Hydraulic Fracturing

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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Allegheny County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

MSC to Post-Gazette: Quit Lying to Our Kids
October 5, 2012October 5, 2012

The industry-backed Marcellus Shale Coalition, headquartered in Pittsburgh, not-so-gently chided the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette over a recent story it ran on shale gas drilling—a story with a number of inaccuracies. Here’s the letter MSC sent to the newspaper:

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CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

CONSOL Orders Additional 3 Dual Fuel Generators for 2nd Rig
October 5, 2012October 5, 2012

CONSOL Energy has ordered an additional three dual fuel electrical generator conversions at a second drilling rig in the Marcellus Shale. MDN previously reported that CONSOL was experimenting with three dual fuel generator conversions—blending liquefied natural gas with diesel—at one location (see this MDN story). Looks like the experiment is going well enough that CONSOL has ordered another three conversions for a different location.

From the press announcement:

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Greene County (OH) | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation

Ohio Village Flouts State Law, Passes Drilling Ban
October 4, 2012October 4, 2012

The so-called home rule issue is cropping up in Ohio. Home rule is when a local municipality believes it has the right to govern or ban oil and gas drilling within its borders, using local zoning laws, even though in most states (like Ohio) the right and responsibility to govern oil and gas drilling is vested in the state and not in municipalities.

Ohio now has it’s first municipality (located in Greene County) to flout state law by passing a drilling ban. It passed 3-2—a single vote stripped away property rights of residents to allow drilling on or under their land. Here’s the details:

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Columbiana County | Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | U.S. Silica

US Silica Opens New Frack Sand Storage Facility in Ohio
October 4, 2012October 4, 2012

U.S. Silica, the country’s second largest domestic producer of commercial sand, announced yesterday they’ve partnered with S.H. Bell Company to open a new silica sand storage facility (railroad transload facility) in Columbiana County, Ohio to serve drillers in the rapidly expanding Utica and Marcellus Shale plays.

From the press release:

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Allegheny County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation

Pittsburgh City Council Floats New Law to Allow Fracking
October 4, 2012October 4, 2012

It seems since former Pittsburgh City Council President Doug Shields left that august body the other council members have had a change of heart on fracking. Shields was the ringleader who helped ram through a ban on fracking in the city in 2010. He also tried to get a ban permanently written into the city’s charter, an effort that failed (see this MDN story).

Realizing the ban passed in 2010 is likely illegal and will be overturned, council members are now considering new legislation to allow limited, strictly zoned fracking inside city limits:

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Chesapeake Develops Environmentally “Green” Fracking Fluid
October 4, 2012October 4, 2012

Baker Hughes and Halliburton both have hydraulic fracturing solutions that are “green”—using fluids to frack that contain no harmful chemicals. In fact Halliburton’s solution boasts its fracking mixture contains only compounds that are food-grade.

Chesapeake Energy is the latest entrant into the green fracking fluid club. According to the company, they aren’t quite ready to roll it out just yet, but they’re getting close:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Waterless Fracking and the Insatiable NRDC
October 4, 2012October 4, 2012

An article in Engineering News does a brief roundup of new waterless (or near waterless) hydraulic fracturing technologies by Baker Hughes and others, pointing out efforts under way within the industry to cut down and in some cases eliminate the water used during fracking. Using less water is a good thing, right? Of course it is, but nothing short of banning fossil fuels will satisfy unreasonable and extreme environmental groups, like the National Resources Defense Council, as evidenced in the final paragraph of the story:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

Maryland’s Continuing Fracking Dysfunction
October 4, 2012October 4, 2012

The only state more dysfunctional about allowing hydraulic fracturing than New York is Maryland. A so-called forum at Frederick Community College (Frederick, MD) sponsored by the Chesapeake Climate Action Network last night illustrates why:

Read More “Maryland’s Continuing Fracking Dysfunction”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Pro-Drilling Groups Launch Media Campaign “Honest Debate”
October 4, 2012October 4, 2012

Saying it’s been long enough and asking for “an honest debate,” the Independent Oil and Gas Association (IOGA) of New York, Joint Landowners Coalition of New York and other pro-drilling groups launched a new media campaign this week to get the message out to the public in general, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo in particular, that it’s time to begin drilling in New York State.

Two new radio spots are running (listen below), along with a newspaper ad (embedded below). Here’s the press announcement accompanying the launch of the new campaign:

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

NY Judge Throws Out Binghamton Fracking Moratorium
October 3, 2012October 7, 2012

The City Council for Binghamton, NY passed a de facto drilling moratorium at the end of December of 2011, just before the all-Democrat city council was about to be reconstituted with a few new Republican members (see this MDN story). At the time, Mayor Matthew Ryan and City Council were warned of possible litigation.

The law as passed was not (according to City Council and Ryan) an actual moratorium. Instead, they used the “police powers” of the city to enact a law instead of a zoning ordinance, believing it to be a clever legal maneuver insulating them from meeting the strict requirements for a true moratorium.

Yesterday New York Supreme Court Judge Ferris Lebous threw out the law as invalid, calling it what it really is: a moratorium. A copy of the judge’s ruling is embedded below. MDN will walk you through it…

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

Cuomo Says He Hasn’t Backed Away from Fracking
October 3, 2012October 2, 2012

Gov. Andrew Cuomo made the following comments about fracking yesterday during a tour of Syracuse, NY economic development projects (in order to shore up his sagging support in Upstate):

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

5 U.S. Senators Send Letter to EPA About Diesel Rule
October 3, 2012October 2, 2012

On May 10, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a draft guidance document regarding the use of diesel fuel during the fracking process (see the full document embedded below). This is just another in a series of ongoing attempts by the EPA to federally regulate fracking. Such regulation, according to the U.S. Constitutional, is illegal and only can be done by the individual states. But that doesn’t stop the EPA from trying.

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