FERC Approves Major Powergen Deal: Constellation Buying Calpine
In January, Constellation Energy (a huge power-generating company) announced a deal to buy out and merge with Calpine (another huge power-generating company). Calpine owns 79 energy facilities across the country, generating some 27 gigawatts (GW) of electricity, with a large number located in the eastern U.S. Many of Calpine’s facilities use natural gas to produce electricity. The two companies combined would own almost 60 GW of nuclear, natural gas, geothermal, hydro, wind, solar, cogeneration, and battery storage. Although several regulatory agencies must sign off on the deal, the primary agency that needs to clear it is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Last week, FERC gave its stamp of approval. Read More “FERC Approves Major Powergen Deal: Constellation Buying Calpine”
In 2009, during the Obamadroid administration, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adopted a major regulatory rule called the “endangerment finding.” The finding concluded that six so-called greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) — constitute an endangerment to public health and welfare due to their contribution to global warming (which is a complete hoax). The finding gave the EPA the power to regulate those gases under the Clean Air Act. Yesterday, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin released a proposal to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding, which has been used to justify over $1 trillion in regulations, including President Autopen’s electric vehicle (EV) mandate. 
“The haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate…shake it off, shake it off.” – Taylor Swift
Permitting reform—shortening the amount of time and eliminating some of the onerous regulations that stand in the way of permitting new energy projects—has been a hot topic for at least the last three years, if not longer. Before leaving the Senate last year, West Virginia’s then-Senator, Joe Manchin, tried to get a bill passed to address permitting reform (see 
Here we go again. We can see the headlines now: Dimock II…Paging Josh Fox!…Shale Drilling Contaminates Water Wells, Again. Coterra Energy is responsible for methane migrating more than a mile away to 13 “water supplies” (wells?) located around a nearby lake, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The offending nine wells sit on the Housel R Well Pad 1 in Susquehanna County’s Lenox Township. Coincidentally, Lenox Township is not all that far from Dimock Township. 
Two pipeline kingpins are engaged in a scuffle with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to get their competing pipeline projects approved. One is Williams’ Transco Southeast Supply Enhancement Project, 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 recent FERC filing, Williams said that its project could easily handle Southgate MVP’s capacity by adding meter tubes and regulation at an existing station. EQT is not pleased with the attempt to undercut Southgate. The question is: Will FERC approve both, or just one? 
According to a new report from Enverus and its research division, only 30% of solar and 57% of onshore wind projects are likely to survive the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) recently signed into law by President Trump (see 
In January 2023, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a leftist Democrat, floated a plan to ban natural gas hookups in every single new home and business across the “Empire” State (see 
You know the old phrase “All talk and no action”? Donald Trump and his administration are the opposite—or at least, a variation. Trump does talk…a lot. But he’s also a man of action. Last week, Trump visited Pittsburgh to announce $92 billion worth of investments in the Keystone State related to AI and data centers (see 
In September 2022, EQT announced a deal to buy privately owned Tug Hill Operating’s West Virginia shale assets (90,000 acres and 800 MMcf/d of production in West Virginia) for roughly $5.2 billion (see 
One of the environmental left’s favorite tactics to defeat fossil fuel projects is to challenge every single infrastructure project (pipeline or otherwise) connected to fossil energy at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). As soon as a company files an application to build a new project, and FERC approves it, Big Green will challenge it, first at FERC, and eventually via the courts. FERC has an internal rule, called Order No. 871, that states a company cannot begin construction (even though FERC has approved the certificate) until all such legal challenges are resolved. Which can take YEARS. Which is the point—delay, and eventually some of the projects will give up and won’t build. Run out the clock. 
In an interview with the Financial Times, EQT Corporation CEO Toby Rice stated that onerous permitting rules are hindering President Trump’s ambitions for energy dominance. Rice said Congress needs to cut project approval times to compete with Russian LNG exports and to win the AI race against China. His message was clear: Permitting reform, NOW. We’ve danced around permitting reform long enough (for years). It’s time to act. Republicans control Congress and the White House. If we can’t get permitting reform done now, it will never get done. 
On July 8, PA State Senator Art Haywood (Democrat from Philadelphia) introduced PA Senate Bill (SB) 910, which slaps a 6.5% severance tax on the gross production of all oil and natural gas produced in the state (see 
Freeport LNG, located near Galveston, Texas, currently exports roughly 15 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG from three trains—when it’s actually up and running. The Freeport facility has been plagued with outages, the most spectacular of which happened in June 2022, taking the facility offline for 10 months (see 
In December 2017 (7.5 years ago!), MDN told you about the bastardization of our justice system by Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg funneled money to the New York University (NYU) School of Law, which in turn pays to hire radical (Democrat) attorneys to work inside the offices of the attorneys general in Democrat-controlled states, including Pennsylvania (see