Hydraulic Fracturing

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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Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York

Paladino Says NY Sen. Libous (Ab)using Fracking to Fundraise
July 9, 2012December 19, 2012

Carl Paladino, a conservative who ran as the Republican candidate against Democrat Andrew Cuomo in the 2010 gubernatorial election in New York, isn’t a fan of New York State Senator Tom Libous. Libous is a Binghamton resident and the number two senator in the Republican-controlled (yes you read that right, Republican-controlled) New York State Senate.

If fracking begins in New York, much of it will be in the counties Libous represents. He’s been on record mostly supporting fracking in New York State, but there have been the odd statements here and there when he seems to back away from a full-throated endorsement. Paladino says Libous is a RINO (Republican In Name Only) who is manipulating the fracking issue to get more campaign money. Ouch. Tell us what you really think Carl!

He does just that. From an open letter issued by Paladino to the “222 Committeemen in Senate District 52” (which is Libous’ district):

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Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Shell | Steuben County

Sierra Club Sues to Stop Water Sales in Steuben County, NY
July 9, 2012December 19, 2012

In March 2012, the village board in Painted Post (Steuben County), NY voted to sell water to Shell for use in fracking operations across the border in Pennsylvania. The Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) gave its blessing to Painted Post to sell up to 1 million gallons of water day. But the decision doesn’t sit well with anti-drillers.

According to NGI’s Shale Daily, the Sierra Club and several area organizations sued the village board in late June to stop the sale from taking place.

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Chenango County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Landowner Coalition News | New York | Regulation

Will NY Gov. Cuomo’s Fracking Plan be Limited to 4 Counties?
July 6, 2012December 19, 2012

Is the Lucky Five counties in New York that will see drilling now the Lucky Four? You may recall a few weeks ago the New York Times, using an unnamed source inside Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration (cough *Andy* cough), floated a “trial balloon” plan that will allow high volume hydraulic fracturing, i.e. fracking, for a limited number of permits in five Southern Tier counties for a two-year period: Broome, Chenango, Chemung, Steuben and Tioga (see this MDN story).

One of New York’s largest landowner coalition groups, CNY Landowner’s Coalition, represents Chenango County—one of the Lucky Five. They have reliable “inside” sources that tell them Chenango County may not be included in the limited, two-year experiment. And they are marshaling their members to make noise about it.

Below is an email received by MDN on July 3 from the CNY Landowner’s Coalition outlining the rumor they’ve heard, and what they want members to do about it.

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

DRBC Says No Marcellus Vote Until Nov. 2012 Earliest
July 6, 2012December 19, 2012

Eastern parts of Pennsylvania that sit within the boundaries of the Delaware River Basin have been locked in a drilling moratorium since the Marcellus drilling boom began. Eastern PA has the misfortune of sitting inside the boundaries of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), which delayed a vote to allow drilling in November 2011. That vote has still not taken place.

Carol Collier, executive director of the DRBC, made an impromptu visit with Wayne County, PA landowners while in the area last week, and updated them on the “progress” being made on adoption of new drilling rules. She told landowner coalition representatives there are two reasons why new drilling rules for the Delaware River Basin will not be voted on before November 2012 at the earliest: (1) They’re waiting to see what New York does, and (2) they’re waiting for the Nov. 6 election.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Anti-Frackers to Descend on Washington, D.C. July 28
July 6, 2012December 19, 2012

Oh joy. Anti-fossil fuel, anti-drilling hippie wannabes will convene in (where else) Washington, D.C. on July 28th for a protest against fracking (the sex is free but bring your own drugs). Hollywood stars and starlets will be in attendance to whip up the faithful—like Mark Ruffalo, Ed Asner, Josh Fox and Margot Kidder.

Titled “Stop the Frack Attack,” community organizers and other protesters will lead a rally and march from the West Lawn of the Capitol at 2 pm on Saturday, July 28.

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