In this week’s newsletter, we share five insights from our interview with Toby Rice in EQT’s hometown of Pittsburgh — a city once defined by Carnegie and Westinghouse, and now by the energy powering the AI economy.
Toby leads EQT Corporation – one of the nation’s largest natural gas producers and movers.
The company is the exclusive natural gas supplier to the massive Homer City energy and data center campus on the former site of Pennsylvania’s largest coal-fired power plant.
My past life in strategic communications put me in and around the energy world for over a decade. I’ve written more than a few memos citing Toby as an “opinion leader” or “aspirational peer” — a CEO unafraid to be outspoken about what it takes to build.
Because of our shared passion for American industry, I’ve admired Toby for a long time. So it was a thrill to sit down with him and finally ask the questions I’ve always wondered.
🎙️ Listen to the full conversation on The Standard & Works Show.
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Have a great weekend.
Zach Silber
Editor-in-Chief | Standard & Works
💡 1. Profits and Purpose
What drives the man leading one of America’s largest natural gas producers and movers? Rice doesn’t hesitate:
“I'm driven by two things — profits and purpose.”
His motivation took root after selling Rice Energy at age 35. “For me, fortunately, the money was not the motivating factor. I wanted to make an impact,” he said.
The moment that clarified everything came when Rice saw a chart linking energy consumption with human progress.
“The more energy people use, the better the quality of life. The more energy people use, the longer they live. The more energy people use, the more technology they have available, the wealthier they are.”
For Rice, his own mission became clear:
“If you want to make an impact in this world, find a way to bring more energy into it.”
A self-described “Shalennial” – he sees the natural gas revolution as the blueprint for industrial revival. “We cracked the code on shale, and the landowners transformed America from being energy dependent to being an energy powerhouse.”
Today, the U.S. produces double its natural gas output at the turn of the century. “America is the world's largest energy producer, producing more energy than Russia and Saudi Arabia combined,” Rice said. “We did that.”
S&W’S TAKE
For Rice, energy is empowerment. Energy abundance, in his view, is the foundation of prosperity and the path to a freer, stronger America.
🏭 2. America’s Energy Rebound and Industrial Resurgence
Natural gas has rewritten the U.S. energy map — and nowhere embodies that more than Pittsburgh.
“In the last 15 years, this region has gone from producing fractional amounts of natural gas – less than 2% of the country’s supply – to over 35%. This is the biggest gas field in the world,” Rice said.
That transformative growth offers a blueprint for industrial revival.
“When you understand how to apply industry appropriately, amazing things happen,” Rice said. “This natural gas has been one of the reasons why the United States is the world leader in lowering global emissions.”
At the same time, the region’s old industrial assets — rail lines, power corridors, retired coal plants — are being reimagined for the next economy.
“We’ve got the energy, we’ve got the transport, we’ve got the brownfield sites,” Rice said. “This is a region that really understands industry, embraces industry, and can build.”
S&W’S TAKE
Pittsburgh is once again what it was in the age of steel – a test case for national renewal. But this time, the exports are megawatts and machine learning.
⚙️ 3. The Permitting Bottleneck – and the Power to Build
Even as America’s energy capacity grows, Rice argues its ability to build remains gridlocked.
“Right now, we're in a position where it's incredibly difficult to get things built in this country,” he said. “It took an act of Congress to get the last major pipeline – Mountain Valley Pipeline, America's most valuable pipeline.”
He blames “political force overwhelming market force.” The market, he said, is “screaming right now for more AI, more reliable power generation,” but “our regulatory system is not set up to meet the speed.”
To fix it, Rice calls for “massive permitting reform,” along with judicial safeguards to prevent “frivolous litigation” and new incentives that reward reliability, the “attribute that AI needs most.”
S&W’S TAKE
The future of the industrial resurgence – and the economic development campaigns working to spur it – hinge less on subsidies than on speed. Until federal action happens, the states moving fastest on permitting reform will anchor the next wave of CapEx investment.
⚡ 4. Homer City and the Scale of Ambition
Two years after the closure of Pennsylvania’s largest coal-fired power plant, EQT is helping turn Homer City into one of the country’s most advanced industrial projects in the country.
“Massive is how I would describe Homer City,” Rice said. “Over 3,500 acres, over four gigawatts of power — this site is almost large enough to power New York City.”
Located 50 miles east of Pittsburgh, the $10 billion Homer City Energy Campus will deliver 4.5 gigawatts of generation across 3,200 acres, supplying AI-driven data centers and creating up to 10,000 construction jobs – twice the peak of Shell’s nearby cracker complex. EQT is the exclusive natural gas provider.
Its gas-fueled turbines will produce up to 60% less greenhouse gas emissions per megawatt-hour than the predecessor coal plant.
And it’s just the start, Rice says. “These first few large-scale facilities are going to set the table for us to continue to bolt on and enable that cluster effect.”
The bigger picture: “We are moving to becoming energy dominant and energy dominant means that our tech industry can have all the energy they need to meet their ambitions.”
S&W’S TAKE
Homer City is bigger than a redevelopment story – it embodies Rice’s thesis that energy abundance, paired with the capacity to build, can power both the AI revolution and multiple sectors of American industry.
EQT Corporation President and CEO Toby Rice signs the Standard & Works Hard Hat
🇺🇸 5. The Standard & Works View
The people who can stand up and speak with conviction about American industry are as essential to our future as energy, steel, or any technology.
Toby Rice has taken that on — not just as a CEO, but as a calling. He’s assumed a responsibility that goes beyond shareholder returns: to restore belief in the nation’s capacity to build.
Every generation produces a few leaders who carry that mantle for their industries. Toby is one of them. And for this country to make an industrial comeback, we’re going to need more like him – builders who see growth, competitiveness, and purpose as the same mission.
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Standard & Works covers America's industrial resurgence – where companies are investing, creating jobs, and how regions are positioning themselves to win.
Our mission is to equip U.S. CapEx decision makers and stakeholders with actionable intelligence to get stuff built.
