PA DEP Prostitutes Itself for Gov. Shapiro by Attacking PJM Grid
This is shameful. A Pennsylvania government agency, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), has aligned itself with an extreme leftwing organization to attack the PJM Interconnection electric grid in a bid to paper over the failed policies of PA Governor Josh Shapiro. In particular, so-called “Acting” Secretary of the DEP, Jessica Shirley, has proven she is no longer fit to lead the agency. The PA Senate should refuse to confirm her and bounce her out immediately. Shirley aligned herself with the radical left-wing organization called Evergreen Action to promote a sham/fake “report” by a well-known Democrat organization called Synapse Energy Economics (that works exclusively for left-wing groups) attacking PJM with false claims that it has a “broken” electric generation project approval process. Read More “PA DEP Prostitutes Itself for Gov. Shapiro by Attacking PJM Grid”
The name Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) pretty much says it all. PGW is a natural gas utility serving the Philly region. It’s not an electric company; it’s a natural gas company. So, it will probably come as no surprise that PGW belongs to a trade organization called the American Public Gas Association (APGA). Indeed, PGW is the largest member of the APGA. And it would probably not surprise you to learn that the APGA supports President Trump’s efforts to pause and defund much of the money not already distributed from the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was Biden’s Green New Deal aimed at using billions of OUR taxpayer dollars to try to destroy fossil energy, including natural gas. The swampy left, including its apologists in the media (i.e., PBS), are trying to shame PGW into dropping its membership in the APGA, implying PGW is (via APGA) opposed to having its business destroyed using $700 million from the IRA earmarked for Philly. Imagine that! 
Capital Power Corporation, based in Edmonton (Alberta), Canada, a power producer with approximately 10 gigawatts (GW) of power generation at 30 facilities across North America, announced it is buying two gas-fired power plants from LS Power. One facility is the 1,124 megawatt (MW) Hummel Station, a combined-cycle natural gas facility in Shamokin Dam, PA, fed by Marcellus molecules. The other is the 1,023 MW Rolling Hills plant, a combustion turbine natural gas facility in Wilkesville, OH, fed by Utica molecules. We welcome Capital Power to the M-U! 
The Baker Hughes U.S. national rig count cratered last week, losing seven rigs. The U.S. count is now 583 active rigs, the biggest weekly decline since June 2024. As for the Marcellus/Utica, the rig count was a combined 35 last week, losing one rig it had gained the week before. The Marcellus lost one of the two rigs it had gained two weeks ago and now sports 24 rigs across the three M-U states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. Rigs focused on the Utica remained unchanged at a combined 11. However, there were shifts among two of the three M-U states. PA picked up one rig and now operates 16 rigs. The last time PA operated 16 rigs was last December. The biggest news is that WV, which had operated 10 or more rigs for most of the past year (34 weeks in a row), broke its streak and lost two rigs. WV now operates nine rigs. 
EQT Corporation wants to build three miles of gathering pipeline to a well pad in Cascade Township, Lycoming County, PA. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) published a notice in Saturday’s Pennsylvania Bulletin inviting comments on a Chapter 105 Encroachment permit for a three-mile-long, 8-inch natural gas gathering pipeline being constructed on a 50-foot-wide right-of-way. 
Democrat politicians, like Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, are predictable. Shapiro, Murphy, and other Dem governors in the PJM Interconnection electric grid region, which includes all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C., have ratcheted up their rhetoric blaming PJM for higher electricity prices, even though it is their own policies that are driving electric prices higher! Always blame someone else for your shortcomings; that’s their motto. 
We spotted a couple of stories, one by PBS and another by the financial publication Barron’s, covering the “groundswell” of opposition to resurrecting the 124-mile Pennsylvania-to-New York Constitution Pipeline project. According to a letter signed by “233 environmental and community groups,” the proposed pipeline poses “a serious threat to state sovereignty.” Here’s the first thing to note: Enviro-lefties file paperwork to form a “group” of one or two people. It looks great on letterhead to list hundreds of organizations, implying thousands of people. However, it would be more accurate to say “233 individuals” instead of 233 groups of people. At any rate, we will repeat an observation we have made almost since beginning to write the MDN site in 2009: Many in the anti-fracking and anti-pipeline movement are old (sometimes young) hippies looking to relive the glory days of Vietnam protests. 
In early April, MDN brought you the exciting news that THE largest gas-fired power plant in the country, along with a MASSIVE data center complex, will be built at a former coal-fired power plant site in Indiana County, PA (see 
For the week of Mar 31 – Apr 6, the number of permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica to drill new shale wells increased by two from the previous week. Last week, 21 new permits were issued, with 12 going to the Keystone State (PA). Expand Energy, via its merged companies Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy, scored five permits, with three permits for Southwestern in Susquehanna County and two for Chesapeake in Bradford County. Greylock Energy received three permits for drilling in Potter County. Range Resources also received three permits to drill wells in Lycoming and Washington counties. 
A month ago, MDN told you about a meeting held in northeastern Pennsylvania between newly-appointed EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Congressman Rob Bresnahan, several state elected officials, as well as labor and others (see 
Permitting in Pennsylvania, overseen by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), has been a hot mess for years. A Chapter 102 Erosion and Sedimentation permit sometimes takes two, three, or even six months for approval — instead of the policy-mandated 14 days. According to a DEP press release from yesterday, that’s all behind us. Last November, DEP Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley and Gov. Josh Shapiro said the agency had *eliminated* the backlog for oil and gas permits (see 
Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB) was scheduled to consider accepting 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 it would ban ALL new Marcellus/Utica drilling in the Keystone State. Instead of voting to accept the petition, EQB commissioners voted 16 to 3 to table the petition for a future meeting. No doubt this matter will cycle around again, but we can all breathe a sigh of relief for now. 