Panic Sets In with NY’s 2026 Deadline Banning NatGas in New Homes
In January 2023, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, an extremist, floated a plan to ban natural gas hookups in every single new home and business across the “Empire” State (see NY Gov. Hochul Loses Her Mind – Wants to Ban Gas in New Buildings). She even wanted to ban gas in existing homes, but that was too much to stomach even for NY’s leftwing Democrats (see New York Legislators Block Hochul NatGas Ban for Existing Homes). As part of the 2023-2024 budget deal, Hochul got her way (see NY State has Fallen – Gas Stoves & Peaker Plants Banned in Budget). So now, beginning in 2026, new homes (or businesses) in New York State will not be allowed to connect to an existing natural gas pipeline system. You will be banned from installing a gas (or propane) stove in the house. It’s complete madness, and people are starting to push back and push back hard. Read More “Panic Sets In with NY’s 2026 Deadline Banning NatGas in New Homes”
You’ve heard of UFOs—Unidentified Flying Objects. What about UOWs? That would be Undocumented Orphaned Wells. Not to be confused with undocumented illegal aliens. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, located in Berkeley, California, have figured out how to use artificial intelligence (AI) to scan and read old maps, recognizing oil and gas well symbols on those maps to generate potential well locations that can then be verified via satellite imagery and field surveys. This may be the first practical thing to come out of Berserkely in years! 
Who let the DOGEs out? Who, who, who, who. (To be sung to the tune of the iconic song, 
NATIONAL: Trump’s energy secretary pick preaches the benefits of climate change; Seven reasons to be skeptical about SMRs; ESG firms invested in coal industry they tried to reduce, while reaping big profits; Oil seen below $60 by middle of new Trump term; INTERNATIONAL: Saudis cut oil prices as OPEC+ keeps delaying output revival; RAF on alert over Putin sabotage threat to key gas pipelines; GALACTIC: Mars’s gravity pulls Earth closer to the Sun, warming our climate. 
For the week of Nov 25 – Dec 1, permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica dropped dramatically. Only 12 new permits were issued last week, less than half the 28 issued the week before. The Keystone State (PA) issued just two new permits, one to EQT in Greene County and the other to Range Resources in Washington County. The Buckeye State (OH) issued six new permits last week. All six went to Encino Energy (EAP), with four in Carroll County and two in Columbiana County. The Mountain State (WV) issued four new permits, three of which went to Southwestern Energy (now Expand Energy) in Ohio County and one to Antero Resources in Tyler County. 
CNX Resources announced yesterday it had struck a deal to buy the assets of Apex Energy II, LLC, a portfolio company of funds managed by Carnelian Energy Capital Management, for $505 million. Apex owns wells, acreage, and pipelines in Westmoreland County, PA. The Apex assets are close to, in some cases adjacent to, CNX’s considerable assets in the region. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025. 
One month ago, National Fuel Gas Company (NFG) CEO David Bauer confirmed that his company had given up after battling for 10 years to build the Northern Access Pipeline, a 97-mile pipeline from McKean County in Pennsylvania into and through Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Erie counties in New York that would have flowed Marcellus gas into New York State (see 
Come and get it! Only ten companies have applied to plug 77 orphaned wells in Pennsylvania as part of $44.4 million allocated for PA’s Methane Emissions Reduction Program (MERP) grant program. By our calculations, more than $41 million remains in the pot unclaimed. However, the clock is ticking. There is a Dec. 16 deadline to meet if you want some of the money. Use it or lose it. What are you waiting for? 
The research arm of Enverus (formerly Drillinginfo), one of the most trusted, energy-dedicated SaaS platforms offering real-time access to analytics, insights, and benchmark cost and revenue data, earlier this week published a new report on the Utica Shale. The report specifically discusses Utica oil—the production performance for Utica wells, and the economics of the play. The analysts of Enverus conclude that the Utica is “America’s modest middleweight contender.” However, that’s not the biggest news. 
The country’s largest electric grid, PJM Interconnection, which covers all or parts of 13 states, including PA, OH, and WV, has made changes to how it decides which new power plants can connect to the system. The new policy *favors* adding natural gas-fired power over other types of power like unreliable solar and wind. The change comes in response to the rapidly increasing demand for more electricity from data centers and artificial intelligence computing. PJM’s gas-favoring policy change has rankled the environmental left. 
We have some exciting news to share. What was Pennsylvania’s largest coal-fired power plant, the Homer City Generating Station, located in Center Township, Indiana County, PA, shut down operations in July 2023. In its heyday, the massive plant produced 1,888 megawatts of electricity (nearly 2 GW). Demolition of the old plant and construction of a new gas-fired power plant are about to begin. According to a former county commissioner who now works for the project, the new gas-fired plant will produce “at least double” the energy it produced with coal. That would make it as big (possibly bigger) than the current largest gas-fired power plant in the country! The West County Energy Center in Palm Beach County, Florida, produces 3,777 MW of electricity and is the country’s largest gas-fired plant. Homer City may well exceed it. 
Every budget season in Pennsylvania, it’s the same old dog-and-pony show by the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). “We don’t have enough money to pay our staff,” and “We aren’t making as much money from (insanely high) shale permit fees anymore, so we need more taxpayer money to make up the difference.” Etc. Yet a few months later, after the budget is adopted, the DEP somehow finds money lying around to donate to various leftwing causes. Case in point: The DEP announced yesterday it is donating $600,000 to 12 leftist organizations to spread more wokeness across the Commonwealth under the banner of “environmental justice” (EJ). 