Gov. Shapiro Calls NatGas “Environmentally Sustainable” at AI Conf
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was one of the speakers at yesterday’s AI Horizons Pittsburgh Summit in Pittsburgh. He was there speaking out of both sides of his mouth, as he so often does. Out of one side of his mouth, he claimed he wants PA to use “as much clean energy as possible,” meaning unreliable renewables. Out of the other side, he said converting old coal plants to use natural gas “is environmentally sustainable.” Yet he continues to seek to levy a carbon tax on natural gas-fired power plants via the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Read More “Gov. Shapiro Calls NatGas “Environmentally Sustainable” at AI Conf”
In early August, MDN told you that someone had lit a fire under the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the agency’s program to plug old wells. To date, the DEP has plugged a little over 300 old orphaned wells in the past three years under do-nothing Governor Josh Shapiro, but that Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) has plugged over 700 wells in the same period (see 
Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released its latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for April through June 2025 (full copy below). There were 105 new horizontal wells spud (drilled) in 2Q25, a huge increase of 42 wells (+67%) compared to 2Q24. Natural gas production volume was 1,954 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in 2Q25, up 162 Bcf (+9%) from 1,792 Bcf produced in 2Q24. The average Pennsylvania spot hub price was $2.38, an increase of $0.90 (+61%) from the prior year. All in all, it was a great second quarter for the PA Marcellus. 
Some interesting comments about the “deep” Utica Shale in Pennsylvania were made during last week’s Hart Energy DUG Appalachia event, held in Pittsburgh. Including this one, from Mike Hillebrand, CEO of Huntley & Huntley: “The deep Utica, watch out folks. The deep Utica will probably be the next up-and-coming deep shale play here in Pennsylvania.” Hillebrand also broke some big news by announcing Huntley & Huntley, which recently completed the sale of its Olympus Energy subsidiary to EQT for $1.8 billion, is working on its next startup, which will focus on “deep Utica and Tier II Marcellus.” 
It’s hard to believe we’re still talking about (and waiting for) the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to weigh in on whether or not it was legal for former Governor Tom Wolf to unilaterally sentence all Pennsylvanians to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme—with no vote by the legislature. The Supremes collected briefs on RGGI a whole year ago (see 
Environment-related permitting in Pennsylvania, overseen by the Department 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. The DEP announced last November that it would “soon” implement the SPEED (Streamlining Permits for Economic Expansion and Development) program to speed up the permit approval process (see 
This post is not directly about the Marcellus/Utica, but the issue we discuss is important and significantly affects the M-U. Andrew Dehoff, the Executive Director of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), is sounding the alarm about potential water usage for hyperscale data centers that will be located in the SRBC’s jurisdiction. Dehoff spoke at a Pennsylvania State Senate hearing on Monday. These giant data centers are BIG users of energy and, potentially, big users of water. The water is used not only to cool gas-fired power plants that generate energy for the data centers, but the data centers themselves use water to help cool the thousands upon thousands of computers located in them. 
Infinity Natural Resources (INR), headquartered in Morgantown, WV, focuses 100% on the Marcellus/Utica. The company went public earlier this year with a $265 million ($20/share) initial public offering, giving INR a $1.18 billion market capitalization (see 
Yes, we’re suckers for a good railroad story. Always have been, always will be. And here’s one! FTAL Infrastructure owns short line and terminal switching operator Transtar and is an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group. It’s kind of a Matryoshka doll (a Russian “nesting” doll of one thing inside another). Transtar, owned by FTAL, which is owned by Fortress, is buying the Wheeling & Lake Erie (W&LE) regional railroad for $1.05 billion. W&LE, headquartered in Brewster (Stark County), Ohio, owns 840 miles of track in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. 
We spotted an excellent post on the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) website about the recent PJM capacity auction, which we reported on a few weeks ago (see 
Last week, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count continued its downward trend, losing another rig to end at 539 active rigs nationwide. The count has been down 14 of the last 15 weeks, with the only slight increase happening a month ago. The Marcellus/Utica count remained the same (after gaining one rig three weeks ago) at a combined 36 active rigs. PA is running 18 active rigs. OH is running 11 rigs. And WV is operating 7 rigs. There were 24 rigs targeting the Marcellus and 12 rigs targeting the Utica last week. 
We have some disturbing news to share, and not a lot of details (yet). Executive Order 1996-1 in Pennsylvania requires all agencies under the jurisdiction of the Governor to submit for publication (twice a year) an agenda of regulations under development or consideration. The agendas are compiled to provide members of the regulated community and the general public with advanced notice of regulatory activity. The Josh Shapiro administration published such a semi-annual list over the weekend in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) includes an item in its list of proposed new regulations that “proposes to establish an annual fee for unconventional operations.” 
Three members of the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives, Arvind Venkat (Democrat from Allegheny County), Elizabeth Fiedler (Democrat from Philadelphia), and Craig Williams (Republican from Delaware/Chester counties, Philly suburbs) are planning to introduce legislation to “establish regulatory clarity” to encourage the development of Enhanced Geothermal Systems in Pennsylvania. There’s a lot to unpack in that opening statement. First, this is a bipartisan effort. Second, they want to encourage more geothermal energy development in the state. When you understand that Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) uses the same method of fracking used for natural gas and oil well drilling, it makes this bipartisan effort a real eye-opener. 
What is it about progress and expanding the use of energy for that progress that “progressive” Democrats, like those at the FracTracker Alliance, hate so much? The same group of Dem radicals who have sought to block shale energy in the Keystone State (and beyond) for years has turned its sights on opposing new artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in Pennsylvania and beyond by launching an online mapping tool that shows where planned facilities will be located. Not only will data centers (and the gas-fired power plants that run them) pollute the atmosphere to be unbreathable (say the nutters), AI data centers are racist. Who knew?