Cold Temps Freeze Range Res. Water Pipeline in Washington County, PA
On January 22, Mount Pleasant Township Police (in Washington County, PA) reported that extreme winter temperatures caused an aboveground water pipeline serving Range Resources’ shale gas operations to freeze and rupture near the Yonker Tank Pad. In response to the infrastructure failure, the Township Zoning Officer granted a temporary permit modification, allowing the company to bypass the damaged pipeline by hauling water via dozens of trucks over the next two weeks. Read More “Cold Temps Freeze Range Res. Water Pipeline in Washington County, PA”
There’s just no other way to say this: Pennsylvania is on the cusp of flushing $92 billion down the toilet because resistance is preventing new data centers from being built. We’ve been warning about this danger for months (see 
Last Friday, the Trump administration officials joined several governors from the 13 states that are part of the PJM Interconnect grid to outline a broad plan they say will ensure customers of the grid will not face skyrocketing electric prices due to new AI data centers getting built in the region (see 
There are two universal, unavoidable truths of life: (1) death, and (2) Democrats love to tax anything and everything. Pennsylvania Democrats are urging state lawmakers to tax data centers to shield residents from rising energy bills. During a hearing held by PA House Democrats on January 20, so-called experts argued that data centers must “pay their own way” for grid upgrades necessitated by their high demand, rather than passing those costs to households. With grid operator PJM Interconnection warning that surging demand could cause blackouts, Democrats proposed legislation to protect ratepayers from price spikes. Although some officials value the industry’s job creation, tax proponents insist that ordinary consumers should not subsidize the infrastructure needed to support the state’s expanding and energy-intensive digital industry. 
Infinity Natural Resources, Inc. announced yesterday that it has acquired Chase Oil Corporation’s working interest in Infinity’s South Bend field in Pennsylvania in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $36 million. The assets are located in Armstrong and Indiana counties. The transaction has an effective date of January 1, 2026, and represents the company’s first use of stock currency to execute its post-IPO growth strategy. Infinity is in the process of buying Antero Resources’ Ohio Utica assets (see 
On Friday, the White House joined with the 13 governors whose states in whole or in part are served by the PJM Interconnection electric grid, the largest grid in the country, to propose a solution that “protects consumers” from soaring electric rates due to the addition of new AI data centers (see 
The Marcellus/Utica rig count gained 1 rig six weeks ago in the Ohio Utica, bringing the total to 39 rigs. For the past six reports in a row, the M-U has maintained that count—the most rigs it has operated in more than a year. Pennsylvania has held at 18 active rigs for nine consecutive weeks. Ohio has operated 14 rigs for six straight weeks (its highest in over a year). And West Virginia maintained 7 rigs, which it has operated since May 30, 2025. There were 24 rigs targeting the Marcellus and 15 targeting the Utica. The national count lost 1 rig last week, bringing the total down to 543 active rigs. 
A return to normalcy last week for permits issued to drill new shale wells in the Marcellus/Utica. Two weeks ago, we reported that just one new permit was issued (see 
On August 17, Eureka Resources’ Williamsport Second Street facility (one of the three wastewater treatment plants previously operated by Eureka) leaked some of its stored untreated frack wastewater, which ended up in the nearby Susquehanna River via a storm drain (see 
In 2015, a group of landowners in northeastern Pennsylvania who had leased their land for fracking filed a lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy, Anadarko, Statoil (now Equinor), Mitsui E&P, and Access Midstream (later bought by Williams), alleging the companies had improperly deducted post-production costs (e.g., gas gathering and transportation expenses) from royalties owed to the landowners in breach of their respective leases. The lawsuit also alleged collusion and conspiracy to defraud the landowners (antitrust violations). The lawsuit was on hold for many years while other lawsuits played out. In 2024, a federal court in Scranton unpaused the lawsuit, and the judge ruled, tossing out the landowners’ royalty claims (see 
We spotted a short article alleging EQT has “abandoned” a shale well in Washington County, PA, and thought it would be a good opportunity to (once again) discuss the misnomer of “abandoned” oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania. Let’s begin with the news as reported… 
AI data centers are all the rage. The news (local and national) is full of such stories, playing up opposition to data centers. We’ve written plenty about AI data centers on MDN, given the close connection to gas-fired power that’s needed to operate them. We’ve also told you about a developing trend of “behind the meter” gas-fired power plants, built at the same location as a data center. That’s when the data center is built next to a power plant or vice versa. The electricity goes directly to the plant and never flows through the local power grid. Another part of this story is that sometimes the gas-fired power plant that’s on-site powering the data center receives its gas from a well drilled at the same site! The gas flows directly into the gas plant (bypassing gathering pipelines), and the plant produces electricity for the data center. And therein lies a potential, very thorny issue. 
Last summer, Texas Eastern Transmission Pipeline Company (aka TETCO, owned by Enbridge) filed to build the Appalachia to Market III Project, abbreviated A2M III (see