non-public information about the company’s earnings from his close friend, Scoppetuolo, who was serving as both vice president of commercial operations supply and trading for World Fuel. Tocci then purportedly used the information to purchase put options in the company’s stock and to sell short.

Ahuja, the securities broker for both Scoppetuolo and Tocci, allegedly used insider information to benefit his personal accounts and other customer accounts before both earnings announcements.

The SEC claims to have phone records revealing that in May, 2007 Scoppetuolo called Tocci soon after World Fuel executives decided to put old debts back on their books. Tocci immediately called Ahuja, who quickly began purchasing short positions and puts so that they could benefit from the anticipated drop in the stock’s price.

Scoppetuolo’s attorney, James Sallah, adamantly denied the charges. “[T]he suggestion that he would breach his duty to the company is simply ludicrous,” he said. “Steven talked to Tocci every day for a year. They were best friends. But, as Steven will say, if there was one subject he avoided with Tocci, it was the company.”  Sallah added that the lawsuit is groundless and their clients will defend themselves vigorously.

Attorney Richard Brodsky claims that the SEC lacks sufficient evidence to find WFSC exec Richard White guilty.

White, the company’s vice president of tax, purportedly sold short stock before the earnings statements went public.  White is also accused of tipping Gordon about World Fuel’s potentially imminent stock dip. He, in turn, allegedly used the information to buy put options prior to both earnings announcements, and allegedly tipped two of his friends, who followed suit on taking advantage of the information.

Richard Brodsky, White’s attorney, claims that the SEC is lacking any smoking gun to tie his client to the alleged crimes. “There’s no evidence that my guy tipped Eric Gordon. They were both members at the same golf club, but there’s no e-mail, phone record, paper, nothing,” Brodsky, said.

World Fuel’s general counsel, Alexander Lake, claimed that no charges have been asserted against World Fuel and that the company is cooperating with the SEC.  Scoppetuolo and White have not faced criminal charges, however, they both have been placed on administrative leave.

President Barack Obama is facing pressure from environmental groups and the oil and gas industry on the issue of offshore drilling.

The hot issue of offshore drilling for oil and gas deposits is forcing the Obama Administration to walk a fine line between encouraging economic growth and preserving the environment.

Days after environmentalists conducted an anti-offshore drilling protest in South Beach, Florida labeled “Hands Across the Sand” a new study placed a price tag on acquiescing to their proposed drilling moratorium – a hefty $2.4 trillion. That is the cost that maintaining the status quo will have on the U.S. economy over the next two decades according to a recent study.

The report, prepared for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, also said that without access to the energy resources, foreign imports of crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas would increase by $1.6 trillion over that period. Additionally, the United States is expected to pay the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) $607 billion for an extra 4.1 billion barrels of crude, the report said.

“We encourage lawmakers to heed the results of this study and take a closer look at the energy-rich areas in our country that are currently off limits.” said David Parker, president of the American Gas Association. “It’s clear from this report that the status quo on energy production simply won’t suffice.”

Encouragingly, the report claims that the level of untapped domestic oil hidden beneath protected areas has been underestimated by approximately 43 billion barrels. If the report is accurate, there are 229 billion barrels available, enough to support the United States at its current consumption levels for 50 years. Estimations of available natural gas were bumped by 286 trillion cubic feet to 2,034 trillion cubic feet.

Environmentalists however remain skeptical of permitting drilling in any new areas.  Much of the disputed territory received federal protection by statute twenty seven years ago.  During the final year of his presidency, amid a recession that was partially the result of an oil crisis, George W. Bush began easing back restrictions in most U.S. waters beyond the western and central Gulf of Mexico ended in 2008.  The Interior Department is now considering whether to expand exploration in only a small part of the formerly closed areas.

The White House faces pressure from environmental groups who feel the United States should rely less on oil and gas and more on cleaner energy sources like wind and solar. President Obama hinted at his ambivalence on this hot topic in his recent State of the Union address.  While the President pressed for increasing reliance on renewable energy he would not commit to maintaining a moratorium on drilling in areas that have been protected for over two and a half decades.  Quite the contrary, the President preceded his call for profitable green energy by referring to “tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development.” His conflicting remarks left advocates on both sides bewildered.

Perhaps it was the President’s straddling that motivated environmentalists to make a demonstrative protest on Florida’s beaches this past weekend. As part of a statewide show of support to continue banning offshore drilling, protesters created a human chain for the “Hands Across the Sand”.

Promotions for anti-drilling protests began popping up around Florida shortly after the President delivered his first State of the Union of the Address.

“There has been a ban and a moratorium on new offshore drilling for years,” said organizer Andrea Cuccaro. “It’s not going to help us with prices for oil in the near term, and we have a lot of solutions like solar and wind power that are really great solutions that we can give more incentives and tax breaks.”

To environmentalists like Cuccaro, President Obama is reneging on a major element of his campaign platform by not being a steadfastly staunch supporter of the environment.  Despite the fact that drilling would be three miles from the coastline, eco-enthusiasts have concerns about the long term impacts of offshore drilling.  Some Florida politicians are concerned that drilling could threaten the State’s economy by hurting its tourism.

A massive explosion rocked the gas-fired power plant, with confirmed fatalities and many injuries.

Middletown, CT - At least 5 people were confirmed killed after a huge explosion rocked a gas power plant shortly before 11:30am local time. Police and rescue services fear that there are ‘mass casualties’ as a result of the exploding gas pipeline, and the death toll is expected to rise.

“The reports vary from a few, several to possibly as many as 50 dead,” said Brian Albert from the local hospital.

Billowing smoke was seen rising from the 620-megawatt Kleen Energy Systems plant, located along the banks of the Connecticut river.

Witnesses and victims of the explosion said that there are many bodies buried beneath the rubble, with rescue services operating frantically to pull the survivors to safety.

Middletown deputy fire marshal Al Santostefano said that it was “a massive explosion” and noted that emergency responders had “confirmed fatalities,” though he declined to say how many.

The explosion could be felt from up to 15 miles away from the plant, with many area residents originally mistaking it for an earthquake. Middletown is located just 23 miles south of Hartford, the state’s capital.

“They were doing the firing of the engines this morning and so something went wrong and it blew up and flames came shooting up almost as tall as that stack,” a local resident told told WTNH-TV.

Governor Jodi Rell immediately activated the state’s emergency management center upon being informed of the blast, and the more than 100 firefighters on the scene have since extinguished the blaze that erupted from the explosion.

Rescue officials say that there is no further danger to the public and are now operating “in search and rescue mode,” according to Santostefano.