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2 Williams Pipelines Rupture in Marshall County After Heavy Rains

Marshall County WVApparently torrential rains in Marshall County, WV last week softened up the earth and led to soil shifting and two Williams pipelines rupturing–within hours of each other. One of the pipelines is a 12-inch gathering line that runs from wells in the area to the nearby Fort Beeler processing plant. The other pipeline is a 4-inch condensate pipeline. Condensate spilled out of a hole and into the nearby Little Grave Creek. Cleanup efforts are ongoing. For a short time, five families who live near the 12-inch gathering line were evacuated as a precautionary measure–but they returned home within a few hours…
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OH Dem to Introduce Bill Controlling Fresh Water Withdrawals

Is more regulation on the way in Ohio to control how much water drillers take from local streams and rivers? MDN editor Jim Willis moderated two panels at the recent Oil & Gas Awards Industry Summit in Pittsburgh in March (see 2015 Northeast Oil & Gas Awards: A Quick Recap & List of Winners). Jim always learns something new when attending and participating in these events. Something he learned in March was a bit of an eye-opener. In Ohio, water withdrawals from streams and rivers is pretty much on the honor system. Drillers are supposed to report it, and they do–but they report after the fact. There is no oversight to ensure a streams or rivers are too low to withdraw water. By all accounts drillers have been good stewards and careful not to overdraw–but it is on the honor system and that’s beginning to bother some, like Ohio Democrat Jack Cera from Bellaire (Belmont County)…
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Belmont County, OH Landowners Spread the Wealth Around

One of the early slanders MDN heard against drilling is the typical class warfare argument. Some citizens (landowners and drillers) are winners of the “drilling lottery” and everyone else around them suffers with all of the negatives and none of the po$itive$. We call it the Beverley Hillbillies argument–rich, white, liberals who can’t stand the fact that flat-busted farmers have come into some money. They’re jealous. It’s a bigoted and repugnant argument we’ve heard made by people like a certain Cornell professor (see Everyone Wins – Not Just Landowners – When Marcellus Drilling Happens in a Community). The image they portray is that the people who make money from drilling–landowners and drillers–are money-grubbing misers. Ebeneezer Scrooge counting his piles of gold coins. The only problem with that image is, it’s not true. As you might expect, salt-of-the-earth farmers DON’T just hoard the money–they share it. Like a group of landowners (along with Rice Energy) in Belmont County who have donated, so far, $170,000 to a fund that benefits local community groups–like fire departments and food banks. Their goal is to see the fund swell to $10 million–all of it benefiting local groups and charities. Whoops! There goes another lie peddled by anti-drillers that’s been completely deflated…
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ODNR: Ohio Will Issue Fewer Utica Permits in 2015 than in 2014

Rick Simmers, chief of the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas said last week he expects the state will issue up to 20% fewer Utica Shale permits in 2015 than they issued in 2014. If that happens, it would be the first time since the Utica became a household name that fewer permits have been issued. Permits, however, do not equal production. Production in the state is expected to continue rising…
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AP Takes Swipe at NED Pipeline over Export Issue, MDN Responds

Once again the AP attempts to make a case against Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline project that would stretch from Pennsylvania through New York (following the Constitution Pipeline’s route) and into Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and back into Massachusetts near Boston. NED is a huge $6 billion project that will provide jobs for thousands (while it’s constructed) and abundant, cheap Marcellus Shale gas for New Englanders, saving them on the order of $1 billion per year on utility bills for decades to come. But irrational hatred of fossil fuels continues to rein in liberal New England, where many oppose the project (see Deerfield, MA Hoping Kinder Morgan Sues Them over Pipeline “Ban”). The AP has taken up the “most of the gas flowing through the pipeline will get exported” argument, in an effort to stop the pipeline (so much for unbiased “reporting”). Exported where and how? Via one of five planned LNG export facilities in Canada, four of them in Nova Scotia. Just one little problem there AP, it looks very doubtful that any of those plants will actually get built (see Moody’s: “Vast Majority” of LNG Export Projects Will be Canceled). That kind of takes the wind out of the “it’ll all get exported” argument, eh? But let’s assume at least one of those LNG export plants does get built…
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Cuomo’s Response to Upstate on Fracking: Shut Up, New York

New York Post yesterday takes direct aim at the folly of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s frack ban. It calls him out for promoting an “economic development” program that so far has spent $28 million on advertising and has created 78 jobs ($368,000 per job). Cuomo is an utter failure on so many levels. In talking about the frack ban, we loved this particular passage from the column (and you will too)…
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Maryland Closer to a 2-Year Fracking Ban, Will Gov have Guts?

We had high hopes that Maryland might begin shale drilling before New York, after years of making fun of Maryland as being the only state more dysfunctional that New York. Maryland’s outgoing governor, Martin O’Malley, released new regulations that would allow fracking to begin (see Fracking in Maryland (!) in 2015? Quite Possibly). We should have known O’Malley, after attempting to slow down fracking for four long years, had ulterior motives. He wants to run for president. Plus he knows his old cronies in the People’s Republic of Maryland Legislature won’t let fracking happen anyway–so there was no downside in releasing new regulations to allow it. After a glimmer of hope, it seems we’re now back to more delays in fracking. Last Friday the Maryland Assembly voted to block fracking for another two years, mirroring a bill passed by the Senate last week (see Maryland Republican Senator Votes to Delay Fracking (Say What?)). Both the House and Senate votes are “veto proof”–so says the Baltimore Sun. Will Maryland’s new Republican governor, Larry Hogan, cave and sign the bill under some pretense that fracking will get here sooner or later in order to avoid an early defeat? Or will he show integrity and stamp a big VETO across this nonsensical tomfoolery?…
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Trumbull County Injection Well Spill Didn’t Affect Water Wells

Last week MDN told you about 5 injection wells in Trumbull County, OH that had been shut down by the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) following a finding that some of the frack wastewater intended for the wells had been found in a local wetland and nearby pond (see ODNR Shuts Down 5 Injection Wells in Vienna, OH After Spill). The operator is Kleese Development Associates of Warren, OH. The good news is that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has investigated and found nearby water wells are just fine–no contamination…
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Dela. Riverkeeper Loses Yet Another Court Case – Wanted Raw Data

Time to do a happy dance. THE Delaware Riverkeeper has lost yet another court case in their ongoing effort to make mischief with anything to do with fossil fuels. Maya van Rossum, head of the organization, uses fossil fuels every day of her life, but she hates them (a lotta angst and inner conflict, we imagine). She tried to stop Williams from clearing trees for a pipeline expansion until the clock ran out on April 1st in northeastern PA–you can’t cut from April through November because bats may roost in the trees. Of course where the tree cutting was happening is nowhere near the Delaware River Basin that the Riverkeeper organization is supposed to be minding with its non-profit status. Riverkeeper lost that court case, even though the case was filed in a liberal DC court (see Dela. Riverkeeper Loses Bid to Stop Transco Expansion in PA). Riverkeeper’s latest angle is to try and get the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection to turn over unanalyzed raw data the DEP has been collecting in a multi-year study on fracking and radiation levels. The DEP is still collecting the data, but Riverkeeper thought there might be some juicy bits they could exploit for fundraising headlines. So Riverkeeper sued under the open records law to get access. A Commonwealth Court panel of judges on Friday said “no”…
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Dela. Riverkeeper to Hold Stalker Training to “Hound” Gov Wolf

What happens when a pack of wacko anti-drillers stalks a governor and “hounds” him virtually to death on the fracking issue? If he’s a Democrat governor in New York, like Andrew Cuomo, he caves to the pressure just to get rid of the crazies from following him from event to event (see NY Gov Cuomo Comments on Fracking, Hounding by Protesters). And so we now have an unconstitutional ban on fracking in the Empire State. That lesson has not been lost on equally crazy anti-drillers in Pennsylvania. Get this: THE Delaware Riverkeeper is going to give lessons on how to stop fracking in the Keystone State by using the same tactic–stalking the governor at every event with anti-drilling messages, hoping to wear him down like the crazies in NY wore down Cuomo. They call it “Bird-Dog” training and starting this Saturday, you too can learn how to be a pompous, pushy %@#, just like THE Delaware Riverkeeper…
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NPR Admits Truth About PA Jobs in Marcellus Shale Industry

Waaaiiiit just a minute. This isn’t supposed to happen! NPR telling the truth about shale jobs in Pennsylvania? Yep, it’s true–April Fool’s was a couple of weeks ago. No, it’s not the anti-drilling NPR “reporters” from Harrisburg and Philadelphia with StateImpact Pennsylvania who told the truth (wash your mouth out with soap!). It was a reporter with the national NPR organization. Jeff Brady has an article published on the Nevada Public Radio website which says, in essence, although the shale industry is seeing big layoffs, the jobs picture in Pennsylvania is still very positive. How positive? Some 98% of the kids graduating from one of PA’s training schools get jobs in the shale industry. Some of those jobs pay $70,000-$80,000 per year. There are currently (according to NPR) around 31,000 people employed directly in the shale industry in PA, with no signs of letting up. Tell us again how PA was such a disaster under Tom Corbett and how Marcellus jobs numbers “didn’t add up” (see Remarkable Change in PA Jobs Since Pro-Gas Corbett Lost Gov Race). After Corbett lost, it was OK for so-called mainstream media to start telling the truth about the jobs bounty in the PA Marcellus. It’s so obvious, you can’t deny it, and the reputation of mainstream sources like NPR was suffering because of their anti-drilling propaganda, so they had to (finally) admit it…
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