Trump Unveils AI Action Plan for America – Turns Talk into Action
You know the old phrase “All talk and no action”? Donald Trump and his administration are the opposite—or at least, a variation. Trump does talk…a lot. But he’s also a man of action. Last week, Trump visited Pittsburgh to announce $92 billion worth of investments in the Keystone State related to AI and data centers (see Pittsburgh Energy Event Truly Mind-Blowing, $92B+ Investments for PA). There was a LOT of talk at that event. There were a LOT of promises made. Yesterday, Trump began to deliver on all of that talk. Trump signed three new executive orders related to AI and issued a road map, an AI “action plan” with 90 (!) new policy proposals. We think it’s fair to say Trump is more action than he is talk. Read More “Trump Unveils AI Action Plan for America – Turns Talk into Action”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Pittsburgh’s real renaissance has never been tried — until now; NATIONAL: Forecasts fade for heat wave, putting natural gas futures in freefall; Coal-fired power plants are well-stocked this year; No more easy ride for wind and solar (OBBB guidance, risks ahead); Promises made, promises kept – Trump and gas prices; Converging Exxon and Chevron operations could spur next mega-merger; INTERNATIONAL: Oil holds steady amid trade deal hopes. 
In September 2022, EQT announced a deal to buy privately owned Tug Hill Operating’s West Virginia shale assets (90,000 acres and 800 MMcf/d of production in West Virginia) for roughly $5.2 billion (see 
One of the environmental left’s favorite tactics to defeat fossil fuel projects is to challenge every single infrastructure project (pipeline or otherwise) connected to fossil energy at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). As soon as a company files an application to build a new project, and FERC approves it, Big Green will challenge it, first at FERC, and eventually via the courts. FERC has an internal rule, called Order No. 871, that states a company cannot begin construction (even though FERC has approved the certificate) until all such legal challenges are resolved. Which can take YEARS. Which is the point—delay, and eventually some of the projects will give up and won’t build. Run out the clock. 
Shell, Norway’s Aker BP, and Canada’s Enbridge have all quit a Big Green-backed organization called the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a corporate climate action organization that is supposed to enable companies and financial institutions worldwide to “play their part in combating the climate crisis,” primarily by eliminating fossil fuels. Someone finally woke up at Shell and these other companies, and they quit, pulling their funding with them, which shut down SBTi’s work on a so-called net-zero standard for oil and gas in the process. 
We spotted a fascinating Hart Energy article that summarizes information from a recently released Mizuho Securities study. Mizuho researcher Nitin Kumar says that we are roughly halfway through the shale revolution. He posits that approximately 290,000 horizontal wells have been landed in shale rock in the Lower 48 and that under current economic conditions and with current technology, another 270,000 locations remain. It will take another 25 years to drill them, says Kumar. Which is interesting, although we take some issue with those findings. However, embedded in the statistics is something that caught our attention: the value of undeveloped acreage in various shale plays, including the Marcellus. 
As we previously reported, a truly mind-blowing event was held in Pittsburgh last week—the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, organized by PA Senator Dave McCormick (see 
In an interview with the Financial Times, EQT Corporation CEO Toby Rice stated that onerous permitting rules are hindering President Trump’s ambitions for energy dominance. Rice said Congress needs to cut project approval times to compete with Russian LNG exports and to win the AI race against China. His message was clear: Permitting reform, NOW. We’ve danced around permitting reform long enough (for years). It’s time to act. Republicans control Congress and the White House. If we can’t get permitting reform done now, it will never get done. 
On July 8, PA State Senator Art Haywood (Democrat from Philadelphia) introduced PA Senate Bill (SB) 910, which slaps a 6.5% severance tax on the gross production of all oil and natural gas produced in the state (see 
Venture Global (VG) is building a massive LNG export facility in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, approximately 20 miles south of New Orleans. It’s creatively called Plaquemines LNG. VG is bringing Plaquemines LNG online in two phases. Each phase consists of nine blocks, and each block contains two liquefaction units, called trains, for a total of 18 liquefaction trains each (36 trains for both phases). Phase 1 began exporting in December (see 
Freeport LNG, located near Galveston, Texas, currently exports roughly 15 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG from three trains—when it’s actually up and running. The Freeport facility has been plagued with outages, the most spectacular of which happened in June 2022, taking the facility offline for 10 months (see 
In December 2017 (7.5 years ago!), MDN told you about the bastardization of our justice system by Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg funneled money to the New York University (NYU) School of Law, which in turn pays to hire radical (Democrat) attorneys to work inside the offices of the attorneys general in Democrat-controlled states, including Pennsylvania (see