Hydraulic Fracturing

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

Soros-backed PAI Makes University of Texas Look Foolish
August 15, 2012August 15, 2012

In the ongoing drive to smear shale oil and gas any way they can, anti-drillers have turned to attacking research from respected universities, like research from the University of Texas. If the research doesn’t reflect their own biases, they attempt to discredit it any way possible. You don’t agree with my “enlightened” view? Your independent research is wrong! That’s the anti-scientific attitude of these politically-motivated hucksters.

Along the way, innocent people (and their reputation) become roadkill. Like Dr. Charles Groat, one of the authors of the University of Texas (UT) study titled “Fact-Based Regulation for Environmental Protection in Shale Gas Development,” released in February (see this MDN story).

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

Town of Caroline, NY Prepares to Strip Away Landowner Rights
August 14, 2012August 14, 2012

Landowners in the Town of Caroline (Tompkins County, NY) are about to have their constitutionally protected property rights stripped away by the anti-drilling town board. Elections do have consequences, and last November two level-headed pro-drilling board members were tossed in favor of anti-drillers. What follows? Citizens are denied their constitutional rights.

Thursday night the town board will hold a freak show public hearing on their proposed fracking ban:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

New Day/New Bloomberg Frack Attack on Shale Drillers
August 14, 2012August 14, 2012

Bloomberg, perhaps the most anti-drilling large media company aside from Reuters, targets FracFocus.org in an elaborately long negative article. FracFocus is a website sponsored by the drilling industry where companies either voluntarily, or by state mandate, list the chemical composition of the fracking fluids they use for individual wells they drill. The public can find out what chemicals are used in well drilling nearby.

Bloomberg wants you to believe the website is just a sham, a pretense offered by the drilling industry in an attempt to cover up the dirty, filthy drilling they really do. And while Bloomberg is driving their anti-drilling message down the highway at 120 mph attempting to run over FracFocus, they swerve into the other lane and try to hit as many drilling companies head-on as they can along the way, just for good measure.

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Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Newfield Exploration | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Wayne County

Newfield Plugs 3 Exploratory Wells in Wayne County, PA
August 14, 2012August 14, 2012

Newfield Exploration is plugging three exploratory wells they drilled in Wayne County, PA in 2010. Why? They won’t comment on what they found in the wells, but the fact is, the Delaware River Basin Commission controls drilling in most of Wayne County and the DRBC has so far not allowed drilling in the Marcellus Shale. They currently have an ongoing review process for new rules to allow drilling, but the sitting members of the Commission have not voted to release the rules.

So to comply with PA Dept. of Environmental Protection rules, Newfield is plugging the wells—at least for now.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide VA | Virginia

Fracking Battle Heats Up in…Virginia?
August 14, 2012August 14, 2012

The Marcellus and Utica Shale formations only just skirt the outer edge of the State of Virginia—almost following a path along it’s western border with West Virginia and Kentucky. So the great debate over drilling and fracking has not really touched Virginia in a significant way—until now.

The Roanoke Times reports there is now a “battle” over fracking in The Old Dominion state:

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

Bombshell: NY DEC Head Martens Started Anti-Fracking Group
August 13, 2012August 13, 2012

Well well. Jon Campbell from the Gannett News Service wrote an article yesterday about New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens. It has a surprising revelation in it.

If you’ve read MDN for any length of time, you no doubt will know we have said we believe Joe Martens to be the fox in the henhouse—that is, the man put in charge of hydraulic fracturing in the state is a committed opponent of it (see this MDN story). Were we wrong?

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH

Ohio Drought: Does Fracking Use Too Much Water?
August 13, 2012August 13, 2012

Like Pennsylvania, Ohio is experiencing drought conditions this summer. With drought conditions comes concerns that drilling companies use too much water from local rivers and streams (and other sources) for fracking. But also like PA, the amount of water used for fracking in Ohio is truly miniscule compared with other uses.

Until the recent passage of Senate Bill 315, Ohio could not control access to how much water is used by drilling companies. That’s now changed:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

New Guide for Homeowners: Testing Water Wells Near Drilling
August 13, 2012August 13, 2012

Household water well owners near oil and gas development and completion activities, including hydraulic fracturing, can get guidance about water testing from a new brochure produced by the National Ground Water Association and the Ground Water Protection Council (brochure embedded below).

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

Oxford, NY Decides to Stay Neutral in Drilling Debate
August 10, 2012August 10, 2012

It’s not exactly a ringing endorsement, but it’s also not a vote to ban fracking. The town board for Oxford (Chenango County, NY), decided at a meeting Wednesday night to not vote one way or the other on drilling, but instead to wait for the Dept. of Environmental Conservation to issue its new drilling guidelines. Oxford sits squarely in both the Utica and Marcellus Shale zones of New York State.

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Chimera Energy | Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

New Non-Fracking Technology Takes Root in Mexico
August 10, 2012August 10, 2012

An MDN reader alerted us about a month ago to a new non-fracking technology being marketed by Chimera Energy Corp. We watched the video on their website and were immediately turned off by its “fracking is bad, we have a better way of doing it” message. We’re fully in favor of new technology and better ways of doing things! We also have no problem with upsetting the status quo. However, in looking for a marketing edge, MDN believes Chimera is making a mistake by throwing stones at the miracle of hydraulic fracturing. What they apparently don’t realize is that if water-based fracking were banned today everywhere, rabid anti-drillers would find new flimflam excuses to object to their technology too—because they hate fossil fuels period. Need proof? See this MDN story about GASFRAC’s LPG non-water-based fracking technology.

It seems Chimera is getting some traction with their new, non-fracking technology. They’ve just announced an agreement with Mexico’s state-owned energy company Petróleos Mexicanos, or “Pemex.” Pemex is the biggest company of any kind in all of Latin America—really huge. Pemex has decided to give Chimera’s non-fracking technology a try south of the border.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Trucking

U.S. DOT Trucking Rule Clarification Targets Shale Drilling
August 10, 2012August 10, 2012

Back in June, MDN wrote about a new “rule clarification” by the U.S. Dept. of Transportation that disallows truckers from subtracting down time as they wait for trucks to be loaded/unloaded when it comes to hauling water and sand for fracking oil and gas wells (see this MDN story).

The rule clarification has been controversial (and costly). More than 60 Congressmen sent a letter to Transportation Sec. LaHood last week requesting the rule clarification be reversed because it targets a particular industry: shale drilling. Some say the DOT is giving the EPA and DOE an assist since those federal agencies are having a hard slowing down natural gas development in favor of so-called alternative energy development. The rule change helps put the brakes on (pun intended).

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

More Details on Gov. Cuomo’s Plan to Start Fracking
August 9, 2012August 9, 2012

We have a lot more insight into what Gov. Cuomo is planning thanks to Tom Wilbur, former environmental reporter for Gannett News and the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin. Tom is a confirmed anti-driller. He won’t tell you that, but we will. We’ve read his writing for years, and it’s evident that he’s opposed to shale gas drilling.

However, he has his sources in Albany, and they’ve come through for him big-time. Tom writes about many of the details Gov. Cuomo and the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) are revealing to anti-drilling environmental groups ahead of the public release of new drilling rules for New York (called the SGEIS). He chronicles the details on his blog.

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

Caton, NY Decides to Stay Neutral in the Fracking Debate
August 9, 2012August 9, 2012

The town board for the Town of Caton (Steuben County, NY) decided last night to not cast a vote either way in the fracking debate. They won’t vote on a resolution in favor of drilling, nor will they vote for a ban, according to Town Supervisor Kate Hughes. Instead, they’ll remain neutral on the issue.

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

Penn State Paper on Water Usage in the Marcellus
August 9, 2012August 9, 2012

One of the concerns raised by anti-drillers, in an attempt to scare people, is that shale gas fracking will a) use up too much of our precious fresh water supplies, and b) wastewater from drilling will pollute fresh water supplies. The problem with those allegations is lack of evidence. If water supplies are in danger, then why have we not seen such shortages or contamination after 40,000 or so horizontal natural gas wells have been drilled since the early 2000s?

Every now and again a university will publish the facts on drilling, including it’s impacts on water. In May, Penn State University’s Extension program published such a paper, titled “Water’s Journey Through the Shale Gas Drilling and Production Processes in the Mid-Atlantic Region” (embedded below). It takes a look at how much and where water is used in the drilling process, and also deals with how wastewater is handled.

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

NY to Release New Fracking Regulations by Labor Day
August 8, 2012August 8, 2012

A major announcement is on the way in New York State about fracking and and the now four year-old moratorium on horizontal drilling: The fracking ban is about to end. According to a commentary published in the Albany Times Union last Saturday, top officials from the Cuomo administration are briefing “selected environmental groups” about his plan to allow fracking in New York State—a plan which he’ll release before Labor Day.

Here’s what’s being reported:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Why Has Fracking Become a Political Issue?
August 8, 2012August 8, 2012

An excellent article in Industrial Heating magazine tackles the issue of hydraulic fracturing and the pot shots being taken by anti-drillers, based not on science, but on scare tactics. The author says the fracking issue has largely become political (where have you heard that before?!). Here is a paragraph from the article that could have been written by MDN:

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