Permitting Reform Clears Senate Hurdle 73-25; Now the Hard Part
Good news, for a change, out of Washington. Last night the U.S. Senate voted 73-25 to take up the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA, S. 5653), the permitting reform bill we’ve been tracking since September. It needed 60 votes and got 13 more than that. As we told you in our Oct. 29 countdown post, if the bill had failed this vote, it was dead for this Congress (see Permitting Reform Countdown: Who’s For, Who’s Against Before Nov 9). It didn’t fail. But don’t pop the cork on the champagne bottle just yet. Last night only opened debate. There are more Senate votes to come, and then the House, all in the next 54 days before this Congress ends on Jan. 3. Here’s what happened, what comes next, and when. Read More “Permitting Reform Clears Senate Hurdle 73-25; Now the Hard Part”
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court spent an hour on Hoffmann v. WBI Energy Transmission. That’s the North Dakota case that will decide whether state law or federal law sets what a pipeline company owes a landowner when it takes an easement by eminent domain. If the questions from the bench are any guide (they usually are, but not always), the ranchers are in trouble. Justices on the left, the right, and in the middle took turns poking holes in the landowners’ argument. If WBI wins, Pennsylvania and Ohio landowners facing condemnation by interstate pipelines will lose the extra money state law now gives them, attorney fees included. 
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has finished looking into the teeny-tiny earthquake that hit near EQT’s Porter well pad in Allegheny Township (Westmoreland County) on Oct. 4. The verdict: no violation, no cause identified, and the pad keeps on working. When MDN told you about this “seismic event” last month, we pointedly did not jump to conclusions about whether the well caused it (see 
Week two of MDN’s weekly trip through the Pennsylvania Bulletin, and this one has a whale in it: Shell’s Beaver County cracker plant is finally getting its permanent air permit. The Nov. 7 edition (Vol. 56, No. 45) ran 184 pages. Beyond Shell, DEP signed off on three well pad air permits, four erosion permits, a pair of new gas pipelines in Tioga County, and three frac water recycling setups. A second gas-powered “compute center” also got its permit in Clearfield County. Here’s what matters to the shale crowd… 
Remember back in May 2025 when NRG Energy agreed to buy 18 natural gas-fired power plants (13 GW) from LS Power for about $12 billion, including five plants in Pennsylvania (see 
Good news for Marcellus/Utica gas that’s been stuck in a traffic jam at the Virginia/North Carolina border. Williams’ Transco pipeline is taking bids (through Nov. 17) for 190,000 dekatherms per day (Dth/d) of “interim” firm capacity on its Southeast Supply Enhancement Project (SESE), starting as soon as Jan. 15, 2027. That’s months before the full 1.6 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) project is due online in the third quarter of 2027. The early path runs from Transco’s Station 165 in Pittsylvania County, VA (right where the Mountain Valley Pipeline dumps Appalachian gas into Transco) south to a delivery point near Station 150 in Iredell County, NC. Why does it matter? Because gas at Station 165 sold for $1.305/MMBtu on Friday, while gas just downstream in Transco Zone 5 South sold for $3.040. Every molecule that gets past the bottleneck is worth more. 
There’s a new pipeline project to tell you about, and it starts in Pennsylvania. Eastern Shore Natural Gas (ESNG) is the only interstate pipeline serving the Delmarva Peninsula and a subsidiary of Chesapeake Utilities Corporation (CPK). On Sept. 24, ESNG asked FERC to approve its $75 million Delmar Regional Enhancement Project. The project begins with a 2.55-mile, 24-inch pipeline loop in Chester County, PA, near where ESNG picks up gas from Transco and Columbia Gas Transmission. Every bit of the new capacity is already sold under 20-year contracts. We found the project mentioned in CPK’s latest 10-Q (it wasn’t brought up on the earnings call), then tracked down the application. The application has some eye-opening numbers on what new pipeline capacity costs these days. 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Lehigh U joins PA team to turn an aging gas well into a geothermal power source; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: SpaceX plans $24B gas power plant, supercomputing facility in Texas; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas futures rise on colder weather outlook; Democrats plan to push clean energy to lower bills and challenge Trump’s fossil fuel agenda; Which USA oil major produced the most in Q3 2026?; Rooftop solar bust – 115 and counting; INTERNATIONAL: Oil prices sink on Iran peace hopes; LNG traffic through Hormuz hits highest level since Iran war began; Dysfunction, groupthink and national showmanship at the opening of COP31.