DC Circuit Rejects Big Green Request to Block 32-Mile Pipe in TN
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is the sixth-largest power supplier and the largest public utility in the country. In 2021, MDN told you that TVA is spending over $1 billion to replace six coal-fired plants with natgas-fired turbines (see TVA Investing $1B to Build New Natgas-Fired Electric Plants). In late 2022, TVA recommended moving forward with replacing one of the six — a coal-fired plant located near Cumberland City — with a natural gas combined-cycle power plant (see TVA Recommends Replacing Cumberland Coal Plant w/Natural Gas). In January 2024, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a certificate of public convenience for Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) subsidiary to build the Cumberland Project, a pipeline to feed the TVA’s proposed Cumberland gas-fired plant (see FERC Approves 32-Mile Cumberland Pipeline to TVA TN Power Plant). Big Green sued FERC to overturn its decision to allow the pipeline, knowing that if it could block the pipeline, it would block the power plant project, too (see Big Green Sues FERC to Block 32-Mile Pipe to TVA TN Power Plant). Read More “DC Circuit Rejects Big Green Request to Block 32-Mile Pipe in TN”
In April, Knighthead Capital Management, Homer City Redevelopment (HCR), and Kiewit Power Constructors Co. announced a plan to convert the former Homer City Generating Station, previously the largest coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania (Indiana County, 50 miles east of Pittsburgh) into a more than 3,200-acre natural gas-powered data center campus, designed to meet the growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (see 
The Eddystone Generating Station is a power plant owned by Constellation Energy Corporation, located in Eddystone, PA (near Philadelphia, in Delaware County). Units 3 and 4, each with 380 MW of generation capacity, can run on either natural gas or oil. The Eddystone Units were initially scheduled for retirement on May 31, 2025; however, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) intervened and ordered both units to remain online and active due to emergency energy conditions in the PJM grid. The original order kept both units online and active an extra 90 days, until August 28. DOE Secretary Chris Wright sent a new order to Constellation extending the operation of the two units for an additional 90 days, until November 26 (see 
Last week, we told you that, although she has not publicly admitted it, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has approved the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project (see 
We chalk this story up to the category, “We’re winning, and here’s more proof.” When, in your wildest dreams, would you ever think the lefty libs at the University of Pittsburgh (who HATE shale energy and fossil fuels) would launch a degree program for undergraduates that combines natural gas, oil, and unreliable renewables? We thought, NEVER! But that’s just what has happened. The school is launching an “all of the above” engineering degree, allowing students to “move seamlessly between industries.” Get them trained in both fossil fuels and so-called green energy for when the day arrives that fossil fuels are finally dead and green energy rules the land. (Which is when hell freezes over.) 
This story is funny. At least, we find it amusing. An extremely radical organization (essentially a Communist organization) calling itself New York Communities for Change (NYCC), launched a petition for signers to say that if New York Governor Kathy Hochul approves the plan to build the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project, they pledge to vote against her in the upcoming primary in 2026. The petition “quickly garnered supporters” with over 1,000 signatures. There are 5.9 million registered Democrats in the state, so 0.00017 of the Dems (assuming only registered Dems signed), or seventeen hundred-thousandths of the Dem primary voting population, will vote against her. Which is ZERO percent. But that’s not even the funniest part of this story. The funniest part is that she’s already approved it! 
Here’s a story that technically doesn’t have anything to do with shale energy. However, one of the characters in this story, THE Delaware Riverkeeper (that’s what Maya van Rossum calls herself), is a person who routinely attempts to block shale energy projects (and drilling). We think it’s fair to say Van Rossum, indeed, all card-carrying members of the far-left environmental movement hate Trump and anyone associated with Trump. So, when she praised (her word) a new final rule establishing federal water quality standards for 38 miles of the Delaware River between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware, created by the Trump EPA, well…that’s a “man bites dog” kind of story! 
In April, MDN told you of a proposal by Fundamental Data for the “Ridgeline Facility,” a large natural gas power plant and data center that will be built between Davis and Thomas, WV (see 
The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) is meeting today and will vote on whether to approve National Grid’s natural gas plan, which includes using more natural gas from the Williams Transco pipeline. More gas would be delivered to National Grid via the proposed Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project that will add a new 23-mile pipeline from the shore of New Jersey into (on the bottom of) the Raritan Bay, running parallel to the existing Transco pipeline before connecting to the Transco pipeline offshore from Long Island. The odious National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) convened a Zoom call featuring dingbat actor Mark Ruffalo to trash-talk the project ahead of the vote. 
In June, we reported that the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board (EHB), a special court in PA that hears appeals of decisions made by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), had ruled in favor of CNX Resources to allow two previously permitted wells in Penn Township (Westmoreland County) to move forward with construction (see 
Despite a “public outcry” (of 13 people), the Chesapeake City (Virginia) Council voted 6-3 in July to approve a compressor station for Virginia Natural Gas (see 
Last November, Williams officially filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build an expansion of its mighty Transco pipeline system in the southeastern U.S., a project called the Southeast Supply Enhancement Project (see 
We’re not sure how to feel about this story. Outrage. Relief. Sarcasm. Befuddlement. All of those emotions swirl in our heads. For years, we have chronicled the radical/left position of former Attorney General (and now Governor) Maura Healey in Massachusetts with her opposition to pipelines and natural gas energy (here’s one of many examples: 
Earlier this year, a video circulated on social media featuring a Biden EPA political appointee talking about “tossing gold bars off the Titanic,” intentionally rushing to get billions of tax dollars out of the agency before Inauguration Day. The EPA’s new sheriff, Lee Zeldin, located $20 billion of those gold bars sitting at a Citibank bank account (see