MDN’s Energy Stories of Interest: Thu, Oct 8, 2026
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Democrat candidate for Ohio’s 94th district calls for moratorium on injection wells; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Duke Energy protects customers from data center costs; Hochul’s energy infrastructure development plan is rhetoric, not a plan; Connecticut is writing its energy playbook for the next four years; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas futures gain ahead of storage data; Democrats sue to raise your electric bill; Kalshi files proposal for never-expiring oil contract; Mixed outlook for energy expenditures this winter; US will rescind policy targeting oil and gas industry methane leaks; INTERNATIONAL: Oil dips as Middle East flows recover; U.S. and Russia explore Nord Stream restart, sources say. Read More “MDN’s Energy Stories of Interest: Thu, Oct 8, 2026”
The Allegheny County Board of Health has fired the first shot in what looks like a slow-motion campaign to squeeze shale drilling out of the county. At its September meeting, the board voted unanimously to have the county health department look into whether Article 21, the county’s air pollution rulebook, should be rewritten to remove permitting exemptions that oil and gas operations now enjoy. Nothing changes yet. But the idea came straight out of the board’s own “Fracking Committee,” chaired by a writer for an anti-fracking group, and the folks at Food & Water Watch are already celebrating. Here’s what happened, what it could mean for drillers and landowners in Allegheny County, and why MDN isn’t buying the “it’s just a review” line. 
The Marcellus/Utica water business just got a bit more consolidated. HydroEdge Solutions, a Canonsburg (Washington County, PA) company that moves frack water from point A to point B, has acquired a majority interest in Bridgeville (Allegheny County) based RES Water. The combined outfit will have about 350 employees, five water treatment, recycling, and storage facilities in Pennsylvania, roughly 700,000 barrels of storage, and the ability to process up to 116,000 barrels of water per day. If the HydroEdge name rings a bell, it should. Back in June, HydroEdge (operating as Myers Water Transfer) bought one of the three Williamsport-area sites formerly run by troubled Eureka Resources, a story MDN has followed closely since Eureka’s “black goop” spill into the Susquehanna River in August 2025. 
Here’s one you don’t see every day. A Democratic polling firm, one that boasts of helping elect Democrats all the way up to the White House, says a majority of New York voters want the Constitution Pipeline built. And it isn’t close on natural gas itself: roughly three out of four New Yorkers support using natural gas in the Empire State. Somebody, please forward this to Food & Water Watch, which has been telling anyone who will listen that the “overwhelming majority” of New Yorkers oppose Constitution. Before we pop the champagne, though, there’s some fine print you need to see, including the question of who paid for this poll. 
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) says U.S. natural gas production hit a new all-time high in July 2026: 137 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of “gross withdrawals.” That’s great news for the country. But when MDN dug into the state-by-state numbers behind the headline, we found the Marcellus/Utica didn’t help set the record. In fact, Appalachian output dropped in July. The record was made in Texas and New Mexico. 
Remember all those years of protesters chaining themselves to equipment, lawsuits by the dozen, and court-ordered work stoppages trying to kill the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP)? Here’s what West Virginians got for finally building it: a fat new check. A new report from West Virginia State Treasurer Larry Pack’s office finds that MVP drove a 62% jump in the value of rural utility property in the 11 counties it crosses, generating nearly $27.1 million in new property tax revenue in a single year—about $9.1 million for county commissions and nearly $18 million for local schools. MVP-related utility property accounted for more than 86% of ALL the growth in property tax revenue in those counties. One pipeline. Eighty-six percent. 
The pipeline got fixed. The price didn’t. In midday trading on Monday, Eastern Gas South (the M-U pricing point formerly known as Dominion South) sold for $1.005 per MMBtu, while Henry Hub in Louisiana sat at $2.960. That’s a $1.955 haircut. Gas sold in our backyard fetched about one-third of the national benchmark price. And M-U drillers are doing what smart business people do: leaving gas in the ground until someone offers a fair price for it. 
Yesterday was the first Monday in October, which means the U.S. Supreme Court opened a new term. The very first case the justices heard may be the most important case for the oil and gas industry, including Marcellus/Utica drillers, in a generation. The case is Suncor Energy v. County Commissioners of Boulder County. It asks whether a city or county can haul energy companies into its own state court and make them pay for the costs of climate change. If the answer is yes, Chief Justice John Roberts predicted a copycat lawsuit from “a municipality in every single state.” That’s not a scare tactic. It’s a business plan for trial lawyers. 
On Sept. 22, Alpha Compute Corp. (Nasdaq: ALP) said it was buying an old Pennsylvania oil field (county not named) for $5.5 million and planned to put a second 200 MW data center on it (see 
Well, well, well. Venture Global (VG) has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to place Phase 1 of its Plaquemines LNG export plant in Louisiana “in service.” In plain English, VG says the plant is finally ready to start shipping LNG to the customers who signed long-term contracts with it, beginning October 31. Never mind that the plant has already shipped at least 417 full cargoes since December 2024 (and probably closer to 500 by now). VG made a killing selling those cargoes on the spot market at sky-high prices. Its contract customers, the folks whose signatures got the plant financed, have been waiting. We’ve called this practice disgusting before, and we haven’t changed our minds.