Trump Signs 2 More EOs, 1 Memo Repealing Energy, Environment Regs
Does Donald Trump ever sleep? He just keeps churning out the hits, day after day and week after week. Two days ago, President Trump signed two more executive orders (EOs) and a memorandum related to energy. On April 9, the President issued a new executive order requiring agencies to adopt one-year sunset dates on any existing regulations affecting energy. A second order requires agencies to identify regulations that limit competition. The President also signed a memorandum implementing a previous EO, directing the repeal of unlawful regulations under 10 recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including the Supreme Court decision overturning the “Chevron doctrine.” Read More “Trump Signs 2 More EOs, 1 Memo Repealing Energy, Environment Regs”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PJM, Google, Tapestry join forces to apply AI to regional planning, interconnection; NATIONAL: U.S. shale faces toughest challenge since the 2020 oil price plunge; U.S. crude oil exports reached a new record in 2024; AI-driven power demands are creating a ‘strange bedfellows’ energy alliance; AI needs natural gas to survive; CEOs say sub-$60 WTI ‘a mess’ but tariffs ‘had to happen’; America can dominate global hydrogen by leveraging natural gas; Bill to protect consumer choice in water heaters moves to President’s desk; INTERNATIONAL: EU states set to back more flexibility for filling gas storage; EU ready to buy more U.S. LNG to make Trump happy; Oil tumbles as tariff jitters return; Equinor forms new unit to capitalise on soaring power demand. 
Yesterday, MDN told you about a newly announced data center (and gas-fired power plant) coming to Washington County, PA (see 
A number of data centers have been announced in Licking County, in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio. They all will need enormous amounts of electricity to operate. MDN recently told you about three gas-fired power plants planned for New Albany, including one from PowerConneX and two from Williams subsidiary Will-Power (see 
Permitting in Pennsylvania, overseen by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), has been a hot mess for years. A Chapter 102 Erosion and Sedimentation permit sometimes takes two, three, or even six months for approval — instead of the policy-mandated 14 days. According to a DEP press release from yesterday, that’s all behind us. Last November, DEP Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley and Gov. Josh Shapiro said the agency had *eliminated* the backlog for oil and gas permits (see 
Just as the pandemic began to unfold in early 2020, Shell pulled out of a 50/50 joint venture partnership with Energy Transfer (ET) to build a new LNG export facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana (see 
In what has to be the stupidest trade move in history, China will enact an 84% reciprocal tariff on imports of U.S. goods beginning today. The increase was in response to a 104% tariff that the U.S. placed on imports of Chinese goods, which President Trump raised to 125% yesterday. China will LOSE this trade war. However, if the Chinese want to self-immolate their economy and persist with the tariff war, it has the potential, according to RBN Energy, of “destroying” propane and ethane exports from the U.S. Why? 
In 2022, we reported the sad (and angering) news that then-U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a liberal Democrat from West Virginia, had betrayed his WV constituents and the entire country by secretly cutting a deal to vote for Joe Biden’s New Green Deal bill repackaged under the false and misleading name of the Inflation Reduction Act (see 
Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB) was scheduled to consider accepting a petition by radical green groups, including the Clean Air Council and Environmental Integrity Project, to “study” the issue of increasing setbacks for shale drilling so far it would ban ALL new Marcellus/Utica drilling in the Keystone State. Instead of voting to accept the petition, EQB commissioners voted 16 to 3 to table the petition for a future meeting. No doubt this matter will cycle around again, but we can all breathe a sigh of relief for now. 
Yesterday, President Trump signed four more executive orders (EOs) dealing with energy issues. Three of the four EOs targeted reviving the declining coal industry, which Trump calls “beautiful, clean coal.” We’ll briefly cover the coal EOs below. However, it was the noncoal EO that caught our attention. Trump signed the Protecting American Energy from State Overreach EO, which removes unlawful and burdensome state-level impediments to domestic energy production. Trump tasked Attorney General Pam Bondi to challenge state laws that may be “unconstitutional, preempted by Federal law, or otherwise unenforceable” to go after states like New York, which is mentioned explicitly in the EO. 
In February, MDN told you that the Democrat leadership in the Maryland state legislature was pushing a bill that would rechristen gas-fired power as “green” and make it easier to build new gas-fired power plants in the state (see 
Electricity demand in the United States will increase 2% annually and 50% by 2050, according to a new study conducted by PA Consulting and released by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA). That is massive! For the past 20 years, the U.S.’s electricity generation and use have remained virtually unchanged. This new study shows a year-by-year increase in electricity demand for the next 25 years. The study indicates unreliable solar and wind are not up to the task of providing the increase. Instead, NEMA advocates for an all-of-the-above approach to energy production, including natural gas, small modular reactors, and geothermal.