Big Gas-Fired Power Plant Planned Near Milwaukee Advances
The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin held hearings on Tuesday at the Oak Creek Community Center to listen to public comments on a proposed natural gas plant. Wisconsin Electric Gas Operations, doing business as We Energies, proposes to spend $1.2 billion at its Oak Creek Power Plant (Oak Creek is a suburb of Milwaukee) to convert the facility from a coal-fired power plant to a natural gas plant that will generate 1,100 megawatts (MW) of electricity on demand (a “peaker” facility). The aim is to start the gas turbines when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. Read More “Big Gas-Fired Power Plant Planned Near Milwaukee Advances”
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) continues to aid and abet radical environmental groups in circumventing the state legislature. In what amounts to a classic leftist “sue-and-settle” case, last year radical environmental groups (including the Clean Air Council and Environmental Integrity Project) petitioned the state Environmental Quality Board (EQB), asking the board to amend 25 Pa. Code Chapter 78a by increasing “setbacks” for oil and gas well drilling to a minimum of 3,281 feet from any building or water wells (5,280 feet from hospitals and schools), and 750 feet from any river, creek, or mud puddle (i.e., surface waters). Such an increase in setbacks would stop ALL new shale drilling in the state, which is the goal of these radicals. The DEP is recommending to the EQB that it should accept and consider the proposed rulemaking. 
In March 2024, we reported that two Democrats and one anti-drilling RINO who run Bucks County, PA government (a Philadelphia suburb) fell for the bait by Big Green and filed a lawsuit against Big Oil companies for supposedly, knowingly, causing the Earth to toast to a cinder (see 
EQT Corp. remains committed to its low-carbon aviation fuel (LCAF) project and the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) even though federal funding for ARCH2 and other hydrogen hub projects around the country is now in question. EQT CEO Toby Rice told the Pittsburgh Business Times that his company continues to evaluate building a clean hydrogen plant. EQT remains a lead partner in ARCH2. 
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 
Last week, MDN brought you the great news that Crowley, the largest shipping company in the U.S., launched what is the very first Jones Act-compliant LNG carrier to ferry LNG from the Gulf Coast to Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory (see 
Never in our wildest dreams did we think that Donald Trump winning a second term would result in the resurrection of the 124-mile Pennsylvania-to-New York Constitution Pipeline project. Yet, that prospect appears increasingly likely. We don’t want to offer false hope, but we can’t ignore the signs favoring the Constitution’s springing back to life. The latest sign? Two prominent leftwing mainstream media outlets, none other than the Washington Post and POLITICO, ran stories yesterday all but admitting that the liberal Democrat governors of New York and New England are in the process of caving and either have or soon will support the Constitution Pipeline project. It’s absolute magic! 
Last week, MDN told you that fracking has begun under the park, and literally nobody noticed (see 
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 
Two researchers from Miami University of Ohio have just published a new study (full copy below) that makes a bombshell revelation: Between the years of 2007 and 2019, the extraction and use of shale natural gas led to a REDUCTION in so-called greenhouse gases of 7.5% in the United States. Although the authors are careful to wrap their findings in the argument that natural gas is “just a transition that’s helping us reach renewable nirvana” (our words, their sentiment), we have to wonder if this study has just tanked the researchers’ academic careers. Nobody goes against the global warming orthodoxy with actual science that questions that orthodoxy and (academically) lives to tell about it. Poor sods. 
The Baker Hughes U.S. national rig count gained one rig last week, now at 593 active rigs. As for the Marcellus/Utica, the rig count was a combined 35 last week. Rigs focused on the Marcellus were a combined 24 across the three M-U states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. Rigs focused on the Utica were a combined 11. PA has operated 15 rigs (or more) for the past 19 weeks. OH has operated nine rigs for the past 16 weeks. WV had operated 10 rigs for an astonishing 23 weeks in a row. Five weeks ago, WV added (and has kept) one additional rig and now operates 11 active rigs. 
Here’s a lawsuit we were unaware of, even though it’s been playing out for years. It’s quite complicated. On the surface, at a very basic level, Cardinal Midstream II (we assume a subsidiary of the Dallas-based