There is one court case in Pennsylvania that we’ve been concerned about since April 2018. The Briggs v Southwestern Energy case had the power to block most new Marcellus Shale drilling in the state. The case, revolving around the oil and gas “rule of capture” principle, was appealed by Southwestern all the way to the PA Supreme Court. We are elated to report that yesterday the Supremes ruled supreme and found in favor of Southwestern–retaining the rule of capture in the Keystone State. This is seriously good news for both drillers and leased landowners. Below we explain what the rule of capture is, the background of the case, and what the Supremes said in yesterday’s important ruling.
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Category: Hydraulic Fracturing
NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo Wants to Make Frack Ban Permanent
Andrew Cuomo makes us puke. Literally. Cuomo, Governor of New York, became a dictator and stripped away the property rights of citizens living in NY in 2015 when he autocratically decided to prohibit shale fracking throughout the state (see It’s Official: Cuomo Bans Economic Opportunity & Prosperity in NY). He knows he won’t be the dictator of NY forever. Someday there will be a Republican governor who can unilaterally lift the frack ban in the same way Cuomo unilaterally imposed it. Yesterday Cuomo, in his so-called State of the State address, said he wants the legislature to pass a law permanently banning fracking in NY. Forever.
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Another Marcellus Driller Converts to Electric Fracking
Electric fracking (or e-fracking) continues to displace traditional fracking in the Marcellus/Utica. What’s the difference between the two? Traditional fracking uses diesel-fueled engines to produce electricity to power pressure pumps for hydraulic fracturing operations. Electric fracking uses natural gas from the well pad to power turbines to create electricity. Electric fracking fleets are roughly half the size of traditional diesel fleets–and a whole lot quieter.
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PA Spending $3.9M on Flawed Studies to Link Fracking with Cancer
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a liberal Democrat who sometimes supports the shale gas industry (as long as he can tax it) has caved to demands from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to launch a “study” in a bid to “prove” cases of childhood cancer in southwestern PA can be tied to shale drilling in the region. A pair of studies, actually. The studies won’t be completed for three years, after Wolf is out of office, so he gets credit for caring, but he won’t be around for the fallout when it happens.
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U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey Floats Resolution to Block Dem Frack Ban
U.S. Senator Pat Toomey, from Pennsylvania, introduced a resolution two weeks ago that he (and other sane individuals) want to adopt to prevent people like “Crazy” Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren from banning fracking, should they ever get elected president. (Sanders or Warren as president is a truly nightmarish prospect, meaning the country has officially gone to Hades.) Best put some protections in place now before frothing-at-the-mouth socialist/communists like Sanders or Warren get elected.
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Range Resources Fracking Program – Meticulous & Thirsty
Washington (PA) Observer-Reporter reporter Rick Schrum recently went on a tour of fracking operations at a Range Resources site in Allegheny County, PA. Schrum interviewed Range’s water operations manager about how and where Range gets the water to drill and frack its wells.
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CNX Continues to Love Electric Fracking Fleet
Speaking of electric fracking, this past summer CNX Resources converted to using 100% electric frac fleets in its drilling operations (see CNX Operates SWPA’s Sole 100% All-Electric Fracking Unit). According to a recent article, they still love their electric frackers.
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Experts Say ~13% of Fracking Equipment Retiring, Sold for Scrap
Is this time different? The oil and gas industry is known for its “boom and bust” cycle. The price of oil and gas goes high, drillers jump on the bandwagon and inevitably produce far more than the market demands resulting in a price bust and a slowdown in drilling as it becomes unprofitable. Until the next cycle.
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Joe Biden as Radical on Frack Ban as Elizabeth Warren
There is not a SINGLE major candidate for the Democrat nomination for president that has not pledged to end the use of fracking in the oil and gas industry. It’s a breathtaking turn of events–that someone who wants to lead this nation would strip away Constitutional rights from its citizens in a massive power grab. Not even sleepy Joe Biden is exempt. He’s on record saying he would end the use of fracking across the country, same as Elizbeth “Pocahontas” Warren.
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SRBC Report: No Impact from Drilling on PA Watersheds, State Land
The Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) established the Remote Water Quality Monitoring Network (RWQMN) in January 2010 in response to natural gas drilling activities in the basin. Each year the SRBC issues an update/report on findings from the previous year. The report for 2018 was just released and it found, as all previous reports have found, that there are NO impacts from natural gas drilling on the water in the Susquehanna River Basin and its sub-basins, nor on PA state land within the basin.
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Which Way will PA Supreme Court Rule on ‘Rule of Capture’ Case?
Last week MDN told you that oral arguments would be heard on Thursday at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in what we believe is one of (perhaps THE) most important shale cases ever in the Keystone State (see Most Important Court Case in PA Shale History Heads to Supremes). The case deals with whether or not the age-old oil and gas principle called “the rule of capture” applies in PA shale drilling.
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Most Important Court Case in PA Shale History Heads to Supremes
This Friday Thursday the justices sitting on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will hear what we believe is the most important shale gas court case in the history of the state: Briggs v Southwestern Energy. We consider this case to be an existential threat to the future of shale gas drilling in PA should the decision go the wrong way. And no, we’re not exaggerating.
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Leading Dem President Candidates Demand Frack Ban – Unrealistic?
Last week CNN inflicted a seven-hour “town hall” discussion with Democrat presidential candidates about so-called climate change (man-made global warming) on its handful of viewers. Fox News’ Tucker Carlson called it an act of “wanton cruelty.” LOL! He’s right! Most reaction we’ve seen runs along the lines of, “They don’t really mean the crazy things they say, like banning all fracking the first day they get in office.” We’re not so sure. The one takeaway you get from CNN’s marathon session is that the Democrat Party and ALL of its leading candidates want to assassinate the oil and gas industry. No more fossil fuels. No more fracking. The prospect of any of them assuming office is frightening.
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Penn State: PA Oil & Gas Drilling Contaminates 0% of Water Wells
Researchers from Pennsylvania State University, using a new testing protocol that uses existing, affordable water chemistry tests, have tested 20,751 water well samples from wells located near high levels of both conventional and shale oil and gas drilling in PA. The tests show whether or not existing/naturally occurring methane is in the water well, or whether methane from nearby drilling is present in the water. Know what they found? Out of 20,751 samples, they found 17 wells (0.08%, less than one-tenth of a single percent) showed “possible signs of methane contamination.” Statistically speaking, it’s zero.
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Anti-Drilling Activist Bad-mouths Fracking at Murrysville Hearing
A paid political activist who is not a doctor but works for the so-called Physicians for Social Responsibility (left wing group), told a hearing in Murrysville (Westmoreland County), PA on Wednesday that she could not prove fracking leads to negative health affects on those living near the activity, but in the very next breath she essentially said it does, saying there’s a “strong correlation” between fracking an ill health. Her proof? A list of Big Green-paid for “health studies” (propaganda campaigns).
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Landowners Continue to Push NY to Allow Propane Fracking
A small group of New York landowners in Tioga County, NY continue to pressure the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to allow them to drill and frack a single Utica well using LPG, or liquefied petroleum gas (i.e. propane). The DEC under the direction of Andrew Cuomo continues to purposely drag its feet in approving the project. The landowners are not giving up and hope to prove that fracking in NY can happen. They’re keepin’ the dream alive.
8/7/19 UPDATE: Big Green groups are petrified NY will allow this test and have submitted a bullying letter to the DEC opposing it. See the letter below.
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