Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Jun 4, 2012

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

NJ Gas Utilities Expect Winter Heating Costs to Be Lower
Patch.com
Once again, this winter is shaping up to be a season where natural gas customers can expect to pay less or about the same to heat their homes.

First NEA Energy Film "Energizing America – The 100 Year Secret" A Look at the Marcellus and Utica Announces August Release
PRWeb
First NEA Energy Film "Energizing America – The 100 Year Secret" A Look at the Marcellus and Utica Announces August Release The National Association of Entrepreneurship is set to release the first feature of the five part film series "Energizing America".

Fake gas well to help train responders for emergencies
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
County Executive Rich Fitzgerald will submit legislation to county council on Tuesday seeking approval for construction of a mock oil-and-gas production facility. If the project is approved by county legislators, the site will be used to train both public and private first responders to deal with emergencies.

Drillers seek permits for river water
Corning Leader
Permits for withdrawing water from the Chemung, Tioga and Cowanesque Rivers for gas drilling are on the agenda when the Susquehanna River Basin Commission Water holds its quarterly meeting Thursday in Binghamton.

Ohio has 72 horizontal wells drilled, 236 permits issued
Ohio.com
The latest data shows that 72 horizontal wells have been drilled in eastern Ohio, says the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management.

Towns prepare for Marcellus impact fees
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
The northeastern Pennsylvania township’s 1200 residents have witnessed about 125 gas wells being drilled due to the Marcellus Shale boom — the most of any town in the commonwealth, according to the most recent state data.

New rail line brings concerns over dangers to Boardman
Youngstown Vindicator
A Canadian company is expected to purchase the Youngstown and Southern rail line, but not everyone is happy about it.

Let the seller of mineral rights beware
Youngstown Vindicator
Oil and gas rights expanded quickly with more than 2,500 leases signed in April in Trumbull County, and now the community also has drawn businesses that want to buy mineral rights.

Oil, gas cash boosts farming
New Philadelphia Times Reporter
The oil and gas boom in western Pennsylvania has provided a much-needed infusion of capital to farmers in that area, members of the Tuscarawas County Farm Bureau learned during a trip to the Keystone State on Tuesday.

Shale gas vs. the hermit thrush: Marcellus development is fragmenting the forests where the songbirds live
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Current shale gas development practices, however, threaten to dramatically reduce the populations of hermit thrushes and many other species because of forest fragmentation.

Chesapeake works to move beyond financial troubles
Weirton Daily Times
Chesapeake Energy believes every acre of its oil and liquids-rich Utica Shale play is worth $13,000 to $17,000, amounts that are significantly greater than most drillers are paying mineral owners to lease local land.

Muskingum Watershed meeting draws protesters
Zanesville Times Recorder
Anti-fracking protesters gather outside the Tuscarawas County Courthouse on Saturday ahead of the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District’s annual meeting.

Patton, Hanauer, Ward and Boettner: Gas states unite
Charleston Gazette
Like the workers who constitute the bulk of the drilling workforce, hydrofracking has migrated, from sparsely populated places in Wyoming, New Mexico, Texas and Canada, to the East.

Midland hopes flood of drillers will float water budget
Timesonline.com
In the near future, however, water authority officials hope customers like Blair will see their water bills go back down thanks to renewed operations at the plant and a new major source of water demand in the area — Marcellus shale drilling.

Utica well waiting to be fracked
Mount Vernon News
Drive past the Utica shale well site on the Sensibaugh farm just outside of Utica and you won’t see anything right now.

3 ex-Pa. execs of Consol Energy sued for trading
Middletown Journal
Three former Consol Energy executives profited or avoided stock losses by using insider information about the company’s acquisition of a natural gas and oil exploration business, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a federal lawsuit Friday.

Stefanie Penn Spear: Grassroots Activism: The Core of the Environmental Movement
The Huffington Post
Grassroots activism is the core of the environmental movement. Nowhere have I found that to be more evident than at Heartwood Forest Council gatherings.

PGW announces lower natural gas rates
Philly.com
Philadelphia Gas Works on Friday announced the latest decrease in natural gas rates, which have been falling because of low commodity prices.

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