Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Licking County | Ohio | Regulation | Williams
OH Approves Williams Gas-Fired Plant to Power Facebook Data Center
In early April, MDN brought you the exciting news that pipeline giant Williams, via its subsidiary, Will-Power, is planning to build two Utica/Marcellus gas-fired power plants in the New Albany International Business Park in Licking County, Ohio (see Williams Subsidiary Unveils Plans for Gas-Fired Power Plant in Ohio). The two projects are called the Socrates North and Socrates South power plants. Our previous post focused on Socrates North, as that seemed to be the one closest to construction. However, yesterday, the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) authorized and approved construction for the Socrates South project. Read More “OH Approves Williams Gas-Fired Plant to Power Facebook Data Center”
In April, MDN told you that the West Virginia Supreme Court was scheduled to hear oral arguments in two important oil and gas royalty cases (see 
In April, Duke Energy, owner of electricity utility companies serving 8.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, sealed a deal with GE Vernova to buy up to 11 gas turbines to power new gas-fired power plants (see 
According to the left-wing-funded (very partisan) Spotlight PA publication, a group of bills aimed at boosting electricity production and regulating clean energy has “rare, bipartisan support” in Pennsylvania’s divided legislature. We doubt that. More like a few RINOs are joining Democrats to support a few bills. Regardless of whether there is consensus between the two parties on these energy bills, they aren’t going anywhere in the PA Senate unless and until the state Supreme Court (loaded with Democrats) renders a decision on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme. So says the PA Senate Majority Leader, Joe Pittman (Republican from Indiana). 
Last week, for the sixth week in a row, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count dropped, down another four rigs to its lowest level since November 2021. It was the first time since September 2023 that the count has fallen for six (or more) weeks in a row. Free fallin’. However, the Marcellus/Utica count remained the same, at a combined 36 active rigs. The Pennsylvania Marcellus operated 18 rigs. The Ohio Utica operated 11 rigs. And West Virginia operated seven rigs. 
Republicans in the Buckeye State (Ohio) are treading on thin ice with a proposed change in the upcoming state budget. When GOP members began advocating for drilling under (not on) state-owned land and state parks in 2011, one of the arguments was that the revenue it would generate would improve state parks. A change in plans is underway with the latest two-year state budget, which would shift those revenues from park improvements to general operations instead. Is this a bait-and-switch? 
The Center for Energy & Environmental Analysis (CEEA) claims it is a “non-partisan think tank” that studies energy and environmental trends and their impact on the future. Attached to the University of Texas at Austin, the CEEA is actually very partisan (Democrat) and anti-fossil fuel. However, the CEEA has done us all a favor. The organization recently released a report aimed at denigrating a flurry of new natural gas pipeline projects planned or being built, and in the process, provides a list of 104 active pipeline projects that our side can celebrate. 
Bloomberg reports that Donald Trump is using our dominance of a niche petroleum gas, ethane, as a bargaining chip in his trade war with China. Last week MDN brought you the news that the Trump U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is blocking at least three (possibly more) cargoes of ethane by rejecting permits to export to Enterprise Products Partners (see 
We have some important new information regarding the proposed Penn LNG export facility in the Philadelphia area. 
Two days ago, the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released its latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for January through March 2025 (full copy below). There were 93 new horizontal wells spud (drilled) in 1Q25, a decrease of 7 wells (-7%) compared to 1Q24. However, 1Q’s spud number increased by 9 (11%) from the 84 drilled in the prior quarter, 4Q24. Natural gas production volume was 1,941 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in 1Q25, up 56 Bcf (3%) from 1,885 Bcf produced in 1Q24, and up 72 Bcf (4%) from the 1,869 Bcf produced in 4Q24. The big news revolved around price. The average Pennsylvania spot hub price was $3.69, an increase of $2.00 (117.5%) from the prior year. 
Two conventional oil producers in Southeast Ohio say dozens of their wells have been flooded with industrial waste (brine) from the fracking industry. They claim that nearby injection wells that handle frack waste/brine are leaking. State regulators agree that injection wells, at least at some locations, are leaking. Not only have these leaks (if true) affected oil wells, but there’s a concern they may be contaminating area water wells. 
The Republicans in Congress have not wasted any time in addressing the ongoing tragedy of states (and municipalities) banning fracking or the right to choose which energy source (like natural gas) to use. We happened to spot details about two new bills just introduced in Congress, one by New York Rep. Claudia Tenney, which targets states like her own that ban fracking by denying the state federal funding as long as the ban remains in place. The other bill was introduced by West Virginia Senator Jim Justice (and Babydog!) along with Nick Langworthy (from NY) in the House to prohibit states or local governments from banning an energy service’s connection, reconnection, modification, installation, or expansion based on the type or source of energy to be delivered. Essentially, you can’t ban the use of natural gas either statewide or locally. 
The propagandists at the partisan Inside Climate News are doing their best to plant the false notion that drill cuttings and frack wastewater coming from shale wells are “radioactive.” Their latest effort in this regard is to defeat the reopening of a landfill in Mercer County, PA. The Grove City landfill would accept drill cuttings (among other landfillable waste). The antis, who oppose all fossil energy based on mythical global warming concerns, label drill cuttings as “radioactive waste.” It’s nonsense. Drill cuttings are leftover rock and dirt from the ground. 
Three years ago, in May 2022, MDN brought you the surprising news that ethane, propane, and butane (NGLs) were being exported from a facility in Gibbstown, NJ, located along the Delaware River, at a former DuPont dynamite factory site (see