FERC Approves Major Powergen Deal: Constellation Buying Calpine
In January, Constellation Energy (a huge power-generating company) announced a deal to buy out and merge with Calpine (another huge power-generating company). Calpine owns 79 energy facilities across the country, generating some 27 gigawatts (GW) of electricity, with a large number located in the eastern U.S. Many of Calpine’s facilities use natural gas to produce electricity. The two companies combined would own almost 60 GW of nuclear, natural gas, geothermal, hydro, wind, solar, cogeneration, and battery storage. Although several regulatory agencies must sign off on the deal, the primary agency that needs to clear it is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Last week, FERC gave its stamp of approval. Read More “FERC Approves Major Powergen Deal: Constellation Buying Calpine”
NATIONAL: Last year’s U.S.-Canada energy trade was valued around $150 billion; Will the One Big Beautiful Bill increase the price of electricity?; Electricity has no color, let’s stop pretending it does; Trump’s permitting chief wants to take ‘yes’ for an answer; All spin aside, emerging AI data centers will rely on natural gas; INTERNATIONAL: WTI breaks out as Trump targets Russian oil buyers; The World Court rules against fossil fuels. 
In the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Today in Energy online publication, the EIA lays out the case that more Marcellus/Utica molecules will help supply Gulf Coast LNG export facilities in the future. The EIA says the economics of producing more gas in the Appalachian Basin are more favorable. It’s just cheaper to produce natural gas in the M-U. The EIA’s models show that natural gas is and will transit through the Eastern Midwest region on the way to the Gulf Coast. Pipelines will carry our molecules over (to the Midwest) and then down (to the Gulf Coast). It’s a beautiful thing! 
In 2009, during the Obamadroid administration, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adopted a major regulatory rule called the “endangerment finding.” The finding concluded that six so-called greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) — constitute an endangerment to public health and welfare due to their contribution to global warming (which is a complete hoax). The finding gave the EPA the power to regulate those gases under the Clean Air Act. Yesterday, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin released a proposal to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding, which has been used to justify over $1 trillion in regulations, including President Autopen’s electric vehicle (EV) mandate. 
“The haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate…shake it off, shake it off.” – Taylor Swift
In December 2022, Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities Company (KU), both subsidiaries of PPL Corporation, announced a plan to replace 1,500 megawatts of aging coal-fired generation (nearly one-third of Kentucky’s coal fleet) with two 645-MW natural gas combined-cycle units along with several unreliable, intermittent solar projects (see 
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) yesterday released a new report, “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate” (full copy below), evaluating existing peer-reviewed literature and government data on climate impacts of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions and providing a critical assessment of the conventional narrative on climate change. The report was developed by the 2025 Climate Working Group, a group of five independent scientists assembled by Energy Secretary Chris Wright with diverse expertise in physical science, economics, climate science, and academic research. Among the key findings, the report concludes that CO2-induced warming appears to be less damaging economically than commonly believed, and that aggressive mitigation strategies may be misdirected. Additionally, the report finds that U.S. policy actions are expected to have undetectably small direct impacts on the global climate, and any effects will emerge only with long delays. 
Permitting reform—shortening the amount of time and eliminating some of the onerous regulations that stand in the way of permitting new energy projects—has been a hot topic for at least the last three years, if not longer. Before leaving the Senate last year, West Virginia’s then-Senator, Joe Manchin, tried to get a bill passed to address permitting reform (see 
Here we go again. We can see the headlines now: Dimock II…Paging Josh Fox!…Shale Drilling Contaminates Water Wells, Again. Coterra Energy is responsible for methane migrating more than a mile away to 13 “water supplies” (wells?) located around a nearby lake, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The offending nine wells sit on the Housel R Well Pad 1 in Susquehanna County’s Lenox Township. Coincidentally, Lenox Township is not all that far from Dimock Township. 
Two pipeline kingpins are engaged in a scuffle with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to get their competing pipeline projects approved. One is Williams’ Transco Southeast Supply Enhancement Project, 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 claim they have customers ready to take their gas. In a recent FERC filing, Williams said that its project could easily handle Southgate MVP’s capacity by adding meter tubes and regulation at an existing station. EQT is not pleased with the attempt to undercut Southgate. The question is: Will FERC approve both, or just one? 
In June, MDN told you that Venture Global (VG) had begun construction on the Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2) LNG export facility in Cameron Parish, Louisiana (see 
President Donald Trump has been visiting Europe. Lucky him. While there, he finalized a trade agreement with the European Union (EU) that is “the biggest [trade] deal ever,” according to Trump. While there are many components to the deal, the key, the big piece we are interested in, is energy. The EU has agreed to buy $750 billion worth of our energy exports (mostly LNG) over the next 3 1/2 years of Trump’s presidency, and invest another $600 billion in the U.S. during the same period. Massive! The deal is so big, so massive, and such a success that mainstream media is panning it as unrealistic and an impossible fantasy. They haven’t learned their lesson with Trump. Never underestimate him. 
According to a new report from Enverus and its research division, only 30% of solar and 57% of onshore wind projects are likely to survive the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) recently signed into law by President Trump (see