Marcellus Drilling News

Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Why More Ohioans Don’t Work in Utica Shale Industry? Drugs
January 11, 2013January 11, 2013

Er, um, we’re not exactly sure how to broach this delicate topic without offending a great many residents of Ohio, including Ohio Gov. John Kasich who keeps saying he doesn’t want “foreign” workers in Ohio’s oil and gas fields (meaning he wants Ohioans only, not workers from Texas and Oklahoma), but, well, Gov. Kasich? Maybe you don’t have more Ohioans working in those gas fields because 50-60% of the Ohioans applying for those jobs are druggies. Yeah, you read that right. Half or more are strung out on drugs—both illegal and/or prescription.

In a recent interview, the head of the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program, Rhonda Reda, said that 50-60% of those applying for jobs in eastern Ohio’s shale industry are rejected because of the presence of illegal drugs or the “wrong” kind of prescription drugs (like Vicodin) found in the pee test. Note: we did not say half of all Ohioans use drugs! It’s half of all Ohioans applying for these jobs.

Read More “Why More Ohioans Don’t Work in Utica Shale Industry? Drugs”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crude Oil | Industrywide Issues

Al Gore’s Price to Sell Out the Environment? $500 Million
January 11, 2013January 11, 2013

Perhaps no one on the planet is more identified with the cause of “going green” and dumping fossil fuels than former Vice President (under Bill Clinton), and later presidential candidate, Al Gore. He even wrote a book in 1992 called “Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit” in which he said, among other outrageous and silly things, that one of the greatest threats to humanity is the invention of the internal combustion engine. He also tried to gin up support for selling “carbon credits,” a scam to tax the global energy industry. We already know the man is crackers. Now we know he’s a hypocrite too…

Read More “Al Gore’s Price to Sell Out the Environment? $500 Million”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Who Did & Didn’t Attend NYS Assembly Hearing on Fracking
January 11, 2013January 11, 2013

Today, Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, is the final day of a new 30-day comment period from the New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) required under law so the DEC would not have to restart the entire process of approving new drilling regulations, including regulations for hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Anti-drilling groups are trying to derail the inevitable approval of the new rules by a) dumping 200,000 new comments on the DEC, which we’re sure the DEC really appreciates, and b) by holding a joint hearing in the NYS Assembly yesterday.

The Assembly joint hearing, spearheaded by three anti-drilling Assembly Democrats (see NY Assemblyman Try to Stop the Clock on Fracking Comment Period), was supposed to hear from more than 50 people who signed up in advance to address the hearing. Almost all of the speakers signed up were anti-drilling, no surprise given who was hosting the hearing. But not all got to speak because one brave pro-drilling soul went on the hot seat for nearly two hours…

Read More “Who Did & Didn’t Attend NYS Assembly Hearing on Fracking”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Energy Lawyer Tom West Says Latest DEC Revisions Go Too Far
January 11, 2013January 11, 2013

One item of note in the news generated around today’s deadline to provide comments to the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) about their latest revisions to proposed fracking regulations…

MDN picked up on the published comments from energy industry lawyer Tom West who said he was filing comments on behalf of landowners and drillers. His comments about this latest round of changes by the DEC of their proposed fracking rules were decidedly pessimistic:

Read More “NY Energy Lawyer Tom West Says Latest DEC Revisions Go Too Far”
Accidents | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

EPA Keeps Investigating Fracking/Water Contamination in WY
January 11, 2013January 11, 2013

In a desperate attempt to save face and prove there’s at least one lone, solitary instance where fracking can be “proven” to have contaminated a groundwater aquifer (out of the hundreds of thousands of times it’s been done), the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has, for the third time, moved the goal posts in Pavillion, Wyoming. Yesterday the EPA announced they were extending a public comment period a third time, extending it to Sept. 30, 2013.

For a quick backgrounder on the non-controversy in Pavillion, see 3 Things to Know about Pavillion, Fracking & Water Contamination and API Says EPA Botched Pavillion, WY Fracking Tests. Here’s the latest:

Read More “EPA Keeps Investigating Fracking/Water Contamination in WY”
Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Utica Shale Potpourri: from Names to Production to Multiple Wells
January 11, 2013January 11, 2013

Akron Beacon Journal reporter Bob Downing—in our opinion Bob is one of the best reporters covering the Utica Shale story in Ohio—brings us the following six “tidbits” that didn’t make it into a larger story he wrote looking back at 2012 and ahead to 2013 with respect to Utica Shale drilling.

There’s some interesting factoids below, along with MDN’s own (snarky) thoughts interspersed, including how one Ohio official wants to rename the Utica Shale! Forthwith:

Read More “Utica Shale Potpourri: from Names to Production to Multiple Wells”
Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Jan 11, 2013
January 11, 2013January 11, 2013

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

Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Jan 11, 2013”