PA Green Groups Appeal DEP Permit for Homer City Gas-Fired Power
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 Largest Gas-Fired Power Plant in the U.S. Coming in Western Pa.). The new gas-fired plant attached to the project will be THE LARGEST gas-fired power plant in the country, capable of producing up to 4.5 gigawatts (4,500 MW) of electricity. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently approved an air quality plan for the new facility (see PA DEP Signals Air Plan Approval for $10B Homer City Power Plant). PA radicalized green groups have officially appealed the DEP’s permit approval. Read More “PA Green Groups Appeal DEP Permit for Homer City Gas-Fired Power”
In June 2023, Dominion Energy announced plans to build four small “peaker” electric generating plants in Chesterfield County near Richmond (see 
Great news about another new gas-fired power plant coming to Virginia—a plant that will use Marcellus/Utica molecules. Red Post Energy Group and Wise Innovation Hub Venture (OASIS) have signed a Letter of Intent to develop power infrastructure for a major technology and data center hub in Wise County, Virginia, in the southwestern corner of the state. Known as the Maverick Project, this phased initiative aims for a total capacity of 600 megawatts, beginning with an initial 100-megawatt phase. 
PJM Interconnection today announced the results of its 2027/2028 Base Residual Auction (BRA), which secured 134,479 MW of unforced capacity generation (UCAP) and demand response (DR) to meet projected electricity needs for more than 67 million people across 13 states and the District of Columbia, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. The auctioned price came in at the FERC-approved cap of $333.44/MW-day (UCAP) for the entire PJM footprint, an increase of +1.3% from the 2026/2027 BRA. Even so, the BRA fits way too tightly, falling short of PJM’s reliability requirement by 6,623 MW, meaning the committed supply is less than what would be required to meet the one-event-in-10-year reliability standard of a 20% reserve margin. If that event happens in 2027/28, we’re in trouble. The lights will go out. Who’s to blame? We credit Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. 
In February 2024, members of the South Carolina Public Service Commission approved a proposed project to build a 1,020-megawatt (MW) gas-fired power plant in the state’s Lowcountry, in Colleton County (see 
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 several 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 
In October, we told you that completion of Ohio State University’s Combined Heat and Power Plant (powered with Utica Shale gas) would be delayed until April 2026 (see 
In June, Duke Energy announced that it plans to apply to the Public Service Commission of South Carolina (PSCSC) to build a 1,400 megawatt gas-fired power plant in Anderson County (see 
In early April, MDN brought you the exciting news that pipeline giant Williams, via its newly-minted subsidiary, Will-Power, is planning to build two Utica/Marcellus gas-fired power plants in the New Albany International Business Park in Licking County, Ohio, near Columbus, to power a massive new Meta (Facebook) data center complex (see 
Earlier this year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and PJM Interconnection, the country’s largest electric grid operator (covering PA, WV, and OH, among other states), began to grapple with the issue of co-locating power plants with data centers (see 
U.S. natural gas production and demand reached record highs in 2025, with the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projecting continued growth in output and LNG exports through 2026. Driven by surging international demand in Europe and Asia, the U.S. has become the world’s largest LNG exporter. This natural gas resurgence is bolstered by the Trump administration’s support and significant investments from major energy firms prioritizing gas as a so-called transition fuel (it’s actually a destination fuel). Consequently, U.S. natural gas pipeline capacity is set for its biggest one-year expansion since 2008. Surging demand from LNG exporters, data centers, and manufacturing is driving a $50 billion investment boom. 
Sometimes politics is a game of “chicken” whereby you must keep fighting and wait out the other side when you *know* you are in the right. Such was the case with Pennsylvania Democrats’ insistence that the state join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme. RGGI aims to force coal- and gas-fired power plants to shut down by making them super expensive to operate. Tax them out of existence on the theory that unreliable renewables like wind and solar would replace them. But Republicans in the PA Senate kept fighting—for seven long years—and finally won (see 
It’s always one step forward and two steps back here in the “Empire” State of New York. Recent actions by New York Governor Kathy Hochul regarding the energy sector have been encouraging. She horse-traded with President Trump to allow two natural gas pipelines to get built in the state (see 
Pennsylvania has a big problem. The state is retiring older coal- and gas-fired power plants faster than it can add new plants. Plus, the state needs to *grow* its electric generation capacity to meet new demand from AI data centers. PA State Senator Gene Yaw has a solution: modify the existing 1971 Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) tax credit program by adding a provision granting a tax credit for any $400+ million investment in “baseload power generation” (i.e., gas-fired power generation). Yaw wants to make it a no-brainer for power plant builders to make the Keystone State their destination for new projects.