Va. Democrat Study Says Natural Gas Needed to Power Data Centers
The left can no longer hide the truth, as they have tried to do for years. The truth is, with the advent of data centers and artificial intelligence and their enormous demand for new electricity, there is only one solution that will work, at least in the next 10-20 years: natural gas power. A Democrat-controlled panel from the Virginia legislature commissioned an independent study of how to power data centers. Northern Virginia has the highest concentration of data centers globally and remains the fastest-growing market for data centers in the country. The state must plan for how to get power to operate all of those installations. The independent study concluded that the only practical solution is to use natural gas-fired power plants. Read More “Va. Democrat Study Says Natural Gas Needed to Power Data Centers”
Yesterday, President-elect Donald Trump posted an interesting message to his Truth Social account: “Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals. GET READY TO ROCK!!!” The implication is that the incoming Trumpsters will move heaven and earth to ensure more major manufacturing and infrastructure projects are built here in the U.S.A. Finally, someone who gets it! 
Last week, MDN told you the country’s largest electric grid, PJM Interconnection, which covers all or parts of 13 states, including PA, OH, and WV, is making 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 
In the spirit of doing the maximum amount of damage to the fossil fuel industry before being pried out of their cushy offices in the D.C. swamp, the Biden EPA last week proposed yet another onerous new regulation aimed at strangling natural gas-fired power plants. This latest attack ups the limits on emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from most new, modified, and reconstructed gas-fired power plants. It’s a safe bet that the incoming Trump EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, will withdraw the proposed regulation before it can be implemented. So, at least there’s that. However, the new reg comes from a “sue-and-settle” court case with the odious Sierra Club in 2022 that requires a new reg to be in place by Nov. 2025. 
There’s no shortage of articles about the incoming Trump administration and what it will mean for the energy space. We’re trying not to bury you with such speculation. However, when we notice items that pique our curiosity and interest, things that make us sit up and take notice, we will bring you those items. This is one such article. Writing on the OilPrice.com website, a pair of economist/financial analysts write that gas-fired power plants will be the big winner in the coming Trump administration. They explain their reasoning, which we find cogent… 
We spotted a press release that fascinates us but will take some explaining. Yesterday, Hanwha Power Systems Co. (headquartered in South Korea) announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with pipeline giant TC Energy to develop a sCO2 WHR (super-critical carbon dioxide waste heat recovery) project which will use the heat stream at a TC natural gas pipeline compressor station in West Virginia. 
Living in New York State, as MDN editor Jim Willis does, is like watching a slow-motion train wreck. You can see it coming; you warn those nearby to get off the tracks and leave the area, but no one is listening. We’re talking about the coming brownouts and blackouts across the state (especially in New York City) due to the state’s climate policies blocking new natural gas-fired power plants. This past summer, Danskammer Energy, which operates a gas-fired peaker power plant along the Hudson River in Newburgh, NY, withdrew its request to expand the plant (see 
Dominion Energy plans to build four small “peaker” electric generating plants in Chesterfield County, VA, near Richmond (see