PA EQB to Consider Ban on New Shale Drilling Via Setbacks Dec. 9
Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB) will hold a meeting on Tuesday, December 9, to consider whether or not to accept a petition by radical green groups, including the Clean Air Council and Environmental Integrity Project, to “study” the issue of increasing setbacks for shale drilling so far that it would ban ALL new Marcellus/Utica drilling in the Keystone State. The EQB tabled a decision on accepting the petition back in April (see PA EQB Votes to Delay Consideration of Marcellus-Banning Setbacks). The hectoring green left continues to agitate and demand that the board consider its shale-banning proposal, so the board will oblige. Read More “PA EQB to Consider Ban on New Shale Drilling Via Setbacks Dec. 9”
Earlier this month, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) approved a Tentative Order by a 3-2 vote, proposing a statewide model tariff (tax) to manage the growing impact of large-load customers, such as AI data centers, on the electric grid (see 
NextDecade’s Rio Grande LNG is being developed on a 984-acre site along the Brownsville Ship Channel (Brownsville, Texas), approximately 3 miles east of Port Isabel. The facility currently has five trains under construction, with space at the site to double capacity. One month ago, Rio Grande LNG announced a favorable final investment decision (FID) to move forward with the construction of Train 5 (see 
One of the significant stories of 2024 in the Ohio Utica was about Austin Master Services (AMS), a radiological waste management solutions company in Martins Ferry, Ohio, that processes and transports fracking waste for disposal. AMS ran into trouble when it ran out of money. The Martins Ferry facility in Belmont County, where waste is temporarily stored, had vastly exceeded its permitted limit of 600 tons (storing over 10,000 tons), resulting in a permit violation. The Ohio Attorney General’s office filed a lawsuit against the company in March 2024 to compel compliance and require cleanup of the facility. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) stepped in to handle the cleanup. As of May 2025, cleaning and testing were completed (see 
Two pipeline kingpins are engaged in a deathmatch with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to get their competing pipeline projects approved. One is Williams’ Transco Southeast Supply Enhancement Project (SESE), the other is EQT’s MVP Southgate project. Both projects would be built in the same general area, starting at the same point near Chatham, Virginia, and ending near Eden, North Carolina. Both claim they have customers ready to take their gas. In a July FERC filing, Williams said that its project could easily handle Southgate MVP’s capacity by adding meter tubes and regulation at an existing station (see 
Lordstown is a small village in southern Trumbull County, Ohio (population 3,332). The village has one operational gas-fired power plant, the Lordstown Energy Center, generating 940 megawatts (MW) of electricity. A second gas-fired power plant, the Trumbull Energy Center, is under construction and due to come online in 2026. It will generate 950 MW of electricity. Developers are proposing to build a $3.6 billion, 1.65 million square-foot data center campus in Lordstown on the site of the former GM complex (south of OpenAI’s Stargate AI data center campus). The developers filed a petition with the Ohio Supreme Court against Lordstown, claiming the village is blocking consideration of their proposal in violation of zoning procedures. 
I see ghosts! Or is that dead people? The U.S. electricity grid faces pressure from surging demand, primarily from data centers, sparking debates over reliability and cost allocation. EPSA (Electric Power Supply Association) CEO Todd Snitchler warns that “ghost projects”—projects announced and planned/funded but never built—are artificially inflating load forecasts. He argues that regulated utilities use these overstated numbers to justify expensive rate-based generation, benefiting shareholders while forcing customers to bear the costs of potential overbuilding. Competitive energy markets are demanding accurate, data-driven planning to maintain affordability and reliability without wasting capital on unnecessary infrastructure. Please, no more ghosts. 
Reorg! The Department of Energy (DOE) unveiled a major reorganization under the Trump administration to prioritize fossil fuels, minerals, and nuclear power while diminishing renewable energy programs. Secretary Chris Wright’s plan rebrands the loan program as “Energy Dominance Financing” and consolidates efficiency and clean energy divisions into a new “Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation.” This restructuring, aimed at restoring “common sense” to energy policy, accompanies billions in project cancellations and staff reductions. 
In May, pipeline giant Williams filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to expedite the reissuance of a certificate for the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project, a $1 billion+ project designed to increase Transco pipeline capacity and flows of Marcellus gas heading into New York City and other northeastern markets (see 
Finally! For years, going back to the administration of Lord Obama, the radical left has tried to redefine the “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). See our 
In May, NRG Energy announced a deal to acquire LS Power’s portfolio of natural-gas power plants in a deal valued at roughly $12 billion, including debt, that will expand NRG’s footprint in Texas and along the East Coast (see 
Last week, we brought you the fantastic news that the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme in Pennsylvania is officially dead with the adoption of the 4-month late state budget (see 
We continue to win so much, it feels strange. But hey, we can get used to it! Back in April 2021, we reported that the leftist Democrats who run the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) had, for the third time, rejected giving the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) Southgate project a necessary Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 401 water quality certification permit (see