Utilities in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, all anticipating rapid growth in electricity demand through the 2030s, have ambitious plans for renewables but are acknowledging that solar and offshore wind will need to be backed up by a lot more natural gas-fired generation. Fortunately, the new Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and planned expansions to it and the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) system are providing utilities in the three-state region with enhanced access to Marcellus/Utica-sourced natural gas, albeit at premium prices to gas users closer to that production. In today’s RBN blog, we continue our look at rising demand for electricity and gas in Virginia and the Carolinas with a review of what the largest utilities there are planning.
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For many years, gas-fired power plants, gas distribution utilities and other gas consumers in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina depended almost entirely on natural gas piped up from the Gulf Coast on Williams’s Transco system. Then came shale, as we say, including seemingly limitless volumes of natural gas from the Marcellus/Utica play in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. In short order, parts of the Gulf-Coast-to-Northeast Transco system (green line in Figure 1) and a number of other previously northbound-only pipelines were rejiggered to allow increasing amounts of gas to flow south as well. Some new southbound pipes were built too, including the 303-mile, 2-Bcf/d MVP project from northern West Virginia to southern Virginia (light-blue line), which finally came online in mid-June after protracted regulatory, legal and legislative battles.
Figure 1. MVP, Transco and Other Selected Gas Pipelines. Source: RBN
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About the song
“(For God’s Sake) Give More Power to the People” was written by Eugene Record and appears as the fifth song on side one of The Chi-Lites’ third studio album of the same name. The song begins with a synthesizer blast, giving way to a funk-filled social commentary about giving power to the people with soulful solo sections from The Chi-Lites’ Eugene Record, Marshall Thompson, Robert “Squirrel” Lester and Creadel “Red” Jones, culminating in powerful choruses sung by the quartet. The song’s strong social message and arrangement share a commonality with tunes done by The Temptations and Sly & the Family Stone during the same era. It was released as a single in October 1971 and went to #4 on the Billboard R&B Singles chart and #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart. It was later featured in the 1995 film Panther. Personnel on the record were: Marshall Thompson, Robert Lester, Creadel Jones, Eugene Record (vocals) and uncredited Chicago session musicians (instrumentation). Eugene Record produced the record and did the arrangements.
The album (For God’s Sake) Give More Power to the People was recorded in 1970-71 at Brunswick Record Studio in Chicago and produced by Eugene Record. Brunswick started in the record business in 1920 and after many buyouts closed shop for good in 1983. The building that housed Brunswick Records at 623 South Wabash Avenue in Chicago is now the home of Columbia College Chicago. A faded “B” from the Brunswick sign is still visible on the south side of the building, while on the opposite side you can still see “Studebaker” painted on the bricks, giving away the origins of the historic building. The album was released in 1971 and went to #3 on the Billboard R&B Albums chart and #12 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. Four singles were released from the LP, including the #1 R&B hit, “Have You Seen Her.”
The Chi-Lites are an American R&B/soul vocal quartet originally formed at Chicago’s Hyde Park High School in 1959. The group’s most productive and lucrative time was in the late 1960s and early ’70s with the lineup of Record, Jones, Lester and Thompson. They have had 21 charting singles in their career so far and have released 18 studio albums, 15 compilation albums and 64 singles. The Chi-Lites are members of the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame and Vocal Group Hall of Fame and have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Nine members have passed through the group since its formation. Creadel Jones died in August 1994, Eugene Record passed in July 2005 and Robert Lester left us in January 2010. Founding member Marshall Thompson, along with four other singers, still perform as The Chi-Lites and will be featured at the Fool In Love Festival in Los Angeles in late August.
