Big Tax Loophole for OH Gas-Fired Power Plants Owned by Data Centers
Data centers are all the rage these days. It seems like a new data center is announced weekly somewhere in the Eastern U.S. Ohio has its fair share of them coming to the Buckeye State (see our Ohio data center stories here). Back in 2013, the state passed a law incentivizing companies to build data centers in the state. Now, the state is seeing a flood of new data centers. Data centers need a lot of power, and they need it badly. So, many of the data centers are building captive gas-fired power plants to provide electricity. Gas-fired power plants don’t get big tax breaks like data centers do, but in this case, the gas-fired plants are considered part of the data center, ergo, they qualify for the tax break. Ooops. Read More “Big Tax Loophole for OH Gas-Fired Power Plants Owned by Data Centers”
Glenfarne’s Texas LNG facility in Brownsville, Texas, will have the capacity to export 4 MTPA. EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas producer in the Marcellus/Utica, signed two agreements with Glenfarne to liquefy 2.0 million tons per annum (MTPA) of EQT-extracted shale gas at the facility when it’s built (see 
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it will delay the implementation of new limits on methane emissions from oil and gas development by an extra 18 months, until January 22, 2027. The Trump EPA is considering scrapping the onerous regs altogether. The regulations were cooked up during the terror reign of President Autopen. Big Green, which loved the Autopen years, filed a lawsuit challenging the delay. No surprise there. 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: To make NY more affordable, Gov. Hochul needs to ditch her all-electric plan and push natgas; NATIONAL: Weather forecast fog keeps natural gas futures in holding pattern; BlackRock, other fund managers lose bid to dismiss Texas climate collusion lawsuit; Exxon, Chevron surpass estimates with record oil production; Brookfield acquires Colonial Pipeline; Recent legislation reveals President Trump’s regulatory approach; Democrats retreat on the Green New Deal; South Korea reaches trade deal with Trump; INTERNATIONAL: Oil sinks as slew of weak us economic data revives demand fears; OPEC+ 8 announce 547,000 bpd ‘production adjustment’ for Sept; Wetland methane emissions accelerate due to rising temperatures. 
For the week of July 21 – 27, the number of permits issued to drill new wells in the Marcellus/Utica decreased from the previous week. There were 14 new permits issued across the three M-U states last week, three fewer than the 17 issued two weeks ago. The Keystone State (PA) issued 13 new permits. Expand Energy received seven new permits, spread across two pads in Wyoming County. EQT received four new permits for a single pad in Lycoming County. Formentera Operations received a single permit in Lycoming County. Rounding out PA, Coterra Energy received a single permit in Susquehanna County. 
Antero Resources, which is 100% focused on the Marcellus/Utica with over 500,000 net acres under lease (and the largest M-U driller in West Virginia), issued its second quarter 2025 update yesterday. The company reports net production in 2Q25 averaged 3.43 Bcfe/d, up ever-so-slightly from 3.42 Bcfe/d in 2Q24. Natural gas production averaged 2.23 Bcf/d, a 4% increase from the same period in 2023. Liquids (NGLs & oil) production averaged 200 MBbl/d, a 6% decrease from the year-ago period. A little less liquids, a little more gas. Antero achieved a net income of $157 million and adjusted net income of $110 million. Free Cash Flow was $262 million. For the full year, Antero increased production guidance to 3.4 to 3.45 Bcfe/d, driven by strong well performance. 
A group of 26 financial officers (state treasurers) from 21 states sent letters to 18 major financial institutions this week, including BlackRock, warning them to abandon environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices if they wish to continue doing business with their states. Notably, Pennsylvania’s Treasurer, Stacy Garrity, was one of the signatories on the letter. West Virginia’s Treasurer, Larry Pack, signed, too. Unfortunately, Ohio’s Treasurer, Robert Sprague (a Republican), was NOT one of the signatories. Curious. 
Freeport LNG has become something of a punchline with respect to the frequent outages experienced at the facility. Except, it’s no laughing matter. Outages at Freeport have happened so frequently that we’ve lost count. Wednesday, the facility was offline again, affecting gas flows to (and from) the facility on Wednesday and Thursday. This time, the reason for the outage was that power to the City of Freeport and surrounding communities, including the LNG plant, was out. Which raises the question, doesn’t Freeport LNG have a backup generator for times like that? Apparently not. When Freeport goes down, it affects natural gas prices here at home and around the world. Yes, this one facility has that kind of impact. 
Expand Energy, formed by the merger of Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy, is the largest natural gas producer in the U.S. with approximately 1.9 million leased net acres. The company operates in three distinct regions: Northeast Appalachia (Pennsylvania), Southwest Appalachia (mostly West Virginia, but also Pennsylvania and Ohio), and the Haynesville (Louisiana). The company issued its second quarter 2025 results yesterday. In 2Q25, Expand operated an average of 11 rigs, drilling 49 wells and turning 59 wells in line to sales, resulting in net production of approximately 7.20 Bcfe per day (92% natural gas). Notably, the company has cut $100 million from its capital budget this year, yet says it will maintain production at current levels. 
NOTE: We owe Pin Oak an apology. We got this one wrong. In our original post, we implied that Pin Oak was guilty (or at least tardy) of not restoring multiple wells it had purchased from Geopetro. In fact, the exact opposite is true, as you will read below. MDN spoke to Pin Oak after publishing this post, and the company was kind enough to send us a clarification.
In January 2023, Ohio House Bill (HB) 507 became law with the signature of Gov. Mike DeWine (see 
The Commonwealth Court in Pennsylvania is extremely important. It is one of two intermediate appellate courts (the other being Superior Court). The jurisdiction of the nine-judge Commonwealth Court is limited to appeals from final orders of certain state agencies (including the Department of Environmental Protection) and certain designated cases from the Courts of Common Pleas involving public sector legal questions, government regulation, and certain matters involving not-for-profit organizations. There is an open seat on Commonwealth Court. The Republican running, Matt Wolford, would be a great addition.