Hydraulic Fracturing

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion | Statewide NY

Folk Legend Peter Yarrow Joins Anti-Fracking Protest in NY
May 4, 2012May 4, 2012

Guess who’s now on board the anti-drilling bus? Peter Yarrow, of the sixties folk singing group Peter, Paul and Mary. Or as MDN editor Jim Willis used to call them back in the 1980s, “Peter, Paul and Commie.” Yeah, the singers of Puff the Magic Dragon have always been politically active—on the far left. In the 1980s they flew to Nicaragua to show their support for the brutal Socialist/Communist dictator Daniel Ortega. Why is it liberals love the commie dictators like Ortega and Castro? But we digress.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

New “Research” Says Fracking will Contaminate Aquifers
May 2, 2012May 2, 2012

A new research paper titled “Potential Contaminant Pathways from Hydraulically Fractured Shale to Aquifers,” bought and paid for by anti-drilling organizations Catskill Mountainkeeper and the Park Foundation, christened “peer-reviewed” and published in an obscure journal called Ground Water, concludes that fracking fluids won’t stay put a mile below solid rock and will instead travel uphill, through that mile of solid rock, and contaminate water aquifers—within a few years.

What scientific method was used to conduct this all-important research that foretells the end of safe drinking water as we know it? Computer models. Yeah, the author of this “important new study” sat and played with computer models, got a few of his buddies to sign off on his “research,” got paid a boatload of money from anti-drilling organizations and published it. And now, shazam, everyone is supposed to run for the hills and end all fracking everywhere. Nice try.

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Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Range Resources Corp | Regulation

EPA Administrator Al Armendariz Resigns over Crucify Comment
May 1, 2012May 1, 2012

Al Amrendariz, EPA Region 6 administrator (Texas and surrounding states) has been hoist by his own petard. Yesterday he resigned—in disgrace. It seems nearly everyone (but anti-drillers) were calling for his resignation after a video of Armendariz came to light where he outlined his philosophy of enforcement against energy company “violators” to that of the Romans who used to enter a village, find the first five men, and crucify them—which had the effect of, shall we say, making everyone else behave themselves (see MDN’s previous story on Armendariz to watch the infamous video).

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Bradford County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County | Tioga County (PA)

SRBC Lifts PA Water Withdrawal Restrictions, Drilling Resumes
May 1, 2012May 1, 2012

There is no official notice posted on the Susquehanna River Basin Commission’s (SRBC) website, but according to a Reuters news story, the SRBC has lifted its temporary ban on water withdrawals implemented two weeks ago on April 18. Hydraulic fracturing uses a lot of water. Drillers get the water from various sources, most often rivers and streams. If that river or stream happens to be located in the Susquehanna River Basin, withdrawals are overseen by the SRBC, which ensures water levels do not get too low.

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Aqua America | Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | PVR Partners

New Water Pipeline Reduces Water Truck Trips in PA
May 1, 2012May 1, 2012

Aqua America and Penn Virginia Resource Partners (PVR) issued a press release yesterday to call attention to a recently completed private pipeline project in the Marcellus Shale in north-central PA. What’s new and different about this pipeline is what it carries: water. The newly completed pipeline supplies water to drilling sites without the need for water trucks—and that’s the “angle” Aqua America and PVR are pushing. They tout the fact that already, in less than a month of operation, the pipeline has eliminated more than 2,000 water truck trips.

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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

PA DEP Continues Investigating 2 Water Wells Near Dimock
April 30, 2012April 30, 2012

Old news being reported as new news: The PA Department of Environmental Protection continues its investigation into a possible case of methane migration in two water wells just outside of Dimock Township. The investigation started in 2010 and is not part of the ongoing Dimock situation. The “new news” part of the story is that Cabot Oil & Gas added more cement in the casing of a nearby Greenwood 1 well (in March).

DEP officials are now monitoring to see if the additional cemented casing cuts down on methane in the two water wells. If it does, it will be obvious that Cabot’s Greenwood 1 well is the cause. If it does not reduce methane in the water wells, back to the drawing board and the investigation continues.

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

NY DEC Chief Says Supportive Towns More Likely to be Drilled
April 27, 2012April 27, 2012

MDN reported earlier this week that certain key New York State senators (and others) were signaling that if/when hydraulic fracturing is allowed to go forward in the state, it may only happen in communities that support it (see this MDN story). We now have further confirmation that indeed that will likely be the case from none other than Joe Martens, the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

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

Woodstock & Fracking Have One Thing in Common
April 27, 2012April 27, 2012

The Town of Bethel, in Sullivan County, NY, was home to the Woodstock “music festival” in 1969. Bethel is also the latest New York township to ban hydraulic fracturing. Both events have at least one thing in common: They’re both supported by hippies and hippie-wannabes.

Last night, the Bethel town board voted 5-0 to ban fracking before a “crowd” of 70 in attendance:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

New Video about Dimock, PA Tells the Real Story
April 27, 2012April 27, 2012

There’s been no shortage of pejorative media coverage painting the small town of Dimock, PA (in Susquehanna County) as the new Love Canal—a chemical wasteland. The image portrayed in a constant drumbeat by mainstream media, and Hollywood celebrities, is that Marcellus Shale gas drilling has fouled the water in and around Dimock. MDN will not recount the history of Dimock, just do a search on MDN for a myriad of background stories.

What you need to know is that the water is clean (proven clean by multiple tests, the latest of which is from the federal EPA themselves). And what you further need to know is that anti-drillers, in their zeal to find one place, anyplace, they can point to where water was affected by drilling, has unfairly destroyed the reputation of this innocent town.

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Earthquakes | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Report from England Links Fracking to Earthquakes
April 25, 2012April 25, 2012

$fracking and earthquakes$ Does fracking cause earthquakes? A newly released report from England reportedly confirms a link between hydraulic fracturing of a shale gas well and earthquake activity. And this is not an injection well, but a standard, hydraulically fractured natural gas well. A copy of the report is embedded below. MDN will walk you through the background, what really happened—and why it happened. This is “the rest of the story” you won’t get anywhere else.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion | Statewide NY

Jamestown Post-Journal Poll on Fracking Support in NY
April 25, 2012April 25, 2012

The Jamestown, NY Post-Journal is currently running a poll of its readership with the question: Would you support hydrofracking in New York state? MDN voted (in the affirmative of course), and here were the results as of this morning:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PennFuture Releases “Plain Language Guide” to PA Act 13
April 24, 2012April 24, 2012

Anti-drilling group PennFuture yesterday released their spin on Pennsylvania’s new Marcellus drilling law called Act 13. Calling it a “Plain Language Guide,” PennFuture takes aim at trying to dismantle the new law by first undermining people’s opinion of the law, and second by threatening to use their considerable $2 million per year war chest to throw at litigation against the new law. A summary of the main points in their new guide is embedded below. A full copy is available at their website by filling out a form (clever marketing to get your personal details for future fundraising appeals).

Here’s the PennFuture press release announcing the Plain Language Guide:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

IOGA of NY Publishes New Marcellus Drilling Fact Sheet
April 24, 2012April 24, 2012

The Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York (IOGA of NY) has just released a new fact sheet of quotes from various studies, organizations and prominent individuals in an ongoing attempt to “educate those who will listen and to correct many of the exaggerations and misconceptions about the business of energy development.” A copy of the fact sheet is embedded below.

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CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Shale Drilling Plays Key Role in Presidential Campaign
April 24, 2012April 24, 2012

Thus far MDN has refrained from commenting on the presidential campaign. It will be no surprise to MDN readers that we think Obama has an abysmal record on energy, particularly when it comes to shale gas drilling. It seems the Romney campaign shares that view. The Obama administration’s energy record is a recurring theme of Mitt Romney on the campaign trail, as it was yesterday when he was in Pennsylvania at Consol Energy:

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

Will Fracking in NY Only be Done in Supportive Communities?
April 23, 2012April 23, 2012

$frack here frack now$ In an interesting development in the long fight to allow shale gas drilling in New York State, two key state senators are signaling a compromise may come in the form of, “if you want it, you can get it” with respect to fracking. That is, communities that support fracking will likely be the ones who will get it, at least at first, and maybe they will be the only ones to get it.

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Accidents | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Third Set of EPA Water Tests in Dimock, PA Come Back Clean
April 23, 2012April 23, 2012

The latest (and third) round of water testing done by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of water wells around Dimock, PA shows (surprise!) no chemical contamination from hydraulic fracturing. All of the 16 water wells show no fracking fluids. One of the wells shows a high level of arsenic, a chemical not used by Cabot Oil & Gas during hydraulic fracturing. Arsenic is a naturally occurring chemical.

Here’s the statement by the EPA upon releasing the latest round of testing last Friday:

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