Toby Rice on Mike Rowe Podcast: Raccoons, Rigs and Energy Abundance
Mike Rowe, of “Dirty Jobs” fame, sat down with EQT CEO Toby Rice for a 77-minute episode of his podcast, The Way I Heard It, taped at the Brush Creek Frontier Summit in Wyoming. They covered why AI means we have to build a lot of stuff, why your energy bills are up 40% despite record production, how much Big Green spends fighting us, Rice’s energy-poverty nonprofit, and why permit reform is the No. 1 issue right now. Oh, and a raccoon! The interview aired the same week EQT announced its deal to buy Range Resources, but the deal didn’t come up (taped before the official announcement). Highlights and the full video are below. Read More “Toby Rice on Mike Rowe Podcast: Raccoons, Rigs and Energy Abundance”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Central Pa. township approves conditional use for proposed data center; How a lifelong Republican came to lead the data center battle in Ohio; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Google revealed as user for potential data center campus in Goochland’s West Creek; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas futures gain as November contract expires; Baker Hughes announces third-quarter 2026 results; GE Vernova to buy grid-equipment manufacturer for $9 billion as energy demand grows; Trump says high gas price a ‘short-term pain’; Data centers soar despite opposition; Climate anxiety? Just teach both sides (a cure in waiting); America closes refineries while the rest of the world races to build them; U.S. propane’s surplus is nearly gone heading into winter; INTERNATIONAL: Oil rises with Iran attack report, Israeli election in focus; Saudi oil exports booming despite attacks; European gas touches €100 for first time since 2022 energy crisis; Globalists’ climate grift returns in full force; Natural gas is losing its grip across key power markets. 
EQT, the biggest driller in the Marcellus/Utica, released its third-quarter 2026 numbers after the market closed yesterday. Normally we’d also have a call where CEO Toby Rice and CFO Jeremy Knop take analysts’ questions. Not this time. Two days after agreeing to buy Range Resources (
Wait a minute. Didn’t the EPA already fix the Biden-era “Quad O” methane regs? Back in April, MDN told you the EPA had issued a final Quad O rule (see 
Range Resources, the company that drilled the very first Marcellus Shale well back in 2004 on the Renz farm in Washington County, filed its third quarter 2026 update yesterday. It’s likely one of the last quarterly reports Range will file as an independent company. EQT announced Monday that it will buy Range in an all-stock deal worth about $13 billion (see 
On Monday, we brought you the news that EQT Corporation is swallowing Range Resources in an all-stock deal that values Range at roughly $12.8 billion and creates a combined company worth more than $50 billion, including debt (see 
There’s a new name in shale with “Appalachia” on its list of regions, and we’re not sure yet what it owns here. It’s called NEQ Operating. Last May, we told you that NextEra Energy, the Florida utility giant, was buying a Quantum-backed shale investor called Caliber Resource Partners for $1.3 billion, and that it was setting up a 50/50 joint venture with Quantum to run its oil and gas business (see 
Anthropic, the San Francisco company behind the Claude artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, filed its initial public offering (IPO) paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday (Oct. 26). Buried in the 318-page prospectus, in a risk section titled “Electrical Power and Fuel Constraints,” is an admission that should make every Marcellus/Utica driller, pipeline company, and royalty owner sit up and take notice: some of Anthropic’s planned data centers will run on their own dedicated, on-site natural gas-fired power plants. And Anthropic’s big worry isn’t the gas itself. It’s getting enough pipeline capacity to deliver it. 
Here’s a story that made us smile this morning. EQT, about to become the country’s biggest natural gas producer once its ~$12.8 billion takeover of Range Resources closes, is leasing two brand-new LNG tankers. And EQT is naming them… wait for it… the Marcellus and the Utica! The ships arrive in 2028. Meanwhile, EQT plans to start trading LNG cargoes as soon as next year, open offices in London and Singapore, and possibly lease up to 10 more ships. Appalachian gas, on EQT-leased ships, with the names of our two great shale plays painted on the side. What’s not to love? 
Last week, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said “no thanks” to Williams’ request to reconsider its September ruling that tossed out New Jersey’s water permit for the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project. The October 22 order (embedded below) means NESE’s New Jersey water quality certification (WQC) stays vacated (i.e., canceled), and the whole matter goes back to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) for a do-over. And here’s what caught our eye: Williams no longer says the ruling won’t affect its schedule. In its rehearing petition, the company admitted the loss “will delay construction” in New Jersey and could jeopardize NESE’s November 1, 2027 in-service date. So what happens now? Let’s walk through it. 
It’s late October, and somebody forgot to tell the weather. Forecasters say heating demand over the next 15 days will be among the lowest in 50 years, with temps in the 60s to 80s across much of the country. That should be bad news for gas prices, right? Not on Monday, at least not in our neck of the woods. Spot (cash) natural gas prices across the Northeast and Appalachia jumped big time. Transco-Leidy, a key pricing point for Marcellus gas in northeastern Pennsylvania, shot up 61 cents to $1.740 per MMBtu — a 54% one-day gain (MDN calc). Algonquin Citygate (New England) surged 71.5 cents to $2.085. Meanwhile, the NYMEX futures price fell to its lowest settlement in six months. What gives? Less gas flowing, mostly. 
National Fuel Gas (NFG) is laying more pipe in Tioga County. Its gathering subsidiary, NFG Midstream Covington, has asked the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for a stream-and-wetland crossing permit for two natural gas pipelines, 24-inch and 20-inch, running side by side through Farmington, Deerfield, and Chatham townships. The notice also mentions a 16-inch water line. The filing comes just 10 days after NFG’s board approved splitting the company in two, and it strongly suggests NFG’s Seneca Resources drilling arm is gearing up for more Utica production in Tioga County. 
Every Saturday, the Pennsylvania Bulletin publishes pages of DEP permit notices that almost nobody reads. We read them so you don’t have to. Taken one at a time, most look routine: an erosion permit here, an air permit there. Lined up side by side, they tell you which drillers are building, and where. Last weekend’s edition (Oct. 24) shows Expand Energy busy across the Northern Tier, Repsol and Seneca/NFG working in Tioga County, Devon still building in Susquehanna County, and XTO getting a new pad ready in Butler County. 
The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its dysfunctional and irresponsible counterpart, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), continues to support the shale energy industry by approving water withdrawals and consumptive use requests for responsible, safe shale drilling. The SRBC published a notice in the October 24th Pennsylvania Bulletin that the SRBC approved and/or renewed 33 general water use permits in September for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Bradford, Lycoming, McKean, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, and Wyoming counties.