FERC Approves PJM Plan to Fast-Track New Gas-Fired Power Plants
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 New PJM Policy Favors Gas-Fired Power Over Solar & Wind). The change comes in response to the rapidly increasing demand for more electricity from data centers and artificial intelligence computing. PJM’s gas-favoring policy change rankled the environmental left. According to green grifters, the PJM proposal unfairly allows gas-fired projects to “jump the queue” ahead of unreliable renewables. Good news: the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has just approved the PJM plan to build new gas-fired plants faster. Read More “FERC Approves PJM Plan to Fast-Track New Gas-Fired Power Plants”
Geothermal energy has been called the ‘redheaded stepchild’ of renewable energy. Lefties have a love/hate relationship with geothermal energy. Geothermal uses the same identical drilling rigs, drills the same holes in the ground, and even uses the same fracking technology used to drill shale oil and gas wells. But drilling and fracking for geothermal is righteous and clean and pure as wind-driven snow (for the left), while drilling and fracking for oil and gas is evil, Satanic, and destroying the environment. The left tolerates geothermal because it’s not fossil energy. Momentum for geothermal is growing, and money is beginning to pour in, according to Cindy Taff, CEO of geothermal company Sage Geosystems. 
A Washington County, PA, judge is closing the barn door about 12 years late. On February 7, Washington County Court of Common Pleas Judge Brandon P. Neuman ruled Sunoco Pipeline, LLC (i.e., Energy Transfer) did not have the eminent domain authority to take property for the Mariner East Pipelines in 2013 from Bradley and Amy Simon (in Washington County), and possibly many other property owners. The case alleges that while ME gained eminent domain authority later, when the company negotiated with the Simons (and potentially others), it did not have that legal authority, yet it claimed it did. The Simons signed a lease they otherwise would not have signed if they had full information. They either would not have signed, or perhaps negotiated a bigger payment. That’s the gist of the story—that ME fraudulently presented claims. 
CNX Resources’ Radical Transparency™ program is a first-of-its-kind public-private collaboration announced between CNX and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro in November 2023 (see 
Last week, President Trump issued a directive to the heads of Executive Branch agencies to review all funding said agencies provide to NGOs (nongovernmental organizations). The aim is to pull the plug on funding NGOs engaged in actions that actively undermine the security, prosperity, and safety of the American people. There’s a LOT of corruption in NGOs. Big money from the federal government (taxpayers!) flows in, and the NGOs give it to crazy anti-American, anti-energy programs and agencies. Elon Musk is convinced there’s a LOT of corruption in the form of payments (kickbacks) going to grease the palms of people all along the food chain. Our specific interest is in defunding environmental NGOs—organizations like the National Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, Food & Water Watch, and other disgusting organizations that are using (at least in part) OUR money. 
We’ve made this observation many times over the years, but here we go again. Ever notice how lefty environmentalists “demand” this and “demand” that? They’re a very demanding bunch, which is why nobody pays them any attention (except us). Here’s the latest example. A group of 30 “organizations” (many of them fronts for one or two people) sent a letter to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine demanding that he block/suspend/pause shale drilling under (not on) Ohio state lands, including parks. The letter uses factual inaccuracies and outright lies to try and scare DeWine into blocking legal drilling under state-owned land. 
According to an investigative reporter for Penn State, between 2018 and 2023, Pennsylvania fined Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Sunoco at least $42 million in connection to the construction of Mariner East II. Some $10 million of that came from a deal with the PA Attorney General’s office (who happened to be Josh Shapiro at the time) for supposed repeat contaminations of waterways, failures to report environmental damage, and the use of unapproved chemicals in drilling fluid (see 
We’ve covered the ongoing spat between Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and the PJM Interconnection electricity grid that covers all or parts of 13 states plus D.C. Last Friday, we brought you an editorial from the Wall Street Journal that echos the arguments we’ve made that Shapiro himself is to blame for rising electricity prices in PJM (see 
Ohio lawmakers are grappling with how to prepare the state for a surge in new power demand from AI data centers. In January, MDN told you that five Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) commissioners will decide some important guidelines about who should pay to build out new electricity sources for data centers—how much current ratepayers should be on the hook for with expanded power generation (see 
Here’s a complicated issue that we will try to break down as simply as possible. The Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA) is a trade group representing some of the biggest consumers of energy in the U.S. (i.e., manufacturers). In the past, the IECA has made the strong case that more pipelines are needed, especially along the East Coast, to supply manufacturers with natural gas (see 
In a separate post today, MDN deals with the issue of dispatchable and on-site power plants in Ohio (see OH Legislators, New Bill, Encourage More Gas-Fired Power Plants). We spotted an article about the rise of on-site power generation (mostly natural gas) to power AI. It does a great job of discussing the various models for on-site powergen. For example, the local utility company could build a special power plant that services only a particular data center. An independent power provider could build such a plant for a data center. Some O&G companies are getting into the game of building power plants, like Exxon Mobil and Chevron. Or the data center could build and operate its own power plant, but then, that’s not the business they are in. Each option has advantages and disadvantages. 
For the second week in a row, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count regained some of the rigs lost in prior weeks. Two weeks ago, the rig count gained six rigs (see 