Midterm Bloodbath: What a Democrat Congress Means for Shale & LNG
The word we’re seeing most this morning is “bloodbath,” and it fits. Democrats flipped both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate in yesterday’s midterm elections, only the fifth time since World War II that a party has flipped both chambers in a midterm. President Trump keeps his veto pen for two more years, so the fossil-friendly policies coming out of his agencies aren’t going anywhere soon. But the shale and LNG industries just lost a lot of friends on Capitol Hill, and maybe their best shot at federal permitting reform in a generation. Here’s what happened, why, and what it means for drillers, pipeliners, LNG exporters, and the landowners who depend on them. Read More “Midterm Bloodbath: What a Democrat Congress Means for Shale & LNG”
Yesterday, Ohio voters had their first big chance to vote directly on data centers, and the data centers got clobbered. There were 21 data center ballot measures in 18 Ohio towns, villages, and townships (more than half of the 41 on ballots across the country). Voters in at least 14 of those places passed bans or new restrictions, most of them by margins of roughly 3-to-1 or 4-to-1. For MDN readers, the biggest single loss came in tiny Ashville (Pickaway County, just south of Columbus). There, about 82% of voters struck down the village’s deal with EdgeConneX for two data centers and an on-site gas-fired power plant of up to 800 megawatts (MW). Below are the scorecard, the gas angle, who’s behind the bans, and what comes next. 
Here’s one you don’t see every day. A Democratic polling firm, one that boasts of helping elect Democrats all the way up to the White House, says a majority of New York voters want the Constitution Pipeline built. And it isn’t close on natural gas itself: roughly three out of four New Yorkers support using natural gas in the Empire State. Somebody, please forward this to Food & Water Watch, which has been telling anyone who will listen that the “overwhelming majority” of New Yorkers oppose Constitution. Before we pop the champagne, though, there’s some fine print you need to see, including the question of who paid for this poll. 
Quinnipiac University released a new poll of Pennsylvania registered voters on July 15, and one question in it should worry everyone who makes a living from Marcellus gas. Asked whether they would support or oppose building an AI data center in their community, 74% of Pennsylvania voters said “oppose,” 16% said “support,” and 10% offered no opinion. That’s a jump from Quinnipiac’s February 25 poll, when the split was 68% opposed and 20% in favor. The opposition is bipartisan — 64% of Republicans, 82% of Democrats, and 77% of independents all said no thanks. Three-quarters of voters (76%) say they’re following data center news either very closely (26%) or somewhat closely (50%). And Gov. Josh Shapiro isn’t getting credit either: just 24% approve of how he’s handling data centers in Pennsylvania, while 34% disapprove and a whopping 42% have no opinion. The survey polled 895 registered voters July 9-13, with a margin of error of +/- 4.3 percentage points. 
According to opinion researchers at Pennsylvania’s Franklin & Marshall College, the issue of fracking has deepened the schism between Democrats and Republicans in the Keystone State. Pennsylvania’s voter registration statistics have shifted rightward (from Democrat to Republican), which has been traced to shifts in the affiliation of working-class communities, particularly those located in the northeastern and southwestern parts of the state. New research offers a more direct cause for the shift: the decline of coal mining and the rise of shale gas development. 
This year’s presidential election may well turn on the results in the “swing state” of Pennsylvania. The Wall Street Journal has an intriguing story that looks at PA voters, who they support for president, and why. In the article ‘Now They’re Voting Red’: A Pennsylvania Fracking Boom Weighs on Biden’s Re-Election Chances, the WSJ says a slim majority of voters give Donald Trump a 3-point lead over Joementia if the election were held today. (How ANYONE could vote for Biden is a complete mystery to us.) “Economic churn” and Biden’s actions like his infamous LNG pause are pushing voters toward Trump in the Pittsburgh area, potentially overwhelming the Democrats’ base of college-educated workers. Could it be that pro-frackers in PA will hand the White House back to DJT?