EIA Oct. STEO: Hot Summer Ate the Storage Cushion; Gas Still Cheap
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its October Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) yesterday, along with its annual Winter Fuels Outlook. The headline for most of us: if you heat your home with natural gas, your bill should go down this winter — by 14% here in the Northeast. If you heat with oil, brace yourself for a 21% jump. But tucked inside the tables is a second story worth your attention. A scorching summer burned through a big chunk of the storage cushion EIA was bragging about two months ago, and drillers (Appalachia excepted) are pumping harder than EIA expected. Read More “EIA Oct. STEO: Hot Summer Ate the Storage Cushion; Gas Still Cheap”
The Allegheny County Board of Health has fired the first shot in what looks like a slow-motion campaign to squeeze shale drilling out of the county. At its September meeting, the board voted unanimously to have the county health department look into whether Article 21, the county’s air pollution rulebook, should be rewritten to remove permitting exemptions that oil and gas operations now enjoy. Nothing changes yet. But the idea came straight out of the board’s own “Fracking Committee,” chaired by a writer for an anti-fracking group, and the folks at Food & Water Watch are already celebrating. Here’s what happened, what it could mean for drillers and landowners in Allegheny County, and why MDN isn’t buying the “it’s just a review” line. 
The Marcellus/Utica water business just got a bit more consolidated. HydroEdge Solutions, a Canonsburg (Washington County, PA) company that moves frack water from point A to point B, has acquired a majority interest in Bridgeville (Allegheny County) based RES Water. The combined outfit will have about 350 employees, five water treatment, recycling, and storage facilities in Pennsylvania, roughly 700,000 barrels of storage, and the ability to process up to 116,000 barrels of water per day. If the HydroEdge name rings a bell, it should. Back in June, HydroEdge (operating as Myers Water Transfer) bought one of the three Williamsport-area sites formerly run by troubled Eureka Resources, a story MDN has followed closely since Eureka’s “black goop” spill into the Susquehanna River in August 2025. 
Here’s one you don’t see every day. A Democratic polling firm, one that boasts of helping elect Democrats all the way up to the White House, says a majority of New York voters want the Constitution Pipeline built. And it isn’t close on natural gas itself: roughly three out of four New Yorkers support using natural gas in the Empire State. Somebody, please forward this to Food & Water Watch, which has been telling anyone who will listen that the “overwhelming majority” of New Yorkers oppose Constitution. Before we pop the champagne, though, there’s some fine print you need to see, including the question of who paid for this poll. 
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) says U.S. natural gas production hit a new all-time high in July 2026: 137 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of “gross withdrawals.” That’s great news for the country. But when MDN dug into the state-by-state numbers behind the headline, we found the Marcellus/Utica didn’t help set the record. In fact, Appalachian output dropped in July. The record was made in Texas and New Mexico. 
Remember all those years of protesters chaining themselves to equipment, lawsuits by the dozen, and court-ordered work stoppages trying to kill the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP)? Here’s what West Virginians got for finally building it: a fat new check. A new report from West Virginia State Treasurer Larry Pack’s office finds that MVP drove a 62% jump in the value of rural utility property in the 11 counties it crosses, generating nearly $27.1 million in new property tax revenue in a single year—about $9.1 million for county commissions and nearly $18 million for local schools. MVP-related utility property accounted for more than 86% of ALL the growth in property tax revenue in those counties. One pipeline. Eighty-six percent. 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: U.S. energy secretary tours Buckeye Partners’ terminal, upgraded pipeline in Coraopolis; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas futures extend gains to three sessions; Jones Act waiver period disproves China fearmongering, shows benefits of reform; LS Power closes $6 billion Fund VI; Democratic Socialists want a Green New Deal … and more; U.S. LNG feedgas demand falls due to maintenance; Power demand is surging faster than grids can keep up; INTERNATIONAL: Oil steady as Middle East exports rise; 100+ oil execs predict future WTI oil prices; Venture Global is in talks to sell US LNG to more Chinese buyers; Equinor says it may stop investing in UK if oil and gas fields do not get go-ahead.