Va. Dems Jazzed to Push Unreliable Renewables, Block Data Centers
Democrats in Virginia are experiencing political ecstasy at the prospect of reversing four years of common-sense energy policies under outgoing Governor Glenn Youngkin. Gov. Youngkin removed the state from the odious Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme. Incoming Gov. Abigail Spanberger has pledged to re-enroll the state in the program. Youngkin vetoed bills that would have favored unreliable renewable energy. Now, the Dems will not only have Spanberger as Governor, but hardened leftist Ghazala Hashmi as Lt. Governor, and a strong majority in both chambers of the legislature. They are already planning to reintroduce bills favoring renewables and blocking new data centers. It’s a crying shame what Virginia has done in electing these radicals to lead it. Read More “Va. Dems Jazzed to Push Unreliable Renewables, Block Data Centers”
The Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB) held a meeting yesterday to consider whether or not to accept a petition by radical green groups, including the Clean Air Council and Environmental Integrity Project, to “study” the issue of increasing setbacks for shale drilling so far that it would ban ALL new Marcellus/Utica drilling in the Keystone State (no exaggeration). The EQB tabled a decision on whether to accept the petition back in April (see 
Did we call it, or did we call it? MDN was among (perhaps THE) first to tell readers that so-called environmental groups were quickly morphing from anti-fracking to anti-data center (
Here we go again. The environmental left is attacking the shale industry by accusing it of shipping drill cuttings (the leftover rock and dirt that comes out of a borehole) to local landfills in the Buckeye State (Ohio), where it will irradiate everyone and everything close to it. According to the left, drill cuttings “could be contaminated with radioactivity and other chemicals.” And, according to the same people, lack of regulations in Ohio “allows it [radioactive drill cuttings] to slip by regulators, especially in Ohio,” and end up in the same landfills as “household trash.” Is there anything to the claim that drill cuttings are radioactive and a threat to those who live near landfills? 
Three anti-shale drilling groups—the PA Council of Trout Unlimited, the Keystone Trails Association, and the Responsible Drilling Alliance—have requested the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) hold a hearing on the Chapter 105 permit requested for a 3.9-mile shale gas access road and staging area proposed by PA General Energy in Gamble and Cascade Townships, Lycoming County. The aim of their request is not to elicit information or express concerns that can be addressed to achieve a better outcome; rather, it is to flood the hearing with bombastic charges in hopes of blocking the project altogether. 
Another story in our Bizarre Files series. So-called climate activists have made a huuuge discovery. They can burn (flare) methane (CH4) coming out of an abandoned coal mine in Colorado, and it turns into carbon dioxide (CO2). Who knew? The activists declare that burning methane is “better” for the environment — that it’s green! Why? Because methane flying into the atmosphere is a bazillion times more “harmful” to Mom Earth than is carbon dioxide flying into the atmosphere. Yet when the oil industry does the same exact thing, flaring methane that comes out of an oil well instead of allowing it to fly into the atmosphere, those same climate activists declare it’s a climate disaster. It’s the end of mankind. Bizarre. 
We suppose it’s no surprise that left-wing Congressional Democrats from North Carolina and Virginia are attacking two natural gas pipeline projects that are close to final approval and the start of construction. One project is Williams’ Transco Southeast Supply Enhancement Project (SESE), the other is EQT’s MVP Southgate project. Both projects would be built in the same general area, starting at the same point near Chatham, Virginia, and ending near Eden, North Carolina. Both have customers ready to take their gas. Southgate recently received a favorable environmental assessment (EA) from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see 
New York’s “cap and invest” Climate Act law effectively rations fossil fuels while taxing them heavily. The system limits fuel sales through caps and requires distributors to buy allowances, passing costs on to consumers. With a mandated 30% emissions reduction by 2030, the Climate Act will cause dangerous shortages of essentials such as fuel oil and natural gas for heating and gasoline for transportation. There is a real danger that households will run out of heating fuel during cold winters. Even Gov. Hochul is now criticizing the law as “infeasible.” Capping the state’s main energy sources is an impractical and ruinous strategy that threatens the state’s standard of living. 
Today is data center day here at MDN, given that most of our main stories today revolve around the issue of data centers, facilities full of computers that need enormous amounts of electricity, most of which will be generated by gas-fired power plants. This past summer, Pennsylvania’s newest U.S. Senator, Dave McCormick, convened the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit in Pittsburgh. Together with the Trump administration, McCormick announced a mind-blowing $92 billion of promised new investment for PA mostly related to AI data centers (see 
We have to (immodestly) say that we spotted the environmental left’s opposition to AI data centers a mile away. We were the first to alert you to PA green groups lining up to oppose data centers based on an irrational hatred of the fossil energy that powers them (see 
Two weeks ago, Pennsylvania finally passed a budget, four months late. As part of the deal struck between Democrats and Republicans, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme was permanently ash-canned (see 
In honor of the new Wizard of Oz movie coming this week: “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” The environmental left version of that is, “Fossil fuels, fracking, and data centers, oh never!” Just yesterday, we outlined a trend we see in Pennsylvania (and on the national level): anti-fracking groups morphing into anti-data center groups (see 
In May, pipeline giant Williams filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to expedite the reissuance of a certificate for the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project, a $1 billion+ project designed to increase Transco pipeline capacity and flows of Marcellus gas heading into New York City and other northeastern markets (see 
On Monday, nine so-called “climate defenders” (we call them wackadoodles) from the Don’t Destroy Our Future and youth activists from Sunrise Movement were charged with obstruction of free passage after holding a sit-in protest inside Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont’s office. Approximately 30 protesters were demonstrating against what they call the governor’s plan to approve new methane gas construction, specifically citing opposition to a natural gas compressor station expansion in Brookfield and a plan to update the Capitol Area System with methane boilers. From the images we observed, most of the protesters were old hippies.