NJ Hits Vineland Data Center with $1.07M Fine Over 62 Gas Generators
New Jersey regulators have fined the company building a giant AI data center in Vineland (Cumberland County, South Jersey) $1.07 million for installing and running 62 large natural gas-fired generators without air permits. The NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) calls it “by far the largest” enforcement action ever taken against a data center in the Garden State, and “possibly one of the largest such actions in the nation.” Our math: those 62 engines add up to nearly 123 megawatts (MW) of gas-fired power, running behind the meter at a site that is supposed to become a 300 MW data center serving Nebius and, through Nebius, Microsoft. The developer, DataOne, says the engines are temporary until Bloom Energy fuel cells (which also run on natural gas) take over, and it will now apply for permits. Read More “NJ Hits Vineland Data Center with $1.07M Fine Over 62 Gas Generators”
Meta’s energy chief closed 
Kimmeridge, the so-called “activist investor” that spent the past year leaning on Coterra Energy (and then Devon Energy) to dump its northeast Pennsylvania Marcellus assets, has just published a sequel to its 2024 “Shale’s Golden Years” white paper. The new paper, “Shale’s Golden Years, Part II: The Cost of Aging,” comes to a conclusion that should make Marcellus/Utica drillers (and landowners) smile: The oil side of shale is aging badly, while the natural gas side remains healthy, abundant, and capital-efficient. The rub? Kimmeridge says gas is so abundant that gas drillers need to move “downstream” to squeeze more value out of each molecule than Henry Hub will pay. 
CNX Resources has decided to walk straight into the anti-drilling movement’s favorite scare story. Two weeks ago, the Pittsburgh driller announced it will bolt continuous, real-time radiation monitoring onto its Radical Transparency program — the first-in-the-nation public-private data deal it signed with PA Gov. Josh Shapiro and the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) in November 2023. Ambient gamma radiation detectors will run around the clock at unconventional well pads and certain produced water facilities, with the raw numbers going to CNX, DEP, and the public at the same time. CNX will also start publishing the radiation surveys it already runs on every truckload of waste leaving its sites. None of this is required by law. That’s the whole point. 
How long does it take a rig hand to pull on coveralls, lace up steel-toed boots, and grab a hard hat? According to Precision Drilling’s own expert, about 2.6 to 4.1 minutes per shift. According to the workers’ lawyers, a lot longer. After 15 years, two trips to the Third Circuit and one to the U.S. Supreme Court, the two sides have split the difference, and it will cost Precision $1.9 million. On Monday (Sept. 22), both sides filed a joint brief in Williamsport federal court asking Judge Matthew Brann to approve the deal. It covers 1,006 hourly rig workers, some of whom worked Precision rigs right here in the Marcellus. The dollars are small. The legal rule the case left behind for Pennsylvania is not.