Hydraulic Fracturing

Air Quality | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

EPA’s Draconian Air Pollution Rules Go into Effect, Sort of
July 5, 2012July 5, 2012

Marcellus Shale operations in Pennsylvania—and oil and gas operations nationwide—will need to reduce so-called air pollution emissions to comply with new federal rules issued yesterday. And even though the “fix” in “air pollution” regulations was mandated by a ~~kangaroo~~ federal court, the EPA autocratically delayed implementation for parts of the new standards for more than two years, to Jan. 1, 2015. Why? The stated reason from the EPA is that the equipment drillers will need for “green completions” is not yet widely available.

The real reason for the delay is because Obama wants to remove it as a political issue during his re-election campaign. Just like the tragedy that is nationalized health care, the real “bite” from the new EPA “fix” won’t take effect until midway through what Obama hopes is his second term, when the unpopular parts and the massive expense of the EPA ruling becomes apparent, but it can’t touch Obama politically. Sleazy.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Monongalia County | Regulation | West Virginia

Morgantown, WV Passes New Marcellus Drilling Ban
July 5, 2012July 5, 2012

The Morgantown, WV City Council is at it again. You may recall they tried to ban hydraulic fracturing last year both inside and up to one mile outside of the city limits. A judge struck down the law (see this MDN story). Council members aren’t about to give up though. On Tuesday, they passed six new ordinances that will “limit” drilling to areas immediately surrounding the Morgantown Municipal Airport.

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

When Will Fracking Begin in New York?
July 5, 2012July 5, 2012

When will fracking begin in New York? When MDN editor Jim Willis speaks with friends and family, perhaps that is the question he gets most often. Most New Yorkers and even most non-New Yorkers Jim talks with believe it’s going to happen, it’s just a question of when. Jim just has to shrug his shoulders when asked and says, “Your guess is as good as mine.”

The question on the minds of many New Yorkers is the object of endless speculation on radio talk shows and in newspaper articles. North Country Public Radio ran a segment yesterday speculating on the “when” question. They had some interesting points to make on the topic, pointing out that the New York legislature is now in recess for the rest of the year (sure wish we only had to work half a year!), and the legislature recessed without voting on key legislation that would need to be in place if drilling were going to begin this year:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

The Accidental Fracker – Stories from NC
July 5, 2012July 5, 2012

Typically MDN does not cover the (plentiful) news about shale gas drilling in other parts of the US or even the world—unless the story has a direct bearing somehow on drilling in the Marcellus or Utica Shale. Or unless it’s about fracking technology/issues in general, which of course do have a bearing on Marcellus and Utica drilling.

But every now and again we’ll throw in a story for pure entertainment value. This time, it’s a story about North Carolina, where the fracking debate has heated up. The NC legislature recently voted to allow fracking. The Democrat governor, Bev Perdue, vetoed the legislation. And a vote was just taken to override her veto. The veto, we’re happy to report, has been overridden, and the deciding vote was cast by a Democrat who had campaigned against fracking—Becky Carney. It seems it was past Ms. Carney’s bedtime and she was so sleepy she hit the wrong voting button by mistake. Oops.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Al “Crucify Them” Armendariz Goes to Work for Sierra Club
July 3, 2012July 3, 2012

Where do former EPA officials go after they’ve been outted as extremist anti-drillers—so extreme even the head honchos in Obama’s EPA can’t stomach them anymore? Why, the Sierra Club, of course!

You may remember the rightful furor over comments made public by then-EPA Region 6 Administrator Al Armendariz about how his philosophy on the enforcement of EPA regulations against drillers is to find a few and make examples of them. You know, like the Romans used to do when they entered a village and crucified the first five men they found. His extremist comments, when finally revealed several years after the fact, led to his dismissal (see this MDN story).

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Forced Pooling | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

NY and Compulsory Integration – MDN Agrees with Slottje (!)
July 3, 2012July 3, 2012

David Slottje and his wife Helen are both lawyers funded in part by the Park Foundation (in Ithaca, NY) to run around trying to convince local town boards in New York to ban hydraulic fracturing. They are, in a word, the enemies of landowner property rights. They seek to deny landowners who want to lease their land for gas drilling the right to do so.

So when MDN read an editorial (not surprisingly) in the Ithaca Journal written by David Slottje that makes reference to the rumored plan by Gov. Cuomo to allow limited drilling in five counties as being “devastating” to landowner property rights, it was a laugh-out-loud moment. The height of hypocrisy and arrogance to say landowner rights will be devastated by the very person doing the most to devastate them.

But what wasn’t so funny was that getting beyond the rank hypocrisy and looking at the substance of what Slottje wrote, MDN had to agree with his viewpoint—on this one particular issue.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Statewide WV | West Virginia

The Inverse Relationship of Coal and Natural Gas
July 3, 2012July 3, 2012

A heartrending editorial in the Charleston Gazette tells about recent massive layoffs in the West Virginia coal industry. While there’s mention of Obama’s war on coal (and make no mistake, it’s a real war on coal by the global warmists), the editorial puts most of the “blame” on the rise of cheap natural gas, brought about by hydraulic fracturing of shale.

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Berks County | Bucks County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Montgomery County | Pennsylvania | Regulation

Republicans Sneak SE PA Drilling Ban into Budget Deal
July 2, 2012July 2, 2012

An eleventh hour deal was snuck into the Pennsylvania budget signed into law by Gov. Tom Corbett late Saturday night. On Friday, an amendment was introduced to the budget that would establish a moratorium on drilling in southeastern Pennsylvania in the South Newark Basin, a small area which stretches from New Jersey through Bucks, Montgomery and Berks counties in PA.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently completed an evaluation of the South Newark Basin, which contains both shale and coal bed methane deposits, along with four other East Coast basins and issued a report showing how much natural gas each basin contains (a copy is embedded below). The report says the South Newark Basin contains a minimum of 363 billion cubic feet of natural gas deposits, and their best guess is it contains around 876 billion cubic feet. It’s much smaller than the Marcellus, but certainly nothing to sneeze at.

With all of the gas drilling in the rest of the state, and with new drilling laws now in place, why place a temporary moratorium that expires in 2018 on the southeast region of the state? That’s where politics rears its ugly head—and this time it’s the Republicans who are to blame.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Delaware Riverkeeper Launches Anti-Fracking Ad Nationally
July 2, 2012July 2, 2012

The anti-drilling Delaware Riverkeeper has launched a new anti-gas ad airing on Lifetime, MSNBC, CNBC, and FOX News. Yes, Fox News too. No doubt using the deep pockets of Hollywood types (like Mark Ruffalo) and money from billionaires (like the lefty George Soros), the ad tries to turn up the fear factor on gas drilling and smear the miracle of hydraulic fracturing. Perhaps you’ve seen the new ad? MDN editor Jim Willis watched it online here (he kicked the time-wasting TV habit years ago).

MDN notices that some lazy (obedient?) news outlets have picked up the Riverkeeper press release and printed it word for word as actual news, not even bothering to identify it as a biased press release (like the Hunterdon County Democrat).

Here’s the press release as issued by Riverkeeper (and as found in the Hunterdon County Democrat):

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

UK Academy of Engineering Study: Fracking is Safe
June 29, 2012June 29, 2012

A refreshing report has been issued by the UK Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society that says, in essence, hydraulic fracturing should be expanded in that country and when it’s properly regulated, fracking is perfectly safe. Issued earlier this month, the 76-page report is titled “Shale gas extraction in the UK: a review of hydraulic fracturing” (a full copy is embedded below).

Here’s the opening two paragraphs, which pretty much sum up the tone and findings of the report:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Statewide NY | Statewide PA

SRBC Suspends Water Withdrawals in Some Areas
June 29, 2012June 29, 2012

The Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), actively manages water withdrawals for shale drilling from the rivers and streams that are a part of its jurisdiction. The DRBC allows no water withdrawals at all—yet.

Yesterday the SRBC suspended withdrawals at 37 different locations because water levels have dropped from lack of rain. This happens periodically. Withdrawals in some locations are suspended for a time, and then allowed to restart when levels rise again. The SRBC continues to do a good job of managing water supplies throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Here’s the press release and list of affected areas:

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

DEC Seeks Industry Feedback, Antis Throw a Temper Tantrum
June 28, 2012June 28, 2012

There’s a storm brewing you need to know about. But it’s actually more like a tempest in a teapot. There’s nothing “there” in this story, except posturing by anti-drillers. With that proviso…

The Albany Times Union reports in today’s edition (in a story posted online last night) that last year, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) sent preview drafts for a few sections of the proposed new drilling rules (called the SGEIS) to “the industry” in August, a few weeks before the official release of the latest version of the SGEIS in September. Why would the DEC “leak” it to the industry first? Conspiracy? Cozy relationship? No. The DEC shared a few select portions because state law requires the DEC to seek feedback from those who would be regulated by the new rules.

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Chemung County | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Talisman Energy

Hit and Run Protest at Talisman Office in Big Flats, NY
June 28, 2012June 28, 2012

Here’s the non-news news: About 100 protesters from Ithaca and New York City showed up for a 30-minute “hit and run” protest in front of Talisman Energy’s offices in Big Flats, NY (near Corning, in Chemung County). The rabble rousers, led by Shaleshock, made wild claims about Talisman polluting the environment and read a statement claiming they’ll lay down in front of trucks if drilling begins in New York. In less than a half hour from the time they arrived, they were “escorted” from the premises, where they were illegally protesting (it’s private property).

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Statewide VA | Virginia

Will VA Drill the Marcellus Shale Any Time Soon?
June 28, 2012June 28, 2012

A topic we don’t write very much about is Marcellus Shale drilling in Virginia. The reason? Two reasons really: There’s only a small sliver along the western edge that sits in the Marcellus play, and most Virginians are dead set against fracking (even though it’s already in use in the state today). So there has been no Marcellus drilling in VA to date. Will that change?

A wide-ranging article in Virginia Business titled “Virginia’s Burning Question” addresses the issue of whether, and when, drilling will take place in the state. A small section of that article:

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Energy Companies | Exxon Mobil | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

ExxonMobil CEO Delivers Major Speech on U.S. Energy
June 28, 2012June 28, 2012

In a speech delivered at the Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson said fears about climate change, drilling and even energy dependence on other countries are all overblown. He said he believes burning fossil fuels does lead to global warming, but it’s no big deal and certainly not an impending cataclysm. He also said the press and environmentalists are manufacturing fear about fracking and fossil fuels.

Perhaps the most controversial thing he said is that the general public is “illiterate” when it comes to science and math.

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Accidents | Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Yale Study Finds Shale Gas Benefits Outweigh Costs 400 to 1
June 27, 2012June 27, 2012

Oh oh, this isn’t supposed to happen…A group of Yale economics graduates together with a Yale professor have written a detailed and well-researched paper refuting the mighty New York Times and concluding that the benefits of shale gas are enormous and should continue.

The 12-page paper, titled “The Arithmetic of Shale Gas” is embedded below. The authors of the paper consider both the economic benefits and the costs, including environmental damage, and make the following observation:

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