Former Chair of PA Democrat Party Makes the Case for More Pipelines
Here’s something you don’t hear about often: A Democrat who supports fossil energy and pipelines. It’s especially noteworthy when the Democrat is the former head of the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania. In an eloquent guest editorial published in the Harrisburg Patriot-News, T.J. Rooney, former Chairman of the PA Democratic Party and a former member of the PA House, discusses (bemoans the fact) that it’s next to impossible to build a new natural gas pipeline in the Keystone State. He makes a full-throated plea for permitting reform to change that. Read More “Former Chair of PA Democrat Party Makes the Case for More Pipelines”
Much as the Marcellus Shale boom revolutionized Pennsylvania’s economy, a wave of data center development is poised to drive Pennsylvania’s digital future. At a Williamsport-Lycoming Chamber of Commerce panel, experts from PPL Electric Utilities, Amazon Web Services, and the government discussed the immense power demands of this transition. With AWS investing $20 billion in two Pennsylvania-based data centers, the state is racing to catch up to neighboring states in the lucrative data center market. Unfortunately, it has already fallen behind. 
A study by the Pittsburgh Technology Council and Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies projects that Pennsylvania’s data center expansion will generate $12 billion in annual economic output and nearly 20,000 jobs by 2036. With a forecasted 4,000% increase in data center construction, the commonwealth is leveraging its status as a leading energy exporter and its $29 billion manufacturing sector to support global cloud infrastructure. By integrating robust natural gas and nuclear resources with data development, Pennsylvania is positioning itself as a leader in the AI economy. That is, IF antis don’t blow the opportunity by blocking new data centers (see 
Anti-progress and anti-fossil energy Democrats in Pennsylvania are doing their darndest to try to block new AI data centers from getting built in the state. Just last week, the Democrat-controlled House passed a bill to block new data centers (see 
Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw is introducing legislation to modernize Pennsylvania’s 1961 Oil and Gas Conservation Law, which currently relies on standards predating modern horizontal drilling. By aligning the statute with contemporary practices, the bill aims to accelerate permit reviews for Utica wells and treat them consistently with Marcellus shale operations. Yaw argues that updating these outdated rules will reduce resource waste, minimize surface impacts, and prevent natural gas from being left underground. 
The Marcellus Shale Coalition writes that Pennsylvania sits at the center of U.S. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) development, as highlighted by the EU–U.S. LNG Cooperation 2.0 Summit held in February in Pittsburgh. Utilizing the Appalachian Basin’s vast resources, the state has driven the shale revolution, making the U.S. a leading global energy exporter. This production has been vital for European energy security, providing a critical alternative to Russian gas. 
No one should be surprised that far-left Democrat Josh Shapiro, currently the Governor of Pennsylvania (but with a major passion to become President), joined his fellow radicals from other blue states in launching a lawsuit against the Trump administration for moving to eliminate the extremist “endangerment finding” concocted by Lord Obama and the Obamadroids of the EPA. Trump’s move to overturn the finding will save Americans roughly $3,800 each. Yet Shapiro and his fellow cabal members want to keep Americans poor and subservient (to them). 
Here’s a question: Do you want the government to be able to control your thermostat (turning it down in the winter, or up in the summer), controlling your water heater (making it cooler), or controlling your “smart” refrigerator (raising the ambient temp inside), or controlling other so-called smart appliances, bypassing *your* preferred settings? Would you like the government to be able to grab stored electricity from solar panels on your roof or from the battery in your charged-up EV during times of electric grid “stress”? That’s what Democrat members of the Pennsylvania state legislature want to do. It’s called a “virtual power plant,” and it’s being sold as a quick solution to power shortages without having to build new gas-fired power plants (or new windmills, solar farms, etc.). Creating a virtual power plant just takes a little software and a lot of apathy from citizens to make it work. 
Can we PLEASE now put to bed the pervasive lie spread by anti-shale people that drill cuttings (the leftover rock and dirt that comes out of the ground when drilling a shale well) are somehow glow-in-the-dark radioactive and if disposed of in a landfill will cause people who live near such a landfill to die from radiation poisoning? A two-year study by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) concluded that radium levels in landfill wastewater (leachate) do NOT pose a risk to human health. 
It’s time to make a LOT of noise with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) if you care about Marcellus drilling continuing in the Keystone State. In December, the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB) accepted 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 that it would ban ALL new Marcellus/Utica drilling in the Keystone State, which is no exaggeration (see 
Even a leftist liberal putz like Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro can have a good idea every now and again. (Credit where credit is due.) Shapiro is introducing what he calls GRID (Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development) standards to incentivize Pennsylvania data center developers to voluntarily adopt higher environmental and transparency benchmarks. In exchange for committing to water conservation, local hiring, and independent power generation, projects can access “Fast Track” permitting to accelerate construction. 
A Syracuse University study (full copy below) reveals that conventional oil and gas extraction in Pennsylvania poses a greater long-term threat to stream biodiversity than modern shale fracking. By analyzing over 6,800 aquatic samples, researchers found that legacy infrastructure (old conventional oil and gas wells) is more strongly linked to declining ecosystem health and the loss of sensitive species. While public concern often centers on newer fracking methods, these findings highlight the persistent impact of older, conventional wells. The study, titled “
We won’t bore you with links to numerous stories we’ve written pointing out how the environmental left has pivoted from anti-fracking to anti-data center. We believe we were one of the first to make that observation (about a year ago). At any rate, one of the worst of the worst “environmental” organizations, Food & Water Watch (FWW), has all but abandoned its anti-fracking work to focus on opposing and blocking AI data centers. It’s absolutely, positively, anti-progress (not to mention anti-American). FWW’s latest campaign is aimed at convincing Congress and state legislatures (like Pennsylvania) to pass a three-year moratorium on building new data centers. 
The Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) is the comprehensive trade association representing nearly 400 members across Pennsylvania’s oil and natural gas industry. Tracing its roots to 1918, it serves as a unified voice for shale and conventional producers, service companies, and distributors. PIOGA will host its 
During the Pennsylvania House Appropriations Committee hearing held on March 2, House Republicans advocated for expanded shale gas drilling on state forest lands and beneath state parks to bolster revenue. Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn, a radical leftist, noted that current drilling provides an average of $95 million annually but has already caused the “loss” of 30,000 acres of core forest land. Republican members suggested that revising the long-term leasing moratorium could generate an additional $250 million, which fell on deaf Democrat ears.