Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, May 14, 2012

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

Westmoreland official joins fight against drilling regulation
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
While Westmoreland County will take no formal position on a lawsuit challenging zoning aspects of legislation overseeing Marcellus shale drilling in Pennsylvania, Commissioner Ted Kopas has signed on to support the litigation.

SautnerGate Unravels as Dimock Truth Unveiled
Energy in Depth – NMI
We reported earlier on a video of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) staffers falling victim to a temper tantrum from Craig and Julie Sautner, the well-known litigants from Dimock.  The EPA visited the Sautners to explain the findings of their water test results last week. The meeting did not go well.

Errors in Myers’ Marcellus Shale Groundwater Paper from Start to Finish
Energy in Depth – NMI
Last month, the journal of the National Ground Water Association published a paper by an environmental consultant in Nevada in which the proposition is put forth that the vertical transport of contaminants from the Marcellus Shale formation of southern New York to potable, near-surface aquifers is not only plausible, but likely – brought to us in as few as “three years,” he argues, and all because of hydraulic fracturing.

Riverkeeper Strategy Depends on Obscure Reclassification of Streams
Energy in Depth – NMI
There’s a move afoot to ruin the hopes, dreams and economic futures of some of the poorest residents of the Delaware River basin.  It’s being led by some of the wealthiest residents who happen to live downstate or out-of-state, even out-of-basin, who would like nothing better than to depopulate the upper basin and save it as a playground for themselves, with total disregard for the aspirations and needs of those of us who actually have to make a living here.

Who will pay to run more natural gas lines?
Danville News
What Pennsylvania has is Marcellus Shale. What it doesn’t have is the infrastructure for this resource, and that limits what it can do, said Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors Inc., during a recent appearance in Lewisburg.

Marcellus: Boom still booming
Charleston Gazette
A new horizontal well in Tyler County produced an amazing 7 million cubic feet of natural gas in a single day, along with 650 barrels of valuable liquids: ethane, propane, butane and pentane. The operator, Magnum Hunter Resources of Texas, said of the 10,880-foot-deep well near Middlebourne…

Gas drillers wrangle over NY limitations, bans
Fox News/AP
With all the restrictions in proposed state regulations and local bans, gas companies say about half of their lease holdings in the lucrative Marcellus Shale region in New York state will be off-limits or inaccessible to drilling if the state gives the green light to developers this year.

Residents: Pa. ignoring their health complaints
Beaver County Times
The Pennsylvania Department of Health says it investigates every claim by residents that gas drilling has caused health problems, but several people say the agency’s actions don’t match its words.

Women seek jobs in shale industry
WTOV9
With jobs expected to surge in the Ohio Valley because of the shale gas underground, there is a growing trend of women going after those jobs.

Gas’ gain could be coal’s loss
News-Messenger
The coal industry, which employs thousands of Ohioans, has long been assailed by environmentalists as the fossil of fossil fuels — primitive, dying off and unable to adapt to a world more conscious of its carbon footprint.

Ohio’s shale development is a ‘game changer,’ says American Petroleum Institute’s Jack Gerard
Cleveland.com
Drilling rigs like this Chesapeake Energy rig in Carrol County are a "game changer" that will help North America achieve energy self-sufficiency, says the American Petroleum Institute.

Analysis: Insurers find it tough to price fracking risk
Reuters
From water worries to well blowouts, the inherent risks of oil and gas extraction are often played down by those in the business.

DEP probes 2nd mud release at pipeline site in Pa.
Pressconnects.com
State environmental regulators are investigating a second release of drilling mud at a natural gas pipeline installation in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Marcellus Shale Impact Fee Hits Industry
Investopedia
Many exploration and production companies active in Pennsylvania were hit with higher taxes as new Marcellus Shale drilling impact fees came into effect during the first quarter of 2012.