Fake Harvard Research Helped Defeat Virginia Power Plant Project
One week ago, MDN told you that an on-again, off-again plan to build a massive natural gas-fired power plant (that would use Marcellus gas) in Pittsylvania County, Va., had been pulled by the builder (see Plan for Va. Data Center with 3,500 MW Gas-Fired Plant Canceled). There is more to the story. Even after the project sponsor withdrew the plan, the Board of Supervisors still voted against it. Why? It blocks the sponsor from submitting a substantially similar proposal for the next 12 months. The supervisors used a bought-and-paid-for sham research study by a Harvard researcher as the basis for rejecting the project. Read More “Fake Harvard Research Helped Defeat Virginia Power Plant Project”
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), and its Regional Entities recently issued a report stating that the country’s bulk-power system performed well during successive cold weather events in January 2025, without major issues in either the natural gas or electric systems. The system’s performance, according to the joint report, demonstrates the benefits of actions taken in response to recommendations from prior winter storm reports and the need for continued coordination between natural gas and electric systems in preparing for and responding to extreme cold weather. No word in the report on unreliable renewables because, well, they don’t matter. Natural gas power is what really matters. 
In early April, MDN brought you the exciting news that THE largest gas-fired power plant in the country, along with a MASSIVE data center complex, will be built at a former coal-fired power plant site in Indiana County, PA (see 
Net Power, backed by the Rice brothers (of Rice Energy and EQT fame), is on a mission to develop and deploy revolutionary new technology to capture every last molecule of carbon dioxide from natural gas-fired power plants (see 
In what appears to be a coordinated effort, the PJM Interconnect electric grid is under attack by leftists. As we point out in our lead story today, the Pennsylvania DEP has prostituted itself politically and joined with extremist left-wing organizations to attack PJM. At the same time, three deeply blue (economically failed) states, New Jersey, Maryland, and Illinois, filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asking the agency to force PJM to rerun an electric capacity auction, claiming such a move would save ratepayers $5 billion. These states’ failed policies in FORCING unreliable solar and wind on the public caused the high-priced electricity problem in the first place. So now, the perpetrators are blaming the victim—PJM. 
The on again, off again, on again, off again plan to build a massive data center in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, with a 3,500-megawatt gas-fired power plant is now off again, permanently. Last October, Balico applied to rezone more than 2,200 acres for a proposed campus in Pittsylvania County, Va., that would include its own massive on-site gas-fired power plant complex using Marcellus/Utica molecules from the Mountain Valley Pipeline (see 
ArcLight Capital Partners, an infrastructure investment firm focused on energy and related infrastructure, announced it is buying out the ownership interests of Osaka Gas USA Corporation and Kyuden International Americas Inc. (both Japanese companies) in Kleen Energy Systems, LLC. Kleen Energy owns Kleen Power, a 620 megawatt (MW) natural gas-fired power plant in Middletown, Connecticut. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. 
Cayuga Station, owned by Duke Energy, is a three-unit coal-fired power plant built between 1970 and 1993 in Vermillion County, Indiana. The existing plant produces as much as 1,040 megawatts (MW) of electricity. Duke recently filed a request with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) for permission to build two new gas-fired plants at the Cayuga site to replace the coal-fired units. The combined output of the new gas-fired plants will be 1,510 MW. The plan is to build and commission the gas-fired plants first and then shut down the coal-fired plants. 
In March, MDN told you about a legislative proposal from newly elected West Virginia Governor Pat Morrisey, a measure called the Power Generation and Consumption Act (House Bill 2014) to expand data center development in the state (see 
Democrat politicians, like Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, are predictable. Shapiro, Murphy, and other Dem governors in the PJM Interconnection electric grid region, which includes all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C., have ratcheted up their rhetoric blaming PJM for higher electricity prices, even though it is their own policies that are driving electric prices higher! Always blame someone else for your shortcomings; that’s their motto. 
In early April, MDN brought you the exciting news that THE largest gas-fired power plant in the country, along with a MASSIVE data center complex, will be built at a former coal-fired power plant site in Indiana County, PA (see 
A number of data centers have been announced in Licking County, in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio. They all will need enormous amounts of electricity to operate. MDN recently told you about three gas-fired power plants planned for New Albany, including one from PowerConneX and two from Williams subsidiary Will-Power (see