Congressional Dems from NC, VA Attack SESE & MVP Southgate Projects
We suppose it’s no surprise that left-wing Congressional Democrats from North Carolina and Virginia are attacking two natural gas pipeline projects that are close to final approval and the start of construction. One project is Williams’ Transco Southeast Supply Enhancement Project (SESE), the other is EQT’s MVP Southgate project. Both projects would be built in the same general area, starting at the same point near Chatham, Virginia, and ending near Eden, North Carolina. Both have customers ready to take their gas. Southgate recently received a favorable environmental assessment (EA) from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see FERC Issues Favorable Enviro Assessment for MVP Southgate Pipeline). Three members of Congress are now asking FERC to take additional time to complete an environmental impact statement (EIS) for each project. Read More “Congressional Dems from NC, VA Attack SESE & MVP Southgate Projects”
Oilfield services company (OFS) Mammoth Energy Services, headquartered in Oklahoma City, OK, operates in the Marcellus/Utica Shale and other major plays like the Permian and SCOOP/STACK. Mammoth announced yesterday that it has completed the sale of its wholly owned engineering subsidiary, Aquawolf LLC, to Qualus, LLC for $30.0 million. The company says the sale advances its “ongoing transformation and portfolio optimization initiatives.” 
New York’s “cap and invest” Climate Act law effectively rations fossil fuels while taxing them heavily. The system limits fuel sales through caps and requires distributors to buy allowances, passing costs on to consumers. With a mandated 30% emissions reduction by 2030, the Climate Act will cause dangerous shortages of essentials such as fuel oil and natural gas for heating and gasoline for transportation. There is a real danger that households will run out of heating fuel during cold winters. Even Gov. Hochul is now criticizing the law as “infeasible.” Capping the state’s main energy sources is an impractical and ruinous strategy that threatens the state’s standard of living. 
Congressman Troy Balderson (R-OH) and Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) have introduced a bill that is critical to correcting a long-standing abuse of our justice system. The Curtailing Litigation Excess and Abuse Reform (CLEAR) Act of 2025 will streamline American energy infrastructure projects. The legislation targets “serial litigation” by activist groups, ensuring that once a court rules on a project, opponents cannot repeatedly delay it through additional legal battles. By limiting these indefinite delays while still preserving environmental protections, the bill aims to restore investor certainty, lower energy costs, and support national goals regarding AI competitiveness and grid reliability. The bill balances accelerated construction with legitimate oversight. 
This story has nothing to do with the Marcellus/Utica (apologies in advance), other than the companies involved have operations in or purchase molecules from the M-U region. We decided to launch an occasional “Bizarre Files” to call attention to energy news that is, well, bizarre. How about this: France-based TotalEnergies, along with Netherlands-based TES and several Japanese utility companies, are collaborating to produce what is called electric natural gas (e-NG), also known as e-methane, in Nebraska. The e-NG will be exported to Japan. Here’s where it gets interesting, and bizarre… 
NATIONAL: Natural gas futures fall amid uncertain weather forecasts; Solar bankruptcy Pine Gate Renewables (boom to bust continues); Modern Hydrogen lays off most of its employees after decade-long pursuit of clean energy; Environmental Defense Fund staffers launch union; Soaring U.S. natural gas prices could boost coal power generation; Google plans to power a new data center with fossil fuels, yet release almost no emissions; Energy Department renames renewable energy lab to reflect Trump’s fossil fuel focus; INTERNATIONAL: Crude settles lower on peace talk jitters; Canada’s first compressed air storage facility; EU seals deal to phase out Russian gas by 2027; India’s Russian oil dilemma – cheap crude, costly consequences. 
Today is data center day here at MDN, given that most of our main stories today revolve around the issue of data centers, facilities full of computers that need enormous amounts of electricity, most of which will be generated by gas-fired power plants. This past summer, Pennsylvania’s newest U.S. Senator, Dave McCormick, convened the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit in Pittsburgh. Together with the Trump administration, McCormick announced a mind-blowing $92 billion of promised new investment for PA mostly related to AI data centers (see 
Continuing on our data center theme, a new article by MDN friend Gordon Tomb, a senior fellow with the Commonwealth Foundation, makes the case that Pennsylvania needs more energy and sensible regulation to lure data centers. There is a stark contrast to what PA legislators are offering. On the Republican side, legislators are offering a bill that would expedite permits for data center projects that meet or exceed federal standards (see 
We have to (immodestly) say that we spotted the environmental left’s opposition to AI data centers a mile away. We were the first to alert you to PA green groups lining up to oppose data centers based on an irrational hatred of the fossil energy that powers them (see 
More “noise” that will discourage data center development in Pennsylvania: PJM Interconnection’s market monitor, Monitoring Analytics, filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) urging that large data centers be barred from connecting to the grid unless they can be reliably served. The monitor argues that PJM’s consideration of allowing loads that might necessitate periodic blackouts violates its reliability obligations and is unjust. While Monitoring Analytics is independent of PJM, they are usually on the same “side.” Not this time. 
Two weeks ago, Pennsylvania finally passed a budget, four months late. As part of the deal struck between Democrats and Republicans, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme was permanently ash-canned (see 
According to Reuters, U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports hit a new all-time monthly high in November for the second straight month, driven by cooler weather and robust output from the country’s two largest producers. Even so, the Trump administration is considering further steps to speed up the buildout of LNG export infrastructure. For example, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is considering a blanket permit rather than assessing each new project individually before approving its construction. 
The number of new permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica from November 17 – 23 was 23, down from 31 issued the prior week. Pennsylvania issued 13 new permits, down 1 from the prior week. Ohio got skunked, issuing no new permits. Must be the ODNR staffers went on vacation early for Thanksgiving. West Virginia made up for Ohio’s poor performance by issuing 10 permits, down 2 from the prior week. 
Wow! The price of natural gas, both for futures contract trading and for spot prices (at least here in the Marcellus/Utica), continues to soar. Not two months ago prices were struggling to stay above $3/MMBtu. As of last Friday, the NYMEX front-month futures price gained 29.2 cents (6.4%) to close at $4.85/MMBtu. The NYMEX price for the month of November gained 72.6 cents per MMBtu, up 17.6%. And get this: The overall average for all physical/spot trading hubs in the M-U region closed at $4.03 on Friday. That’s huge! Cold weather is the primary factor, although new record-high demand coming from LNG export facilities also helps.