WV Gov. Backs Energy Bill to Attract Data Centers, Use Coal & Gas
Yesterday, West Virginia Governor Pat Morrisey stood with the natural resource industry and educational leaders to ask the West Virginia Legislature to pass the Power Generation and Consumption Act (House Bill 2014) to expand data center development in the state. The bill will allow companies to develop independent energy grids using natural resources, including coal and gas, and positions West Virginia as a prime location for data centers, AI processing, and cloud computing. Morrisey said the legislation would “attract significant investment to the state.” Read More “WV Gov. Backs Energy Bill to Attract Data Centers, Use Coal & Gas”
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. 
Yesterday, MDN told you that power generation giant LS Power announced a plan to add more than 700 megawatts (MW) of new electric generating capacity across the PJM grid by modifying and expanding gas-fired plants already in existence in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia (see 
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. 
The Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission operates the largest sewage treatment plant in New Jersey — in Newark. When Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, the sewer plant lost power and dumped BILLIONS of gallons of raw sewage into the Passaic River. The Commission plans to prevent that from happening again by building a tiny natural gas peaker plant to generate electricity. It would only be used to avoid such environmental damage again (i.e., rarely used, only for emergencies). Great news: The plant has been approved by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and now has (or soon will have) all the permits it needs to begin construction. 
In January, we told you that faced with the possibility of blackouts, Connecticut’s Democrat Governor, Ned Lamont, wants to keep his nuclear and gas-fired power plants (see 
Yesterday, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro visited Voith Hydro North America (in York, PA) to announce that key components of his extremely flawed “Lightning Plan” will be introduced in the General Assembly in the coming weeks by sychophantic Democrats. Shapiro claims his so-called Lightning Plan is “a comprehensive, all-of-the-above energy plan to secure Pennsylvania’s energy future.” Except his plan puts the thumb of the government on the scales in favor of wind, solar, and hydro and purposely disadvantages natural gas. 
In December 2022, Rice Acquisition Corp II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) started by the Rice brothers (Danny, Toby, and Derek), announced a deal to acquire Net Power — an electric power developer with revolutionary new technology to capture every last molecule of carbon dioxide from natural gas-fired power plants (see 
Kentucky has seen unprecedented economic growth in recent years, like other southern states. Data centers are looking to Kentucky for future expansion. Last fall, Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities Company (KU), both part of PPL Corporation, forecasted in their Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) the need for additional power generation due to the expected influx of data centers and economic development across their service territories (see