Hydraulic Fracturing

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

Delaware County Asks NY State for $81.3B in Reparations
March 12, 2012March 12, 2012

Paying $9 billion to build a new water filtration plant for New York City may look like a bargain compared to paying New York landowners the value of their mineral rights from shale gas drilling. That’s the point being made by the Delaware County Board of Supervisors with a recent resolution they passed in a 12-4 vote at their February meeting.

Delaware County Resolution No. 40 (copy embedded below) demands that New York State and New York City pay Delaware County landowners $81.3 billion in reparations over 60 years because the proposed new regulations drafted by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will effectively prohibit 80 percent of land in Delaware County from being drilled due to enormous setback provisions from the New York City watershed.

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Dominion Exploration | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Westmoreland County

Water Tests at PA Reservoir Show No Affects from Gas Drilling
March 12, 2012March 12, 2012

In March 2009, the Westmoreland (PA) County Board of Supervisors voted to lease Municipal Authority property near the Beaver Run Reservoir for shale gas drilling to Dominion Resources. The original plan was to drill five wells (see this MDN story). Two years later, there are 13 working wells on the property with plans for another 14 wells. More importantly, testing done of the water in the reservoir and streams that flow into it show (gasp), there’s been no affect on the water from Marcellus drilling.

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Cayuga County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion | Regulation | Wastewater

Auburn, NY Rescinds Ban on Gas Drilling Wastewater
March 9, 2012March 9, 2012

Wiser heads have prevailed in the upstate New York Finger Lakes community of Auburn—the Auburn city council has voted to once again allow the municipal sewage treatment plant to accept gas drilling wastewater.

As you may recall, MDN told you about protesters who descended on the tiny city of Auburn last year to protest not Marcellus wastewater being treated at the sewage plant, but local conventional gas drilling wastewater—something that had been going on for 15 years with no adverse effects (see this MDN story). In the rush to condemn fracking and prevent horizontal drilling in the state, ignorant protesters have fallen into the trap of protesting all gas drilling in the state—drilling that has gone on for decades.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Sustainable Investments Institute Issues Report on Fracking
March 9, 2012March 9, 2012

The Sustainable Investments Institute (Si2) and the IRRC Institute yesterday released a new report titled “Discovering Shale Gas: An Investor Guide to Hydraulic Fracturing” (a copy of the 74-page report is embedded below). The report provides an in-depth look at the environmental and social impacts of shale gas development, identifies key questions for investors and includes 10 drilling company profiles. An expert panel representing industry, environmental groups and investor activists provided input to the report.

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

NY Republican Senator Introduces Fracking Wastewater Bill
March 9, 2012March 9, 2012

On the issue of hydraulic fracturing and shale gas drilling, the New York Republican party keeps shooting itself in the head. The latest example is a ridiculous bill just introduced into the state legislature by Long Island Republican Senator Jack Martins, 7th Senate District:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

DRBC Update: When Will New Rules Come to a Vote?
March 8, 2012March 8, 2012

Large areas of the Marcellus Shale play not only have state oversight and regulation of drilling, but also oversight from two quasi-governmental organizations: the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) and the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC). Wells drilled in an area covered by the SRBC must go through an approval process with the SRBC first. The SRBC gets to oversee major industrial activities (not just gas drilling) anywhere in the region of tributaries—creeks and rivers—that flow into the Susquehanna River that starts near Cooperstown and flows all the way to the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.

The SRBC meets regularly, considers requests for drilling and water withdrawals from rivers and streams, and acts on those requests in a timely manner. Not so with the DRBC.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Can Ohio Regulations Handle the Coming Shale Gas Boom?
March 7, 2012March 7, 2012

The question of whether or not Ohio is ready for a drilling boom in the Utica Shale may be moot, since the boom has already started. But an official from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) says with new laws passed last year, and more laws set to be passed this year, Ohio is more than ready to handle a rapid expansion of Utica and Marcellus Shale drilling in the state.

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

MDN Editor Jim Willis Interviews NY Sen. Tom Libous
March 6, 2012March 6, 2012

MDN editor Jim Willis interviewed NY State Senator Tom Libous last Friday, March 2nd. Sen. Libous is a member of Gov. Cuomo’s Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel and an influential member of the NY Senate, holding the post of Deputy Majority Leader. We spoke about his recent remarks in the New York Times and whether or not his support for drilling has changed. We also spoke about the Advisory Panel’s work and where things go from here. It’s a short and informative interview, especially for New York’s landowners who are wondering whether, and when, drilling might begin in New York.

Jim interviewed Sen. Libous as special correspondent for Energy in Depth, so head on over to this page on the EID-M website and click to listen.
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Washington County

PA Towns Banding Together to Sue State Over New Drilling Law
March 6, 2012March 6, 2012

Last month’s passage of new Marcellus drilling regulations in Pennsylvania has some local municipalities grumbling that the state’s “Act 13” regulating oil and gas drilling and superseding local zoning ordinances takes away their ability to, yes, control drilling in their local municipalities. Which of course is what the law is designed to do!

Several municipalities, Cecil Township the latest, are making moves to band together and sue the state over the new law in an effort to overturn the Act 13 provision.

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

NY Gov. Cuomo Signals Fracking Issue is “How” and Not “If”
March 5, 2012March 5, 2012

Finally some good news for New York landowners who want shale gas drilling to go forward in the state. Lately, it’s seemed as if New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was backing off his support for shale gas drilling. He elected to not even mention it in this year’s State of the State address, even though there was a section about it in his prepared remarks (see this MDN story). Then he made a comment about the status of the review process and making on determination on whether drilling will even be allowed (see this MDN story). And then a comment to a Syracuse newspaper editorial board about a decision coming “in a few months” on fracking (see this MDN story), the implied meaning was whether or not it would be allowed at all.

Add it all up and it certainly appeared that Gov. Cuomo was stepping back from his earlier support of drilling. But Andrew Cuomo is the consummate politician and perhaps that was all smokescreen. Last Friday, in a radio interview, he all but said fracking will go forward in the state, it’s just a matter of how and when it will happen, not if.

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Accidents | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

AP’s Newest Non-Story About Dimock, PA
March 5, 2012March 5, 2012

From time to time, the Associated Press will write a story about the gas drilling issue. Because a huge number of newspapers in the U.S. subscribe to the AP service, they run the story and overnight a single story, or various versions of the story, is run in hundreds of newspapers nationwide creating an echo chamber making it seem as if it’s new news. It’s happened again with another non-story about Dimock, PA. By now most MDN readers will know what Dimock is about—an attempt to create a link between hydraulic fracturing and chemical contamination of a water aquifer. If you need a background on the controversy, click here for MDN’s stories on Dimock.

The latest non-story story from the AP is an announcement that the EPA, that has been conducting water testing in the Dimock area, will release its first test results this week. That’s the sum total of the news in the story. But the AP story includes lots of background and fluff. One of the interesting backgrounder interviews is with a geologist from northeastern PA near Dimock:

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Chesapeake Energy | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Rolling Stone Shale Gas Hit Piece, Chesapeake Responds
March 5, 2012March 5, 2012

Last week Rolling Stone magazine ran a hit piece on the natural gas industry in general, and Chesapeake Energy and its CEO Aubrey McClendon in particular. The article, titled “The Big Fracking Bubble: The Scam Behind the Gas Boom” tries to recycle the theme already postulated by Ian Urbina in the New York Times some months ago that energy companies are vastly overstating just how much gas there is, and that they are in essence perpetrating a fraud on investors by covering it up. Rolling Stone, the NYT and other anti-drilling “media” outlets (I’d call them propaganda outlets) all use the same language and same arguments, trying to drive into readers’ psyche that shale gas drilling is a “Ponzi scheme” hoping to connect Bernie Madoff with gas drilling in your mind. Nice try Rolling Stone.

On Saturday, Chesapeake issued the following response, exposing the fallacies and lies found in the Rolling Stone article:

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

NY Towns Ban All Drilling, Not Just Horizontal Fracking
March 2, 2012March 2, 2012

Residents who live in New York townships that can’t seem to wait to ban drilling should be aware of something. These bans are bans of all gas drilling, not just horizontal hydraulic fracturing. That’s what residents in Enfield (Tompkins County), NY found out on Wednesday at a meeting with the town attorney. The Enfield town board plans to vote to enact a one-year moratorium in late April or early May, and the moratorium is on vertical as well as horizontal gas well drilling.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Public Opinion

Josh Fox Bullies Filmmaker, Decides to Make Own Documentary
March 2, 2012March 2, 2012

Move over Josh Fox and Gasland. There’s a new documentary on the way that will set the record straight and deliver the real truth about fracking. The new documentary is appropriately named FrackNation. Filmmaker and journalist Phelim McAleer is working on it now. In today’s New York Post, McAleer writes about how he was inspired by Josh Fox’s legal bullying into creating it:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

New Regulations to Control Fracking on the Way from Obama
March 2, 2012March 2, 2012

For all of President Obama’s talk about the promise of shale gas and his support of it, once again he and his administration’s actions do not match the talk. On Wednesday, Obama’s Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, told a congressional hearing that his department is going to issue new federal regulations to control hydraulic fracturing.

This is a clear violation of state’s rights to regulate oil and gas development within their own borders. But unconstitutionally ceasing power is nothing new for the Obama administration. The end result of these new regulations will be to slow down new shale drilling domestically.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Polish Geological Institute Study Finds Fracking is Safe
March 2, 2012March 2, 2012

Researchers from the Polish Geological Institute have just released a study of the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing. Poland has its own shale deposit, the Silurian shale, which is thought to contain the right mix of high organic content to make it productive for shale gas drilling. The Poles keep hearing from the United States how controversial fracking is, so they decided to conduct their own study. What did they find?

The study found that soil, air and water are all just fine if drilling is done according to regulations. That is, hydraulic fracturing is safe. A copy of the report summary is embedded below. This is the accompanying press release issued by the Institute:

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