Hydraulic Fracturing

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Bet You Didn’t Know Fracking Causes STDs & Satanism ;-)
August 1, 2012August 1, 2012

A column in Philadelphia Weekly takes a somewhat tongue-in-cheek look at the claims anti-drillers make about fracking. Claims like fracking causes bird deaths, and fish deaths, and even human deaths. And fracking causes earthquakes, dontcha know. The column is clearly poking fun, but we can’t quite figure out if the author is also giving credence to some of the claims, hinting they might be true.

However, the final two claims he lists are laugh-out-loud funny and we though you would enjoy a smile. Grab a cross and read on…

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Tioga County (NY)

Village of Owego, NY Votes to Ban Fracking for 1 Year
July 31, 2012July 31, 2012

Last night the Village of Owego (Tioga County, NY) became the second municipality in the Marcellus gas-rich Southern Tier area of New York state to vote for a temporary ban on fracking. The village board voted to ban fracking for one year to give the village a “time out to look at the documentation,” referring to the village’s master plan for not only drilling but flooding.

Towns, villages and cities across the state expect new drilling rules will soon be released by the Dept. of Environmental Conservation. In anticipation of that, many are voting to either ban fracking, or voting to support the DEC’s forthcoming rules. Owego is only the second municipality in the rumored five county area likely to receive permits for fracking when the time comes. Those counties (in what is referred to as the Southern Tier) are Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Tioga and Steuben.

The City of Binghamton—with a Democrat Mayor and an all-Democrat city council—rammed through a fracking ban last December, while they still had a stacked deck (before new incoming Republican council members were seated in January).

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Belmont County | Carroll County | Guernsey County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jefferson County (OH) | Mahoning County | Noble County | Ohio | Utica Shale | Wayne County (OH)

The Permits Keep Coming for New OH Utica Shale Wells
July 31, 2012July 31, 2012

According to the Daily Jeffersonian, Ohio’s Utica Shale drilling shows no signs of diminishing based on the number of new permits issued for horizontal wells in June:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation

Lawyers Look at Court Cases that Challenge Fracking
July 31, 2012July 31, 2012

The Legal Intelligencer, the oldest law journal in the U.S., publishes an article in the current issue titled “Shale Development and Fracking Litigation Trends.” It takes a look at court cases filed on the basis of supposed harm from hydraulic fracturing. The authors say of the 40 plus cases filed in state and federal court related to fracking, most remain unresolved at this time. Of the ones that are resolved, the cases against fracking cited by the authors were dismissed for lack of proof that fracking caused harm.

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

Guest Post: Anti-Drilling Bias at Lebanon, NY Town Board Meeting [Free]
July 31, 2012July 31, 2012

The following guest viewpoint was written by Bryant La Tourette, a Chenango County landowner, businessman and member of one of the largest landowner coalitions in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region. Bryant has attended 19 town board meetings throughout the shale region, most recently the Town of Lebanon, NY just last week (see this MDN story warning of the impending meeting).

Bryant provides an eyewitness account of what happened at the meeting, including an anti-drilling bias by the town supervisor running the meeting.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

Anti-Fracking Chefs Cook with NatGas for Fundraiser
July 31, 2012July 31, 2012

A column in the New York Daily News by Bill Hammond points out the rank hypocrisy of “Chefs for the Marcellus”—a group of anti-fracking foodies who threw a big fundraiser and cooked up a storm for patrons willing to shell out $125. How did they cook all that delicious food? You guessed it—on stoves that use natural gas, much of it gas provided by hydraulic fracturing—the very thing they’re trying to ban.

Hammond’s excellent column starts this way:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Statewide MD

Maryland has Multiple Shale Basins?!
July 30, 2012July 30, 2012

For some time MDN has poked fun at Maryland as being dead last in the race to begin shale gas drilling (behind even New York). We do love Maryland. Once upon a time MDN editor Jim Willis worked in Washington, D.C. for a congresswoman from Maryland. It’s a beautiful state, dominated by water—notably the Chesapeake Bay and of course the Atlantic Ocean. So it stands to reason Marylanders would be sensitive to oil and gas drilling or any kind of activity they perceive might harm their most abundant natural resource—water. (Water is not threatened by drilling—but we understand the natural concerns of Maryland residents.)

Until now, MDN has said there are only two counties in Maryland where any kind of fracking would conceivably happen: Allegany and Garrett. Those two counties, located at the far interior of Maryland and as far from the Chesapeake Bay and coast as you can get in Maryland, have abundant Marcellus Shale beneath them. But an “assessment” recently published by the U.S. Geological Survey of shale basins along the East Coast has changed all that. There are several other shale basins, notably the Taylorsville and Delmarva basins, where there is likely recoverable shale gas in quantity (see a copy of USGS assessment embedded below).

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion | Statewide NY

Poll of NYers Finds Continued Even Split on Drilling Issue
July 30, 2012July 30, 2012

Last week Quinnipiac University released the survey results for the latest New York State poll they conduct periodically. For some time they have asked the same questions regarding shale gas drilling in the state. The results from the latest survey, along with a summary of previous surveys going back one year, are embedded below.

MDN likes to give you the full, unvarnished survey results so you can see for yourself the language used in the questions, and the breakout of the responses between downstate and upstate. What does the latest survey show? What it’s shown for the past year or more: New Yorkers are divided 50/50 on the question of drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

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Hancock County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | West Virginia

First Marcellus Well Drilled in Hancock County, WV
July 30, 2012July 30, 2012

Hydraulic fracturing has begun on the first shale gas well in West Virginia’s northern-most county, Hancock County:

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

Warning: Caroline Residents to be Stripped of Property Rights
July 30, 2012July 30, 2012

The Town of Caroline in (where else?) Tompkins County, NY is getting ready to strip away the property rights of their citizens. All that stands in the way is a sham public hearing and a town board vote and poof—the property rights for thousands of residents—guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution—are gone. This is something that is happening (distressingly) with an increasing frequency in New York State.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Mainstream Media Bias Against Fracking Indisputable
July 27, 2012July 27, 2012

The Media Research Center (MRC) has an excellent article about the negative propaganda spewed in the mainstream media against the miracle of hydraulic fracturing. In researching the issue, MRC finds this about the news programs of the three major networks:

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

EPA Closes the Door on Dimock Investigation – Water is Clean
July 26, 2012July 26, 2012

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a statement yesterday that they’re now officially finished with their investigation of Dimock, PA water wells. EPA testing of 64 wells in the area found elevated levels of arsenic, barium or manganese in four wells—all of those substances are naturally occurring. EPA has been delivering water to the four households, but since those households now have water treatment systems to fix the problem, as of August 6 the EPA will end all water deliveries. (Calling Josh Fox and Mark Ruffalo! We haven’t seen you in Dimock for a while. This is your last chance for another 2 hour visit/photo op. Better grab it while you can.)

The EPA statement (see below) closes a very long chapter in the fight over hydraulic fracturing and the false claims that fracking leaks chemicals into water supplies. Cabot Oil & Gas, the driller accused of contaminating water supplies around Dimock, was delighted (and vindicated) by the EPA’s investigation and was quick to comment (also below).

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Statewide MD

Food & Water Watch Pushes for Fracking Ban in Maryland
July 26, 2012July 26, 2012

The odious Food & Water Watch, based in Washington, D.C., has joined up with a Democrat Maryland state delegate, Shane Robinson, in calling for a statewide ban on fracking in Maryland. News flash: There is no fracking in Maryland there won’t be until 2014 at the earliest, and if they did start drilling, the Marcellus Shale is only found in two counties in Maryland! But that makes no difference to F&WW.

F&WW are the same people circulating a “ban fracking” petition in rich neighborhoods in Rhode Island, where there is no shale to frack, in a pathetically transparent fundraising attempt (see this MDN story). Yeah, same organization. Makes you wonder if this latest call to ban fracking is yet more fundraising on the part of F&WW.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

Alec Baldwin’s Anti-Fracking (and Entertaining) Blog Post
July 26, 2012July 26, 2012

The anger-challenged actor Alec Baldwin writes an anti-fracking blog post for the Huffington Post. It’s meant to bring pressure on one person: NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The post is incoherent (and narcissistic), as is usual for Baldwin. MDN only mentions and links to it for entertainment value, since you know, Alec is an entertainer (the one job he’s good at—when he’s not in an out-of-control rage).

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

Surprising Revelations about Cuomo’s Fracking Plan [FREE]
July 25, 2012July 25, 2012

Gov. Cuomo’s rumored plan to begin horizontal hydraulic fracturing of shale for oil and gas (mostly gas) in New York State is an important issue that threatens to fracture the alliance of those of us on the pro-drilling side of the debate. Many people (including MDN) are rightly outraged that not all landowners in all areas of the state will be given the opportunity to participate in drilling—at lease initially (if you believe the rumors about the governor’s plan).

But a highly placed source with knowledge of both the landowners’ plight and the governor’s thinking recently spoke to MDN to let us know we’re viewing this issue through the wrong end of the telescope and that landowners outside of select counties have not been left out. Let me explain…

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

France’s Confusing Stance on a Fracking Ban
July 25, 2012July 25, 2012

Yesterday MDN reported on the Bloomberg Businessweek story that France is reconsidering its ban on fracking (see this MDN story). It seems the Businessweek story created a bit of a stir because the French government has assured everyone the ban remains. Except if new technology comes out, then they might reconsider. All of which is driving Greenpeace bonkers (which is always a good thing).

Let’s try to sort it out.

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