Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Steven Chu, visited Pittsburgh on Wednesday. Part of his visit was to (sort of) promote shale gas drilling. Among other things, Mr. Chu said hydraulic fracturing can be done “in an environmentally responsible way.”
Read More “DOE Sec. Chu Goes to Pittsburgh, Promotes Shale Gas Drilling”
With the new Pennsylvania law to regulate Marcellus drilling about to be signed by Gov. Tom Corbett, counties are already gearing up to vote on whether or not to accept the new impact fee provided for in the legislation. Although support or lack of support for Marcellus and Utica drilling cuts across political party lines, increasingly it tends to be Republicans in favor of drilling, and Democrats against. Take Centre County (State College area, smack in the very middle of PA) as an example, where commissioners are already planning a vote.
Read More “Pro & Anti Drilling Increasingly Divides Along Party Lines”
Officials in Spring Brook Township (Lackawanna County), PA voted last night to prohibit shale gas drilling in half of the township while at the same time they approved designated areas for commercial wind farms. Those same officials acknowledged their vote to ban gas drilling may be meaningless under the newly passed Marcellus drilling state law about to be signed by Gov. Corbett, but they went ahead and voted anyway, having worked a year-and-a-half on the new zoning changes.
Read More “NE PA Town Votes to Prohibit Drilling, Approve Wind Farms”
In an interview yesterday with the editorial board of the Syracuse Post-Standard, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said a decision about whether or not to allow high volume hydraulic fracturing to move forward in the state is “a couple of months” away.
Read More “Gov. Cuomo Says Decision on NY Fracking Due in “Few Months””
Former PA Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger has been known to be a sharp critic of the drilling industry. He minces no words. If he believes drillers have caused a problem, he calls them out. Equally, he doesn’t shy away from defending hydraulic fracturing as the best, and safest, way of mining natural gas. He states outright that Marcellus fracking has never, not once, contaminated a water aquifer with chemicals.
Hanger is quoted extensively in an article on fracking hysteria in today’s New York Post:
Read More “Former PA DEP Head Says Fracking Doesn’t Contaminate Aquifers”
With the passage of the new Marcellus drilling law in Pennsylvania that establishes an impact fee, what happens next? The StateImpact website has a helpful timeline, which includes:
New Marcellus drilling legislation passed the Pennsylvania House yesterday by a vote of 101-90. The same measure passed the PA Senate earlier this week by a vote of 31-19. The only thing left before it becomes law is a signature by Gov. Tom Corbett, who said he looks forward to signing it. The new law will establish, for the first time in PA, a per-well-drilled impact fee. The fee is assessed on a sliding scale from $40,000 to $60,000 for the first year, decreasing each year for a 15-year period after that. The new law also tightens environmental regulations.
Read More “New Marcellus Drilling Law Passes PA House, Awaits Gov’s Sig”
PennEnvironment released a study yesterday of what they call “environmental violations” by Marcellus Shale drillers in Pennsylvania for the past four years (a copy of the study is embedded below). It is a skewed analysis of citations issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) from 2008 to 2011. By PennEnvironment’s own admission, about one-third of the 3,355 DEP violations over the past four years are paperwork-related.
Read More “PennEnvironment Says Ban PA Drilling Based on Violations Data”
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine (Republican) said yesterday he wants tougher penalties for Utica and Marcellus Shale drillers who “pollute.”
Read More “OH Attorney General Wants Drillers Who Pollute to Pay More”
A group of Chenango County, NY officials have come up with a great idea: Use the abandoned Camp Pharsalia prison facility in a very rural part of the county (sits on 52 acres, owned by the state) to drill several test Marcellus and Utica Shale wells, and use it as a living laboratory with everyone involved—the state, the drilling industry, environmental groups and academe. In other words, let’s just test this out to see if there are any problems. The experiment would be a public-private partnership between the state and the drilling industry. Brilliant!
This forward-thinking group submitted their proposal to the state Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel in January:
Read More “Libous, Martens Shoot Down Proposal for Fracking Test”
On Tuesday, New York Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Joe Martens gave testimony at a legislative budget hearing in Albany about the department’s staffing needs for 2012. The conversation turned to the DEC’s lack of a request for additional staffing that would be needed to oversee permits and drilling for shale gas should hydraulic fracturing finally, after four years, be allowed in the state. Once again, Martens’ language is very telling. His responses have moved away from “when” to “if” fracking will be allowed:
Read More “NY DEC Com. Joe Martens Now Says “If” Drilling is Allowed”
Here’s an “I told you so.” Last week, MDN covered the story of the arrest of Gasland filmmaker Josh Fox at a Congressional hearing (see this MDN story). That episode gave rise to MDN’s weekly update this past Sunday, and the current MDN poll which asks if Gasland is truth or fiction.
In Sunday’s weekly update, MDN wrote:
New drilling legislation, including an impact fee, has passed the Pennsylvania Senate and debate began last night in the PA House. Debate will continue today. Passage is expected this week, perhaps as early as today. As MDN pointed out yesterday, the mostly anti-drilling organization Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) gave the new legislation a lukewarm, half-hearted endorsement as “the best thing we can get right now” (see this MDN story).
However, the mostly anti-drilling Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), which works closely with the PEC, gave the legislation a more positive endorsement, calling it “a tremendous step forward.” From the CBF press release:
Read More “Green Groups Split on Support for New PA Drilling Law”
Are the political winds shifting in New York State among the politicians that have been staunch supporters of gas drilling? There’s perhaps no stronger supporter among elected politicians in Albany than Tom Libous, a powerful state senator from Binghamton. Sen. Libous is the deputy majority leader of the NYS Senate and a member of the DEC’s Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel (see this MDN story).
So when MDN spotted this quote by Sen. Libous in the New York Times in a story about how the review and approval process for fracking in the state is slowing down, it gives us great pause:
Read More “Is NYS State Senator Tom Libous Reversing Course on Drilling?”
One of the arguments often raised to support shale gas (and shale oil) drilling is that it will help America become energy independent. In a wide-ranging article on the topic, Bloomberg says that promise is being fulfilled—because of hydraulic fracturing. The article starts this way:
Read More “U.S. Energy Independence is Happening – Because of Fracking”
The mostly anti-drilling organization Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) issued an interesting statement yesterday, commenting on new Marcellus drilling legislation that will likely be passed and signed into law this week in PA. Here is the entire press release:
Read More “PEC’s Lukewarm Statement of Support for New PA Drilling Law”