Hydraulic Fracturing

Broome County | Guest Post | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York

Guest Post: Media Ignores Major NY Pro-Drilling Event (FREE)
July 17, 2012July 17, 2012

MDN note: The following guest post was submitted by Victor Furman, head of the Sapbush Road Group, a New York landowner coalition in northern Broome and southern Chenango counties. He writes about a major landowner rally in Broome County called Vote4Energy, held at the Broome-Tioga Sports Park near Whitney Point on Sunday, July 15. The rally turned out thousands, dwarfing recent anti-drilling rallies held in the area. The media was invited, but they were a no-show. Vic does a great job of pointing out the hypocrisy.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Yoko Ono and Son Sean Lennon Go on Anti-Fracking Tirade
July 16, 2012March 11, 2015

This one is just too delicious to pass up. It seems that John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, and their 37 year-old son Sean, have launched a website and campaign of so-called celebrities against fracking. And they appeared on Jimmy Falon’s show last Friday night to make horses’ rear-ends of themselves (and they did so in spades, see the video below).

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BP | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH

BP CEO Visits Ohio to Talk About Shale Drilling
July 16, 2012July 16, 2012

The CEO of BP, Bob Dudley, visited Cleveland last Friday to talk about BP’s massive investment in Ohio’s Utica Shale—and what that investment will mean in the way of jobs for Ohio. He also had an eye-opening statement about just how much energy is currently being produced from shale plays in the U.S.

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Bucks County | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Turm Oil

SE PA’s First Shale Gas Well Stopped by New Moratorium
July 16, 2012July 16, 2012

The new moratorium on shale gas drilling in southeastern Pennsylvania, instituted as a last-minute political ploy by none other than Republicans in the latest state budget (see this MDN story), has claimed its first victim. An exploratory gas well in the South Newark Basin (Bucks County) due to be drilled by Turm Oil has been denied a permit by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection.

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Broome County | Chenango County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Battle Royale in NY Townships – Support or Ban Fracking?
July 13, 2012July 13, 2012

Many townships in the Southern Tier area of New York State want Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Department of Environmental Conservation to know they support responsible gas drilling. Tuesday night the town board in Bainbridge (Chenango County) voted to adopt a resolution supporting drilling (if by support you mean let’s wait until the DEC issues its new rules). The towns of Preston and Guilford, also Chenango County, both voted to approve the resolution Wednesday night. The resolution was slated for a vote in both Afton and Oxford townships (again, Chenango County), but MDN does not have details yet on the outcomes there—although it was likely positive.

A copy of the resolution as adopted in May by the Town of Windsor, in Broome County, NY, is embedded below. That same resolution, more or less, is what the other towns are adopting.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Nationwide Is Not on Your Side – If You Frack for O&G
July 13, 2012July 13, 2012

If you’re a landowner who leases your land for gas drilling, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company is definitely not on your side (and you may want to consider changing insurers). They announced yesterday they will not cover any damage related to natural gas drilling and fracking. Their denial of coverage will also apply to landowners who lease their land for drilling and make a claim that arises from an issue related to drilling.

Frankly, there’s nothing new about homeowner insurance not covering industrial processes—the drillers have their own insurance accidents and damage. But Nationwide’s statement—and the way they are spinning it—shows hostility to the natural gas industry. That’s why you should dump them.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrialization | Industrywide Issues

The Economist Says Every Gas Field Should be Like Marcellus
July 13, 2012July 13, 2012

MDN had to do a double-take. We just read a story in The Economist magazine about the aesthetics of Marcellus Shale drilling. Normally The Economist leans anti-drilling in its coverage of the shale development issue. But this article is complimentary! The article does a good job of describing the drilling and hydraulic fracturing process, and describes how after the drilling is done, there’s hardly anything on the surface that would indicate there was once drilling at that location.

Here’s the closing few sentences:

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About MDN | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | MDN Webinars

Webinar Replay: John Hanger on Gas Drilling and Energy Choices
July 13, 2012July 25, 2012

On July 12, former Sec. of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection presented MDN’s first webinar, titled: The Truth About Gas Drilling and America’s Energy Choices. John spoke of his love of alternative energy sources—especially wind and solar—but he also spoke about the overblown criticism of natural gas drilling. He pointed out there are advantages and disadvantages to every form of energy, and if you say “no” to one form, you must say “yes” to another form.

Following the webinar John took a number of questions from the MDN audience. It was a lively and informative session. MDN subscribers can replay it below. A copy of the PowerPoint slides is also available for download below.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

DOE National Lab Tackles Question of Fracking Fluid Migration
July 12, 2012December 19, 2012

The Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in Pittsburgh is tackling the thorny question raised by Duke University earlier this week: Can and does fracking fluid (or any fluid) migrate upward through rock layers? The Duke study released earlier this week suggests it’s possible for fluids to migrate from thousands of feet down (see this MDN story) up to water aquifers near the surface. News of the Duke study continues to reverberate throughout the media with hundreds of stories being written and endlessly recycled.

The NETL will tackle the same question using an active, commercially drilled Marcellus Shale natural gas well in southwestern Pennsylvania. Using a single well won’t provide definitive answers because Marcellus geography varies from region to region—but at least it’s a start. Recall that the Duke study focused on data from six northeastern Pennsylvania counties and their data did not include sampling from active drilling sites.

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

Sullivan County, NY Township Votes to Ban Fracking
July 12, 2012December 19, 2012

Another one bites the dust. A township in Sullivan County—the Catskill region of New York State—has voted to ban hydraulic fracturing ahead of the state allowing it (if they allow it). The Town of Highland board voted 5-0 to ban fracking Tuesday night.

What you don’t hear about so often in the press are all of the towns voting in favor of drilling—or at least in favor of letting the DEC do it’s job and not prejudging the outcome. Anecdotal evidence MDN has heard is that something over 100 townships have voted to ban fracking (most of them not in the Marcellus Shale region), while perhaps 50 have voted to allow the DEC to do it’s job—what anti-drillers view as being supportive of drilling. Most of those are in the Marcellus Shale region.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

New Report Says EPA Fracking Study Methods Need Help
July 11, 2012December 19, 2012

A major new report was released yesterday from the Battelle Memorial Institute that reviews the Environmental Protection Agency’s stated plan to study hydraulic fracturing and its impacts on water. The 166-page report (embedded below) says the EPA has it wrong with how they are proceeding.

The report was funded by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA), perhaps the two largest energy-related associations in the U.S. (ranked by funding). So the obligatory “but it was funded by the industry!” arguments will come out, to be sure. But you can’t argue with the findings in this report. Battelle is an independent non-profit, science and technology research and development organization with an excellent reputation—a reputation they want to keep.

This is not an industry shill report, but a serious look at how the EPA might better conduct a serious scientific investigation, rather than a sham pretense for an activist government bent on phasing out fossil fuels.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

NY Anti-Frackers are Getting Desperate, and it Shows
July 11, 2012December 19, 2012

Organized opposition to hydraulic fracturing in New York—mostly located in New York City—is getting desperate, and it shows in the shrill tenor of their rallies. They sense that the state Department of Environment Conservation (DEC) is about to release the final final final final version of New York’s drilling rules, called the SGEIS (Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement). And so to turn up the heat, they rally and protest.

Their latest target/tactic? Demand that Gov. Andrew Cuomo withdraw the SGEIS and send it to someone else for an “independent review.” Why?

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

MDN In-depth: New Duke Study on Brine Migration into Aquifers
July 10, 2012December 19, 2012

Grad students at Duke University have issued a new “peer-reviewed” paper/study/report, this time addressing the question of whether or not fluids from thousands of feet down in the Marcellus Shale layer can actually migrate upward through thousands of feet of solid rock and contaminate groundwater aquifer supplies. The new study is titled, “Geochemical evidence for possible natural migration of Marcellus Formation brine to shallow aquifers in Pennsylvania.” A full copy is embedded below for MDN subscribers.

You may recall more than a year ago the same Duke department issued a study looking at whether or not methane migrates from natural gas drilling to local groundwater supplies and concluded that where’s there’s drilling, there’s an increase in methane migration (see this MDN story).

So is this “the other shoe dropping” from Duke? The final nail in the coffin that proves anti-drillers have been right all along?

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

Fracking Ban in NY Town Closes Conventional Wells Too
July 10, 2012December 19, 2012

The rabid, frothing-at-the-mouth frenzy to try and ban fracking by New York municipalities has now not only claimed possible future shale drilling, it’s also claimed casualties in traditional natural gas drilling. Collateral damage. Most New Yorkers are completely ignorant that fracking has been going on in New York for decades—fracking of vertical, conventional gas and oil wells. But they don’t (or won’t) bother to study the issue and try to understand it. It’s much easier to attend rallies and get worked up than it is to actually THINK.

And so the “wise leaders” of Avon Township in Livingston County, NY (western part of the state), against plenty of warning, passed a drilling ban on June 28 that includes not only shale gas horizontal drilling, but also includes conventional gas wells, pipelines and storage facilities. So a local driller has shut down their 16 gas wells in the township along with a pipeline, turning off low-cost gas that was flowing to the township itself. Way to go town board! Cut that nose off to spite your face. Dunderheads.

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

Cuomo Inches Closer to Fracking in NY, Supports “Home Rule”
July 10, 2012December 19, 2012

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo inched closer to endorsing fracking in the state in an interview on New York Public Radio yesterday. This is what he said:

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Alternative Energy | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

The Folly of Cheap Solar Energy
July 10, 2012December 19, 2012

Psst. You. Hey you. Have an extra $120K in your back pocket? Yeah?! Well have I got a deal for you. Slap these here solar panels on your house, get off the grid, and for just $120,000 you can make back your investment inside of 25-30 years. Sounds like a great deal, right? Can I sign you up?

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