Virginia’s environmental cops have hit Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company (Transco) with a $179,068.50 civil charge over erosion and sediment control violations on the Pittsylvania County stretch of the Southeast Supply Enhancement (SSE) Project — the single most important new outlet for Marcellus/Utica gas heading south. Read More “Virginia Fines Williams $179K Over Erosion Controls on Transco SSE”
Both federal and state regulators signed off last Thursday on PowerTransitions’ purchase of the 1,242-megawatt (MW) Roseton Generating Facility in Newburgh, New York — the sixth and by far the largest gas-fired plant the Houston-based company has grabbed in the Empire State this year. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued its order Aug. 13 (Docket EC26-95-000), and the New York Public Service Commission approved the transfer the same day. But the most interesting thing in the FERC order isn’t the approval. It’s the name of the company doing the buying. Read More “FERC Greenlights PowerTransitions’ 6th NY Gas Plant, Nobody Objected”
PJM Interconnection, the grid operator that keeps the lights on for 67 million people across 13 states including Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, filed its long-awaited data center framework with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Wednesday, August 13. The short version: if you’re a new data center and you don’t bring your own electricity to the party, you get switched off first when the grid gets tight. Homes and small businesses get cut last. It’s a rule that, read correctly, is one enormous purchase order for Marcellus/Utica gas. Read More “PJM’s FERC Filing is a 30-GW Sales Pitch for Marcellus Gas”
Here’s a puzzle for you. The Trump EPA has spent 18 months dismantling the Biden administration’s carbon rules for power plants. The final repeal has been parked at the White House Office of Management and Budget since May 14 — and as of this writing it’s still sitting there, past the 90-day review window that ran out on August 12. Everybody in the business assumes it’s a done deal. So why are state regulators still writing those very same carbon limits into brand-new permits for brand-new gas plants — including two projects that will burn Marcellus and Utica gas? Read More “Dead Rule Walking: Gas Plant Permits Still Cite Biden Carbon Regs”
Ever wonder how many of those breathless AI data center announcements in Pennsylvania are actually real? Somebody in Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office finally counted. Speaking Wednesday (Aug. 12) to the Department of Environmental Protection’s Environmental Justice Advisory Board, Deputy Chief of Staff Sam Robinson walked through the funnel — from roughly 100 projects that have been talked about somewhere, down to just two that have every permit they need to start building phase one. That’s a number every producer, midstream planner, and gas-fired power developer in the Marcellus ought to write down. Read More “Shapiro Aide: 100 Data Centers Floated in PA, Only 2 Fully Permitted”
PJM Interconnection and Dominion Energy are reviewing a July 22 event in Northern Virginia in which roughly 3,800 megawatts (MW) of data center load — the largest such disconnection in PJM’s history — unexpectedly ripped itself off the grid after a routine, correctly cleared transmission fault, forcing PJM operators to scramble to keep the grid stable. The event has reignited a fight over whether data centers, which are growing explosively across the PJM footprint (including Marcellus/Utica territory), need to be held to new “ride through” standards so they stop treating minor grid hiccups like five-alarm fires. Read More “PJM: Data Centers Panicked, Nearly Crashed the Grid on Purpose”
Pennsylvania got off easy in the 2026-27 budget. Only one data center bill made it into law, and it was a toothless one. But the Pittsburgh Business Times reports Harrisburg is loading up for another round this fall — and this time the antis have a working blueprint to copy. It’s called New York, where Gov. Kathy Hochul banned new hyperscale data centers last month, and where the anti-fracking crowd has already spent a decade proving what happens when a state tells industry to go away. Read More “NY Banned Fracking, Now Data Centers. Is PA Dumb Enough to Copy?”
We missed one, and it’s a big one. On July 31, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) handed Kinder Morgan certificates of public convenience and necessity for BOTH of its blockbuster Southeast projects — the Mississippi Crossing Project (MSX) on Tennessee Gas Pipeline, and the South System Expansion 4 Project (SSE4) on Southern Natural Gas and Elba Express. Put together, that’s roughly 500 miles of new steel, about $5.2 billion of capital, and something on the order of 3.8 million dekatherms per day of new firm transportation capacity aimed squarely at the fastest-growing gas market in the country. FERC issued the order right on time — the FAST-41 schedule said “no later than July 31,” and the Commission delivered on the last possible day. Read More “FERC Green-Lights $5.2B Kinder Morgan Southeast Gas Push”
Former U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D/I-WV) closed out THE SUMMIT: Appalachia in Pittsburgh on July 28 with something you don’t often get from a retired politician — a confession. Speaking aboard the Gateway Clipper riverboat to a room full of producers, midstreamers, bankers and landmen, Manchin ditched his prepared remarks entirely (“I can’t give a speech. I can talk.”) and walked the crowd through how the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) really got written, why he regrets the name, why he thinks the hyperscalers spent two years chasing a “facade,” and what it will actually take to get permitting reform across the finish line. MDN was an advertising partner for the event and obtained the transcripts with the organizer’s permission. This is the first of four articles chronicling the event. Check back each day this week as we publish the rest of the series, including a post tomorrow about EQT correcting the record. Read More “Manchin Tells Pittsburgh Crowd He Wrote the IRA in Secret”
The last 18 months have been about as good as it gets for anyone who moves Marcellus and Utica molecules. President Trump’s Executive Order 14154 killed the Biden LNG export pause on day one. FERC rewrote its environmental review procedures in June 2025 to speed things up. And FERC finally drove a stake through Order No. 871, the Biden-era rule that let Big Green freeze construction on an approved pipeline just by filing an appeal (see FERC Upholds Eliminating Order 871 – Pipeline Challenge Rule). Here’s the uncomfortable part, and a new Congressional Research Service report (full copy below) lays it out plainly: not one of those wins is written into law. Every single one is an executive order or an agency policy choice. Which means a different president and a different FERC can undo all of it — using exactly the same authority. Read More “The 1938 Law Running Your Pipeline Projects Was Never Updated”
New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) announced Wednesday they’ve formally adopted regulations tightening the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) — the multi-state carbon tax on coal- and gas-fired power plants — through 2037. The agencies used the words “affordable” or “affordability” six times in their joint announcement. Here’s what they didn’t mention: the price of an RGGI permit jumped 40% in one quarter this year, from $24.99 per ton in March to $35.00 in June. And New York households now pay the third-highest electricity prices in America, behind only Hawaii and California (according to federal data). Six mentions of affordability, zero mentions of the auction price. Funny how that works. Read More “RGGI Tax Tightens in NY as Electric Bills Hit 3rd-Highest in US”
Every so often the antis tell you exactly what they’re up to, and you just have to sit back and enjoy it. On Saturday, Inside Climate News ran a story on the ongoing campaign by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), Clean Air Council, and their friends to jack up setbacks — the required distance between a well pad and the nearest building — from the current 500 feet to distances that would end new shale drilling in Pennsylvania. The new twist? They’ve hitched the campaign to the data center boom. More data centers means more gas, and more gas means (in their telling) more danger, so hurry up and pass the rules. It’s the same petition MDN has been tracking since 2024, dressed in a 2026 outfit. Read More “PA Antis Continue to Push Frack Ban Via Insane Setback Rules”
Back in May we told you about FERC’s proposal to modernize its natural gas “blanket certificate” program (see FERC Seeks to Fast-Track Gas Infrastructure with Blanket Permits). We called it a REALLY big deal. Turns out 15 Democrat attorneys general agree with us. They just don’t like it. The comment deadline in Docket No. RM25-12-001 was this past Monday (July 27). Right on cue, the AGs from 14 states plus the District of Columbia filed a joint comment letter telling FERC to drop the plan. Washington AG Nick Brown and Massachusetts AG Andrea Campbell co-led the effort. The rest of the roll call: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and D.C. Read More “15 Dem AGs Rush to Defend Pipeline Cost Limits Frozen Since 2006”
The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its dysfunctional and irresponsible counterpart, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), continues to support the shale energy industry by approving water withdrawals and consumptive use requests for responsible, safe shale drilling. The SRBC published a notice in the July 25th Pennsylvania Bulletin that the SRBC approved and/or renewed 21 general water use permits in June for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Clearfield, Lycoming, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, and Wyoming counties. Read More “SRBC Approved 21 Shale Gas Well Pad Water Use Permits in June”
In April, we brought you the news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had issued a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Kosciusko Junction Pipeline Project (see FERC Issues DEIS for Boardwalk Pipe to Carry M-U Gas to Southeast). In June, we followed up with word that Boardwalk is dangling temporary capacity on the line during the gap between when the pipe can flow and when its anchor customer actually starts taking gas (see Boardwalk Offers Temporary Capacity Along Pipeline to Southeast). Now comes the next big milestone. Last Friday, FERC staff issued the final EIS (FEIS) for the $1 billion project. Kosciusko Junction — run by Gulf South Pipeline Company, LLC, a subsidiary of Boardwalk Pipelines — will lay 110.9 miles of new 36-inch pipe across nine Mississippi counties and take over 98 miles of existing pipe from sister company Texas Gas Transmission. It’s built to move 1.16 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of gas, expandable to 1.58 Bcf/d, from the Marcellus/Utica, Haynesville, and Fayetteville plays to power-hungry Southeast markets. Read More “FERC Issues Final EIS for Boardwalk Pipe Carrying M-U Gas to SE”
Yes, there is a direct connection between the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) approval of the expansion of an underground salt-dome storage cavern project in Mississippi and the Marcellus/Utica. FERC has approved Leaf River Energy Center’s expansion of its New Home Salt Dome storage facility in Smith, Jasper, and Clarke counties, Mississippi, adding 19.18 Bcf of working gas capacity through new cavern development and facility upgrades. The project includes a new Cavern 5, expansion of Caverns 2 and 4, new compression, and pipeline additions, raising total working gas capacity from 36.0 to 55.18 Bcf. Read More “EQT Grabs 31% of FERC-Approved Underground Gas Storage Project in MS”