Is There Still a Chance for Fracking in New York State?
One of the questions MDN editor Jim Willis (who lives in New York State) often gets at family gatherings and the occasional conference (when folks find out he writes about “fracking” and “shale energy”) is this: “Will New York ever get fracking?” Jim’s tongue-in-cheek answer is, “When pigs fly!” The slightly longer answer is that the ignominious politician Andrew Cuomo, while he was governor, slipped a permanent ban on fracking into law as part of the 2020 state budget bill (see Cuomo PERMANENTLY Bans NY Fracking in Now-Adopted Budget). It would take both a Republican governor and a Republican-controlled legislature to overturn the frack ban now ensconced in law. NY is sometimes able to elect a Republican governor and even a Republican Senate. But NY will never elect a majority of Republicans in the House. There are just too many socialist Democrats who live in New York City.
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As he promised to do, Allegheny County, PA County Executive Rich Fitzgerald vetoed a horrible bill passed by County Council that would prohibit drilling and fracking *under* county-owned parks (see 
U.S. Well Services (USWS), a company that specializes in fracking shale wells using gas-fired electric (as opposed to diesel) engines, has operations in the Marcellus/Utica, as well as other plays. Last week USWS announced it is selling itself to ProFrac Holding Corp. in an all-stock transaction analysts value at $225-$230 million. The deal will create the second-largest U.S. fracking company by total horsepower, and the largest electric fleet operator with 12 active e-fracking fleets.
PennEnergy Resources recently reapplied (for a second time) for a permit to draw water from Big Sewickley Creek–but this time the request is cut in half, to just 1.5 million gallons of water a day (see 
PennEnergy Resources recently reapplied (for a second time) for a permit to draw water from Big Sewickley Creek–but this time the request is cut in half, to just 1.5 million gallons of water a day (see 
Since 2013 anti-fossil fuel zealots–people with an irrational hatred of fossil fuels–have tried to ban drilling under (not on) public parks in Allegheny County, PA (near Pittsburgh). A small group of 100 radicals gathered outside the City-County building in downtown Pittsburgh last week to throw a collective temper tantrum, demanding Allegheny County Council ban any new drilling under county-owned parks (see 
Since 2013 anti-fossil fuel zealots–people with an irrational hatred of fossil fuels–have tried to ban drilling under (not on) public parks in Allegheny County, PA (near Pittsburgh). A small group of perhaps 100 radicals gathered outside the City-County building in downtown Pittsburgh last night to throw a collective temper tantrum, demanding Allegheny County Council ban any new drilling under (not on) county-owned parks.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” (Quote attributed to Joseph Goebbels, the head of Nazi Germany’s Ministry of Propaganda) The left so often adopts the attitude if you keep repeating the same lie over and over–preferably the bigger the lie the better–the lie will become accepted as the truth. State Sen. Katie Muth, D-Montgomery, chair of the Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Policy Committee, and Sen. Jim Brewster, D-Allegheny, are expert practitioners of this strategy with respect to lying about the Marcellus Shale and fracking. They were at it again last week holding a public (i.e. propaganda) hearing at the Community College of Allegheny County.
In 2018, CNX Resources announced it had signed a long-term contract with Evolution Well Services to use Evolution’s 100% natural gas-fueled electric pressure pumping equipment (see 
Two northeastern Pennsylvania State Senators, Gene Yaw and Lisa Baker, along with members of the PA Senate Republican Caucus (27 Senators in all, filed a lawsuit in January 2021 against the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) over its illegal ban on fracking (see PA