In February Pennsylvania State Sen. Lisa Baker introduced Senate Bill (SB) 305, which would make a proposed Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) frack ban officially a government “taking” under eminent domain (see PA Bill Requires Landowner Compensation if DRBC Bans Fracking). A similar bill has been introduced in the PA House. Yesterday the House held a committee hearing on House Bill (HB) 827, and our buddy Tom Shepstone was one of the star experts who testified.
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Category: Hydraulic Fracturing
Big Green Lies: Frackers Cook the Books Using Depreciation
Anti-fossil fuelers really have no shame. We recently spotted an article that purports to lay out the case, chapter and verse, for how “frackers” are engaging in “accounting shenanigans” covering up true reserve estimates and depreciation expenses. In other words, they’re cooking the books, lying to investors. And ultimately America’s fracking boom as been “a bust.” Nonsense.
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Lessons Learned from Fracking Help Understand Human “Gut” Health
In the same way America’s “unnecessary” and audacious effort to put a man on the moon in the 1960s produced the unintended consequence of discovering new materials and inventions that have fundamentally changed our society (practical applications, like computers), so too has the “unnecessary” practice of hydraulic fracturing led to new discoveries and information about how the human body works–enlightening scientists, ultimately improving human health.
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New Way for Marcellus Frackers to Quickly ID Best Places to Drill
The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) with sites in Morgantown, WV and Pittsburgh, PA performs valuable research in shale energy. We’ve highlighted a number of their projects over the years. Here’s another one we just noticed: Using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technology, researchers have found a way to rapidly target shale layers with greater accuracy.
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Study Says O&G Should Seek 3rd Party “Green” Certification
Would you feel better if a driller building a shale well pad near your home was “green certified”? Meaning the company has been reviewed and certified by an independent agency for evidence that company adheres to strict environmental standards as it drills. Researchers at Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs set out to answer that question–and they found public opinion of shale drilling would greatly improve if such a “green certification” were in place.
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Antis Ask Westmoreland Co. to Stop CNX Drilling Near Reservoir
Anti-fossil fuelers are once again riding their high horse “demanding” that the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County block any more shale drilling on county-owned property located near Beaver Run Reservoir. Even though CNX’s shale drilling has been going on there since 2011 with zero impacts on the reservoir and its water supply.
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PA Bill Requires Landowner Compensation if DRBC Bans Fracking
Three more cheers for Pennsylvania State Senator Lisa Baker (Republican from Luzerne County). Rather than wait for the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to move forward with adopting a threatened ban on fracking that includes several counties in PA, Baker isn’t waiting. She’s taking a different approach to defeating a proposed DRBC frack ban. Her approach is to bankrupt the DRBC if they decide to move forward with it.
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Trump Tells Cuomo F2F – You Should Allow Fracking & Pipelines
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s foolish policies have finally come home to roost. You can only overtax and overregulate for so long before a state’s economy comes tumbling down–and that’s just what’s happening to poor Andy, who went hat-in-hand to the White House on Tuesday to beg and plead with The Donald to tweak the newly implemented tax federal tax cut.
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CNX Rogue Utica Well in SWPA Affects 9 Vertical Wells, Maybe More
CNX was fracking their Shaw 1G Utica well in Washington Township on Saturday, Jan. 26, when they detected “a strong drop in pressure” and stopped fracking (see CNX Hits Major Problem Fracking Utica Well Near SWPA Reservoir). Turns out the well was “communicating” (i.e. losing gas to) several nearby conventional wells.
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Franklin Park Tries to Block Fracking After Rejecting $1M+ Proposal
It appears the “leaders” of Franklin Park Borough in Allegheny County aren’t satisfied enough that they’ve rejected a free $1 million from PennEnergy Resources to drill under a town park (see Franklin Park Turns Down $1M+ to Drill Under Linbrook Park). Nope. Now they essentially want to ban fracking in the borough by passing an onerous new zoning ordinance.
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New Government Study Helps Frackers Become More Profitable
Can math help us be better frackers? Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory certainly think so. Researchers have developed a new mathematical model that better predicts previously hidden fractures, that can potentially boost efficiencies and profits in natural gas production.
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DOE Awarding $88M in Grants to Research Better O&G Extraction
Here’s an interesting factoid: Even with our improved fracking technology, the amount of oil and gas that stays in the ground after a well is fracked is around 90%! Yes, even on our best days we’re only extracting maybe 10% of the fossil fuels down there. Can that ratio be improved?
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Government Research Uses Sound Waves to Help Frack Wells
The process of fracking (hydraulic fracturing) of shale uses water, a LOT of water, forced into small cracks in order to force those cracks open and allow the gas and oil to escape. What if you could use far less water (and chemicals) by first bombarding the rock with sound waves?
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SW PA Farmer Challenges Reg Preventing Shale Well on Her Land
Seven selfish Pennsylvania towns sued PA in 2012 over the zoning provisions in the then-new Act 13 law, eventually winning at the PA Supreme Court level (see PA Supreme Court Rules Against State/Drillers in Act 13 Case). The Act 13 victory gave townships and municipalities across the Commonwealth the right to pass local zoning ordinances that restrict, but don’t outright ban, Marcellus/Utica drilling. Towns with a majority of antis in charge got pretty creative and effectively banned drilling in many towns–like Jefferson Hills in Allegheny County. Now, a brave farmer, Carol Ann Bucar, is pushing back against overly restrictive zoning ordinances that prevent shale drilling on her 197-acre farm. Her property rights have been stripped away, and she’s seeking to overturn the zoning regulations that do it.
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Paid Protesters Present DRB Frack Ban Petitions to NY, NJ Govs
A small group of paid protesters from Big Green groups colluded with sycophantic liberal reporters in Albany and Trenton to stage a fake rally where they “delivered” form-generated “petitions,” supposedly with 100,000 signatures (no doubt many of them faked), given to Govenors Cuomo and Murphy, respectively, demanding that the governors support a permanent ban on fracking in the Delaware River Basin. NY and NJ are two of five members of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), a rogue group that has pledged to permanently ban fracking in the Basin based on baseless fears fracking may contaminate New York City and Philadelphia drinking water supplies. Total bogus B.S.–but that’s the fearmongering used by people with no ethics. There’s one teeny tiny problem with the DRBC’s proposed ban: A U.S. District Court is currently considering whether or not the DRBC has the legal authority to ban fracking, even if it wants to (see Major Federal Court Decision Opens Door to Stop DRBC Frack Ban). The evidence strongly suggests the DRBC doesn’t have the legal power to block fracking, no matter what Cuomo and Murphy and the other voting members of the DRBC decide to do.
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Ohio State Study Looks at 2 New Microbes in Shale Wells
Over the past several years MDN has highlighted important research performed by Ohio State University with respect microbes (bacteria) living in shale wells. In a 2016 study, researchers dubbed a never-before-seen bacterial “lifeform” found in a Utica Shale well, Frackibacter. Having some fun, we labeled it a different name: Frackenstein (see Frackenstein! Researchers Find New Life Form in Fracked Utica Wells). The researchers kept at it and published another study along the same lines in 2017 (see Ohio State Research Finds Microbes in Utica Well May be Corrosive). Researchers said a different bacteria studied that appeared in multiple Utica wells (called Halanaerobium) may be a cause for concern, possibly corrosive to pipes and cement and toxic for workers. OSU researchers have kept at it and we now have a brand new study, titled “Members of Marinobacter and Arcobacter Influence System Biogeochemistry During Early Production of Hydraulically Fractured Natural Gas Wells in the Appalachian Basin” (full copy below). This time, several Utica and Marcellus wells were studied. What’s the upshot of this latest study?
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