Marcellus Drilling News

Act 13 Goes Back to Lower Court, Disturbing Comments from Judge

May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

Yesterday the seven selfish townships who sued to overturn Pennsylvania’s Act 13 oil and gas law–and won (before the PA Supreme Court)–were back in the lower appellate court at the direction of the Supreme Court, arguing some of the fine points in their attempts to drive the last nail in the coffin to bury Act 13 (see Act 13 Case Goes Back to Court, Drillers Petition to Join Lawsuit)…
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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Taxation | Utica Shale

OH House Passes 2.5% Severance Tax Bill, Where to Now?

May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

As predicted, yesterday afternoon the Ohio House of Representatives passed a bill that will assess a 2.5% severance tax on Utica Shale drilling in the state–raising it from current levels (under 1%). As MDN previously wrote, Ohio’s Republicans caved (see OH Repubs Sell Out on Severance Tax, Kasich Wants Even More!)…
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Blowout Preventer Failed at Morgan County, OH Utica Well Site

May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

We now have a few more bits of information about the drilling accident last week in Morgan County, OH (for background, see PDC Accident: Drilling Mud Spills into Creek in Morgan County, OH). At least two safety measures, including the well blowout preventer, failed to contain the gas and drilling mud from coming back out of the borehole after PDC Energy hit a pocket of natural gas while drilling…
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More Evidence the Odebrect WV Ethane Cracker Will Happen

May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

MDN continues to be encouraged by what we see happening with Odebrecht and their plans to build a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant and petrochemical complex near Parkersburg, WV, the state’s third largest city (see WV Announces Brazilian Company to Build Ethane Cracker Complex). As we previously commented, the WV ethane cracker just feels like it’s going to happen (see Odebrecht’s WV Ethane Cracker has The Big Mo–Momentum). The evidence that it will happen continued this week…
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NY Dem Senators Admit Hearing on Landfills Meant to Scare

May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

New York’s anti-drilling (and stupid) Democrat State Senators have admitted (more or less) why they held a hearing on Tuesday about frack waste from Pennsylvania coming to NY landfills–to scare the $#%@ out of people (see NY Dem Senators Want to Ban PA Drill Cuttings from NY Landfills). Not only do they not want drilling in the state, they don’t want upstate communities to benefit from drilling in PA either. So pathetically small…
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Lebanon County Anti-Pipeline Meeting Yields a Surprise

May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

A group of shrill anti-drillers organized an informational meeting last night at Lebanon Valley College to try and scare landowners into rejecting a proposed Williams Central Penn South pipeline through Lebanon County. Funny thing is, of the 50 or so that showed up, quite a few think it will be built–and if it is, it may not be such a bad thing…
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Health Impacts | Industrywide Issues | Research

Yet Another Fundraiser, er, Health Impacts from Fracking Study

May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

The Boston-based non-profit Health Effects Institute has announced they will a) draw together all of the “knowledge” we currently have about health impacts from shale drilling, by late 2014, and b) figure out a plan to research what we don’t know and have the proposed framework for more study sometime in 2015. That is, they’re about to launch a study of how they should study. Er, sort of circular, but that’s what they said…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

CSSD Thrown a Lifeline from Richard King Mellon Foundation

May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

The Richard King Mellon Foundation has just awarded a two-year grant (no specific amount mentioned) to the Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD). The Mellon folks apparently like what they see with the CSSD certification program and want to see more of it. So they’re lending a (financial) hand to ensure that happens…
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Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Seismic Testing

Fracking Killed the Rabbits!

May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

Proving anyone can sue anyone else for anything in our litigious society, here’s one we’ve never heard of before: Fracking killed the rabbits. Or rather, helicopters being used for seismic testing flew too low over a rabbit farm and the owners claim the noise essentially scared the rabbits to death. Some 168 (out of 300) rabbits supposedly keeled over after hearing a helicopter. Boo! Whoops. There goes another one!…
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