Gov. Shapiro Lays Out 4 Principles to Build Pa. AI Data Centers
Liberal Democrat Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro kicked off February by proposing a massively bloated $53.2 billion budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year—a 5% jump from last year. He aims to fund this bloat with a mix of new revenue streams and making a $4.7 billion withdrawal from the state’s $7.6 billion Rainy Day Fund. Completely irresponsible. He wants to legalize pot smoking and tax slot-like skill games to help raise revenue. Good luck. One aspect of his budget address was noteworthy. He laid out four principles for AI data centers that want to build in the Keystone State. His four principles actually make sense. Of course, the devil will be in the details. So far, these are general guiding principles, “guardrails” if you will, with no real specifics. Read More “Gov. Shapiro Lays Out 4 Principles to Build Pa. AI Data Centers”
Last July, President Trump and PA U.S. Senator Dave McCormick attended a meeting in Pittsburgh to announce an amazing $92 billion of private (no taxpayer funding) investment in the Keystone State, mainly in the data center sector (see 
In December, MDN reported that pipeline giant Williams, through its new subsidiary, Will-Power, plans to build a third gas-fired power plant to power a Meta (Facebook) data center complex in Bowling Green, OH (see 
The CEO of French company DataOne recently held a town hall in Vineland, New Jersey, regarding a 2.4 million-square-foot AI data center currently under construction. Residents expressed frustration over being consulted only after the project was nearly finished, citing concerns about noise, transparency, and environmental impact. The CEO defended the facility, claiming its “breakthrough” technology ensures near-zero emissions for its gas-fired power and zero water consumption while protecting local utility rates. Despite promises of private funding and a community vertical farm, skepticism persists. 
Baker Hughes has signed a multi-year agreement with Expand Energy, North America’s largest natural gas producer, to deploy its Leucipa™ AI-powered production solution across thousands of U.S. wells. This collaboration focuses on optimizing operations in the Marcellus, Utica, and Haynesville shales using data-driven insights and “Lucy,” a generative AI production assistant. Leucipa will make Expand’s operations more efficient and reliable by streamlining field decision-making and forecasting. AI comes to the shale fields of the Marcellus/Utica! 
Oilfield services giant Baker Hughes (BKR), a company with its fingers in many different energy pies (not just OFS) and operations in over 120 countries worldwide, issued its fourth-quarter 2025 update last week. We scoured the update, the conference call, and the latest slide deck. The company did not explicitly mention the Marcellus or Utica shale regions. However, several items from the update directly impact the outlook for the M-U region. 
There’s just no other way to say this: Pennsylvania is on the cusp of flushing $92 billion down the toilet because resistance is preventing new data centers from being built. We’ve been warning about this danger for months (see 
Last Friday, the Trump administration officials joined several governors from the 13 states that are part of the PJM Interconnect grid to outline a broad plan they say will ensure customers of the grid will not face skyrocketing electric prices due to new AI data centers getting built in the region (see 
There are two universal, unavoidable truths of life: (1) death, and (2) Democrats love to tax anything and everything. Pennsylvania Democrats are urging state lawmakers to tax data centers to shield residents from rising energy bills. During a hearing held by PA House Democrats on January 20, so-called experts argued that data centers must “pay their own way” for grid upgrades necessitated by their high demand, rather than passing those costs to households. With grid operator PJM Interconnection warning that surging demand could cause blackouts, Democrats proposed legislation to protect ratepayers from price spikes. Although some officials value the industry’s job creation, tax proponents insist that ordinary consumers should not subsidize the infrastructure needed to support the state’s expanding and energy-intensive digital industry. 
On Friday, the White House joined with the 13 governors whose states in whole or in part are served by the PJM Interconnection electric grid, the largest grid in the country, to propose a solution that “protects consumers” from soaring electric rates due to the addition of new AI data centers (see 
Ohio State Representatives Gary Click and Kellie Deeter have introduced legislation to establish a 13-member bipartisan Ohio Data Center Study Commission. This initiative responds to the rapid expansion of approximately 200 data centers across the state, which has sparked community concerns regarding agricultural land use, noise pollution, water consumption, and energy demands. The commission aims to provide a platform for public dialogue and develop a comprehensive report to guide future development. By evaluating these impacts, lawmakers hope to encourage smart, balanced growth that potentially prioritizes brownfield redevelopment over rural green spaces while ensuring long-term resource stability. 
MDN was among the first to tell readers that so-called environmental groups were quickly morphing from anti-fracking to anti-data center. Over the past three months, we’ve observed in various posts how opposition to data centers (from the same people who oppose fracking and shale energy) has gone from local and regional anti groups (see 
Data center forecasts — beyond existing data centers — made up 45% of the $47.2 billion in capacity costs in PJM’s last three capacity auctions, according to a report by Monitoring Analytics, PJM’s so-called independent market monitor. Data center load accounted for $6.5 billion, or 40%, of the $16.4 billion in costs from the PJM Interconnection’s December capacity auction (the most recent auction). PJM’s market monitor directly and unequivocally blames new data centers for higher electricity prices, instead of putting the blame where it really belongs: On Democrat governors who have restricted new gas-fired power plants. 
Last October, a seven-member, all-Democrat group of Pennsylvania House of Representatives members announced a six-bill legislative package aimed at regulating the “responsible development” of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in the state (see 
Deep River Data, a company with connections to the cryptocurrency industry, wants to drill for natural gas in Lee County, North Carolina. However, production from the well would not be used to power crypto mining, but instead to fuel an AI data center. If approved, the project would be the first commercial well drilled into the Triassic Basin, a natural gas repository underlying North Carolina and other Eastern Seaboard states. The planned well is conventional, not shale, so it involves no (or very little) fracking. Yet lefty environmentalists have whipped up opposition from the locals by urging them to “ban fracking.”