Electrical Generation | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Statewide WV | West Virginia
EQT CEO Tells West Virginia: It’s Time to Build More Pipelines
Toby Rice, CEO of EQT Corporation, took part in a presentation by natural gas industry leaders at the West Virginia Capitol on Wednesday. The group was briefly joined by Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who was there to promote an expansion of electric microgrids in the state to power data centers. Morrisey is pushing legislature, House Bill 2014, to do just that (see WV Gov. Backs Energy Bill to Attract Data Centers, Use Coal & Gas). Rice told those at the rally that if the state is serious about building more gas-fired power, it’s going to need new pipelines. Read More “EQT CEO Tells West Virginia: It’s Time to Build More Pipelines”
The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin held hearings on Tuesday at the Oak Creek Community Center to listen to public comments on a proposed natural gas plant. Wisconsin Electric Gas Operations, doing business as We Energies, proposes to spend $1.2 billion at its Oak Creek Power Plant (Oak Creek is a suburb of Milwaukee) to convert the facility from a coal-fired power plant to a natural gas plant that will generate 1,100 megawatts (MW) of electricity on demand (a “peaker” facility). The aim is to start the gas turbines when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. 
In December, MDN told you the country’s largest electric grid, PJM Interconnection, which covers all or parts of 13 states, including PA, OH, and WV, proposed new changes to how it decides which new power plants can connect to the system first. The new policy *favors* adding natural gas-fired power over other types of power like unreliable solar and wind (see 
On Friday, March 21, 2025, Heathrow Airport (in London), one of the world’s busiest airports, experienced a complete shutdown due to a massive fire at the North Hyde electrical substation in Hayes, west London, approximately 1.5 miles from the airport. The blaze, which began late Thursday night around 11:23 PM GMT, involved a transformer containing 25,000 liters of cooling oil. It caused a significant power outage, knocking out the primary substation and its backup system. This led to the cancellation of over 1,300 flights, affecting an estimated 200,000 to 290,000 passengers and causing widespread travel disruptions globally. The London Fire Brigade deployed 10 engines and around 70 firefighters to control the fire, which was mostly contained by Friday evening, though 5% remained active in isolated hotspots. What happened at Heathrow could not happen at Pittsburgh International Airport. Why? Because of the Marcellus shale. 
Data centers and AI are in the news almost daily. The great issue of our time (which has developed over the past year or so) is that AI and data centers are huge customers for electricity. Every region of the country (particularly the Eastern Seaboard) struggles with how to meet the demand for more electricity. The existing grid can’t handle the coming increase in demand. Data centers would love to just “plug in” to the local grid, but given the speed with which they want to build these new facilities, that’s unrealistic. Building a new nuclear plant to power such facilities takes over a decade and billions of dollars. Building a new gas-fired power plant takes at least 2-3 years from start to finish (once permitting is issued). Is it possible to develop a new power source for data centers in two years? Indeed, there is… 
Earlier this week, MDN told you that the Ohio Chamber of Commerce was putting its considerable influence behind a pair of bills making their way through the state legislature: Senate Bill (SB) 2 and House Bill (HB) 15 (see 
You have to hand it to the environment-left; they sure are creative. How do they think these things up? Penn State researchers, committed to the religion of eliminating fossil fuels and the 100% adoption of unreliable renewables, are looking for a way to use old/depleted oil and gas wells—of which there are hundreds of thousands in PA (an estimated 3.9 million nationwide). The latest Penn State research proposes blowing compressed air down old wells and storing it underground where the earth’s heat will warm it, further compressing it (giving it an extra 9.5% of “efficiency”). And when electricity is needed, let the air escape, running big power turbines. Just one teeny, tiny problem: It costs so much that nobody will do it. 
The environmental left (at least some of them) is finally admitting what everyone with a brain already knows: Solar and wind power cannot meet the rapidly increasing demands for electricity coming from existing and soon-to-be-built AI data centers. What’s a lefty to do? We’ve been telling you (for years) that natural gas-fired power, which is “dispatchable” and on-demand, is a good backup for solar and wind. The left is finally holding its nose and saying maybe “dirty” natgas “peaker” (on demand) gas plants aren’t so bad after all. 
A guest column appearing in the Columbus Dispatch written by the president and CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce makes a strong case that (a) Ohio needs more electric power generation, and (b) the perfect solution is to use “trapped” by lack of pipelines Utica Shale gas. Steve Stivers throws the weight of the Chamber behind a pair of bills that aim to make it easier to generate power in the Buckeye State, Senate Bill (SB) 2 and House Bill (HB) 15. 