In all of the trumped-up hysteria in New York with local municipalities banning hydraulic fracturing (see these MDN stories)—some banning it permanently, others for a year or two so they can “study it some more”—MDN wonders, do they know fracking has been going on in New York for the past 40 plus years? That indisputable fact apparently escapes most anti-drillers.
Pennsylvania recently passed new Marcellus Shale drilling regulations (see this MDN story). One of the loudest objections to its adoption is a provision that state law will now mostly override local zoning ordinances designed to regulate and restrict drilling. The cry went up that Harrisburg does not know better than local municipalities where and how to control drilling in their local areas.
But municipalities are finding out the new law does exactly what they wanted to do locally all along—prevent drilling in more urban and sensitive areas. That’s what Etna, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh, has discovered.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich is planning to introduce new energy legislation in the next few weeks that will impact Utica and Marcellus Shale drilling in the state.
Washington County in southwestern Pennsylvania has been named the third highest county in the country in job growth, due mostly to Marcellus Shale drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Not only that, but residents have seen an average increase of 8.8 percent in their wages.
Residents in Dimock, Pennsylvania (Susquehanna County, northeastern corner of the state) have banded together to start a new website called DimockProud.com. The single word “Dimock” has become a rallying cry for anti-drillers. What has happened in this tiny, rural community has been shrouded in obfuscation by celebrity anti-drillers and the mainstream media echo chamber. Residents who live in Dimock are concerned that a negative impression of their community has become embedded in people’s minds. This new website is an effort to counteract the misinformation and impression that Dimock is a new Love Canal/chemical wasteland.
From the home page of the new site:
Petroleum Development Corporation (PDC) announced yesterday that they are “temporarily” suspending drilling operations in the Marcellus Shale because of “depressed” natural gas prices. They will keep their planned 2012 capital budget the same, at $284 million, and reallocate the $12 million they would have used in the Marcellus operation to other liquids-rich operations. So far this year PDC has drilled three Marcellus wells and they will finish drilling a fourth well before suspending all Marcellus operations.
From the PDC press release:
There are over 100,000 compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles on U.S. roadways, and roughly 400 CNG filling stations. Add one more CNG vehicle to that number in South Abington Township in Lackawanna County, PA—given away as a prize to promote CNG awareness.
The price to fill it up? How does $2 per gallon (gasoline equivalent) sound?
The low commodity price of natural gas, due in part to the large supply created by Marcellus Shale gas, is resulting in lower monthly utility bills for customers in Berks County, PA, in an area not even part of the Marcellus Shale play.
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: