M-U Gas to Power OpenAI $20B, 3.2-GW Data Center Near Savannah, GA
Georgia Power announced yesterday that it will serve a new OpenAI data center project in Effingham County, Georgia — about 45 minutes from Savannah — expected to create thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in local investment. The $20 BILLION OpenAI facility will need roughly 3,200 megawatts (3.2 GW) of power, and OpenAI has agreed, under a 25-year deal, to provide up to 1,000 MW (1 GW) of flexible demand response, allowing Georgia Power to curtail deliveries during peak periods. The utility calls it among the largest single-facility demand response commitments in the U.S. OpenAI will cover full infrastructure and electric service costs with financial assurances, consistent with Georgia PSC rules. And yes! There is a direct connection to the Marcellus/Utica. Get ready; your future ChatGPT queries may be powered by M-U molecules! Read More “M-U Gas to Power OpenAI $20B, 3.2-GW Data Center Near Savannah, GA”
As part of Kinder Morgan’s second-quarter update, the company made an important announcement that (until now) it had not made. Namely, on May 26, 2026, TGP (Tennessee Gas Pipeline) placed in service its approximately $235 million Cumberland Pipeline project. The 30-inch pipeline is a 32-mile lateral originating from TGP’s existing 100 Line in Dickson County, Tennessee, and terminating at Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) new natural gas-fired power plant in Stewart County, Tennessee. Big Green tried its best to block this project along with the gas-fired power plant, but failed. 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: NYISO on the June-July heat wave; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas gains with eyes on storage data, Gulf storm; Liberty Energy, PowerBridge JV to power data center campuses; Commercial crude oil inventories increased by 2.0 million barrels; End Climate Assessment propaganda; INTERNATIONAL: Oil extends rally on Iran tensions; Houthis claim oil tanker attacks in Red Sea; Global LNG vs the European Union; Russian LNG imports to EU rising despite looming import ban; After hiccup in 2026, LNG market will rebound but unsure through 2050. 
Yes, there is a direct connection between the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) approval of the expansion of an underground salt-dome storage cavern project in Mississippi and the Marcellus/Utica. FERC has approved Leaf River Energy Center’s expansion of its New Home Salt Dome storage facility in Smith, Jasper, and Clarke counties, Mississippi, adding 19.18 Bcf of working gas capacity through new cavern development and facility upgrades. The project includes a new Cavern 5, expansion of Caverns 2 and 4, new compression, and pipeline additions, raising total working gas capacity from 36.0 to 55.18 Bcf. 
In April 2025, Knighthead Capital Management, Homer City Redevelopment (HCR), and Kiewit Power Constructors Co. announced a plan to convert the former Homer City Generating Station, previously the largest coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania (Indiana County, 50 miles east of Pittsburgh) into a more than 3,200-acre natural gas-powered data center campus, designed to meet the growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (see 
We stumbled across an article by East Daley Analytics that is a real eye-opener for us. East Daley analyzed 13 major public G&P (gathering and processing) operators (i.e., pipeline companies). They found that Expand Energy (created by the merger of Chesapeake Energy with Southwestern Energy), with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica and the Louisiana Haynesville, accounts for 52% of DT Midstream’s gathering volumes, 32% of Williams’, and 21% of Energy Transfer’s throughput. Yikes! Just one company. 
If we had a nickel for every time we’ve read or heard the Democrats claim the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a tax on carbon dioxide emissions for coal- and gas-fired power plants, doesn’t raise electricity rates, we’d be millionaires! Not that it was ever in question that RGGI does raise rates; we now have a smoking gun. Connecticut’s carbon allowance auction prices under RGGI have risen from $3.07 per allowance in 2008 to $35 per allowance in June 2026, a jump of over 900%. Connecticut residents pay the third-highest (or second-highest, depending on the source) electricity rates in the entire country behind only Hawaii and California. Massachusetts, another RGGI member, is right behind Connecticut at fourth-highest. 
Last week, New York Governor Kathy Hochul had the ignominious distinction of signing an Executive Order establishing the nation’s first statewide moratorium on new hyperscale data centers, temporarily pausing state environmental permit issuance for up to 1 year (see 
Last November, New Jersey (and New York) issued a federal Clean Water Act permit to build the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project (see 
Amentum, a Chantilly, Virginia-based engineering and technology firm, has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to enter negotiations for a phased lease to develop one of the nation’s largest integrated artificial intelligence (AI) and energy infrastructure projects at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. Once finalized, the public-private project would establish a 1-gigawatt AI data center supported by approximately 2 gigawatts of on-site energy generation, initially powered by natural gas, with an eventual transition to advanced nuclear energy. The project aims to expand domestic AI computing capacity and strengthen U.S. energy resilience and national security. 
Despite rising Northeast gas demand from retiring coal plants and new data centers, plus added Appalachian pipeline capacity, production growth isn’t guaranteed—operators prioritize capital discipline, debt reduction, and shareholder returns over volume. Appalachia has held flat at roughly 33-36 Bcf/d since 2020. Can anything tempt Marcellus/Utica drillers to drill and produce more than they are now? According to RBN Energy, sustained Henry Hub prices above $4/MMBtu (versus the current $3.50-$3.60 long-dated curve) and better takeaway infrastructure could be enough of a temptation.