MDN’s Energy Stories of Interest: Fri, Mar 28, 2025 [FREE ACCESS]
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PA PUC launches review of grid impacts from data center growth; Shapiro touts energy plan in Blair County; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: US oil producers face new challenges as top oilfield flags; US gas players refocus on Haynesville basin, buoyed by Trump LNG plans; Northeast gas demand springs upward at start of spring; NATIONAL: Shale-oil bosses slam Trump’s tariffs in anonymous survey; U.S. could see return of acid rain due to Trump’s rollbacks; The U.S. remained the world’s largest liquefied natural gas exporter in 2024; Secret Energy Department “hit list” targets renewable energy industry; The oil industry takes its critics to court; Could U.S. natural gas power AI revolution?; The crumbling of net zero in the U.S.; Climate change taken off America’s global threat list for the first time in over a decade; INTERNATIONAL: Jereh unveils AI-powered oil and gas innovations at cippe 2025; China’s falling LNG imports are a boon for Europe. Read More “MDN’s Energy Stories of Interest: Fri, Mar 28, 2025 [FREE ACCESS]”
Today, we introduce you to a new advertiser on Marcellus Drilling News: 
On Monday, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia (Roanoke Division) ruled in two of five cases before it in which Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which is now majority-owned by EQT Corporation, sued radical protesters who blocked the construction of the pipeline in Roanoke County, Virginia. The court dismissed one count in the two cases (count #4) against the protesters, which the media focused on. The media doesn’t want to talk about the fact that there are five other counts, far more serious than the dismissed count, that the court is allowing to advance. These protesters are in a world of legal hurt over their illegal blocking of MVP construction. 
Here’s an interesting lawsuit that never appeared on our radar. It involves a lease in Fayette County, West Virginia, and the right to establish an injection well in an old conventional well on the leased property. The party leasing and using the old injection well, Webb Construction, was later sued by the party leasing out the property, North Hills Group, after new board members over at North Hills. The lawsuit accused Webb of improperly using the old well as an injection well without first trying to see if the well could be rejuvenated as a productive gas well and building a pipeline to the well that leaked wastewater on North Hill’s property. A Fayette Circuit Court jury in 2022 found in favor of Webb and against North Hills, dismissing all claims against Webb. North Hills asked the judge to grant a new trial to overturn the jury verdict, which the judge did. North Hills won in the new trial. 
We are frequently critical of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) under the leadership of Governor Josh Shapiro. But our criticism is of the people who lead the department and the woke, leftist policies they’ve injected into the organization. Our criticism does not extend to the hardworking men and women who are the rank and file at DEP. They have demanding jobs, and they do a good job. Nowhere is that more evident than in the case of those who work in the Oil & Gas Program at DEP and the water supply/stray gas complaints they receive and must investigate. Getting a complaint that involves potential methane migration into a water supply is NOT a straightforward investigation, mainly because most of the time, that’s not how such issues are reported. Very few people contact the DEP using the words “I think my water has been contaminated with methane by a shale driller a half mile away.” It’s never that simple. 
On March 20, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) told the Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board (TAB) that the U.S. Department of the Interior has “withdrawn” the Orphan Oil and Gas Well Regulatory Improvement Act Grant Program designed to help states strengthen their programs, in particular to prevent future oil and gas well abandonment. Oh no! Trump is cutting federal money to plug old wells! He’s so mean!! He’s so cruel!!! Except that’s not what is happening… 
As we so often say, the left’s creativeness in their quest to destroy fossil energy (the thing that makes civilization possible) never ceases to amaze us. The left thought it could bully investors into divesting from fossil energy companies using ESG (environment, social, and governance) policies. That flamed out. They tried to force Big Banks to abandon loans for fossil energy companies. Yeah, that’s down the tubes, too. But, once again, they’re baaaaaack! This time, the left is pushing something called Sustainability-Linked Bonds (SLBs). The plan is to entice (force, coerce, bully) national oil companies (NOCs) and public development banks (PDBs) to use SLBs, which force NOCs to phase out fracking “transition” to the renewable energy business. Yeah, here we go again with the transitioning bullcrapus. 
The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin held hearings on Tuesday at the Oak Creek Community Center to listen to public comments on a proposed natural gas plant. Wisconsin Electric Gas Operations, doing business as We Energies, proposes to spend $1.2 billion at its Oak Creek Power Plant (Oak Creek is a suburb of Milwaukee) to convert the facility from a coal-fired power plant to a natural gas plant that will generate 1,100 megawatts (MW) of electricity on demand (a “peaker” facility). The aim is to start the gas turbines when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Legislation to define natural gas, propane as ‘clean energy’ heads to Indiana governor; Federal law bars Alaska from shipping its own natural gas within the state; NATIONAL: DOE withdraws, postpones multiple appliance energy efficiency rules; WTI nears $70 as supplies tighten; How AI data centers are reshaping America’s electric grid; Earth has limited natural resources to support the generation of electricity; INTERNATIONAL: Europe ready to return to Russian gas if sanctions end; Government bill to lift fracking moratorium in Nova Scotia clears third reading; Is Shell interested in buying out/merging with BP? 
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) continues to aid and abet radical environmental groups in circumventing the state legislature. In what amounts to a classic leftist “sue-and-settle” case, last year radical environmental groups (including the Clean Air Council and Environmental Integrity Project) petitioned the state Environmental Quality Board (EQB), asking the board to amend 25 Pa. Code Chapter 78a by increasing “setbacks” for oil and gas well drilling to a minimum of 3,281 feet from any building or water wells (5,280 feet from hospitals and schools), and 750 feet from any river, creek, or mud puddle (i.e., surface waters). Such an increase in setbacks would stop ALL new shale drilling in the state, which is the goal of these radicals. The DEP is recommending to the EQB that it should accept and consider the proposed rulemaking. 
In March 2024, we reported that two Democrats and one anti-drilling RINO who run Bucks County, PA government (a Philadelphia suburb) fell for the bait by Big Green and filed a lawsuit against Big Oil companies for supposedly, knowingly, causing the Earth to toast to a cinder (see 
EQT Corp. remains committed to its low-carbon aviation fuel (LCAF) project and the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) even though federal funding for ARCH2 and other hydrogen hub projects around the country is now in question. EQT CEO Toby Rice told the Pittsburgh Business Times that his company continues to evaluate building a clean hydrogen plant. EQT remains a lead partner in ARCH2. 
Hope Gas, a large local utility company that provides gas service to more than 131,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-seven West Virginia counties, filed a rate case with the state Public Service Commission (PSC) in August 2024 looking to convert customers who use a “farm tap” gas system to either propane fuel or electric heat for their homes (see 
Last week, MDN brought you the great news that Crowley, the largest shipping company in the U.S., launched what is the very first Jones Act-compliant LNG carrier to ferry LNG from the Gulf Coast to Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory (see