Hydraulic Fracturing

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

Wildlife Federation Sounds Alarm on Fracking in OH, MI
June 22, 2012June 22, 2012

Sadly, we have to add the National Wildlife Federation to the list of rabid anti-drilling groups. In fact, a check of the NWF website shows they’ve drunken so deeply from the anti-everything pool they’re beyond redemption. The latest “wild” charge they’re making (pun intended) is that natural gas drilling, specifically fracking in Ohio and Michigan, will use excessive amounts of water from the Great Lakes and is an imminent danger to people and animals.

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

Local Politicians Gather in Albany, NY to Support “Home Rule”
June 21, 2012June 21, 2012

A number of New York State local government officials gathered in Albany on Monday, June 18 to talk about and support a new initiative to grant local municipalities the legal right to control oil and gas drilling in their borders. The concept is referred to as “home rule” and it’s gathering momentum with both Democrats and even with some Republican state legislators.

The event was sponsored by a group of anti-drilling groups, including Sustainable Otsego, Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, and Otsego 2000. The anti-drilling group Shaleshock was also present and videoed the speakers. They offer the video on their website (click the link below to view it).

This was the press release about the home rule gathering:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

Josh Fox Releases Short Movie Targeting Gov. Andrew Cuomo
June 21, 2012June 21, 2012

Josh Fox, a talented movie-maker and master purveyor of half-truths and outright lies in the mostly fictional movie Gasland, has just released a new short “documentary” called The Sky is Pink aimed squarely and solely at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It seems the anti-drilling movement is desperate to prevent any kind of high volume hydraulic fracturing from getting a fair evaluation in New York State—so they’re pulling out all the stops to try and make sure it doesn’t.

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

Rochester, NY Votes to Ban Fracking for 1 Year
June 20, 2012June 20, 2012

Et tu Rochester? Rochester, NY is the latest New York municipality to ban hydraulic fracturing. Their ban is for one year.

Seems Cuomo’s trial balloon to allow fracking (nowhere near Rochester) and the soon-to-be-released new drilling rules from the state DEC have scared some uninformed politicians, like those in Rochester, into acting rashly.

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Alternative Energy | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Iconic Environmentalist James Lovelock Loves Fracking
June 19, 2012June 18, 2012

I love it. One of the biggest environmentalist gurus of the past 40 years has been British scientist (formerly with NASA) James Lovelock. It seems Dr. Lovelock has had a change of heart. He’s in favor of fracking and says Britain should be “going mad on it.” He also says the modern green movement has turned into a religion and its theories are “meaningless drivel.”

From a story in the UK Daily Mail:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Wall Street Big Money Targets Companies that Frack
June 19, 2012June 18, 2012

Three activist investor groups, all of them anti-drilling, are trying to use the influence of that money to shut down oil and gas drilling. If you have money invested with the members of any of these groups, you should consider removing your money and investing it elsewhere.

The groups are: The North American Investor Network on Climate Risk, the European Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, and the Australia/New Zealand Investor Group on Climate Change. Collectively they represent over 200 members with total assets under management of $20 trillion.

Their target for now? The discredited concept that oil and gas drilling which uses hydraulic fracturing (just about all oil and gas drilling) leads to an increase in methane in the atmosphere—so called “fugitive emissions.”

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

Albany Times Union Announces Support for Fracking
June 18, 2012June 19, 2012

Whoa, wait a minute. The editorial board of the very liberal Albany Times Union is (gasp) in favor of limited fracking in New York State as a test. Really? Really.

But of course, they condition it all on prior assurances of safety from DEC and EPA, and they want all sorts of ands, ifs and buts inserted to conduct such a test.

Here’s what they said in a recent editorial (and below, why this is politically significant):

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Earthquakes | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

NRC Study: Fracking Does Not Cause Earthquakes
June 18, 2012June 18, 2012

Does hydraulic fracturing—the process of forcing water, sand and a few chemicals down the bore hole and into shale formations—cause earthquakes? The National Research Council (NRC), part of the National Academies of Science, says the answer to that would be “no, fracking does not cause earthquakes.” That’s according to a new study just released by the NRC titled “Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies” (a link to the full study is embedded below).

The study found that out of a sample size of 35,000 oil and gas wells that have been horizontally fracked, earthquakes have been detected—get ready—in one instance. One. Which is statistically dead zero.

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

Enfield, NY Town Board Bans Fracking for it’s Landowners
June 18, 2012June 18, 2012

Another New York town votes to ban fracking for one year. Not that it makes a hill of beans worth of difference. The town board for Enfield, in Tompkins County, New York, voted last Wednesday to ban fracking:

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

NY Gov. Cuomo Speaks Out on Leaked Fracking Plan
June 15, 2012June 15, 2012

Did New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s trial balloon plan to allow fracking just burst? Yesterday, the governor was peppered with questions about his unofficially announced plan to allow limited fracking of natural gas wells in five Southern Tier counties and only in communities that want it.

Appearing on an Albany radio program, Gov. Cuomo said:

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

Dueling Rallies in Albany Over Cuomo’s Fracking Plan
June 15, 2012June 15, 2012

Both anti- and pro-drillers staged rallies in Albany, NY yesterday in response to the leaked plan by the Cuomo administration to allow limited hydraulic fracturing of gas wells in five Southern Tier counties.

Perhaps two dozen anti-drilling protestors showed up outside of Gov. Cuomo’s office for their PR appearance before the cameras. An hour later, they went to stand outside of a much a larger crowd of pro-drillers who staged a press conference featuring five town supervisors who were there to say they want drilling in their townships.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Update on NETL Faults & Fracking Study
June 15, 2012June 15, 2012

Earlier this week MDN covered news of a study about to be released by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) which looks at whether or not fracking fluids can find their way to the surface through faults or cracks (see this MDN story).

Based on the article MDN read, we floated the question, “Are we being set up?” Any time MDN reads about “this is science and incontrovertible and this will settle it once and for all” it sets off red flags—like we’re about to be railroaded.

Fortunately Pam Casey, a reporter with the West Virginia State Journal, read the MDN article and dug deeper. What she found is reassuring:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

NY Chefs Form Group to Oppose Fracking
June 15, 2012June 15, 2012

This is interesting—and odd—news: A bunch of chefs in New York City (where else?) have formed a group to support a ban on the fracking that if it happens, will happen four hours from where they live and work. Why? Uh yeah, good question.

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About MDN | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

MDN Attends Screening of ‘Truthland’ Movie
June 14, 2012June 14, 2012

It was MDN’s pleasure to attend a screening of the newly released Truthland movie last evening at the Susquehanna Valley High School in Conklin, NY. Truthland is a short film, about 34 minutes in length, that takes as its mission the debunking of Josh Fox’s well-known movie Gasland.

The star of Truthland is a Pennsylvania woman by the name of Shelly DePue. She and her husband Phil and their children live on a farm in northeastern PA—land that’s been in Phil’s family for the past 120 years. They leased their land for shale gas drilling several years ago, and then along came Gasland with wild claims that fracking is hugely dangerous. The movie raised red flags and questions for Shelly and sent her on a journey to find out the truth (or as it turns out, half- and un-truth) about Gasland. This movie (watch it below) chronicles her quest to get her questions answered.

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

Swift Response to Cuomo’s NY Fracking Plan
June 14, 2012June 14, 2012

As MDN predicted yesterday, the initial reaction of anti-drillers in New York that Gov. Cuomo is considering limited fracking in the state has been negative (see this MDN story). They needn’t worry, and once they figure it out, they’ll be happy with Andy’s latest plan because it gives them an excuse to protest and rabble-rouse at town board meetings for the next two years. The fight is going local in New York.

The Albany Times Union hints that Cuomo’s “announcement” of his plans for fracking—which was leaked to the New York Times yesterday—is a trial balloon to gage public reaction to the idea that he would allow drilling in five (MDN calls it the “Lucky Five”) Southern Tier counties of New York for a couple of years to see how it goes.

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

The Latest Anti-Drilling Scare Tactic: Radon in Shale Gas
June 14, 2012June 14, 2012

There’s no polite way to say this, so I won’t bother: The nutters are coming out of the woodwork. Damascus Citizens for Sustainability (DCS), NYH2O and 50 “other signatories” have sent a letter to Speaker Quinn of the New York City Council asking the speaker to convene hearings on the issue of radon in natural gas. They are claiming (and this is the nutty part) that Marcellus Shale gas contains radon and that Marcellus gas gets to market so fast the radon doesn’t have time to break down and dissipate. That is, it’s a health risk for New York City residents who use natural gas.

The solution, according to DCS and the others? Don’t use natural gas—at least not the cheap, abundant natural gas that comes from the Marcellus Shale.

Here’s their press release, if you can understand it:

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