Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Jul 3, 2012

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

The Obama administration’s five-year drilling plan (hint: it’s underwhelming)
Hot Air
On Thursday, the Obama administration unveiled its latest five-year oil-leasing plan, and I have to say, it looks pretty awesome — you know, as long as you’re not into creating jobs or economic growth or any other such silly material interests.

Time for an energy plan for Northeast Ohio
Crain’s Cleveland Business
Northeast Ohio needs an energy plan. Shale gas, regulatory law, EPA emission rules and grid congestion have jointly conspired to demand that business not be as usual. The stakes are too high to simply continue to let policy be set by wealthy competing advocacy groups.

Pipeline Coming To County
Fayette Advocate
Ohio is among several states that will be part of the 1,230-mile Appalachia-to-Texas (ATEX) Enterprise Pipeline that will transport ethane gas extracted from the Marcellus/Utica Shale Region in Eastern Ohio, Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia to the Texas Gulf Coast petrochemical market, where it will be used to produce consumer plastics.

Property owners try the courts
WKSU-NPR
Lawsuits over gas and oil drilling rights are cropping up around the region:  in Columbiana; Trumbull; and now Stark counties. WKSU’s Tim Rudell reports on how our shale gas boom may also be a litigation boom.

Natural Gas Trucks Are Chrysler’s Bet For Future
Switched
While there’s much hype in the auto industry about the future of electric and battery-powered cars, Chrysler is rolling out a heavy-duty pickup truck that runs on compressed natural gas, betting that Americans can be convinced to start adopting the vehicle by touting its fuel as clean and homegrown.

‘Downed Wires’ Might be Due to Seismic Testing
Patch.com
A concerned resident called Cecil Township Volunteer Fire Co. No. 3 on Monday to report wires down in her driveway on Profio Road.

Drilling ups rental demand in Upper Ohio Valley
Charleston Gazette
Gas and drilling activities in the Upper Ohio Valley are creating a tight rental market as workers from out of state seek places to live.

Will Shale Gas Be the Single Solution to America’s Energy Challenges?
Forbes.com
Tower for drilling horizontally into the Marcellus Shale Formation for natural gas, from Pennsylvania Route 118 in eastern Moreland Township, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, USA Over the past few decades we’ve seen time and again how energy prices will move – up or down – seemingly on a whim.

High natural-gas supply keeps growing
Buffalo News
Natural-gas production in the U.S. is almost overwhelming the nation’s storage depots, threatening a drop in prices after the fuel outperformed every other commodity in the second quarter.