Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Feb 4, 2013

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

New York

Health commissioner: Fracking review will be finished “in the next few weeks”
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
New York Health Commissioner Nirav Shah broke his silence of the state’s review of the health impacts of hydrofracking, telling a panel of lawmakers he anticipates completing the analysis in “the next few weeks.”

Reed supports hydrofracking at town hall meeting in Apalachin
YNN
Hydrofracking was the hot issue at a town hall meeting with Congressman Tom Reed in Apalachin. Concerned residents lashed out at the Congressman, saying why they feel hydrofracking is harmful to the community.

Ohio

Aqua Subsidiary Wants Y&S Railroad for Shale Pipelines
Youngstown Business Journal
Aqua Infrastructure LLC, a subsidiary of Aqua America Inc., is seeking approval of a letter of intent to purchase the Youngstown & Southern Railroad, now owned by the Columbiana County Port Authority.

Utica and Marcellus shale: Landowners seek court ruling on the legality of holding land
Farm and Dairy
Two Jefferson County landowners are seeking a summary judgment in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, on a joint lawsuit they filed last year against the Hess Energy Corporation.

Oil, gas industry boosts economy, education
Marietta Times
Today, barely a year later, billions of dollars have been invested in our state, and a recent study conducted by IHS-Cera on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, shows 38,000 Ohio jobs have been generated thanks to the development of our local energy resource.

Gulfport Energy With Fantastic Utica Results Keeps Setting New Highs, But It’s No Chesapeake
Seeking Alpha
The [stock price] trip upward [for Gulfport] has been largely spurred by their fantastic development results in the Utica Shale field.

Ohio doctor worried about fracking, speaking in Portage County
Akron Beacon Journal
Ohio loves its Utica shale for jobs, economic growth and energy, but Dr. Deborah Cowden sees a darker side. Cowden is a family practice doctor who is convinced that air emissions from that drilling, especially the new large wells being fractured, or fracked, pose a big threat to site neighbors in Ohio.

New RV Park Developed; Oil/Gas Firms Pave County Roads
The Intelligencer
With an increase in shale gas production activity in Belmont County comes an increase in the number of workers being attracted to the county from out of this area and that leads to an increase in the number of places being developed to provide housing for those new residents.

Pennsylvania

Will shale boom change lifestyle of the Amish?
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
A couple of years later, with the potential for the Utica Shale now known, neighbors in the community of about 100 Amish families have signed deals worth $2,500 an acre. Later, he heard at church about some netting nearly $6,000 an acre.

Why Is the Sierra Club Using a Xenophobe to Fight Natural Gas?
Energy in Depth – NMI
If you thought the Sierra Club’s endorsement of anti natural gas activist, Vera Scroggins, in a recent letter, was bad because of an interaction displayed on her YouTube channel, just wait until you see what was left on the cutting room floor.

Clarks Summit secures grant for truck scales
The Times-Tribune
At a Clarks Summit borough council meeting Tuesday, officials announced they received a $19,987 grant through the state gambling funds – enough money to purchase four portable truck scales, Borough Manager Virginia Kehoe said.

West Virginia

Marcellus continues to produce jobs and controversy
Charleston Gazette
The continued development of Marcellus Shale deposits to produce natural gas is a major economic force in West Virginia. That development will continue to create jobs but also stir controversy about the negative environmental impacts of drilling deep into the ground to reach the deposits.

National

As natural gas brings down electricity and heating costs, Maine can’t get enough
Bangor Daily News
With Maine increasingly reliant on natural gas for lower electricity rates, and with a growing number of homes hooking up to the heating alternative, how and whether to get more natural gas from there to here is a sizable challenge – but a growing number of people are contemplating it.

PHMSA Advises Pipeline Operators to Report Incidents to NRC Within One Hour of Discovery
ShaleEnergyLawBlog
On January 30, 2013, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published an advisory bulletin urging pipeline operators to report pipeline incidents to the National Response Center (NRC) within one hour of discovery.

Enterprise anticipates pipe demand from LNG export terminals
SNL Financial
Enterprise Products Partners LP said LNG export projects on the Gulf of Mexico could create more demand for natural gas transportation on Enterprise’s pipelines as it plans to spend billions of dollars on various growth projects in the next three years.