Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Feb 5, 2013

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

New York

Protest Outside Hydrofracking Hearing in Livingston County
YNN
While a Livingston County Court Judge listened to arguments in a hearing on hydrofracking, anti-fracking groups staged a rally outside the Court House. They were supporting the Town of Avon’s right to stop a natural gas company from drilling in that community.

Elected Officials Raise Concerns About Fracking Costs
13WHAM
“I’m a strong advocate in creating jobs, employment, and economic opportunities,” said Rochester City Council Member Loretta Scott.

Ohio

Ohio should be exceedingly careful about allowing landfills to take fracking waste
The Plain Dealer
Ohio should beware allowing the huge amounts of fracking liquid wastes from shale drilling to go into landfills.

Pennsylvania

Why I Support Natural Gas Development in My Township
Energy in Depth – NMI
A Washington County, Pennsylvania homeowner from one of the townships represented by Attorney John Smith offers her views on what’s going on and has a few things to say about Representative Jesse White as well.

Shale Gas Impacts Listed as One of Nine Key PA County Government Priorities for 2013
GantDaily.com
The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania has announced its nine key priorities to help improve county government and the livelihood of constituents in the Commonwealth.

National

Al Gore’s “Global Mind” Ripe for Jihad [Must read!]
Accuracy In Media
The controversy over his sale of Current TV to Terror Television channel Al Jazeera has tended to dominate coverage of Al Gore’s new 558-page book, The Future , about a “global mind” and the “planetization” of consciousness also known as “Earth Inc.” The book is as bizarre as the sale of his channel to Terror TV.

Full Throttle Ahead: US Tips Global Power Scales with Fracking
Der Spiegel
The United States is sitting on massive natural gas and oil reserves that have the potential to shift the geopolitical balance in its favor. Worries are increasing in Russia and the Arab states of waning influence and falling market prices.

What the Rig Count Data Didn’t Tell Us
Motley Fool
The rig count is a crucial gauge of activity in the energy industry. The number of rigs actively drilling for oil and gas serves as a leading indicator of demand for products and services used in the entire process of exploring for and drilling for hydrocarbons.

Energy board grants export licence to Shell-led LNG project in Kitimat
Brandon Sun
The National Energy Board has granted an export licence to LNG Canada Development Inc., a liquefied natural gas terminal proposed by Shell Canada Ltd.

Industry develops nontoxic fracking fluids
Daily Record
The oil and gas industry is trying to ease environmental concerns by developing nontoxic fluids for the drilling process known as fracking, but it’s not clear whether the new product will be widely embraced by drilling companies.

Senate Republican Energy Plan: Drill More for Clean Energy
US News & World Report
Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s unveils the plan that urges more oil and natural gas production to finance research into cleaner energy technology.

Land Battles Rise as U.S. Eyes 450,000 Miles of New Pipe
The Washington Post
When a power company tried to run cables over land owned by Larry Salois’s mother near Cut Bank, Montana, the native American fought the $400 million project.

Commentary – CNG Is Here Now, Its Cheap, We Own It, But No One Seems To Care In DC
The Auto Channel
With today’s release of the NADA report on dismal Q4 2012 EV sales, it might be worth remembering this editorial originally written in January 2011, regarding the viability of Compressed Natural Gas and its price advantages when applied to commercial/POVs.

Real Sustainability vs. Activist Sustainability
The Heartland Institute
Companies everywhere extol their sustainable development programs and goals. Sustainability drives UN programs like Agenda 21, EU and US green energy initiatives, and myriad manufacturing, agricultural, forestry and other efforts.

Natural Gas Storage Projections Through March 1 – A Synoptic Discussion And Price Analysis
Seeking Alpha
What follows below is a 2-part discussion beginning with a week-by-week meteorological discussion and, by extension, supply-demand analysis, of the next 5 storage weeks which utilizes a storage model I developed (described below) to project weekly natural gas withdrawals through the week ending March 1.