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Bill Extending NY Fracking Moratorium Hits Assembly Today

canon shotNew legislation will be introduced in the New York Assembly today to extend the moratorium on fracking in New York State until either June, or “the end of” 2013, depending on the news source. MDN previously warned that this was coming (see this MDN story).

The bill will be introduced in the Assembly by Robert Sweeney, and likely will be introduced into the Senate by Greg Ball.

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Shale Gas Leads to 50% Drop in Wholesale Electricity Prices

An article in Bloomberg Businessweek takes a look at the profound impact shale gas is having on the cost of energy in the United States. One of the biggest eye-poppers in the article: The average price of wholesale electricity has dropped 50 percent on average since 2008. Why? Because electrical generating plants are switching from other forms of producing electricity to using natural gas to produce electricity.

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Enerplus Allocates 24% of 2012 Capital Budget to Marcellus

Enerplus Corp. , a Calgary-based oil and gas producer, has approved an $800 million capital spending program for 2012 the company expects will help boost production 10 percent. Of that $800 million, Enerplus will spend $190 million (24 percent) in the Marcellus Shale, focused primarily on drilling to delineate and retain leases. The target is to drill 20 Marcellus wells in 2012, with 18 of those wells coming on-stream by the end of the year. They plan to nearly triple their Marcellus production from 25 mmcf/d (million cubic feet per day) now to 70 mmcf/d by the end of the year.

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Details on Proposed LNG Export Facility in Texas

More details have become known about a proposed new liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporting facility to be built by Gulf Coast LNG Export. The facility, if approved by the U.S. Department of Energy, would be the country’s largest LNG exporting facility, exporting some 2.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to other countries.

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