Battle Brewing Over 42-Mile TC Energy Kentucky Pipe for Gas Plant
TC Energy subsidiary Columbia Gulf Transmission has proposed a 42-mile, 30-inch pipeline through Rowan, Fleming, and Mason counties (in Kentucky) to supply gas to East Kentucky Power Cooperative’s coal-fired Spurlock plant, letting it co-fire up to 50% natural gas (see TC Energy to Build 42 Miles of Kentucky Pipe for Gas Plant). The roughly $400 million project has drawn opposition from residents citing safety, undisclosed routes through properties, tree removal, and imagined threats to 15 endangered or threatened species identified by state wildlife officials. Rowan and Fleming county governments oppose the pipeline, while Mason County officials and GOP lawmakers, including Senate President Robert Stivers, support it for jobs and grid reliability. FERC decides on whether or not to approve it in November. Read More “Battle Brewing Over 42-Mile TC Energy Kentucky Pipe for Gas Plant”
Last Friday, TC Energy reported a robust first quarter in 2026, highlighted by a 14% increase in comparable EBITDA to $3.1 billion and record delivery volumes across its North American pipeline network. For the Marcellus and Utica shale region, the standout development is the newly announced $1.5 billion Appalachia Supply Project on the Columbia Gas system. Slated for 2030, this expansion will add 0.8 Bcf/d of takeaway capacity to meet surging electricity and data center demand. Appalachia is explicitly identified as a major contributor to the growth in U.S. natural gas production, and is expected to account for over 55% of the growth by 2035. 
As MDN previously reported, TC Energy’s Virginia Reliability Project (VRP) in the Hampton Roads region (Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Newport News area) started construction in the second quarter of this year. It held a ceremony in September to commemorate the final weld (see 
Existing pipelines in the Marcellus/Utica region are testing the market for expansion. Two weeks ago, we told you that DT Midstream (50% owner of NEXUS Pipeline) is eyeing the growing AI data center market in northwestern Ohio as a customer for M-U molecules that flow through NEXUS (see 
It took eight years and untold legal fees (on both sides) before a tiny 3.4-mile, 8-inch natural gas pipeline under the Potomac River was finally built and went online in July (see 
We spotted a press release that fascinates us but will take some explaining. Yesterday, Hanwha Power Systems Co. (headquartered in South Korea) announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with pipeline giant TC Energy to develop a sCO2 WHR (super-critical carbon dioxide waste heat recovery) project which will use the heat stream at a TC natural gas pipeline compressor station in West Virginia. 
A little over a month ago, MDN told you about a new opportunity major midstream (pipeline) companies discussed in their latest quarterly updates: building natgas pipelines directly to data centers. Why? Because increasingly, those data centers are considering making their own power (see 
The 295-mile Portland Natural Gas Transmission System (PNGTS) spans New England from the Canadian border to pipeline connections in New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts. The system began operations in 1999 and is located between three major pipeline networks originating in Canada and the U.S. TC Energy owns 61.7% of PNGTS. The remaining 38.3 percent is owned by Northern New England Investment Company. At least until yesterday, when PNGTS was spun off into its own standalone company, now owned by the evil BlackRock. 
What had been a regular stream of talk about providing power to data centers and artificial intelligence (AI) has become a torrent. There is a clear connection between data centers and the natural gas industry. This most recent round of quarterly financial updates by the biggest of the big pipeline companies (all of which have a huge presence in the Marcellus/Utica) reveals a new opportunity: building natgas pipelines directly to data centers. Why? Because increasingly those data centers are considering making their own power.
TransCanada Corporation, which renamed itself TC Energy in 2019, made a play for and bought out/merged with U.S.-based Columbia Pipeline Group in 2016 (see 