Riverkeeper Claims Dead Philly LNG Project has Come Back to Life
In early 2024, we reported that Penn America Energy CEO Franc James, the potential builder of the proposed Penn America LNG export facility in the Philadelphia area, said that he “pumped the brakes” on the project but that it wasn’t dead yet (see Penn LNG CEO Says Philly Export Project on Hold, “Not Dead Yet”). This past February, MDN reported that the developer, Penn America Energy Holdings LLC, had reportedly been dissolved (see Potential Philadelphia LNG Export Facility Appears to be Dead). While some individual entities may still exist, the core organization responsible for advancing the project is no longer active in its original form. However, THE Delaware Riverkeeper held a webinar on Wednesday evening and made some wild claims: That Penn LNG is alive and kicking and has a “secret plan” to build in a new location along the Delaware River. Read More “Riverkeeper Claims Dead Philly LNG Project has Come Back to Life”
Pennsylvania radical green groups, including PennFuture, the Center for Coalfield Justice, and the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter, continued a full-court press against AI data centers in the Keystone State yesterday. Just yesterday, we reported that Food & Water Watch had assembled dozens (perhaps one hundred at most) protesters in Harrisburg on Tuesday to support a bill (Senate Bill 1359) that would (if signed by Governor Shapiro) ban new data center development in PA for three years (see 
Last week, MDN told you about a group of landowners in Salem Township (Luzerne County), PA, near Wilkes-Barre, who had banded together to offer their land for sale to a data center project and potentially become very wealthy (see 
The thing about the political left is that they NEVER give up. EVER. And so, neither must we. The left wants to destroy new shale drilling in Pennsylvania. They couldn’t do it via regulation. They couldn’t convince a majority of residents that shale drilling is bad. So they search out other ways to make it happen. Among those ways are efforts to increase setbacks (distance from wells to homes and other structures) from the current 500 feet to over 3,200 feet, which would ban drilling in 95%+ of the state (see 
Just yesterday, MDN brought you the great news of the economic and jobs boom happening in Indiana County (Homer City), for a gas-fired AI data center project happening at what was Pennsylvania’s largest coal-fired power plant complex (see 
Earlier this month, Homer City Generation announced the early completion of demolition and excavation work at its Indiana County, Pennsylvania, site, marking a major milestone in transforming the former coal-fired power plant into a gas-fired power plant and AI data center complex (see 
We purposely waited to release the permit numbers, intending to do so last Thursday, ahead of taking off on Friday. But we waited because we thought perhaps more permits would be added to the various state databases on Thursday or Friday (or maybe even Saturday). But no. The only permits we can find for the week of June 9 – 14 are two Pennsylvania permits, both in Butler County. Ohio’s ODNR has issued no new permits for two weeks in a row (are they lazy, or were there really no new permits issued?). West Virginia issued no new permits after issuing just one the prior week. 
Last week, the combined Marcellus/Utica Baker Hughes rig count remained at 36 active rigs for the sixth week in a row. The M-U’s chief competitor, the Haynesville, maintained its count of 55 active rigs, operating 19 more than the M-U. The national count regained 1 rig last week (after losing it the week before), bringing the total back up to 563 rigs, the highest number the count has reached in a year. Baker Hughes said oil rigs held steady at 433 last week, while gas rigs rose by one to 122, their highest since early June, and other miscellaneous rigs held steady at eight. 
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 
Devon Energy completed its merger with Coterra Energy just over one month ago, on May 7, paying Coterra $21.4 billion in Devon stock (see 
Pennsylvania’s Senate Republicans are speaking truth to power, calling out PA Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro’s policies as one of the primary reasons why PA residents pay more for electricity. And Joshie doesn’t like being called out. State Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward argues the state is losing out under a roughly $325-per-megawatt-day price cap on PJM Interconnection’s capacity auctions, approved by the federal government after a lawsuit by Gov. Josh Shapiro (see 
In February, MDN told you about the Kriley v. XTO Energy lawsuit (see 
Pennsylvania has become a hotspot for data center proposals, prompting community backlash, writes Penn State law professor Michael Helbing, whose hometown is Archbald, PA, a suburb of Scranton. You may recall that last week we wrote about another Scranton suburb (virtually next door to Archbald, see the map) by the name of Olyphant, and how the leaders of that borough had developed zoning regulations to protect residents yet allow data center projects to proceed (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! 
Three months ago (March 2026), MDN reported on a northeastern Pennsylvania landowner from Luzerne County who sold his farm to an AI data center project and overnight became a multimillionaire (see