Trump Pulls the Plug on Taxpayer $$ Flowing to Enviro NGOs
Last week, President Trump issued a directive to the heads of Executive Branch agencies to review all funding said agencies provide to NGOs (nongovernmental organizations). The aim is to pull the plug on funding NGOs engaged in actions that actively undermine the security, prosperity, and safety of the American people. There’s a LOT of corruption in NGOs. Big money from the federal government (taxpayers!) flows in, and the NGOs give it to crazy anti-American, anti-energy programs and agencies. Elon Musk is convinced there’s a LOT of corruption in the form of payments (kickbacks) going to grease the palms of people all along the food chain. Our specific interest is in defunding environmental NGOs—organizations like the National Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, Food & Water Watch, and other disgusting organizations that are using (at least in part) OUR money. Read More “Trump Pulls the Plug on Taxpayer $$ Flowing to Enviro NGOs”
NATIONAL: Activist Elliott ratchets up pressure on Phillips 66 with over $2.5 billion stake; Vantage Data Centers, VoltaGrid tie up to deploy over 1 GW in N America; Pfluger’s pro-fracking bill approved by House, advances to Senate; INTERNATIONAL: GE Vernova closing wind blade factory with 1,000 jobs to go; Europe continues to gain U.S. LNG cargoes. 
We’ve made this observation many times over the years, but here we go again. Ever notice how lefty environmentalists “demand” this and “demand” that? They’re a very demanding bunch, which is why nobody pays them any attention (except us). Here’s the latest example. A group of 30 “organizations” (many of them fronts for one or two people) sent a letter to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine demanding that he block/suspend/pause shale drilling under (not on) Ohio state lands, including parks. The letter uses factual inaccuracies and outright lies to try and scare DeWine into blocking legal drilling under state-owned land. 
According to an investigative reporter for Penn State, between 2018 and 2023, Pennsylvania fined Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Sunoco at least $42 million in connection to the construction of Mariner East II. Some $10 million of that came from a deal with the PA Attorney General’s office (who happened to be Josh Shapiro at the time) for supposed repeat contaminations of waterways, failures to report environmental damage, and the use of unapproved chemicals in drilling fluid (see 
We’ve covered the ongoing spat between Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and the PJM Interconnection electricity grid that covers all or parts of 13 states plus D.C. Last Friday, we brought you an editorial from the Wall Street Journal that echos the arguments we’ve made that Shapiro himself is to blame for rising electricity prices in PJM (see 
Ohio lawmakers are grappling with how to prepare the state for a surge in new power demand from AI data centers. In January, MDN told you that five Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) commissioners will decide some important guidelines about who should pay to build out new electricity sources for data centers—how much current ratepayers should be on the hook for with expanded power generation (see 
Here’s a complicated issue that we will try to break down as simply as possible. The Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA) is a trade group representing some of the biggest consumers of energy in the U.S. (i.e., manufacturers). In the past, the IECA has made the strong case that more pipelines are needed, especially along the East Coast, to supply manufacturers with natural gas (see 
In a separate post today, MDN deals with the issue of dispatchable and on-site power plants in Ohio (see OH Legislators, New Bill, Encourage More Gas-Fired Power Plants). We spotted an article about the rise of on-site power generation (mostly natural gas) to power AI. It does a great job of discussing the various models for on-site powergen. For example, the local utility company could build a special power plant that services only a particular data center. An independent power provider could build such a plant for a data center. Some O&G companies are getting into the game of building power plants, like Exxon Mobil and Chevron. Or the data center could build and operate its own power plant, but then, that’s not the business they are in. Each option has advantages and disadvantages. 
For the second week in a row, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count regained some of the rigs lost in prior weeks. Two weeks ago, the rig count gained six rigs (see 
Expand Energy is the new company formed from the merger of Chesapeake Energy with Southwestern Energy. Expand is essentially Chesapeake Energy 2.0. Expand CFO Mohit Singh spoke at last week’s 2025 NAPE Summit in Houston. He had some fascinating things to say, including this: “Just to be clear, in our view, at least 75% of the natural gas demand growth is going to come from LNG.” He called LNG demand “durable” and reliable. AI (artificial intelligence) data center demand for natural gas, on the other hand, is volatile and “noisy,” according to Singh.