DOE Pushes FERC to Adopt Rule to Quickly Connect AI Data Centers
The Trump administration wants to win the race for artificial intelligence (AI) with China. The administration is pulling out all the stops to ensure the U.S. is #1 in AI. That means building new data centers. Last Thursday, Secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE) Chris Wright took the unusual step of sending a directive to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), instructing the agency to initiate rulemaking procedures to rapidly accelerate the interconnection of large loads, including data centers. Wright even included his own proposed rule for FERC to adopt (spoon-fed). Read More “DOE Pushes FERC to Adopt Rule to Quickly Connect AI Data Centers”
Two weeks ago, MDN brought you the rumor that President Trump was about to appoint newly confirmed Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Commissioner Laura Swett as the next Chairperson of the agency (see 
Something remarkable has happened in the Pennsylvania State Senate, where Republicans hold a slim majority with 27 members and Democrats have 23 members. In an unusual act of bipartisanship, six of the Democrat Senators (26% of all PA Democrat Senators, more than one-quarter) voted with all 27 Republicans to pass a bill that would erase Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) regulations from Pennsylvania’s books. RGGI is a carbon tax on coal- and gas-fired power plants in the state. 
In August, Marietta, OH, officials, including the city’s Republican mayor, law director, water superintendent, and a majority of city council members, asked the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Oil and Gas to deny a permit application from DeepRock Disposal Solutions for the Stephan #1 injection well, which would be the company’s fifth injection well in the area (see 
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the U.S. TVA’s service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. TVA is the country’s sixth-largest power supplier and the largest public utility company. In May 2023, TVA announced that it would convert the Kingston Fossil Plant (coal-fired) in East Tennessee to become a natural gas-fired plant capable of generating 1,500 megawatts of electricity (see 
Venture Global is building a new LNG export facility in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, approximately 20 miles south of New Orleans. When fully complete, Plaquemines LNG’s nominal capacity will be 2.6 Bcf/d (3.2 Bcf/d peak). The first portion of the new plant came online in December when it officially shipped its first cargo to Germany. Venture Global said that it would (as it did with the Calcasieu Pass facility it previously built) pretend that Plaquemines LNG is not “commercially ready” while shipping all sorts of LNG cargoes around the world. The practice allows the company to cream the market and make more money for the first couple of years (see 
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has proposed new permitting processes in West Virginia and Ohio that would allow certain fossil fuel projects to be built through wetlands and streams without a public comment opportunity. The proposals would allow mines, natural gas pipelines, hydropower dams, and other energy infrastructure projects in WV and OH to proceed using two simplified permits: “letters of permission” and “regional general permits.” For these projects, water pollution impacts must be limited to 2 acres or less for a letter of permission and 1 acre or less for a regional general permit. This action has the potential to speed up new natural gas pipeline projects in the Marcellus/Utica region. 
How many articles have we written about the connection between Pennsylvania’s ill-advised quest to become a member of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and the high cost of electricity? Dozens of articles, for sure. Former PA Governor Tom Wolf attempted to force the state to join the RGGI carbon tax scheme unilaterally. Republicans in the Senate sued to block it, as the legislature is the proper branch of government with the power to tax, not the executive. Wolf’s successor, Josh Shapiro, appealed a Commonwealth Court decision in favor of the Republicans to the PA Supreme Court, where the case now sits, waiting for a decision (after the election). 
On September 29, some 105 Democrat state legislators from 10 states across the PJM Interconnection region released a joint letter urging PJM to take immediate action to accelerate the deployment of unreliable renewable energy projects—to favor unreliable renewables over fossil fuels. The letter, organized by the partisan left-wing National Caucus of Environmental Legislators (NCEL), highlights urgent concerns about grid reliability, rising energy costs, and recent federal actions against renewable energy. A group of Pennsylvania Republican legislators responded with their own letter asking PJM to disregard the lunatic letter from NCEL. 
Two separate reports released last week from the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), the entity in charge of the state’s electric grid, warn of coming blackouts in New York City without “several thousand megawatts of new dispatchable generation within the next ten years” added to the grid. Starting next summer, NYISO anticipates its reliability margins in NYC will be “dangerously thin,” making the grid more vulnerable to failures. This is not the first time NYISO has warned the state it’s on a razor’s edge and heading for blackouts. Yet NY’s Democrat politicians ignore the warnings and insist on pushing unreliable renewables. 
Earlier this week, a seven-member, all-Democrat group of Pennsylvania House of Representatives members announced a six-bill legislative package aimed at regulating the “responsible development” of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in the state. “Responsible development” is code for “no development” of new AI data centers. The proposed onerous legislation focuses on environmental and community impacts related to the centers’ water and energy use, emergency preparedness, community standards, and transparency. Don’t be fooled. This is an attempt to throttle new data centers to prevent more natural gas from being used to power them.