Hydraulic Fracturing

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Chenango County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation

Oxford, NY Moves Closer to a Moratorium (and Lawsuit) on Drilling
January 4, 2013January 4, 2013

It seems the Village of Oxford (Chenango County), NY is still flirting around with Park Foundation funded “pro bono” attorney David Slottje—who’s trying his hardest to get Oxford (in a prime Marcellus/Utica drilling location) to introduce language into their zoning ordinances that would result in a de facto moratorium on fracking and natural gas drilling. Slottje and the Village Planning Board were at it again last weekend in a Saturday meeting.

Wednesday night the village board voted to move forward with another public hearing (later this month) before adopting new zoning language which would, in clear violation of current New York State law, slap tight restrictions and prohibitions on natural gas drilling and related activities:

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Health Impacts | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY 2012 Fracking Health Assessment Continues to Reverberate
January 4, 2013

Yesterday’s revelation that early last year the NY State Health Department and the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) had drawn up a draft 8-page assessment which said fracking is safe for public health in New York continues to reverberate around the state.

There were predictable reactions from both sides of the debate, jockeying to frame the drilling issue before a final final final public health impact review is released sometime later this month (or in February)…

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Air Quality | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA DEP to Release Marcellus Drilling Air Emissions Data Soon
January 4, 2013January 4, 2013

In the next few weeks, data on air emissions from Marcellus Shale drilling operations will be made public via the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) website. The data, required by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, has sparked a new idea at the PA DEP.

The DEP intends to also require emissions filings from compressor plants on conventional (non-shale) gas pipelines starting in March…

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Health Impacts | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

2012 NY Assessment – New Fracking Regs Will Protect Public Health
January 3, 2013January 3, 2013

A draft assessment written in early 2012 by the New York State Dept. of Health, at the request of the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), offers us insight into the state’s thinking about potential public health impacts from fracking. The opinion expressed by the health department (and the DEC), at least at that time? If the DEC’s proposed new fracking regulations are adopted, shale drilling would be safe and public health would be protected.

The New York Times and Gannett recently obtained a copy of the previously unpublished assessment. When asked about it, the DEC was quick to distance itself from the “old” and “outdated” assessment:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Marcellus Website Gets Prominent Op-Ed Published in WSJ
January 3, 2013January 3, 2013

Congratulations to Keith Mauck, publisher of the GoMarcellusShale.com website. He had an op-ed article published on the Wall Street Journal website yesterday titled, “The EPA’s Tainted Fracking Tests.”

The article takes a look at the flawed methodology used by the Environmental Protection Agency in its testing of the water aquifer in Pavillion, WY, where it claims fracking led to contamination. MDN has written about Pavillion a number of times (see API Says EPA Botched Pavillion, WY Fracking Tests).

For those without a subscription to the WSJ, read a full version of Keith’s excellent article on the GoMarcellusShale.com website here.
Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

OH Utica Shale Drilling Will Continue Rapid Expansion in 2013
January 2, 2013January 2, 2013

Some interesting facts about Ohio Utica Shale drilling for 2012, and predictions for 2013…Fact number one: There are 45 producing horizontal Utica Shale wells in Ohio as of Dec. 31, 2012. They produce 40% as much natural gas as all 64,000 vertical-only natural gas wells in the state produce. (You read that right!) Conclusion: When Ohio reaches 113 producing Utica Shale wells (sometime in 2013), it will equal the entire natural gas production of all 64K vertical natural gas wells in the state. Behold the miracle of hydraulic fracturing.

Here’s a few more fascinating facts about Ohio’s Utica Shale drilling in 2012, and predictions for what’s ahead in 2013:

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Accidents | Chesapeake Energy | CNX Resources | Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | West Virginia

WV Landowner Sues 3 Companies for Methane Contamination of Water
January 2, 2013January 2, 2013

A landowner in Marshall County, West Virginia had previously sued Chesapeake Energy, claiming Chesapeake’s nearby drilling and fracking operations (from 2009/2010) caused methane to migrate and contaminate his water well. Chesapeake sampled the well and found the kind of methane in the well (the “fingerprint” for the methane) does not match the methane from their drilled natural gas well.

The story then gets complicated. It seems that CNX Gas, a division of CONSOL Energy, had previously drilled a number of shallow natural gas wells in the area, and that Columbia Gas, a division of NiSource, has an underground natural gas storage field adjacent to the landowner’s property. Oy vey. There’s no shortage of possibilities for how the methane may have gotten into his well, and so now everyone is now getting sued…

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Elected Politicians Make Another Try to Stall Fracking
December 31, 2012December 31, 2012

Once again, anti-fracking elected political leaders in New York (people who need to be voted out of office, see their names below) are trying to pressure the waffling Gov. Andrew Cuomo into extending the new public comment period from 30 days to 90 days. A group of them sent a letter to Cuomo and DEC Commissioner Joe Martens requesting the extension (dated Dec. 21, copy of the letter embedded below).

Why do they want to extend it from 30 to 90 days? To force the restart of the entire process of approving new fracking regulations. If the comment period is extended to 90 days, it will go beyond the end of February forcing the restart of the entire process to evaluate and approve new fracking regulations. Restarting the process would effectively kill any fracking in the state—most likely forever.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Research

EPA’s Fracking Study Progress Report (Dec 2012)
December 28, 2012December 28, 2012

Early last week, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a 278-page “progress report” on it’s multi-year study of hydraulic fracturing (full copy embedded below). The final report is due to be completed in late 2014. The purpose of the study? To try and figure out if there’s any conceivable way the EPA can get its hooks into regulating oil and gas drilling in the U.S.—something Constitutionally left to the individual states to do. The EPA is hoping to prove that fracking somehow, in some way, impacts groundwater, which would let them claim fracking comes under the purview of the Clean Water Act and empower them to regulate drilling.

The Dec. 2012 interim report was issued to keep everyone posted on their progress. It specifically details how the EPA is conducting its research—their methodology—but not any results…not yet. The results of the research and the conclusions/recommendations will come in late 2014. Unfortunately it seems the EPA held private meetings with prominent anti-frackers before releasing the progress report (see Energy in Depth’s excellent analysis here), casting doubt on the EPA’s ability to conduct impartial research.

Here’s the EPA’s press announcement from last week’s release of the progress report:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Monongalia County | Research | West Virginia

National Lab Looks for Industry to Fund “Extreme Drilling”
December 28, 2012December 28, 2012

Hey buddy, can you spare a few (million) dimes? The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is looking for someone in the oil and gas drilling industry to help get a now four year-old project off the ground. The NETL unveiled, to great fanfare, the Extreme Drilling Laboratory (XDL) in January 2009 in Morgantown, WV. It’s centerpiece of technology is the Ultra-Deep Single-Cutter Drilling Simulator (UDS), which they call their “rock star.” The UDS is an impressive device that can simulate drilling at 30,000 pounds of force per square inch and temperatures exceeding 480 °F – conditions that would be found at the bottom of very deep oil and gas wells.

Just one tiny problem: Industry isn’t using this marvelous technology to figure out better ways to drill. How come?

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Anti-Frackers Energized with New Books
December 28, 2012December 28, 2012

The anti-drillers are having a heyday—when it comes to writing new books. First was The End of Country: Dispatches from the Frack Zone by Seamus McGraw, garnering high praise from Bobby Kennedy, Jr. and Tom Brokaw. Then came Under the Surface: Fracking, Fortunes, and the Fate of the Marcellus Shale by former Gannett reporter Tom Wilbur.

There’s now more anti-fracking books flowing than natural gas. There’s even an anti-fracking book for kids, written (appropriately) by a 12-year-old:

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Anti-Drillers Disappointed with Promised Land
December 28, 2012December 28, 2012

The reviews are in and the new, somewhat anti-fracking movie Promised Land, starring Matt Damon, is being universally panned as a dud. At least, it’s a dud if you’re an anti-driller hoping this movie would change the public debate and sink fracking like the 1979 movie The China Syndrome (starring Hanoi Jane Fonda) sunk the nuclear power industry in this country. Promised Land is no China Syndrome—so says those on both the pro- and anti-drilling side of the debate.

The latest to weigh in with a two-thumbs-down on Promised Land is none other than the (very disappointed) New York Times:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

NJ Bill Would Ban Fracking Until EPA Report is Done
December 28, 2012December 28, 2012

In New Jersey, where even the Republicans are Democrats, it’s no surprise that a Republican Assemblyman—Declan O’Scanlon—has introduced a bill into the state legislature that would ban fracking in the state until the federal EPA is done with its analysis of fracking and water (which won’t happen until late 2014 at the earliest). Not that there’s any frackable shale under NJ anyway. Still, it’s the principle of the thing—and the rank hypocrisy of those who profess to be Republicans.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

AP: NY Drilling Rules “Likely” to be Released in Feb 2013
December 27, 2012December 27, 2012

What’s this? The mostly-anti-drilling Associated Press appears to be throwing in the towel and admitting the DEC is likely to release new fracking rules in New York in February?! Indeed they are. But at the same time they are only too happy to cast doubt on when drilling might actually begin (hint—don’t plan on it next year):

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Air Quality | Alternative Energy | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Climate Change Being Used as Excuse for New Law in PA
December 27, 2012December 27, 2012

In 2009, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Climate Change Advisory Committee released a plan with non-binding recommendations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent statewide by 2020. The move was prompted by a 2008 law passed by the state legislature. (Ever notice “global warming” became “climate change” because the earth isn’t actually warming? … but we digress.) Part of the “recommendations” to reduce carbon dioxide is more use of natural gas. But getting natural gas from the ground tends to increase the release of methane, another so-called greenhouse gas.

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio

‘Promised Land’ Inspires ‘Rise of the Loonies’
December 27, 2012December 27, 2012

The loonies are coming out of the woodwork in response to the release of the somewhat anti-fracking movie Promised Land starring Matt Damon. Case in point is a rally tomorrow in Youngstown, Ohio sponsored by Fracfree America:

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