The Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today released a report, a “preliminary study” that seeks to gather up what is known, and not known, about hydraulic fracturing. The 26-page study (full copy embedded below) was authored by Dr. David Healy from the University of Aberdeen’s School of Geosciences. Titled “Hydraulic Fracturing or ‘Fracking’: A Short [...]
Advocating for stricter government controls, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) earlier this week released a “comprehensive review” of how fracking wastewater is handled in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale with recommendations for how it can be handled better. The NRDC says that the current methods of wastewater disposal are not adequate to protect drinking water supplies, [...]
Gardner Denver, a 150 year-old global manufacturer of industrial compressors, blowers, pumps, loading arms and fuel systems has a new manufacturing facility to add to the 40 it already owns around the world. The new 70,000 foot facility is located at Tipton, near Altoona, PA. The new plant will manufacture and repair pumps used in [...]
One of the arguments used against natural gas drilling is that it can drive down property values of nearby homes. While MDN has not seen studies to prove or disprove that argument, we did spot this story about a homeowner in western PA who has been refused refinancing of their mortgage by three different national [...]
Not that it matters beyond PR value, but Vermont will become the first state to ban the practice of hydraulic fracturing, either later this week or next:
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Observer-Reporter of Washington, PA have sued to open sealed court documents in a case involving a Pennsylvania couple who previously were outspoken critics of the natural gas drilling industry and who made claims that drilling had contaminated their water supply. Last week, anti-drillers joined their cause and filed a brief [...]
An idea that’s been floating “out there” for some time, at least in Pennsylvania, is for gas drillers to use acid mine water that flows from abandoned coal mines. It’s estimated there is some 300 million gallons per day of acid mine water—more than enough to frack every well drilled in PA each year. Last [...]
The Ohio Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, a committee made up of five Ohio State Representatives and five Ohio State Senators, has approved new rules for constructing oil and gas wells in the state. They also approved new guidelines for Utica and Marcellus Shale drilling permits.
On Friday, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released the long anticipated new rule for hydraulic fracturing on federally-owned and Indian-owned land (see a copy of the proposed new rule embedded below). The question for MDN readers is, does this have any impact on drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shale? The [...]
In a somewhat unique turnabout, some townships in New York State are voting to not adopt a gas drilling ban, preferring to let the state complete it’s now four-year-long review process before making any decisions about drilling. One of those towns is Colesville:
The price for drilling a Marcellus Shale gas well in Pennsylvania that “misses” and is not economically viable may have just gotten a lot steeper. It looks like the state Public Utility Commission (PUC), charged with collecting and distributing the new impact fee under Act 13, is going to levy the fee on exploratory wells [...]
Friday was document-dump day at the federal government. In addition to the Bureau of Land Management’s new hydraulic fracturing on federal land proposed rule (see this MDN story), the Environmental Protection Agency issued a new policy, or “Guidance” as they call it, for granting drilling permits to drillers who want to use diesel fuel as [...]
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