EQB Votes to Consider Ban on Marcellus Drilling Via Crazy Setbacks
The Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB) held a meeting yesterday to consider whether or not to accept a petition by radical green groups, including the Clean Air Council and Environmental Integrity Project, to “study” the issue of increasing setbacks for shale drilling so far that it would ban ALL new Marcellus/Utica drilling in the Keystone State (no exaggeration). The EQB tabled a decision on whether to accept the petition back in April (see PA EQB Votes to Delay Consideration of Marcellus-Banning Setbacks). The hectoring groups kept up the pressure, and with the election now behind us, the Shapiro EQB voted 12-5 yesterday to accept the petition and begin studying the concept of blocking all new shale drilling by increasing setbacks to crazy distances under the (false) pretense of “safety.” Read More “EQB Votes to Consider Ban on Marcellus Drilling Via Crazy Setbacks”
Here we go again. Pennsylvania Democrat State Reps. Chris Pielli, (Chester), and Tarik Khan, (Philadelphia), have introduced a bill that would establish a severance tax on natural gas production. Specifically, the legislation introduces a per-volume severance tax on natural gas operations. The bill would place the new severance tax on top of the existing impact fee (i.e., tax), creating a double tax on the Marcellus industry. Adding a severance tax to the existing impact fee would instantly make PA’s tax on natural gas extraction the highest in the nation. The purpose is not revenue generation but the death of the Marcellus production in the Keystone State. Do the Dems never tire of attacking the Marcellus industry? 
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued its latest monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) yesterday. The STEO is the agency’s monthly best estimate of where energy prices and production will head over the next 12 months. In this latest assessment, EIA forecasts the cold snap hitting the United States this month will drive the Henry Hub natural gas spot price to average almost $4.30 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) this winter, which is 40 cents/MMBtu higher than its November forecast of $3.90. The price increase is driven by increased natural gas consumption for space heating. 
Pennsylvania has a big problem. The state is retiring older coal- and gas-fired power plants faster than it can add new plants. Plus, the state needs to *grow* its electric generation capacity to meet new demand from AI data centers. PA State Senator Gene Yaw has a solution: modify the existing 1971 Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) tax credit program by adding a provision granting a tax credit for any $400+ million investment in “baseload power generation” (i.e., gas-fired power generation). Yaw wants to make it a no-brainer for power plant builders to make the Keystone State their destination for new projects. 
We’ll open this post with this statement: There are no active rumors (that we are aware of) that Permian/Anadarko/Marcellus driller Coterra Energy is considering a merger with Permian/Anadarko/Monteny driller Ovintiv (formerly Encana). We did spot a post by Rystad Energy analysts who theorize that both companies (peers) would make a great combined company. The comments are part of a post titled “US shale braces for next consolidation wave as smaller players seek scale.” Rystad’s theory is that we will soon see smaller independents begin to merge to defend against the recent merger mania by larger companies, including ExxonMobil, Diamondback, Occidental, and ConocoPhillips. 
A new RBN article takes a stab at distinguishing between the hype of future data center power demand and the reality of current grid consumption. Despite projections of massive energy usage, verifying actual draw is difficult due to utility confidentiality and behind-the-meter generation. RBN’s analysis reveals that today’s largest consumers are long-established campuses rather than new builds; specifically, Google’s Council Bluffs and Microsoft’s Quincy facilities top the list with estimated loads of 500–600 MW. The article concludes that because substantial capacity takes over a decade to scale, the market should remain skeptical of new facilities claiming immediate, massive power consumption. 
The rapid expansion of data centers, driven by AI and cloud computing, is creating a surge in energy demand that exceeds renewable capabilities, forcing a shift toward natural gas. Good news for the Marcellus/Utica. However, building new pipelines to handle the extra gas needed is not an overnight process. Industry experts at the recent LDC Gas Forums’ Nat Gas to Power event proposed an ingenious solution that uses existing pipelines to move more gas to new data center customers. 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Venture Global hits back at Shell’s fraud claims in LNG arbitration battle; Dem-leaning group roasts NY’s green energy law as an ‘undeniable’ failure; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas extends pullback on shifting weather outlook; A different inconvenient truth (this one is true); EIA to ditch some existing reports and launch new surveys on minerals, data centers; U.S. LNG feedgas demand at record levels; Datacenter boom drives rapid power grid innovation; INTERNATIONAL: Oil falls again on oversupply signs; BMI analysts make 2026 oil demand prediction.