Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Apr 30, 2012

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

This Is The Technological Breakthrough That’s Making People Wildly Bullish On America
Silicon Alley Insider
This weekend, we told the story of three bears who are all bullish on America for one reason: Domestic oil and natural gas.

Gas drilling job-training programs pop up in NY
The Tribune
Rick Allen moved to upstate New York to escape the rat race and tension of Washington, D.C., but when he arrived in his hometown, the 49-year-old electronics technician couldn’t find a job.

Vienna, drillers set to ink deal
Tribune-Chronicle
Township trustees are expected today to ink a deal that will lease mineral rights on 16 acres of township property for oil and natural gas drilling.

Residents, Area Leaders Battle to Protect Park Named for Army Vet
WKBW-TV
A group of residents and community leaders from the Town of Whales in Erie County are making a last ditch effort to prevent the construction of a natural gas compressor plant near a wilderness park named after a local fallen soldier.

Fight over exports at Cove Point
Daily Record
Lusby’s natural gas import terminal is a victim of the boom in domestic production, and the industry’s political and economic uncertainties are endangering its owner’s efforts to rebound by adding export capabilities to the facility to take advantage of the plant’s vicinity to the Marcellus Shale gas field.

Research Project Develops Collaborative Tool for Water Quality Data
GantDaily.com
Scientists with federal and state agencies, academic researchers, environmental consultants, and watershed group volunteers have collected water-quality data for years as part of efforts to monitor the health of Pennsylvania’s waterways.

Region’s shale boom extended to law
The Times-Tribune
For the 30-plus years that attorney Joseph Persico practiced real estate law, he saw little activity with oil and gas leases.

PUC asks judge to modify Act 13 injunction
O-R Online
The state Public Utility Commission is asking a judge to modify a preliminary injunction issued earlier this month against the state’s oil and gas drilling law, a move opponents say would effectively nullify the order.

Natural gas rates to decrease in Hamilton
Journal News
City customers will see a decrease in their natural gas rates due to an abundance of shale gas available in the country.

As Democrats meet, fracking groups speak out
Ithaca Journal
Upstate Democrats converged on Corning on Friday for the start of a two-day conference at the Radisson Hotel Corning.

Guest Viewpoint: Foundation doesn’t care if drilling saves family farms
PressConnects.com
What has been missed in the debate about the Ithaca-based Park Foundation’s advocacy against natural gas development is the object of their opposition. The true targets of the Park Foundation are the people in Marcellus Shale communities of upstate New York.