Pittsburgh Summit Says Electric Needs for AI Already “Unbelievable”
Yesterday, the AI Horizons Summit was held in Pittsburgh. Home to the world’s #1 AI school, Carnegie Mellon, the inaugural summit showcased how human-first AI (artificial intelligence) can be commercialized to benefit society. AI is still in the early stages of adoption, but according to speakers at the event, AI will one day be baked into just about everything the way the internet is now. All of the computing power needed will take enormous amounts of electrical energy to operate. One speaker said, “It’s almost unbelievable how much power AI is using” right now. It’s only going to grow. Read More “Pittsburgh Summit Says Electric Needs for AI Already “Unbelievable””
PJM Interconnection is the largest U.S. power grid operator, serving 65 million people in 13 states plus the District of Columbia (including PA, OH, and WV). PJM supplies power to more than 20% of the U.S. economy. The organization issued its annual Winter Outlook yesterday. The analysis says PJM and its members have adequate resources to serve the forecasted demand for electricity this winter under expected conditions, although reserve margins continue to shrink with continued generator (coal plant) retirements and increasing demand. However, if we have “extreme” weather events, problems like blackouts are possible. In other words, we will have enough electricity, but cross your fingers that we don’t experience any extreme weather. 
MDN is not a stock-picking service. However, from time to time, we mention the performance of a given company’s stock price if it is unusual or relevant to our audience. We spotted an article by Bloomberg about CNX Resources’ stock price. Last Friday, CNX’s stock hit what Bloomberg calls “a 10-year high,” closing at $36.29. Interestingly, one or more investors bought over 34,000 call options, betting the price would hit $40 by mid-April. 
Some 15 months ago, WhiteHawk Energy, headquartered in Philadelphia with ownership of mineral and royalty interests for over 1 million gross unit acres and over 3,400 producing horizontal shale wells between the Marcellus and the Haynesville, proposed marriage to PHX Minerals, based in Fort Worth, Texas, owner of 75,000 leased mineral acres principally located in the SCOOP and Haynesville plays (see 
Dr. Judith Curry is an American climatologist and the former chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research interests include hurricanes, remote sensing, atmospheric modeling, polar climates, air-sea interactions, climate models, and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for atmospheric research. She was a member of the National Research Council’s Climate Research Committee, published over a hundred scientific papers, and co-edited several major works. She’s worked with NOAA and NASA. She has more awards than you can count. Yet because she dares to openly ask questions and point out political bias in the global warming community, she has been ostracized. She is one of the smartest people alive regarding climate change. 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PA bill would block impact fees to municipalities that limit shale drilling; Bob Casey introduced a bill to constrain fracking six times; NATIONAL: Upcoming legal filing could reveal Harris’ true stripes on energy; Gas-to-liquid plants and their role in reducing flared natural gas; INTERNATIONAL: OPEC cuts global oil demand growth forecasts for 3rd consecutive month; UK gas production falling faster than expected, warns lobby; Fewer tankers transit the Red Sea in 2024; Iran threatens to hold global energy hostage; LNG roars back as leading alternative fuel. 
It’s Columbus Day! MDN will not publish our regular list of stories today — but have no fear; we will be back tomorrow (Tuesday) with a full lineup. Take a moment today to celebrate the world’s most famous Italian, the guy who started it all, the guy who discovered the Americas, and what would one day become the greatest country on earth: The United States of America!
There were 20 permits issued to drill new shale wells in Marcellus/Utica for the week of Sept. 30 – Oct. 6, down eight from the 28 issued the prior week. The Keystone State (PA) had eight new permits, with five going to Southwestern Energy (now Expand Energy following a merger with Chesapeake) in both Susquehanna and Wyoming counties. The other three permits went to Laurel Mountain Energy for a pad in Butler County. 
It’s good to revisit the basics from time to time. When drilling a shale oil or gas well, each well produces “brine,” a super-salty (minerally) water from the depths that keeps flowing long after the well is drilled and is online. This is not surface water; fresh water found down to about 300 feet. This is another layer of water thousands of feet below the surface. Disposing of brine can be a problem given the minerals in it. A lot of brine is recycled and used again for new drilling and fracking. But what happens when drilling slows down? The water continues to flow out of existing wells and needs proper disposal. Researchers at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, may have a new solution. 
Earlier this week, MDN told you about the final chapter in the tragedy of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) Refining Complex (see 
If we had a nickel for every peak oil prediction we’ve reported on over the years, we’d be rich! Every few months, somebody comes along to say that either oil production or oil demand is heading for a decline…real soon now, any day, it’s inevitable. And they list their reasons why we’re hitting peak and about to go into a decline. And every darned time, they’re wrong. We have another such prediction, but this one is a bit different. It comes from an investment advisor writing to other investors on the Seeking Alpha website, an investment advisor whose work we have shared with you in the past. It’s a column from someone whose opinion we respect. 
We read a story published last week that is frightening. It leaves us speechless, and that’s saying something. Just the News is reporting that the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) and several other publications and leftwing groups are behind a project called the “Climate Blueprint for Media Transformation,” which encourages reporters to insert climate change into every story and view fossil fuel industry voices as inherently dishonest. The project openly promotes the idea that journalists should NOT be objective when reporting on climate and energy but instead should be biased and revel in their bias. Speechless. 
Berkshire Hathaway, owned by one of the richest men in the world, Warren Buffett, owns an energy subsidiary called Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE). BHE, in turn, owns major oil and gas assets across the country, including major assets right here in the Marcellus/Utica. In 2020, BHE cut a deal to buy Dominion Energy’s vast network of pipelines in the Marcellus/Utica (and beyond) for $9.7 billion (see