Hydraulic Fracturing

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Research

Earthworks Releases Faux Study Bashing State Regulators
September 26, 2012September 26, 2012

It’s fascinating to MDN how a single so-called researcher at a single anti-drilling organization (funded by Teresa Heinz Kerry) can write a 124-page “report” that’s critical of the shale drilling industry and the hard-working people who regulate it, and the mainstream media (MSM) swoons and heralds such shameful propaganda as an important new “study” presenting the gospel truth. Yet that’s exactly what’s happening (once again) with a just-released report from Earthworks titled, “Breaking All the Rules: The Crisis in Oil & Gas Regulatory Enforcement” (copy embedded below).

This so-called study was written by a single Earthworks staffer, reviewed by a couple of other staffers, and “peer reviewed” (our words) by several others outside of Earthworks, all anti-drilling organizations. In other words: It’s propaganda beginning to end. The theme of the study can be summed up in a single sentence (saving you a lot of dreary reading): State regulators don’t visit well sites often enough and fines for violations aren’t punitive enough.

In their press release announcing the study, Earthworks quotes the discredited former mayor of DISH, Texas, Calvin Tillman—that’s how deep they have to dig to support this drivel. Here’s the press release:

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

Drilling Inside Pittsburgh City Limits?
September 26, 2012September 26, 2012

Anti-drilling Pittsburgh Councilman Patrick Dowd, one of nine people on City Council that voted to enact a drilling ban in Pittsburgh in 2010, is introducing new legislation that he hopes will make drilling so difficult in the city, drillers won’t bother. But wait, didn’t you just say there’s a ban? Yep. Which means Councilman Dowd is seriously concerned that the ban will be ruled illegal once a case now before PA Supreme Court is ruled on later this year (the “Act 13” case, see this MDN story).

In preparation for a ruling against the Pittsburgh ban, Dowd and City Council want to have Plan B ready to go—restrict any possible drilling to as few locations as possible (not that drillers would want to drill inside city limits anyway). Hence the new legislation from Dowd.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Beverly Hills 90210 and Fracking – A Connection?
September 26, 2012September 26, 2012

Anti-drillers in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio decry fracking and it’s “hazards” saying it could never be done near populated areas. They don’t want it done in any location, to be sure! But especially not near a heavily populated area. Can’t be done safely, they say. Is drilling in general and fracking in particular really hazardous when done near or (gasp) in a city?

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Chemung County | Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York

Fracking Sand Terminal Opens Today in Horseheads, NY
September 26, 2012September 26, 2012

For some reason MDN just loves a railroad-related story. The shale drilling industry has single-handedly resurrected short line railroads in this country. This is a story about a new railroad terminal opening today—in Chemung County, NY.

A former oil trader who became a private equity investor, Ray Bartoszek, along with private-equity firm Carriage House Partners, invested $20 million in buying and building the Horseheads (NY) Sand and Transloading Terminal (HOST), a 200-acre site in New York’s Southern Tier area that will handle fracking sand for area drillers. Bartoszek’s plan is to ship in Montana fracking sand for drillers in Pennsylvania and (he had hoped) New York. The New York part isn’t working out so well, but Bartoszek says with the grand opening of HOST, he’ll still turn a profit by shipping sand to PA—just a smaller profit.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA Lawmakers Pass Bill to Allow Shale Drilling at Colleges
September 26, 2012September 26, 2012

Coming soon to a Pennsylvania college campus near you: Marcellus Shale drilling? Yep.

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Commodity Price | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Technology will Make Fracking Greener – Eventually
September 26, 2012September 26, 2012

Keith Schaefer, editor of the Oil & Gas Investments Bulletin, gave a wide-ranging interview to The Energy Report yesterday. He talks about the price of natural gas and oil in the U.S., fracking technology and more. It’s an excellent interview and worth your time to read.

Here’s one small excerpt on how, when and why fracking leads to lower crude oil prices in the U.S.:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide NY | Statewide PA | Wayne County

Federal Judge Throws Out NY AG’s Lawsuit Against DRBC
September 25, 2012September 25, 2012

Big news for landowners living in the Delaware River Basin area, especially for those in Wayne County, PA who want to see drilling in the Marcellus go forward: A federal judge has thrown out the lawsuit by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman that sought to force the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to conduct a “fuller assessment” of the potential impacts of shale gas drilling on New York City’s water supply before allowing any shale gas drilling in the basin.

Such an assessment would have meant years of additional studies and delays, especially harmful to landowners in Pennsylvania who happen to live in the DRBC’s jurisdiction and have seen no drilling for the past five years while their neighbors all around them have. This is a victory not only for landowners, but the DRBC itself, fighting the lawsuit.

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Bradford County | Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | New York | Pennsylvania | Statewide NY

Bradford County, PA Landowners – $160M in Royalties (So Far)
September 25, 2012September 25, 2012

Listen up New York State: Bradford County, which borders Tioga and Chemung counties in New York, has generated $160 million in natural gas royalty payments to landowners—so far. There’s much more to come.

Here’s the low-down on drilling in Bradford County:

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

NY Gov. Cuomo Responds to the ‘When’ Question
September 25, 2012September 25, 2012

Although the ongoing moratorium on shale gas drilling in New York State feels like it exited being a Greek tragedy and entered being a Klingon opera a long time ago, MDN feels duty-bound to deliver any small shred of news we come across that impacts the prospects of New York drilling. After all, we live in New York!

Yesterday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo had a few comments for reporters about the “when” question:

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Belmont County | Harrison County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio

Muskingum Watershed Moves Forward with Water Sales to Drillers
September 25, 2012September 25, 2012

There’s been a change in position at the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD), a large watershed located in Ohio. MDN reported earlier this year that the MWCD was making moves to sell water from some of it’s vast supply to Utica Shale drillers who have a number of active drilling rigs in the area. Almost as soon as the news was announced, however, the board of the MWCD issued a press release saying they would not sell any more water (other than a deal already done) until a comprehensive study was completed by the U.S. Geological Survey “later this year” on how such water sales might impact the watershed (see this MDN story for background).

The MWCD has reversed its decision (again). The USGS survey is not yet done, but the MWCD is now going to sell water to drillers—but only for a limited time. Here’s the details:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Michigan | New York | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide MI | Statewide NY | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

NRDC Launches Lawyers to Oppose Fracking in 5 States
September 25, 2012September 25, 2012

You have to say one thing about the increasingly shrill Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)—they don’t let an issue they can demagogue for money go to waste. For the NRDC, there’s money to be made in opposing fracking. Warning to the drilling industry: The NRDC is well-funded and is gunning for you. Their latest offensive? They’ve created something called the Community Fracking Defense Project whereby they’ll launch lawyers out into any township across New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and North Carolina to assist that town in opposing fracking. (Sorry West Virginia, you aren’t important enough for the NRDC to spend time and money on.)

The fight over fracking is about to go very local, and get very nasty, with the NRDC pumping millions into the effort to make mischief.

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

NY DEC Com. Martens: Fox in Henhouse, or Crazy Like a Fox?
September 24, 2012September 24, 2012

On Friday, MDN told you about the latest development in the ongoing Greek tragedy called the New York State moratorium on fracking (see this MDN story). Our take was that Joe Martens’ latest announcement that he has asked NYS Health Commissioner Nirav Shah to conduct a “health impact analysis” of hydraulic fracturing before the DEC will release new drilling rules was a bad sign that fracking in New York will be seriously delayed yet again—well into 2013.

However, landowner groups, led by the Joint Landowner Coalition of New York (the “JLCNY,” representing over 77,000 individual landowners) don’t see it the same way. They believe the path Martens chose in having Nirav Shah do a limited review and not a wide ranging so-called “independent” review—something being pushed by anti-drillers—means the review will not take long and will do a lot to address public concerns over the practice of fracking. The JLCNY supports Martens’ decision.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

AP Erroneously Says Government Discovered Fracking
September 24, 2012September 24, 2012

Every now and again, the anti-drilling side trots out the storyline that the federal government should be given the credit for “discovering” fracking because the government, through various government agencies, contributed research and funding along the way. The latest installment of that meme is an AP story that starts this way:

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

What Will a NY Fracking Health Study Actually Study?
September 24, 2012September 24, 2012

Just what do anti-drilling groups in New York that want a “health impact study” propose to study? How exactly do they think fracking may impact the health of New Yorkers, especially since chemicals don’t leak up to the surface as they sometimes (erroneously) claim? Get this: they want to study potential links between fracking and STDs, homelessness and lack of exercise. Yeah, certifiable wackos.

From an unattributed opinion piece in the New York Daily News (which is not a pro-fracking newspaper):

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Tompkins County

Cornell President Says Fracking Genie is Out of the Bottle
September 24, 2012September 24, 2012

David J. Skorton, president of Cornell University, and Glenn C. Altschuler, vice president for University Relations at Cornell, jointly penned an opinion piece for Forbes magazine that talks about the role of universities in the fracking debate. Cornell is home to professors Robert Howarth and Tony Ingraffea who have both made a cottage industry out of bashing natural gas drilling and fracking (and infamously still maintain natural gas pollutes more than coal).

Here is the (eye-popping) concluding statement from Cornell’s president about fracking:

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Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Questerre Energy

Questerre Energy Points Out Quebec’s Hypocrisy on Fracking
September 24, 2012September 24, 2012

Quebec, Canada currently has a moratorium in place on fracking shale for oil and natural gas, similar to New York State. They were due to consider lifting the ban in 2014 with recommendations from a study on how to proceed with fracking, but those hopes were pretty much destroyed last week when a member of the new “separatist” government in Quebec, Natural Resource Minister Martine Ouellet, said the government will not lift the ban any time soon and added she believes fracking cannot ever be done safely.

Part of the Utica Shale underlies Quebec, which is why this is a story of interest to MDN. Questerre Energy, a large Canadian driller, issued a press release about the Quebec situation, saying continuance of the moratorium will not affect them—but they are disappointed in Ouellet’s position. They also say, in their polite Canadian way, that Quebec is hypocritical because they import a lot of shale gas from Western Canada—gas created using the very same “unsafe” fracking technology:

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