IRS Extends 45Q Carbon Capture Tax Credit, ARCH2 Lifeline
Treasury and the IRS have quietly patched a hole in the 45Q carbon capture tax credit that EPA was about to punch open, and this time the fix isn’t set to expire at the end of the year. On August 14, Treasury and the IRS issued Notice 2026-50, expanding and extending a safe harbor for companies claiming the Section 45Q credit for carbon dioxide sequestration. It’s dry tax plumbing, but it matters to anyone in Appalachia counting on carbon capture projects to be profitable enough to actually get built — and that includes the blue hydrogen crowd using Marcellus and Utica gas as feedstock. Read More “IRS Extends 45Q Carbon Capture Tax Credit, ARCH2 Lifeline”
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. 
I&S Inc. of New York, an Allegany-based well servicing company owned by Dan Sessler, is planning a $9 million expansion that will create at least 80 new jobs. The company, which has serviced oil, gas, and solution mining wells since 1988, is purchasing the old Allegany Drive-In property along Route 417 — just up the road from its current headquarters. Plans call for a new 5,000-square-foot office, a 14,400-square-foot commercial shop, and a 9,600-square-foot cold storage warehouse to store pipe for its oil, gas, and solution mining operations. The company secured a 10-year PILOT agreement from the Cattaraugus County IDA. Construction costs are estimated at $7.3 million. 
If we had a nickel for every time we’ve read or heard the Democrats claim the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a tax on carbon dioxide emissions for coal- and gas-fired power plants, doesn’t raise electricity rates, we’d be millionaires! Not that it was ever in question that RGGI does raise rates; we now have a smoking gun. Connecticut’s carbon allowance auction prices under RGGI have risen from $3.07 per allowance in 2008 to $35 per allowance in June 2026, a jump of over 900%. Connecticut residents pay the third-highest (or second-highest, depending on the source) electricity rates in the entire country behind only Hawaii and California. Massachusetts, another RGGI member, is right behind Connecticut at fourth-highest. 
Last week, MDN brought you the great news that the Pennsylvania impact “fee” (tax on drilling) generated $243.8 million in fees collected from producers for the 2025 reporting year, a whopping 48% increase over 2024 (see 
Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) announced the distribution of $243,877,400 in natural gas impact fees collected from producers for the 2025 reporting year, a whopping 48% increase over 2024. The reason for the big increase was the higher price that natural gas fetched last year and a significant uptick in the number of new wells drilled. This year’s distribution brings the cumulative total of impact fees collected and distributed since 2012 to more than $3.12 billion! 
Pennsylvania imposes an annual “impact fee” (the state’s version of a severance tax) on unconventional (i.e., shale) natural gas wells that were drilled or operating in the previous calendar year. The state Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) provides updates to predict how much will be collected from the fee. The IFO released its mid-year report yesterday, which typically focuses on a forecast for the current fiscal year (FY 2026). But this update is different. It spends most of its verbiage on firming up and confirming the final numbers for 2025, which will be distributed in July of 2026. Near the end, the IFOers do break out the crystal ball and venture a guess on revenues for 2026 that will be paid out next July. 
Stephanie Catarino Wissman, executive director of the American Petroleum Institute Pennsylvania, argues in a recent op-ed that Pennsylvania’s Act 13 natural gas impact fee has successfully paired shale development with local investment since 2012. Unlike a severance tax, the fee directs revenue to counties, municipalities, and environmental programs, generating nearly $3 billion overall and more than $1 billion from 2020 to 2024. Funds have supported roads, bridges, stormwater systems, emergency services, parks, watershed restoration, abandoned mine reclamation, orphan well plugging, and tax relief. 
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced on May 27, 2026, that he has directed the chair of the Ohio Tax Credit Authority to pause consideration of any new data center tax exemption requests. The pause comes while the Ohio General Assembly’s Joint Data Center Committee “studies” the growth of data centers in the state. DeWine noted that data centers previously granted sales and use tax benefits reported a total capital investment of $27.2 billion in 2025. The Tax Credit Authority will stop accepting new exemption proposals after a meeting next Monday, where it will consider one final proposal. DeWine said the move is a suspension of new exemptions, NOT a data center ban. 
The Virginia Supreme Court issued a ruling last Thursday with far-reaching consequences not only for the plaintiffs who won the case (EQT and Diversified Energy) but also for other conventional and, if it ever develops, shale drillers in the state. EQT and Diversified sued Wise County, VA, alleging that Wise County’s method of valuing their assets in the county overvalued them, resulting in a much higher tax bill. The Supremes agreed and sent the case back to a lower court to rework the valuations. 
In the Middle Ages, the Catholic church would happily sell you forgiveness of sins (if you paid), meaning you could keep right on sinning, as long as you could pay. It was called an indulgence. The modern environmental movement is doing the same thing. Big Green is all about Big Money. The scam they run is to convince people that planting a tree, not cutting down a tree, or maybe capturing a little bit of methane seeping out of a landfill, can make up for continuing to use (burn) natural gas. Georgia Natural Gas (GNG) is offering this scam to its customers. Why would anyone willingly pay more for the same thing? Just to feel better about themselves? Apparently so, because 100,000 GNG customers are doing it. 
Last November, 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 