Hydraulic Fracturing

Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Cabot Responds to Latest Bloomberg Attack over Dimock [Free]
October 10, 2012October 10, 2012

Once again Bloomberg is taking aim at Cabot Oil & Gas over methane in water wells in the Dimock, PA area. Like a dog digging up an stinking, rotting carcass that it previously buried to chew on it some more, Bloomberg just can’t help itself. They’re desperate to prove a connection—any connection—between fracking and “pollution” of water. In this case, methane pollution—something that’s eminently fixable.

The latest hit piece from Bloomberg ran last week and is being endlessly recycled by other media outlets. The piece, titled “Cabot’s Methodology Links Tainted Water Wells to Gas Fracking,” attempts to make a link between data released by an EPA investigation in Dimock and methane from Cabot’s drilling. It cites a Duke University analysis of the data saying in essence that the methane found in two Dimock water wells present a chemical “fingerprint” or signature that matches methane from deep below the surface, not near the surface. The “natural” conclusion is that Cabot must be at fault.

This issue is complex and scientific and the tendency is to try and make it easier than it is. Cabot has taken the time to patiently and accurately respond to this latest attack on their own blog site. MDN is running their post below so you have the full facts.

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

NYC Pipeline Protesters Get Naked, Paint Themselves Green
October 10, 2012October 10, 2012

Oy vey! Just when you think you’ve seen and heard it all (from the loony lefties who oppose shale gas drilling), they outdo themselves once again. A group of protesters who oppose the construction of a new pipeline from New Jersey to New York City, commonly called the Spectra Pipeline after the company building it, got naked (we kid you not) and painted their bodies green, parading themselves up and down the West Side Highway—all in an attempt to call attention to their opposition. Attention they got!

Here’s what The Village Voice reports:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Research

GAO Issues 2 Reports on Fracking, Favors EPA Oversight
October 10, 2012October 10, 2012

Two new reports just released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) seek to give political cover to the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to continue it’s expansion of authority over oil and gas drilling in the U.S. (Full copies of both reports are embedded below.)

The two reports say, in essence, that the EPA is having a tough time with inspection and enforcement activities because a) shale gas drilling has expanded so rapidly, and b) states provide information in different forms according to their own schedules. Well duh. The EPA is not charged with regulating oil and gas drilling! Butt out.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Tennessee Regulator Calls Anti-Frackers (Gasp) “Stupid”
October 10, 2012October 10, 2012

Is it OK to call anti-drillers’ arguments about fracking “stupid”? Apparently not in Tennessee, where the head regulator for oil and gas in the state made the enormous mistake of being honest and expressing his opinion in handwriting:

Read More “Tennessee Regulator Calls Anti-Frackers (Gasp) “Stupid””
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Daily News Says it’s Time to Frack
October 10, 2012October 10, 2012

The parade of mainstream media outlets offering NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo “permission” to make a pro-fracking decision continues. On Monday we told you about an editorial by the Washington Post and an article by the AP. Today? The New York Daily News. An editorial by the Daily News (presumably written by Mort Zuckerman) says this, in part:

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Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Questerre Energy | Regulation | Utica Shale

Questerre Energy Hopeful Quebec will Lift Fracking Moratorium
October 10, 2012October 10, 2012

An ongoing story of interest to MDN is the fracking moratorium in Quebec, Canada. It’s interesting to MDN because part of the Utica Shale underlies Quebec province. As we’ve previously reported, Quebec has a moratorium in place similar to New York State. It seemed for a time like the moratorium would become more or less permanent after statements by representatives of the newly elected government in Quebec, a fact bemoaned by Canadian driller Questerre Energy (see this MDN story).

Questerre issued another press release today on a more encouraging note, pointing out the Premier of Quebec, Pauline Marois, says she will make the final decision about lifting the moratorium and that she’ll use the results of the study under way to make her decision. Questerre takes her comments as a positive sign that science, and not politics, will determine a favorable (pro-fracking) outcome.

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Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation

Broome County Republicans to Cuomo: Drill Now or Move On
October 9, 2012October 9, 2012

An article published last weekend by Gannett tackles the tricky middle ground NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo is trying to navigate when it comes to fracking. MDN has gone on record with our disappointment in Cuomo and Dept. of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens. The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) is on record expressing their disappointment too (see this MDN story).

The Gannett article doesn’t add much in the way of news to the fracking-in-New-York issue, but it is noteworthy for one reason: Two prominent Upstate New York Republican politicians, both from Broome County, are quoted essentially telling Cuomo to make a decision and be done with it. To wit:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Livingston County | New York | Regulation

York, NY Votes Down Fracking Moratorium
October 9, 2012October 9, 2012

Town council members for York, NY (Livingston County) recently voted against a proposed fracking moratorium for the town. Unlike their unwise neighbors in Avon, NY (see this MDN story), York town board members took the time to carefully review the situation and instead of making a hasty political statement, they voted to remain neutral, saving the town a lot of money in legal fees to defend an illegal moratorium (the City of Binghamton’s moratorium was recently overturned).

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Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York

Binghamton Mayor Ryan’s New Folly: Water Testing
October 9, 2012October 9, 2012

The failed mayor of Binghamton, Matt Ryan, is going on a fishing trip—but it’s no ordinary fishing trip. He wants to see if he can’t persuade Binghamton water technicians, who constantly test water quality of the Susquehanna River, to see if drilling in Pennsylvania has in any teeny tiny way impacted the quality of the river water Binghamton uses. So far, it’s a big, fat zero. No impact. None.

But that won’t dissuade the hard-headed, way out there left-leaning Democrat Ryan. He’s now asked for “special tests.” Yeah, that’ll do the trick! We need “special” (i.e. expensive) tests:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

New Technologies Being Patented for Fracking
October 9, 2012October 9, 2012

An interesting tidbit from the Foley & Lardner LLP law firm who’s been keeping an eye on new technologies being patented related to hydraulic fracturing:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

Heinz Funds Cornell Research – Will We See Outcry like UB?
October 8, 2012October 8, 2012

It’s interesting to MDN how a politically correct witch hunt has gone forth at University at Buffalo (UB) after the “revelation” that the authors of a new study at the university’s new shale institute had (gasp) done work for natural gas drilling companies in years gone by. Somehow the fact they have made a living outside of academe and (gasp) “in the industry” taints their ability to reason and research beyond acceptable (to the left) limits (see this MDN story).

Yet when anti-drilling organizations (like the Heniz Endowments) fund research at major universities (like Cornell and Carnegie Mellon) for millions of dollars in an effort to gin up so-called science to discredit natural gas drilling, not a peep from the same self-righteous crusaders. Why is that?

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

Washington Post to Cuomo: Go Ahead and Frack
October 8, 2012October 8, 2012

More evidence that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is receiving media “cover” to give him room to make a decision to move forward with fracking in New York. This time it comes from none other than the editorial board of the Washington Post.

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

AP Signals Andy: It’s OK to Frack, We Understand
October 8, 2012October 8, 2012

Is the AP attempting to give NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo media cover so he can make a pro-fracking decision? Perhaps. Cuomo and the left know that if Cuomo does not approve fracking—quickly—his political future nationally is toast. There is no way he gets elected president—ever—if he doesn’t approve fracking. His supporters know it. They don’t like it, but they know it.

It’s interesting to MDN that we’re now starting to see stories like the following that tacitly give Cuomo their blessing if he ends up “making the tough choice to move forward” with fracking:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

NC Startup Aims to Trace Fracking Fluid in Water Supplies
October 8, 2012October 8, 2012

A startup company in North Carolina is hoping to lay to rest (or validate) concerns that fracking fluid somehow gets from a mile underground into drinking water supplies near the surface. BaseTrace, started by a group of former Duke University students, is experimenting with a tracer chemical that can uniquely “fingerprint” fracking fluid used in each individual well and, theoretically, determine which well may be leaking—if indeed leaking ever happens.

Although similar ways of tracking drilling fluids have been done in the past, BaseTrace is different with its ability to individually encode the tracer chemical for each individual well. Here’s more background:

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Air Quality | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

EPA Steps Up Enforcement Actions Against NatGas Drillers
October 8, 2012October 8, 2012

MDN reported today on the settlement of an environmental damage case in Weztel County, WV by Chesapeake Energy (see this MDN story). The story mentions that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) got involved through the back door of the Clean Water Act. MDN has long maintained that the EPA is attempting to control more and more of natural gas drilling in the country (we believe they’re a rogue agency on this issue).

The U.S. Constitution makes it clear that regulating oil and gas drilling is not a federal function but a state function. Using the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and other federal legislation, the camel’s nose of the EPA is not just under the flap of the tent, most of the camel is now inside the tent. Why do we say that?

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

NY Pro-Drillers Plan Massive Protest in Albany, NY Oct 15
October 5, 2012October 5, 2012

There’s a new kid on the block when it comes to pro-drilling organizations in New York State: Landowner Advocates of New York (or LANY for short). LANY is organizing what they hope will be the largest mass protest demonstration of pro-drillers ever in Albany, NY on Monday, Oct. 15. Although the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) is not involved with organizing the LANY event, they are supporting it by sending their members to march and protest. (JLCNY represents 77,000 landowners throughout New York.)

Here’s the email MDN received from the JLCNY and LANY announcing the mass protest:

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