M-U Projects Potentially Impacted by NextEra/Dominion Merger
Yesterday, MDN brought you the big news that NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy will combine in an all-stock transaction, creating the world’s largest regulated electric utility business serving approximately 10 million customer accounts across Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina (see NextEra Energy Buying, Merging with Dominion Energy for $66 Billion). Now that the news itself has settled in, analysts are beginning to explore what it means for this constituency and that constituency. Whenever there’s a takeover with new management, existing (or planned) projects can change. We wondered, what’s the list of projects owned by Dominion and NextEra in the Marcellus/Utica region that may change when the two companies join? Read More “M-U Projects Potentially Impacted by NextEra/Dominion Merger”
This is HUGE and breaking news… NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy announced this morning that they will combine in an all-stock transaction, creating the world’s largest regulated electric utility business serving approximately 10 million customer accounts across Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The combined entity, operating under the NextEra Energy name, will be over 80% regulated and benefit from enhanced scale, efficiency, and diversified growth. How much is NextEra paying for Dominion? 
Once again, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is attacking the energy industry, this time setting his sights on utility companies that he falsely claims are “unfairly increasing their rates and needlessly raising costs for Pennsylvanians.” Shapiro has hired a radical National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) attorney to serve as his lapdog (Special Counsel for Energy Affordability) to attack utility companies, forcing them into bankruptcy, particularly by pressuring them to use unreliable renewables instead of cheaper fossil fuels. 
One of the great ironies of the Marcellus Shale is that THE TOP two natgas-producing counties in the state, Susquehanna (#1) and Bradford (#2), both of which are rural, don’t, for the most part, offer the gas extracted from under their residents to their residents for everyday use. It costs a lot of money to run local distribution pipelines to homes and businesses for natural gas. Leatherstocking Gas Company is on a mission to change that. Leatherstocking provides natural gas utility service in Susquehanna and Bradford to some 500+ customers. More customers will soon be added to Leatherstocking’s service in Wyalusing (Bradford County) following a recent PIPE grant. 
We simply could not believe this when we read it. We had to re-read it several times to be sure our eyes weren’t lying. Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey is responsible for blocking new natural gas pipelines from entering her state, as she previously bragged but then denied (see 
The rapid expansion of data centers, driven by AI and cloud computing, is creating a surge in energy demand that exceeds renewable capabilities, forcing a shift toward natural gas. Good news for the Marcellus/Utica. However, building new pipelines to handle the extra gas needed is not an overnight process. Industry experts at the recent LDC Gas Forums’ Nat Gas to Power event proposed an ingenious solution that uses existing pipelines to move more gas to new data center customers. 
Earlier this morning, National Fuel Gas Company, a large utility company headquartered in the Buffalo, NY area with both upstream and midstream subsidiaries (Seneca Resources and NFG Midstream), announced a deal with CenterPoint Energy to acquire CenterPoint’s Ohio natural gas utility business (CNP Ohio) for $2.62 billion. The deal includes 5,900 miles of distribution and transmission pipelines and serves approximately 335,000 residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation customers that consume approximately 60 Bcf of natural gas per year. The deal significantly increases NFG’s gas utility customer base, from roughly 750,000 to well over 1 million. 
Over the past year, gas utilities have increasingly targeted data centers as customers for on-site power generation, driven by rising demand from hyperscale, leased, and crypto-mining facilities, particularly in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Companies, including Atmos Energy, Chesapeake Utilities, National Fuel Gas, and Enbridge, have signed agreements to supply gas or build pipelines to co-located gas-fired or converted coal-to-gas plants. Utilities view medium-sized data centers as a “sweet spot,” but face hurdles such as limited pipeline capacity, equipment backlogs, and coordination challenges across the gas value chain. Smaller turbines and fuel cells are increasingly used, though supply constraints remain a concern. 
Data center projects are sprouting like dandelions in Pennsylvania. Along with these data centers come work and business opportunities for the oil and gas industry and related industries, such as utilities. Here’s an example. Essential Utilities yesterday announced its subsidiaries will invest $26 million in a major data center project in Greene County, PA. Essential is one of the largest publicly traded water, wastewater, and natural gas providers in the U.S., serving approximately 5 million people across 9 states under the Aqua and Peoples brands. Both brands are involved in this announcement. 
Leatherstocking Gas Company, a subsidiary of Corning Energy Corporation, runs gas mains to residents and businesses in small, mainly rural communities in northeastern Pennsylvania (see 
During EQT Corporation’s third quarter 2023 update and conference call (held in October 2023), the company announced “two of the largest, long-term physical supply deals ever executed” for 1.2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of EQT’s molecules. Those molecules will flow on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) beginning in 2027 (see 
The name Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) pretty much says it all. PGW is a natural gas utility serving the Philly region. It’s not an electric company; it’s a natural gas company. So, it will probably come as no surprise that PGW belongs to a trade organization called the American Public Gas Association (APGA). Indeed, PGW is the largest member of the APGA. And it would probably not surprise you to learn that the APGA supports President Trump’s efforts to pause and defund much of the money not already distributed from the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was Biden’s Green New Deal aimed at using billions of OUR taxpayer dollars to try to destroy fossil energy, including natural gas. The swampy left, including its apologists in the media (i.e., PBS), are trying to shame PGW into dropping its membership in the APGA, implying PGW is (via APGA) opposed to having its business destroyed using $700 million from the IRA earmarked for Philly. Imagine that! 
Hope Gas, a large local utility company that provides gas service to more than 131,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-seven West Virginia counties, filed a rate case with the state Public Service Commission (PSC) in August 2024 looking to convert customers who use a “farm tap” gas system to either propane fuel or electric heat for their homes (see