Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jan 30, 2013

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:

New York

Health Commissioner Shah stays silent on fracking review
Albany Watch
With a regulatory deadline for the state’s proposed hydrofracking regulations less than a month away, state Health Commissioner Nirav Shah is staying mum on his agency’s analysis of the potential health impacts.

Science and Ingraffea’s Natural Gas Emission Study
Energy in Depth – NMI
Tony Ingraffea considers himself a pioneer of hydraulic fracturing technology. When he tried to take that expertise and switch gears to air emissions, the resulting study left something to be desired–to say the least–amongst his peers in the scientific community. Interestingly, Ingraffea doesn’t seem to notice the subsequent studies from his peers disagreeing with his predictions.

National

EPA denies regional chief used private email for official business
The Hill
The Environmental Protection Agency shot down claims by a pair of senior Republicans that an agency official used a private email account for official business.

Hess Should Spin Off Bakken, Billionaire Singer Says
Bloomberg
Hess Corp. , the New York-based oil company, should conduct a full strategic review, including a potential spinoff of U.S. shale assets and sale of other businesses, Paul Singer ‘s Elliott Management Corp.

Yoko Ono Is Wrong on Fracking
US News & World Report
It’s starting to look as if hydraulic fracturing of shales is becoming the “cause of the day.'” The past half century has seen opposition to: institutionalized racism, the Vietnam War, nuclear power, apartheid, and most recently, Wall Street.

How Did Chesapeake Sell $12 Billion Of Assets And Actually Increase Its Debt?
Seeking Alpha
I have long been a fan of the massive base of unconventional resource assets that Chesapeake Energy has assembled.

Bipartisan group of 109 congressmen tells Chu: Time to move ahead with LNG exports
SNL Financial
Energy Secretary Steven Chu to urge him to allow the U.S. to become a major player in global LNG trade.