Geothermal energy continues to make strides toward wider deployment, as lawmakers in both Congress and the Pennsylvania legislature recently passed bills to streamline permitting and develop regulations. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Geothermal Energy Advancement Act with bipartisan support. The package of legislation includes several bills to streamline permitting and cut regulatory red tape on federal lands, offer geothermal developers the same streamlined pe

Impact fees on natural gas drilling are increasing by 48% in 2025 to the highest amount since 2022, largely due to higher prices that raised the fee imposed on each well. The Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office and the Public Utility Commission recently reported that the state collected $243.9 million for 2025 from unconventional well drilling, an increase of $79.3 million from 2024’s $164.6 million. The total is higher than an IFO estimate released late last year. The inc

Pennsylvania municipal officials and economic development and planning specialists have a new resource to help them navigate the process of planning for future data center development in their communities. In conjunction with the recent release of the Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development (GRID) initiative establishing standards for data centers to receive support from the commonwealth, the administration also announced a new local government toolkit to help munic

Requirements for Pennsylvania data center developers seeking state support, faster permitting, and access to tax incentives were recently unveiled by Gov. Josh Shapiro. The Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development (GRID) Standards were initially proposed as part of Shapiro’s 2026-27 budget outline, and the recently released standards provide details of that plan. The GRID standards establish best practices that data centers must comply with to receive support from st

Regional grid operator PJM Interconnection is rethinking how its wholesale electricity market is operated as it struggles to keep up with rising demand from data centers while keeping prices affordable for consumers. PJM is the Pennsylvania-based regional transmission organization that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states and the District of Columbia. It recently published a white paper that assesses the curre

Two coal mines in Greene County are among the recipients of $267 million in state funding for energy and decarbonization projects in the state. Gov. Josh Shapiro and the state Department of Environmental Protection recently announced the grants to 31 manufacturing projects across the state through the Reducing Industrial Sector Emissions in Pennsylvania, or RISE PA, program. The largest award was $31.5 million given to CNX Green Ventures to fund the installation of gob ventil

Pennsylvania’s utility regulator recently approved an order to guide how data centers and other energy-intensive customers can connect to the electric grid to ensure that existing ratepayers don’t shoulder the costs for infrastructure upgrades. The Public Utility Commission unanimously approved a model tariff for large load customers following an extensive review to address the rapid expansion of large load customers and the potential impacts on customer costs, infrastructure

Pennsylvania has a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to benefit economically by hosting large-scale data centers and supplying the power and manufacturing the equipment that development needs across the PJM regional grid footprint, a new study found. The report, “Pennsylvania Builds the Cloud: Manufacturing, Energy, and Data Center Development” was recently released by the Pittsburgh Technology Council and the Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies. The study f

A $1.7 billion high-voltage power line project to help the regional electric grid improve reliability and meet rising power demand in other parts of the Mid-Atlantic region is planned to be built through 10 Western and Central Pennsylvania counties. The Kammer-Juniata Project is a 765-kilovolt (kV) line that will span 220 miles from the Kammer substation in northern West Virginia, through Greene, Fayette, and eight other counties to the Juniata substation in Perry County. It

Almost 50 years after ground was broken for the Mon-Fayette Expressway project, construction of several more segments of the still uncompleted highway between the Mon Valley and Pittsburgh’s eastern suburbs is continuing. The expressway project has been talked about since the 1970s as a way to improve the fortunes of struggling Mon Valley communities by making it easier and quicker to get to Pittsburgh. However, it has seen a number of delays as the Pennsylvania Turnpike Com

After more than a year of study, a state government advisory committee has released a report that examines how artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping the global economy and creating concerns about privacy, misuse, and disruption to the workforce in a number of areas. The Joint State Government Commission was directed by the legislature in 2023 to develop the report, and an advisory committee of 20 legislative, business, academic, and technology leaders met over more t

After pressure from federal and state officials, regional electric grid operator PJM Interconnection has agreed to extend its price cap on some wholesale energy costs for an additional two years. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro recently announced the extension of the cap on the maximum price PJM will pay for guaranteed electricity during its twice-yearly capacity auctions. The cap was first put in place in 2024. “This is going to save 67 million Americans $27 billion on their

Energy is a main focus in Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s fiscal 2026-27 budget proposal, as he continues to push to keep electric rates down for residential customers while also encouraging economic development. Part of his $53.2 billion budget proposal addresses the development of data centers in the state, which have become an increasing concern to communities and the primary source of surging electric demand. That has sent costs across the PJM regional electric grid up

The rising demand and cost for energy has put the issue at the forefront of policy discussions at both the federal and state levels. Regional electric grid operator PJM Interconnection has been struggling to streamline and update its regulations to be able to quickly connect new power generation project to the grid at the same time it is seeing a rapid increase in electric demand from data center operators and other large-load customers. This has led to a supply-demand imbal

A new report from the National Laboratory of the Rockies outlines the progress being made in deploying geothermal energy in the U.S. Installed geothermal capacity increased by 8% between 2020 and 2024, reaching 3,969 megawatts (MW) of power. The 2025 U.S. Geothermal Market Report , which updates a previous 2021 version, also shows that that developers are showing interest in the emerging renewable technology, as more than $1.5 billion in private capital has been invested in n

A recent Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office report gave an early Christmas gift to counties and municipalities across the state, forecasting that impact fees paid by unconventional natural gas well drillers will rise by 46% in 2025. The IFO recently released its 2025 impact fee estimate , which projects that $240 million will be collected, up substantially from last year’s total of $164.4 million. The 2025 figure is expected to end two years of decline due to low prices

After years of legislative and legal maneuvering, Pennsylvania’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is officially over. The Legislature recently voted to withdraw from the regional initiative as part of its deal on the state’s overdue budget . RGGI is a regional carbon emissions cap-and-trade program with 10 member states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. In RGGI’s system, power plants would be required to purchase credits per ton of carbon dioxide emitt

The potential of geothermal systems to help in meeting Pennsylvania’s increasing energy needs was recently examined in a study by the...

Pennsylvania is ranked 22nd of the 50 states for energy efficiency in a recent report that looks at each state’s policy and program...

The rapid increase in the number of data center across the country stemming from the rise of artificial intelligence and the use of cloud...