Maryland Congressman Wants to Dump Power Line, Build NatGas Pipes
It’s alarming! Common sense is breaking out all over. In January, we told you about a Maryland Democrat, General Assembly member C.T. Wilson from Charles County, who is attempting to get the rules changed in the Old Line State to redefine natural gas as “green” energy (see Maryland Democrat Flips, Wants to Use NatGas to Fire Power Plants). Now comes word that a Maryland Republican Congressman (Republicans in Maryland are mostly of the RINO type) wants a 70-mile power line project canceled and instead wants the state to expedite the development of natural gas power generation. Read More “Maryland Congressman Wants to Dump Power Line, Build NatGas Pipes”
Pennsylvania’s do-nothing Governor, Josh Shapiro, traveled to Pittsburgh yesterday to put on another shuck-and-jive all-sizzle-no-steak show. He was there to unveil what he calls his “Lightning Plan” for energy in the state. His big plan? Reintroduce and try to bully Republicans into accepting a Marcellus-killing carbon tax and onerous regulations on emissions (called PACER, see 
The PJM Interconnection electrical grid operator that covers Pennsylvania (along with all or parts of 12 other states and the District of Columbia) has caved to the political demands of PA Gov. Josh Shapiro to artificially cap the prices of the next capacity auction scheduled for July 2025. It means electric ratepayers won’t see as high of an increase in their electric rates (yah!), but it also means the risk of a blackout has just gone way up (boo!). As we’ve outlined in previous posts, electric prices are soaring in PJM because of the policies of Josh Shapiro. 
Did you happen to catch the news lighting up all the cable news stations yesterday about Chinese startup DeepSeek? The company launched a free AI assistant that it claims uses less data at a fraction of the cost of other AI models. By Monday, the DeepSeek assistant had overtaken U.S. rival ChatGPT in downloads from Apple’s app store. The news sent traders into a tailspin of selling off tech company stocks like Nvidia (which makes the chips used in AI). The news also affected natural gas drillers negatively. Why? 
In December, PA’s Democrat Governor, Josh Shapiro, filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) alleging the PJM electric grid is being mismanaged and using inflated numbers that will cause economic pain for the 65 million customers who buy electricity in the PJM region—in particular the residents of PA. What’s causing the high prices in PJM, a region rich in natural gas? The policies of Shapiro and his predecessor in proposing a carbon tax have scared away new gas-fired power plants from building in the Keystone State. As we reported yesterday, Shapiro has increased his menacing and threats against PJM (see 
Yesterday, with the bitter cold blast (called a polar vortex) hitting the eastern half of the country, the PJM power grid, which covers all or parts of 13 states plus the District of Columbia (including all of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia), experienced its largest single-day power draw EVER. The grid came through with flying colors thanks to natural gas, which provided an average of 42.5% of the total power produced yesterday, and coal, which produced 22.9% of all the power produced yesterday. Add in oil with another 3%, and fossil fuels carried the heavy load by producing 68.4% of PJM’s electricity yesterday. How much did solar and wind produce? An infinitesimally small 4.46% of the electricity produced yesterday. Nuclear produced nearly a quarter of PJM’s electricity yesterday at 24.5%. 
In December, PA’s Democrat Governor, Josh Shapiro, filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) alleging the PJM electric grid is being mismanaged and using inflated numbers that will cause economic pain for the 65 million customers who buy electricity in the PJM region—in particular the residents of PA. What’s causing the high prices in PJM, a region rich in natural gas? That would be former Gov. Tom Wolf and current Gov. Josh Shapiro insisting the state tax gas-fired power plants via the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Shapiro is blaming the victim (PJM) for his actions. He just increased the volume (as bullies do) by threatening PJM that PA may pull out of the grid and do its own thing…unless PJM finds a way to fix his mess. 
Last August, MDN told you about several potential new pipeline projects under consideration to help feed new data centers and artificial intelligence (AI) operations, most of them located in the southeastern U.S. (see 
