Brent Bobsein, CNX VP to Discuss Importance of Natural Gas to AI Data Centers in the Appalachian Basin

PITTSBURGH, PA, UNITED STATES, April 29, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Huge growth in data center construction – and the jaw-dropping amount of power each center requires – bodes well for the natural gas industry and the Appalachian Basin specifically.

In the past, that power would have been provided via the nation’s power grid. But regional transmission organizations, which coordinate, control, and monitor a multi-state piece of the grid, are not in the best of shape.

Thus, if the power can’t reach the data centers, bring the data centers to the Basin, according to Brent Bobsein.

“The grid is just not set up to handle the predicament they’re in,” said Brent Bobsein, Vice President of Sustainable Development at CNX Resources Corporation, a premier, ultra-low carbon intensive integrated natural gas company and operator of the largest waste methane capture operation in the world from active and abandoned coal mines. “With grids constrained, the logical solution is to allow us (natural gas suppliers) to provide power to data centers, and for those centers to be built nearer to the power supply.”

Bobsein will discuss how Appalachian Basin gas fits into the data center power needs equation during the first Appalachian AI Energy Conference. The one-day program is set for May 21, at the Hilton Garden Inn Pittsburgh/Southpointe, is presented by the H2-CCS Network and Shale Directories.

The Basin offers proximity to large population centers in the US and local access to an abundant and reliable supply of fuel should data center developers and owners want to build their own quick start combined cycle facility or whatever option is selected to provide data center power.

“There’s no question we have bountiful fuel here in the Appalachian Basin,” Bobsein said. “We’re offering direct, local power.”

With numerous brownfield sites to place the boxy centers, an abundance of water for cooling massive data centers, and an eager workforce, Appalachia has all the pieces needed to establish a data center “hub,” according to Bobsein.

“We are in favor of public-private partnerships to fund data center projects,” he said.

Known primarily as a natural gas producer, CNX’s gas assets were primarily derived from legacy mining operations, having been spun off in 2017, from the former Consol Energy (now Core Natural Resources).

Current safety standards and regulations applicable to underground mining require that CMM be ventilated and released to protect the safety of underground mine workers, however CMM is a potent greenhouse gas and there are no current regulations that require CMM emissions to be captured or otherwise abated from release to the atmosphere. CMM has been recognized by the EPA as a clean-burning fuel.

Coal mines are responsible for nearly 10% of U.S. methane emissions, according to EPA, however <1% of mines capture their CMM emissions. Similar to Renewable Natural Gas (RNG), CMM can be captured and utilized rather than released to atmosphere.

“We have a very real opportunity to expand and do more with our coal mine methane operations,” Bobsein said.

For More Information
Joe Barone, President & Founder
Shale Directories
jbarone@shaledirectories.com
610-764-1232

Joseph Barone
Shale Directories
+1 610-764-1232
jbarone@shaledirectories.com