Fake Harvard Study Says Old Folks Living Near Fracked Wells Die More
A new study out of Harvard University purports to link fracking with early deaths of senior citizens. It is fake research. Here’s the main finding of the study: Senior citizens who lived closest to fracked shale wells (including seniors in the PA Marcellus) had an early death risk 2.5% higher than people who did not live close to the wells. If it were an opinion poll we would say it’s within the margin of statistical error. In other words, these “researchers” didn’t find a darned thing. And yet the headlines have already begun in fake news media…
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You know it’s the end of the world when (in this case) the far-left editors of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who universally hate shale drilling, support shale drilling under public parks in Allegheny County (Greater Pittsburgh). Last week MDN told you that anti-drilling zealots in Allegheny County were making yet another play, as they did eight years ago, to get County Council to pass a permanent ban on fracking under (not on) county parks (see 
Yesterday we told you that a program would air last night on the Fox Business channel featuring Cameron Energy, a conventional oil driller in western Pennsylvania (see 
A recently published book that attempts to show fracking in Lycoming County, PA area in the worst possible light, along with a section excerpted from the book running in the New York Times, once again reopens an old case that accuses Range Resources of ruining the water supply for several homes near a fracked well drilled by Range. In 2011 Range drilled and fracked the Harman Lewis Unit 1H well along Green Valley Road in Hughesville, PA. Following an investigation, the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) slapped Range with a record $8.9 million fine in June 2015, accusing the company of faulty casing in its well, leading to methane migration that had contaminated several area water wells (see 
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) published a notice in the September 4 Pennsylvania Bulletin for “final technical guidance” on Implementing the Area of Review Regulatory Requirement for Unconventional Well Permitting. This is a document to guide drillers as they evaluate where they will frack, instructing them in how they should evaluate and monitor other nearby wells (other fracked wells or conventional oil and gas wells) to ensure those wells don’t “communicate” oil and gas up to the surface. That is, to ensure oil and gas come out of the right borehole, the well it’s supposed to come out of.
Several mainstream media outlets who either didn’t read or intentionally lie about the results revealed in a new study are reporting a link between fracking and impacts on surface waters–particularly in the Marcellus Shale. In fact, the study, published in the journal Science, shows the authors found no such link. They found “a small increase in certain ions associated with hydraulic fracturing across several locations” that likely come from accidental spills of brine. And those slight increases disappear after a few months.
“Look ma, no hands on the steering wheel!” Forget about self-steering/self-driving cars. That’s yesterday. Now we have self-steering (or “autonomous”) directional drilling–oil and gas drilling that steers itself using artificial intelligence. Brought to you by the largest oilfield services company in the world: Schlumberger.
Seneca Resources, the drilling arm of utility giant National Fuel Gas Company, is conducting its first experiment with electric fracking. We’re aware of at least three other Marcellus/Utica drillers that currently use electric fracking: Range Resources, CNX Resources, and Olympus Energy (former Huntley & Huntley). Seneca, like Range, will use U.S. Well Services to provide e-fracking. Seneca is conducting a field trial for a 6-well pad in Lycoming County, PA.
A Pennsylvania Democrat lawmaker from Beaver County (southwestern PA) who professes to support the Marcellus industry, Rep. Rob Matzie, has written a letter to Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Pat McDonnell (a fellow Dem) asking him to deny a request by PennEnergy Resources to withdraw as much as 3 million gallons of water a day from Big Sewickley Creek and one of its tributaries for shale fracking. Matzie says that’s just too much water to withdraw from the creek.
In a brilliant move aimed at boxing in the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), two northeastern Pennsylvania State Senators–Gene Yaw and Lisa Baker–along with members of the PA Senate Republican Caucus (27 Senators in all), filed a lawsuit in January against the DRBC accusing the quasi-governmental agency of “taking” the property rights of PA residents without just compensation under the law (see 
Seneca Resources Company, the exploration and production subsidiary of National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), is the latest company to jump on the ESG (environmental, social, governance) bandwagon. Seneca is partnering with NexTier Oilfield Solutions, an oilfield services company that fracks and completes wells for companies like Seneca, to study the carbon emissions that come from fracking shale wells.
We recently spotted an article in the Wall Street Journal about the prospect of combining horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (collectively called “fracking”) with geothermal energy. The article claims fracking could be used to generate energy with “no carbon emissions.” Green nirvana! At last!! But is this really possible? Is it actually economical? Let’s take a closer look.