Dive Brief: Google will spend more than $25 billion to build out data center and AI infrastructure across the Pennsylvania-based PJM Interconnection power grid in the next two years, the company said Tuesday at the inaugural Pennsylvanian Energy and Innovation Summit hosted by Senator Dave McCormick and attended by President Donald Trump. In addition to expanding its cloud footprint in a region that stretches contiguously across 13 states, including Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio and Virginia, the hyperscaler committed more than $3 billion to modernizing two hydropower plants located in Pennsylvania and launched an AI skills training initiative called AI Works for America. “Google’s investments announced today will increase energy abundance and empower Americans with the skills needed to thrive in the AI era,” Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Google parent company Alphabet, said. “We support President Trump’s clear and urgent direction that our nation invest in AI infrastructure, technology and the energy to unlock its benefits so that America can continue to lead in AI.” Dive Insight: As enterprises search for a return on investments in generative AI technologies, the major cloud providers are in a race to build AI data center capacity that’s chewing through tens of billions of dollars every couple of months. Google plans to boost its capital investments by more than 40% year over year to $75 billion in 2025, CEO Sundar Pichai said in February, pointing to compute capacity constraints and growing demand for its cloud and AI services. In April, the company made a $3 billion commitment to facility buildouts in Virginia and Indiana, vowing to ramp up capacity “to support customer needs and customer demands,” CFO Anat Ashkenazi said during an earnings call. Google’s investments are feeding a spending spree that’s expected to drive global spending on data centers to just under

Dive Brief: The $6.2 billion deal under which the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Blackrock’s Global Infrastructure Partners would buy Allete, a Duluth, Minnesota-based utility company, should be rejected, an administrative law judge said Tuesday. The deal poses foreseeable risks to Minnesota’s energy transition, Allete’s long-term financial health and ratepayers, ALJ Megan McKenzie said in a recommended decision filed with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. “On balance, the risks of the deal, as proposed, outweigh the possible benefits.” McKenzie said. Allete — parent to Minnesota Power and Superior Water, Light and Power — strongly disagreed with the non-binding recommendation, saying it failed to fully consider the benefits of a July 11 settlement agreement with the Minnesota Department of Commerce. “The ALJ report mischaracterizes the parties, their agreements and plans, and the benefits and risks of the acquisition,” Allete said Tuesday. Dive Insight: The proposed Allete transaction, announced in May 2024, has cleared all required regulatory hurdles, except for approval by the Minnesota PUC. However, ALJ McKenzie agreed with entities opposing the deal — the Minnesota Office of the Attorney General, a consortium of Minnesota Power’s large industrial customers, the Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota, the Sierra Club and CURE, an advocacy group — that it doesn’t meet Minnesota’s public interest standard. Allete and its buyers failed to adequately support key arguments for completing the deal, such as improving the utility company’s access to capital and expertise, according to McKenzie. “Petitioners have not shown that the acquisition will improve Allete’s access to capital or even whether Allete needs improved access,” McKenzie said. Also, access to CPP Investments’ and GIP’s expertise appears to have limited value because of assurances that they intend to keep Allete’s existing management, staff and business plan, she said. Further, the private equity model offered by CPP Investments

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed its latest U.S. regular gasoline retail price forecast in its July short term energy outlook (STEO), which was released on July 8. According to this STEO, the EIA sees the U.S. regular gasoline retail price averaging $3.09 per gallon in 2025 and $3.04 per gallon in 2026. In its previous STEO, which was released in June, the EIA projected that the U.S. regular gasoline retail price would come in at $3.09 per gallon this year and $3.08 per gallon next year. The EIA’s latest STEO forecasts that the U.S. regular gasoline retail price will average $3.11 per gallon in the third quarter of this year, $2.99 per gallon in the fourth quarter, $2.93 per gallon in the first quarter of 2026, $3.12 per gallon in the second quarter, $3.16 per gallon in the third quarter, and $2.96 per gallon in the fourth quarter of 2026. In its previous STEO, the EIA projected that the U.S. regular gasoline retail price would average $3.14 per gallon in the third quarter, $2.97 per gallon in the fourth quarter, $2.95 per gallon in the first quarter of next year, $3.17 per gallon in the second quarter, $3.21 per gallon in the third quarter, and $3.01 per gallon in the fourth quarter. Current Prices In its latest gasoline fuel update, which was released on July 15, the EIA showed that the U.S. regular gasoline price averaged $3.164 per gallon on June 30, $3.125 per gallon on July 7, and $3.130 per gallon on July 14. The July 14 price was $0.366 lower than the year ago price, the EIA fuel update outlined. Of the five Petroleum Administration for Defense District (PADD) regions highlighted in the EIA’s latest fuel update, the West Coast was shown to have the highest regular

The decommissioned 2.7-gigawatt (GW) Bruce Mansfield Power Plant will be redeveloped from a coal-fired station into a natural gas-fired station, the Frontier Group of Companies (FGC) said Tuesday. The conversion project, Shippingport Power Station, will be “a significantly larger state-of-the-art natural gas generation plant with new incremental onsite generation”, FGC said in a press release with partners. “Additionally, FGC has secured a partner to build a collocated data center facility to support America’s demand for AI infrastructure”. The project is also expected to supply over one GW of excess capacity to the PJM interconnection region, which comprises all or parts of the District of Columbia and 13 states:  the original core of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland, plus Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. FGC intends to award the gas supply contract to EQT Corp. “Shippingport Power Station is expected to utilize approximately 800 million cubic feet per day of natural gas produced by the Marcellus and Utica shales, located in Western Pennsylvania”, the announcement said. A separate project in Indiana County to redevelop the site of the decommissioned coal-run Homer City Generating Station has also entered into an agreement in principle with EQT for gas supply from the Marcellus shale. National Fuel Gas Co. meanwhile will serve as the transporter for a “significant portion” of the gas deliveries to the Shippingport Power Station. “We look forward to supporting this significant investment in Western Pennsylvania, leveraging our interstate pipeline network to provide reliable deliveries of Appalachian Basin natural gas directly to the facility, with new transportation capacity expected to come online as early as Fall 2026”, said National Fuel Gas president and chief executive David P. Bauer. “The redevelopment project is expected to benefit Pennsylvania with more than $6 billion of new economic

Homer City Redevelopment LLC (HCR), tasked with transforming the decommissioned coal-burning Homer City Generating Station, said Tuesday it had signed an agreement in principle with EQT Corp. for the supply of natural gas to the Homer City Energy Campus. The Homer City Energy Campus will transform the site that was home to Pennsylvania’s largest coal-fired power plant into a 3,200-acre artificial intelligence and high-performance computing data center complex. It is planned to have a 4.4-gigawatt fully integrated on-site gas-run generating station. Startup is expected 2027. “Under the Agreement, HCR will have an unparalleled level of gas supply redundancy for the site with the ability to source gas from both the Texas Eastern Transmission and Eastern Gas Transmission and Storage pipeline systems”, HCR and EQT said in a joint statement. “HCR and EQT will unlock natural gas supply of up to 665,000 MMBTUs [million British thermal units] per day. The transaction is one of the largest single-site natural gas purchases in North American history”. HCR chief executive Corey Hessen commented, “This agreement ensures long-term energy security for the data center campus, while demonstrating our commitment to powering the future with Pennsylvania gas, Pennsylvania power and ultimately, Pennsylvania data centers”. GE Vernova Inc. has bagged a contract to supply its high-efficiency 7HA.02 gas turbines for the redevelopment project. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based power technology company will deliver seven units. Kiewit Power Constructors Co. has won the construction rights. Construction is expected to start this year. The former coal power station, which had a two-gigawatt capacity, ran from 1969 to 2023. The redevelopment project was announced last April. “Much of the critical infrastructure for the project is already in place from the legacy Homer City plant, including transmission lines connected to the PJM and NYISO power grids, substations and water access”, a press release said.

Has the first half of 2025 been good for oil hiring in the United States? That’s the question Rigzone asked Brian Binke, the President and CEO of Michigan based the Birmingham Group, an affiliate of Sanford Rose Associates. Responding to the question, Binke told Rigzone that “it’s been slower than expected – especially upstream” but added that “there’s been steady movement tied to maintenance, optimization, and a few targeted build outs”. When asked why this was the case, Binke said “operators are staying disciplined”. “Rig counts are down, prices have been soft, and most companies are being selective with headcount. That said, hiring hasn’t disappeared – it’s just a lot more focused,” he added. Looking ahead, Rigzone asked Binke if he expects the second half of this year to be good for oil hiring in the country. “There’s potential for a stronger second half, especially if prices tick up or if gas stays active,” Binke told Rigzone, responding to the question. “We’re not expecting a hiring boom, but things could trend up modestly,” he added. When asked why, Binke told Rigzone, “the Trump administration has definitely been more supportive of domestic energy, which helps, but hiring takes more than policy – it depends on market confidence, project timelines, and margins”. “If a few variables line up, we’ll see more demand in key roles before year-end,” he said. Rigzone has asked the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for comment on Binke’s statements. At the time of writing, neither have responded to Rigzone. According to Baker Hughes’ latest North America rotary rig count, which was released on July 11, the U.S. dropped two rigs week on week. The total U.S. rig count stands at 537, according to Baker Hughes’ rig count, which showed that the U.S.