FERC Approves 122-Mile East Tennessee Pipe Project for TVA Plant
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally-owned electric utility corporation in the U.S. TVA’s service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. TVA is the country’s sixth-largest power supplier and the largest public utility company. In May 2023, TVA announced that it would convert the Kingston Fossil Plant (coal-fired plant) in East Tennessee to a natural gas-fired plant capable of generating 1,500 megawatts of electricity (see TVA Proposes NatGas Power Plant, 122-Mile Pipeline for East Tenn.). The project includes contracting with Enbridge subsidiary East Tennessee Natural Gas Pipeline to build a new 122-mile pipeline, called the Ridgeline Expansion Project. Good news for the pipeline portion of the project: Last Wednesday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) fully approved the project. Read More “FERC Approves 122-Mile East Tennessee Pipe Project for TVA Plant”
Ray Kemble and his lawyers are in for a tough court fight. The Susquehanna County (PA) Court of Common Pleas has set a date of October 6, 2025, to hear a “Dimock” case between Kemble (and his lawyers) and Coterra Energy (originally Cabot Oil & Gas), in a case that stretches back to 2017. In a damning decision against Kemble’s lawyers in 2023, the judge found they repeatedly refused to provide documents in the case even though ordered to by the judge (see 
Here’s a lawsuit that was not previously on our radar. A West Virginia couple, Bart Mickey and Jami Mickey, sued EQT alleging the company concealed a 2020 Surface Access and Use Agreement allowing EQT to remove a pond, diminishing the value of a property the Mickey’s purchased in Marshall County for $350,000. The Mickeys said in their lawsuit that EQT signed a deal with the previous owners of the property, allowing EQT to remove a pond for $10,000 (an action required under a 2015 Consent Decree with the EPA and WVDEP). Then, EQT (according to the Mickeys) delayed recording the easement with the county. When buying the property, the Mickeys said the easement/deal did not appear in a title search. 
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. In March of this year, the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), controlled by Josh Shapiro, recommended to the EQB that it accept and seriously consider the proposed rulemaking (see 
Oh, the many different “colors” of hydrogen (and natural gas). The wacko left dreams up all sorts of labels for the things they do and don’t like, hoping to influence the weak of mind to buy into their psychoses. The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), a U.S. federal–state partnership that works with the people of Appalachia to create opportunities for self-sustaining economic development and improved quality of life, has just awarded a $1.3 million grant to Virginia Tech to figure out how to produce “turquoise” hydrogen from Virginia natural gas. What the heck is turquoise hydrogen? 
It has taken President Trump and his ‘energy dominance’ agenda less than 60 days to put the entire climate juggernaut – over 30 years in the making – at risk of collapse. So says an excellent article by one of our favorite (former) Forbes authors, Tilak Doshi. Trump’s energy team is “charging full steam ahead, firing off policy and regulatory initiatives at a pace designed to overwhelm the capacity of opponents to respond.” It is leaving climate zealots “scrambling to oppose the Trumpian counter-revolution.” This is what winning looks like—and we LOVE it! 
NATIONAL: RNG Coalition brand update shortens name, amplifies commitment to influence future of energy; Trump team proposes ending clean energy office, cutting billions; U.S. propane consumption reached an 18-year record in January amid cold snap; Panels take up flurry of energy, environment nominees; Our approach to climate policy has failed – it’s time for climate realism; Occidental Petroleum wins first EPA permits for world’s largest carbon capture plant; Fill your defensive moat with oil stocks and chill, baby, chill; INTERNATIONAL: We passed the 1.5C climate threshold. We must now explore extreme options; Oil market faces ‘quadruple whammy’; Oil futures continue slide; US energy chief Wright heads to Middle East for nearly two weeks. 
The Baker Hughes U.S. national rig count lost two rigs last week and now operates 590 active rigs. As for the Marcellus/Utica, the rig count was a combined 36 last week—the highest it has been since last August! Rigs focused on the Marcellus were up by two to a combined 25 across the three M-U states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. Rigs focused on the Utica dropped one rig (after increasing by one the week before), now at a combined 11. PA had operated 15 rigs (or more) for 19 weeks straight. That streak was broken two weeks ago when PA lost a rig. PA picked it back up again and had 15 active rigs last week. OH had operated nine rigs for 16 weeks in a row but picked up one two weeks ago and kept it, meaning the dropped Utica rig from last week was in either PA or WV. Likely, the rig was repurposed from Utica to Marcellus in PA. OH currently operates ten active rigs. WV had operated 10 rigs for an astonishing 23 weeks in a row. Seven weeks ago, WV added (and has kept) one additional rig and continues to operate 11 active rigs. 
On Friday, MDN reported that on the previous day (Thursday), Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum joined the CEOs of Range Resources and EQT Corporation and the President of Halliburton’s Western Hemisphere operations at a rally in Washington, PA, to cheerlead and promote the announcement about the country’s largest natural gas-fired power plant to be built in western Pennsylvania (see 
Last week, MDN brought you the exciting news that THE largest gas-fired power plant in the country, along with a MASSIVE data center complex, will be built at a former coal-fired power plant site in Indiana County, PA (see 
For at least a decade, MDN has brought you stories about refracs, also called re-entries and re-completions, where a driller re-enters an existing and declining well to access more rock and pump new life out of it (
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is America’s largest nonpartisan, voluntary membership organization of state legislators dedicated to limited government, free markets, and federalism. Comprised of nearly one-quarter of the country’s state legislators and stakeholders from across the policy spectrum, ALEC members represent more than 60 million Americans and provide jobs to more than 30 million people in the United States. Even though Pennsylvania is a natural gas haven, Pennsylvania ranks only 32nd in energy affordability according to ALEC’s recently-released Energy Affordability 2025 report (full copy below). ALEC says PA’s existing policies under Gov. Josh Shapiro, meant to wean the state off fossil fuels, have made affordability WORSE.