Accidents | Cambria County | Crime | Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania
Pa. AG Files Criminal Charges Against Equitrans for 2022 Accident
Pennsylvania’s Republican Attorney General, Dave Sunday, has turned out to be a MAJOR disappointment. Yesterday, Sunday’s office filed 14 criminal counts against Equitrans Midstream (now owned and part of EQT Corporation) for an accident that happened in 2022. In November 2022, one of the ten natural gas storage wells at the Equitrans Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area in Jackson Township, Cambria County, began to leak. Equitrans is the owner/operator of Rager Mountain. The well leaked roughly 100 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of gas into the atmosphere (see Equitrans Gas Storage Well in Cambria County, PA is Leaking). Read More “Pa. AG Files Criminal Charges Against Equitrans for 2022 Accident”
Duke Energy is a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, NC, and is one of America’s largest energy holding companies. Duke’s electric utilities serve 8.2 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, and it collectively owns 50,000 megawatts of energy-generating capacity. Duke’s natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, and Kentucky. The company employs 28,000 people. We’ve covered many stories over the years of Duke seeking to build new gas-fired power generation throughout its territory. Here’s another new one: Duke wants to build two new gas-fired power plants (combined capacity of 850 megawatts) near its home base, just outside of Charlotte in Rowan County, NC. 
In January 2023, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a leftist Democrat, floated a plan to ban natural gas hookups in every single new home and business across the “Empire” State (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: McCormick touts Pa. summit as key to US energy and tech leadership; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Texas must balance speedy data center buildout with risk of stranded costs; Halliburton CEO warns of ‘softer’ OFS market; Chevron alerts Texas to 575 layoffs at Hess’ Houston office; Poll finds NJ residents prioritize energy security over radical climate policies; NATIONAL: Natural gas price volatility fell over the first half of 2025; EPA Administrator Zeldin is the most important man in Washington; Wells Fargo charged with complicity by climate crazies; Data center developers increasingly exploring off-grid options for power generation; Gas boom grows, solar boom slows amid a failing energy transition; INTERNATIONAL: Oil rallies on trade talk momentum; China’s fossil fuel imports from US tank before trade talks; Green hydrogen retreat poses threat to emissions targets. 
EQT Corporation delivered its latest quarterly update yesterday for the second quarter of 2025. It was jam-packed. The company had a fantastic 2Q25, including closing on the acquistion of Olympus Energy for $1.8 billion, launching an open season to increase the capacity of the southbound Mountain Valley Pipeline from 2.0 to 2.5 Bcf/d, and making two deals (although not yet finalized) to provide 800 MMcf/d of natural gas for the Shippingport Power Station in Beaver County, PA, and 665 MMcf/d for the Homer City Redevelopment project in Indiana County, PA. EQT also signed an agreement to be the exclusive provider of midstream infrastructure for West Virginia’s first large-scale natural gas power plant and secured a third-party gathering contract to expand the Saturn pipeline system in West Virginia. 
Embedded in yesterday’s EQT Corporation update for the second quarter was the news that EQT’s plan to expand capacity along the existing 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA, is getting a “jumpstart” this year. One year ago, EQT announced a plan to expand capacity along MVP, from 2.0 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) to 2.5 Bcf/d (see 
In June, EQT Corp. agreed to pay $167.5 million to investors who claimed the company overstated the benefits of its $6.7 billion merger with Rice Energy (see 
According to Enverus Intelligence Research, the upstream M&A (mergers and acquisitions) sector “hit the brakes” during the second quarter, falling 21% quarter-over-quarter to $13.5 billion. There were two Marcellus/Utica deals in the top five. Actually, our two deals were in the top three. The announcement by EOG Resources cutting a deal to buy Encino Energy in the Ohio Utica for $5.6 billion was the #1 highest value M&A deal in upstream O&G during 2Q (see 
Ascent Resources, founded as American Energy Partners by Aubrey McClendon, a gas industry legend, is a privately held company that focuses 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. Ascent, headquartered in Oklahoma City, OK, is Ohio’s largest natural gas producer and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S. Yesterday, Ascent published its 2024 Sustainability Report, chronicling the company’s environmental, health and safety; social; and governance (ESG) efforts and accomplishments in 2024. 
You know the old phrase “All talk and no action”? Donald Trump and his administration are the opposite—or at least, a variation. Trump does talk…a lot. But he’s also a man of action. Last week, Trump visited Pittsburgh to announce $92 billion worth of investments in the Keystone State related to AI and data centers (see 
In September 2022, EQT announced a deal to buy privately owned Tug Hill Operating’s West Virginia shale assets (90,000 acres and 800 MMcf/d of production in West Virginia) for roughly $5.2 billion (see 