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Astonishing: Marcellus Gas Production Up Estimated 50% Over 2012

50 percent increaseAccording to Bentek Energy, Marcellus Shale gas production is up 50% compared with the same time last year–much more than energy experts had predicted. And apparently there’s no end in sight.

Bentek also says Marcellus production is so prolific it’s “actually starting to displace” natural gas production from the Gulf of Mexico…
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Obama’s New EPA Chief McCarthy Shows Her True Tyrannical Colors

In what MDN views as an illegal seizing of power, the Obama administration and it’s newly appointed EPA administrator, Gina McCarthy, say they’re done waiting for Congress to act on the issue of mythological man-made global warming and so they, like the bullies they are, will now act unilaterally and in contravention of the U.S. Constitution by using so-called “administrative authorities” (i.e. executive orders) to force their distorted worldview on all Americans–this year. In other words, more of our freedoms are about to die. Is there no one in Congress willing to impeach these people and reign them in–before the country goes all the way into the crapper?

Here is what the out-of-control-and-never-should-have-been-confirmed EPA chief McCarthy said yesterday in Boulder, CO:
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Maine Anti-Drillers Get Away with Crime – Block Train Tracks

A group of anti-drilling protesters from 350 Maine and Earth First (considered by many to be an eco-terrorist group) illegally blocked train tracks in Fairfield (Somerset County, Maine) in June. The “protesters” blocked the tracks because trains are hauling tanker cars with oil that comes from domestic shale plays–you know, oil produced by using that evil, godawful fracking. And so these very twisted individuals took it on themselves to stop a train–and they were rightly arrested for their crime.

But now, the DA won’t press charges. Why?…
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Company Acquires Technology from LANL to Clean Frack Wastewater

Making a very big claim, IX Power Clean Water, based in Albuquerque, NM, announced yesterday it has acquired the patent rights to a technology developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) that can clean fracking wastewater (“produced water”) so clean the resulting water can be used for agriculture and livestock–and with “additional processes” can even be used for drinking water for humans. It is a big boast indeed. Let’s hope it proves to be true.

IX Power’s press release announcing this “new” technology:
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EIA Deputy Says Most Federal Lands, Shale Plays Don’t Intersect

Is all the hullabaloo over new Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rules for fracking on federal lands just a bunch of, well, hullabaloo? According to Howard Gruenspecht, deputy administrator at the Energy Information Administration (EIA)–perhaps. In a speech he delivered yesterday at the Summer NAPE Expo in Houston, Gruenspect said that most federal lands are located in the western part of the U.S., and most shale plays don’t overlap with those lands. Which is an interesting perspective because according to the American Petroleum Institute the BLM rules as originally drafted would cost drillers big bucks (see New BLM Fracking Rule will Cost Drillers Nearly $100K per Well).

Some of Gruenspecht’s comments from yesterday’s early morning session:
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Aveda Transportation Opening WV Branch Office to Move Utica Rigs

Aveda Transportation and Energy Services Inc., a Canadian oilfield hauling services and equipment rental company, released their second quarter financials yesterday. Aveda currently operates a branch office in Williamsport, PA to service Marcellus drillers.

An interesting little announcement was tucked in yesterday’s release. Aveda is opening another branch office in the northeast–this one in West Virginia–to service the rapidly growing number of rigs in the Utica Shale. According to CEO Kevin Roycraft, he’s counting on the new WV office to contribute to the company’s bottom line by fourth quarter of this year…
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