What New York has Learned from Pennsylvania About Drilling in the Marcellus Shale

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If there is anything positive to come from the extreme delays in New York State with a moratorium on horizontal hydraulic fracturing used to drill for natural gas in place since 2009, it is that New York has been watching other states, particularly Pennsylvania, where drilling is going full tilt. Watching, and learning from the problems, mistakes and accidents that have occurred.

At yesterday’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) press conference announcing new draft regulations to allow drilling to (finally) begin in New York, the DEC released a 2-page sheet outlining the main lessons learned in their observation of drilling in PA. The document is embedded below.

2 Comments

  1. Moratorium formally dates from July 23, 2008, not 2009.

    Informally, it actually dates from Feb. 2008, when the first permit applications for horizontal Marcellus wells were filed by industry, but which where essentially shelved by bureaucratic foot-dragging between February and July.