Gov. Shapiro Calls NatGas “Environmentally Sustainable” at AI Conf
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was one of the speakers at yesterday’s AI Horizons Pittsburgh Summit in Pittsburgh. He was there speaking out of both sides of his mouth, as he so often does. Out of one side of his mouth, he claimed he wants PA to use “as much clean energy as possible,” meaning unreliable renewables. Out of the other side, he said converting old coal plants to use natural gas “is environmentally sustainable.” Yet he continues to seek to levy a carbon tax on natural gas-fired power plants via the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Read More “Gov. Shapiro Calls NatGas “Environmentally Sustainable” at AI Conf”
Yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced new guidance (a relaxation of regulations) to streamline its New Source Review (NSR) permitting process. The relaxed regs are designed to accelerate the construction of essential power generation and manufacturing facilities. EPA’s action provides flexibility to begin certain building activities that are NOT related to air emissions, such as installing cement pads, before obtaining a Clean Air Act (CAA) construction permit. More common-sense solutions from the Trump administration to address a completely screwed up regulatory state. 
There is a disagreement brewing between those who operate the PJM Interconnection power grid and Big Tech, including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and others, regarding the issue of adding data centers to the PJM grid. PJM recently proposed a fast-track stakeholder process to develop rules by the end of the year for interconnecting data centers to its system while ensuring the region has enough power supplies. The proposal would treat new data centers over 50 megawatts (MW) as “non-capacity-backed load” (or NCBL). Under the proposal, PJM could curtail (reduce or cut off) power deliveries to data centers with NCBL status before the grid operator moves to pre-emergency load curtailments for other electricity users. Big Tech doesn’t like it one little bit. 
We’re still waiting for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to gain two new members, which would give the commission its full complement of five members (with three of them Republicans). In June, President Trump nominated Laura Swett of Vison & Elkins to replace Republican Mark Christie, who had been elevated to Chairman under Trump (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: 
Hardly a day goes by without a story about AI data centers here on MDN. Why? Data centers use electricity either from the local grid or generate it themselves on-site. Either way, the electricity almost always comes from gas-fired power plants. Increasingly, the data centers themselves are opting to host their own gas-fired power plants on-site. Whether the power is coming from the grid or on-site, M-U molecules power it. But there’s a problem for data centers with on-site gas needs: Either there isn’t a pipeline (yet) to the site, or if there is a pipeline, it’s not big enough to flow the gas required. A company in Houston, Texas, has developed a brilliant solution for data centers that require gas and are ready to build now… 
New life is being breathed into old, shuttered coal-fired power plants. That’s the focus of an article appearing on the Fortune magazine website. The poster child for converting old coal-fired plants is none other than the former Homer City Generating Station in Indiana County, PA. It will be transformed 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 (HPC). The new gas-fired plant in Homer City will be THE LARGEST gas-fired power plant in the country, capable of producing up to 4.5 gigawatts (4,500 MW) of electricity (see 
Over the past year, gas utilities have increasingly targeted data centers as customers for on-site power generation, driven by rising demand from hyperscale, leased, and crypto-mining facilities, particularly in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Companies, including Atmos Energy, Chesapeake Utilities, National Fuel Gas, and Enbridge, have signed agreements to supply gas or build pipelines to co-located gas-fired or converted coal-to-gas plants. Utilities view medium-sized data centers as a “sweet spot,” but face hurdles such as limited pipeline capacity, equipment backlogs, and coordination challenges across the gas value chain. Smaller turbines and fuel cells are increasingly used, though supply constraints remain a concern. 
Data center projects are sprouting like dandelions in Pennsylvania. Along with these data centers come work and business opportunities for the oil and gas industry and related industries, such as utilities. Here’s an example. Essential Utilities yesterday announced its subsidiaries will invest $26 million in a major data center project in Greene County, PA. Essential is one of the largest publicly traded water, wastewater, and natural gas providers in the U.S., serving approximately 5 million people across 9 states under the Aqua and Peoples brands. Both brands are involved in this announcement. 
It’s hard to believe we’re still talking about (and waiting for) the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to weigh in on whether or not it was legal for former Governor Tom Wolf to unilaterally sentence all Pennsylvanians to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme—with no vote by the legislature. The Supremes collected briefs on RGGI a whole year ago (see 
A Reuters reporter/commentator published an article that chronicles (with lots of facts, statistics, and charts) the coming rapid buildout of both gas-fired power generation and LNG exports in the U.S. He pitches the situation as a coming “clash of the Titans” (our words, but his sentiment). The author believes that the buildout of new gas-fired plants will sop up molecules that would have gone to LNG export plants, setting up a price war for those molecules. (One could only hope!) We have a different perspective. 
This post is not directly about the Marcellus/Utica, but the issue we discuss is important and significantly affects the M-U. Andrew Dehoff, the Executive Director of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), is sounding the alarm about potential water usage for hyperscale data centers that will be located in the SRBC’s jurisdiction. Dehoff spoke at a Pennsylvania State Senate hearing on Monday. These giant data centers are BIG users of energy and, potentially, big users of water. The water is used not only to cool gas-fired power plants that generate energy for the data centers, but the data centers themselves use water to help cool the thousands upon thousands of computers located in them. 
Competitive Power Ventures’ 680-megawatt CPV Valley Energy Center in Wawayanda, NY, fired up and began producing enough electricity to power 600,000 liberal NY homes in October 2018 (see