Fed Appeals Court Upholds New York’s Ban on NatGas in New Homes
All we can say is, get the heck out of New York while you still can. Sooner or later, property values in the “Empire” State will crash. (Probably sooner rather than later.) Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (2nd Circuit) ruled in support of New York State banning natural gas from being used in new home (and business) construction across the entire state. If it stands, it is the beginning of the end for NY. The end will eventually come when Wall Street firms finally give up and move from New York City to Texas or Florida, completely bankrupting the state from lost revenues. Read More “Fed Appeals Court Upholds New York’s Ban on NatGas in New Homes”
In February, MDN alerted you to yet another gas-fired power plant project that Williams (the pipeline giant) was adding to its roster. Williams entered the gas-fired power plant space (actually building and operating them) in April 2025 via a subsidiary called Will-Power (see 
Northampton Capital Partners, a middle-market infrastructure asset manager with roughly $1.4 billion under management, has partnered with New Jersey–based Olympus Power to form a joint venture called Winslow Power. Winslow has agreed to acquire three natural gas–fired power plants totaling 752 MW from a Vistra Corp. subsidiary: the 541-MW Casco Bay combined-cycle facility in Veazie, Maine; the 108-MW Beaver Falls dual-fuel turbine in Croghan, NY; and the 103-MW Syracuse dual-fuel turbine in Solvay, NY. Pending regulatory approval, the deal is expected to close later in 2026. And yes, there is a Marcellus/Utica connection in this story. 
In February, Expand Energy fired its CEO, Nick Dell’Osso, the guy who grew the company into the largest natural gas producer in the U.S. (see 
The Golden Pass LNG terminal is a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and regasification facility in Sabine Pass (Port Arthur), Texas. It is among the largest LNG facilities in the world. It can accommodate up to 15.6 million metric tons (MT) of LNG per year, the equivalent of approximately 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day (Bcf/d). In April, Golden Pass exported its first LNG cargo (see 
The Supreme Court will hear a North Dakota eminent domain dispute (Leonard Hoffman v. WBI Energy Transmission) over whether gas pipeline companies must pay landowners’ attorney fees when taking property under the Natural Gas Act. While the case is specific to North Dakota, it has the potential to affect the entire country—landowners and drillers everywhere should watch this case closely. The case stems from WBI Energy Transmission’s 12-mile pipeline across ranchland in the Bakken, where landowners challenged compensation offers and later sought more than $383,000 in legal fees. 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Wind turbines along Susquehanna River in Lancaster County to be decommissioned; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Connecticut quietly enlists Sher Edling in national climate lawfare campaign; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas futures rise on weather-driven demand; US energy chief exhorts data center backers to push back against opponents; U.S. LNG feedgas edges higher; IPAA and DEPA consolidate under unified IPAA brand; INTERNATIONAL: Crude slides on rising supply; Morgan Stanley warns of oil glut; World Bank to abandon goal to devote 45% of lending resources to climate change projects; Tehran newspaper calls for Trump’s assassination. 
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) isn’t letting any grass grow under its feet regarding the advancement of the Constitution Pipeline, a 125-mile greenfield pipeline from the Marcellus gas fields of Susquehanna County, PA, to Schoharie County, NY, to deliver Marcellus gas into New York State and New England. FERC is actively reviewing two requests related to reviving the project (see 
We love a good railroad story, and at its core, that’s what this story is. Investment firm FTAI Infrastructure has completed its acquisition of Tidewater Logistics, a barge-and-rail transloading company operating in Ohio, West Virginia, and Texas, for about $45 million in cash. Tidewater serves producers, shippers and industrial customers in Appalachian Basin and Gulf Coast shale and energy markets, making it complementary to FTAI’s Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway. Tidewater’s facilities include frac sand transloading in Steubenville, OH; Fairmont, WV; and Allenport, PA. 
We have an update on the lawsuit to overturn New York’s laws that ban shale fracking. In April, a father and son who own mineral rights for a 164-acre tract in Delaware County, NY, filed a lawsuit (with the help of the Pacific Legal Foundation) against New York for “taking” their rights to profit from fracking their minerals (see 
Chestnut Run Energy plans to construct a $2 billion natural gas-powered electric power plant in Carroll County, Ohio, capable of powering up to 900,000 homes (see 
This is so frustrating. After seven years, $150 million, and 31 of 34 miles already underground, Connecticut has halted a pipeline project designed to provide a more dependable natural gas supply to the booming southeastern Connecticut economy. Ealier this year MDN told you that Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) had determined that Eversource Energy’s plan to install a natural gas pipeline through Hurd State Park and the Connecticut Valley Railroad State Park Trail requires a formal Environmental Impact Evaluation, unnecessarily delaying a tiny portion (1.1 miles) of this critically-important reliability project (see 
Last week was noteworthy for the Baker Hughes rig count. Although the Marcellus/Utica count didn’t budge, the national count increased by 10 rigs, the largest one-week increase since June 2022 (four years). The new national count, 573, is also the highest the combined count has been in well over a year. The combined M-U rig count remained at 36 active rigs for the seventh week in a row. The M-U’s chief competitor, the Haynesville, maintained its count of 55 active rigs, operating 19 more than the M-U. 
Earlier this month, MDN brought you the news that Talen Energy would file an application to expand its power generation facility with two new gas-fired power units in Montour County, PA (see