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Rover-Fed Data Center Campus in Wash County, PA Faces 4 Hearings
A Dallas-based hyperscaler wants to build a 1.7-million-square-foot computing campus — plus its very own 450-megawatt natural gas power plant — on a reclaimed strip mine in Washington County, PA. The gas would come off a lateral tied to Energy Transfer’s Rover Pipeline, which runs right past the property line. Prime Data Centers made its first real presentation to the Hanover Township Board of Supervisors Monday night, in front of a fire hall packed past capacity with residents who are, to put it mildly, not sold. Three hours of testimony later, the supervisors scheduled four more hearings. Read More “Rover-Fed Data Center Campus in Wash County, PA Faces 4 Hearings”
Appalachian drillers just got a hard lesson in how fast the money can vanish. New analysis from RBN Energy shows pre-tax profits at gas-weighted producers cratered 75% in the second quarter — and nine of the ten companies in RBN’s gas-weighted peer group are Marcellus/Utica operators. This is an M-U report card, whether RBN calls it one or not. The piece, written by Nicholas Cacchione and published August 26, covers second quarter results for 37 publicly traded exploration and production companies (E&Ps). RBN sorts them into three buckets: Oil-Weighted, Diversified, and Gas-Weighted. Every company in that last bucket except Comstock Resources — a Haynesville player — has major operations in the Marcellus or Utica. 
A Chicago-based developer wants to build a pair of natural gas-fired power plants in a Wisconsin farm town of 1,650 people — and together they’d crank out enough electricity to light up two million homes. It’s another data center story, and it’s another reminder that the demand pull for our Marcellus and Utica gas keeps stretching farther west. Invenergy has submitted engineering plans to Wisconsin regulators for two gas-fired plants in Brillion, Calumet County, about 15 miles from Appleton. The 750-megawatt (MW) Union Depot Energy Center would run around the clock. The 1.2-gigawatt (GW) Forest Junction Energy Center would be a “peaker” — a plant that fires up only when the grid is straining. Combined output: 1.95 GW. If built, Forest Junction would be the second-largest gas plant in Wisconsin. 
A new report from two respected energy economists puts a number on something MDN readers have watched play out all year: PJM’s capacity market is broken, and it’s about to cost ratepayers billions — while creating a wide-open lane for reliable Marcellus/Utica gas. The National Center for Energy Analytics (NCEA) published “Regional Transmission Organizations: Problem or Solution?” on August 27. Authors Jonathan A. Lesser (president, Continental Economics) and Brent Bennett (policy director, Life:Powered/Texas Public Policy Foundation) dig into why RTOs (Regional Transmission Organizations) like PJM — the grid operator covering all or part of 13 mid-Atlantic states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia — are struggling to keep the lights on at a price anyone wants to pay.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Natural gas continues saving consumers billions on bills; Antero dodgeball tournament tops $1 million in charitable giving; Capito joins Diversified Energy for 25th anniversary celebration; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Michigan justices took Fonda group cash before pipeline freeze; Judge rules shale oil antitrust case can proceed against major producers; The progress(ives) war on reliable and affordable electricity; NATIONAL: Natural gas futures edge down; SB Energy files for IPO to tap AI power thirst; Gas power plant boom collides with turbine shortages; Left and Right agree that data center bashing is unfair; Weatherford completes acquisition of NCS Multistage; SLB expands data center role with $3B Kelvion deal; INTERNATIONAL: Oil surges 5% on renewed tensions; EU decarbonization is a security threat for the West. 
A frack job gone sideways in Indiana County, PA, kept 14 volunteer fire companies on scene for more than 12 hours last month — and, according to a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) inspection report, sent an unknown quantity of frack flowback water off the pad and into a nearby stream. We don’t sugarcoat things at MDN, so let’s walk through what actually happened, what DEP says it found, and — just as important — what nobody has established yet. 
A federal judge in Syracuse dropped a legal anvil on New York’s $75 billion climate shakedown yesterday, ruling that the state’s Climate Change Superfund Act is preempted by federal law and cannot be enforced. It’s a complete win for West Virginia AG J.B. McCuskey, the 21 other state AGs who joined him, and the industry groups that piled on. We’ve been following this one since Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill in the waning days of 2024 (see 
A pile of poster boards in a YMCA gymnasium is not usually where you find the most important number in a $33 billion project. But on Aug. 27, at the Pike County YMCA in Waverly, Ohio, an SB Energy executive told a Columbus Dispatch reporter something that ought to get every Utica producer’s attention: the turbines are already bought. Not ordered. Not “in negotiations.” Bought — for the first phase of what will be the largest gas-fired power plant in American history. 
Back in May we told you Dominion Energy had brass you know what announcing a monster 3,000-megawatt (3 gigawatt) gas-fired power plant in Cumberland County, Virginia, while its much smaller Chesterfield peaker project was still stuck in the mud after three years of green lawfare (see 
Here’s a pipeline fight where the bad guys aren’t the greens. Last Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit sided with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and Enbridge subsidiary East Tennessee Natural Gas (ETNG), tossing out a challenge brought not by environmental radicals but by the pipeline’s own customers — a group of small-town gas utilities in Tennessee, Virginia, and Alabama who said they were being stuck with the bill for an upgrade they never asked for. 
In April, we told you the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) was taking a fresh look at the revived Constitution Pipeline and the associated Wright Interconnect project, and that the agency had to decide whether a relatively quick Environmental Assessment (EA) would do the job — or whether it would drag the projects through a full-blown, years-long Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). We got our answer on August 21. FERC staff issued the EA for both projects — 79 pages plus appendices — and the bottom line is the one supporters have been waiting on: building Constitution “would not constitute a major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment.” In plain English — no significant impact. No years-long supplemental EIS is needed. 
The Marcellus/Utica finally moved last week — in the wrong direction. Ohio dropped a rig, taking the M-U to 34 and ending a three-week stall at 35. Nationally, the count didn’t budge at all, holding at 588. But that flat number hides something: oil rigs fell five while gas rigs gained five, and not one of those new gas rigs showed up here. Frac spreads slipped again too, down four to 180 — the second straight weekly decline. 
A group of North Fayette Township (Allegheny County, PA) residents who tried to block a Range Resources well pad has lost its appeal — not because a court weighed their evidence, but because they live too far away to sue. The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled August 25 that Stephen Bates and Heather Forster, who share an address more than two miles from the proposed pad, lack “standing” — the legal right to bring a case — to challenge the township’s approval in court.