The Northeast region of the United States includes the states of West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, as well as the entirety of New England, which is made up of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The Northeast is an important region for fossil fuel production especially for coal and natural gas, which replaced coal as the primary fuel used for electricity generation in the region. Transporting fuel throughout the Northeast requires an intricate network of rail lines for transporting coal and numerous pipelines for the transportation of highly reliant and affordable natural gas and oil. The Northeast plays an integral role in America’s energy industry, both domestically and internationally, and its importance to America’s energy security cannot be understated.
The Role of Coal in the Northeast
Of the top 5 coal-producing states, the second and third largest producers, coming in after Wyoming, are in the Northeast. In 2022, West Virginia produced 14% of the nation’s coal, while Pennsylvania produced 7% accounting for a combined 21% of all national production. With the exception of West Virginia where coal-fired power plants accounted for 89% of electricity generation in 2022, natural gas is regularly favored for electricity generation in the northeast; in 2022, coal still accounted for 19.5% of electricity generation in the United States.
Although the use of coal for power generation has declined over time, it remains a highly valuable export for the Northeast. Northeastern coal, primarily from West Virginia and Pennsylvania, is shipped via rail by CSX or Norfolk Southern, who provide most rail services east of the Mississippi, and arrives at the Port of Baltimore. Once processed, it is loaded onto ocean vessels and distributed around the world – the Port of Baltimore accounted for 28% of all American coal exports in 2023 with the majority going to India.
Natural gas and oil play an important role in both residential and commercial energy consumption in the Northeast and the nation as a whole. In 2024, approximately half of the region used natural gas as its primary fuel source for generating electricity. Meanwhile, 82% of the 4.79 million Americans who use oil to heat their homes, reside in the Northeast.
Pennsylvania is the second largest natural gas producer after Texas, producing 7.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2022 and 2023 – 20% of the U.S.’s total. In that same year, West Virginia produced 2.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, making it the country’s fourth-largest producer. Given that in 2022, the United States consumed 33.31 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, accounting for 33% of national primary energy consumption for that same year, the northeast contributes significantly to the overall energy production of the United States. Natural gas consumption is spread out into five categories: the electric power sector, accounting for 38% in 2022, the industrial sector, accounting for 32%, the residential sector, accounting for 15%, the commercial sector, accounting for 11%, and the transportation sector, accounting for 4%.
Pipelines & Regulatory Constraints
Transporting the Northeast’s natural gas requires several pipelines with both domestic and international terminals; although more are sorely needed. The largest of the region’s pipelines is the Maritimes and Northeast pipeline, a 684-mile-long pipeline that transports natural gas from Nova Scotia to parts of Canada and America’s Northeastern states. Passing through Maine and New Hampshire, the Maritimes and Northeast connect to the American natural gas pipeline grid in Dracut, Massachusetts where it disperses the Canadian natural gas further throughout the United States.
Although the region is rich in natural gas, thanks in part to the Marcellus Shale Formation in western Pennsylvania, a significant portion of the Northeast does not have access to low-cost natural gas due to stringent regulations preventing the construction of the necessary pipelines required for its distribution. The lack of pipeline infrastructure, especially throughout New England, has forced the region to import most of its natural gas from overseas. New England has historically sourced its natural gas from nations such as Trinidad and Tobago, Norway, Canada, and Russia, and due to the Jones Act, which requires goods being shipped from one U.S. port to another to be on American-owned and operated vessels, a challenge in itself with America’s defunct shipbuilding industry, prices in New England tend to be exorbitant.
Northeastern residents are stuck with higher natural gas prices due to having to import natural gas from overseas as a result of regulatory restrictions preventing the construction of much-needed pipeline infrastructure. Industry complaints include challenges getting permits for drilling for natural gas on state-owned lands, as well as obstacles to building out pipeline capacity due to unfounded anti-fossil fuel, and therefore anti-energy security organizations such as Greenpeace. Environmental groups have a track record of halting pipeline construction across the country, and Northeastern politicians, unfortunately, are not immune to their demands.
Conclusion
The Northeast contributes significantly to America’s energy security providing substantial amounts of natural gas and coal to both domestic and international consumers. Although abundant, the region has been unable to take full advantage of the accessible and affordable energy resources due to pressure from misguided environmental groups resulting in high natural gas impact fees and restrictive pipeline construction policies forcing most of the region to be reliant on expensive and highly regulated maritime imports. The inability to build out a more extensive pipeline network has caused production in the Northeast, especially Pennsylvania, to stagnate. Excessive and misguided regulations preventing pipeline construction, as well as outdated maritime policies, will continue to make access to the affordable and abundant natural gas of the region, not obtainable.