Hydraulic Fracturing

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

Flaring of Gas Wells – Still Used, But Not as Much Anymore
February 2, 2012February 2, 2012

In areas where there is active drilling, like northeast and southwest Pennsylvania, near the end of completing a gas well is a process called flaring—when some of the gas and other impurities are burned off. Sometimes flaring a well, which results in a large flame coming out of the well, can be seen up to 10 miles away, which catches neighbors by surprise. Tony Gaudlip from Range Resources explains the flaring process, and why it’s not used as much as it once was.

Read More “Flaring of Gas Wells – Still Used, But Not as Much Anymore”
Accidents | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Cabot Accuses EPA of Cherry Picking Old Water Test Data
February 1, 2012February 1, 2012

Cabot Oil & Gas has accused the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of “cherry picking” old water test data to justify its intrusion into Dimock, PA. For a quick backgrounder on the situation in Dimock and why Cabot is being blamed by some for pollution of a handful of local water wells in the area, see this MDN story.

Read More “Cabot Accuses EPA of Cherry Picking Old Water Test Data”
Accidents | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Dimock Residents Petition EPA to Stop Their Investigation
February 1, 2012February 1, 2012

A group of residents from the Dimock, Pennsylvania area have formed a group called “Enough is Enough” to combat the negative image being painted of their quaint, rural town in the Endless Mountains region of northeast PA. A steady drumbeat of negative press over the past three years, instigated by anti-drilling organizations, has created an image of Dimock as a chemical wasteland a la “Love Canal” (the Niagara Falls neighborhood that became famous in the 1970s because of widespread underground chemical contamination) in the minds of those who have never visited the area.

Dimock residents want to dispel that image.

Read More “Dimock Residents Petition EPA to Stop Their Investigation”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

SUNY Prof Dr. Gary Lash Discusses the Science of Fracking
January 31, 2012January 31, 2012

Dr. Gary G. Lash, Department of Geosciences Professor at SUNY Fredonia and Director of the SUNY Fredonia Shale Research Institute, doesn’t often grant interviews. But he recently opened up with reporter from the Dunkirk (NY) Observer about the science, and politics, of hydraulic fracturing. Dr. Lash is an international authority on the Marcellus, so when he talks, people listen!

Commenting on the fracking debate in New York State, he said:

Read More “SUNY Prof Dr. Gary Lash Discusses the Science of Fracking”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Washington Times: Is Obama Setting NG Up for a Fall?
January 30, 2012January 30, 2012

It seems that MDN is not the only skeptic when it comes to President Obama’s election year conversion to supporting shale gas and fracking. An article in yesterday’s Washington Times asks the question, “Is the natural gas sector set up by Obama to be sabotaged?” Some industry observers believe the administration is publicly supporting fracking and drilling, while behind the scenes they are attempting to sabotage it:

Read More “Washington Times: Is Obama Setting NG Up for a Fall?”
Accidents | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Cabot Letter to EPA: You Need to Rethink Dimock Decision
January 27, 2012January 27, 2012

Cabot Oil & Gas President & CEO Dan Dinges sent a letter yesterday to federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson about the EPA’s sudden change of plans concerning the situation in Dimock, PA (the full letter is embedded below). The upshot of the letter? You need to rethink your recent decision to interfere in Dimock.

Read More “Cabot Letter to EPA: You Need to Rethink Dimock Decision”
Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Regulation

Obama Takes Credit for Shale Gas Drilling in Election Year
January 27, 2012January 27, 2012

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed earlier this week (We Don’t Need More Foreign Oil and Gas), Obama supporters and long-time Democrat flacks John Podesta and Tom Steyer tried to make the argument that we don’t need Canada’s oil (and natural gas) because we now have enough of our own, thank you very much. Apparently Obama is getting heat for his disastrous decision to pander to environmental extremists and reject the Keystone XL pipeline that would not only have brought cheap Canadian oil to the U.S. (at a time of record-highs for oil), but also would have brought more U.S. oil to the U.S. from North Dakota’s Bakken field.

Read More “Obama Takes Credit for Shale Gas Drilling in Election Year”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Meetings

Drilling Industry Responds to Obama’s Call for Transparency
January 26, 2012January 26, 2012

Less than 24 hours after President Obama called for full disclosure of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, the drilling industry held its first public meeting to roll out FracFocus.org, an online database that does just what the President requested. The meeting, held in Williamsport, PA, brought together drilling companies, environmental engineers and other experts, along with the public, to answer questions and address people’s concerns.

Read More “Drilling Industry Responds to Obama’s Call for Transparency”
Accidents | Atlas Energy | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Westmoreland County

PA DEP Sides with Homeowner Against Atlas in Well Water Issue
January 26, 2012January 26, 2012

In 2008, a homeowner located near gas wells drilled in Westmoreland County, PA by Atlas Energy says his well water turned muddy immediately after drilling was done. At the time, Atlas told him to stop drinking the water and supplied him with a water buffalo, making fresh water deliveries ever since. That is, until two weeks ago when Atlas says that after re-testing the water is now safe to drink, so they ended the water deliveries. The homeowner disagrees and the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is siding with the homeowner in this case.

Read More “PA DEP Sides with Homeowner Against Atlas in Well Water Issue”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Obama Speech Gives NYers Hope that Fracking Will Soon Begin
January 26, 2012January 26, 2012

President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, in which he openly supports drilling for natural gas and the “safe” use of hydraulic fracturing, has given a glimmer of hope to landowners in New York State that perhaps the President’s support for fracking will finally end the moratorium on drilling in New York.

Read More “Obama Speech Gives NYers Hope that Fracking Will Soon Begin”
Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Regulation

Obama State of the Union: Safe Fracking will Create 600K Jobs
January 25, 2012January 25, 2012

Last night, President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address to Congress. Energy and natural gas played a big role in the speech. In particular, Obama acknowledges the jobs-generating power of natural gas drilling, saying it can generate 600,000 jobs by the end of this decade. He also mandated a requirement that gas drillers on public lands disclose the chemicals they use. (Disclosing fracking chemicals is already the law in five states and mostly enforced in a sixth—see this MDN story).

Obama said the U.S. has enough natural gas to last us 100 years and that he’s going to “take every possible action” to develop it. He also reaffirmed his belief in global warming.

Read More “Obama State of the Union: Safe Fracking will Create 600K Jobs”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA DEP Wants to Use Acid Mine Drainage for Fracking Water
January 25, 2012January 25, 2012

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is floating the idea of using a portion of the 300 million gallons of acid mine drainage that flows each and every day from abandoned coal mines in that state as a source of water for Marcellus Shale gas fracking.

Read More “PA DEP Wants to Use Acid Mine Drainage for Fracking Water”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

NY Post Article: Cornell Prof Howarth’s Farcical Science
January 24, 2012January 24, 2012

An article in the New York Post lays bare the motivation of Cornell professor Robert Howarth and his conclusions about natural gas. Howarth, you may recall, along with two other Cornell professors—Renee Santoro and Tony Ingraffea—published a study in the journal Climatic Change last year making the assertion that natural gas is actually worse for the environment than coal (see this MDN story). It’s laugh-out-loud funny, except many people (excepting most scientists) take him seriously. The study has been roundly refuted by both the U.S. Department of Energy and Carnegie Mellon University.

Last week a new study was published in the same journal by a second set of Cornell professors that refutes Howarth et al.’s conclusions as “seriously flawed” (see this MDN story).

Read More “NY Post Article: Cornell Prof Howarth’s Farcical Science”
Albany County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion

Enviro Groups Demand Fracking Ban in Albany Protest
January 24, 2012January 24, 2012

Environmentalists opposed to natural gas drilling were out in force in Albany, NY yesterday, demanding a ban on hydraulic fracturing. (MDN wonders if they know that vertical fracking has been going on in New York State for the last 40 years with no environmental apocalypse?!)

The rally, organized by Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Catskill Mountainkeeper, Earthworks, Shaleshock and other anti-drilling organizations, was designed to bring pressure on elected representatives in Albany.

Read More “Enviro Groups Demand Fracking Ban in Albany Protest”
Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation

Expert Says Binghamton Fracking Ban is “Legally Dubious”
January 24, 2012January 24, 2012

Robert Alt, a Fellow in Legal and International Affairs at The John M. Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University (Ohio) has written an op-ed article in the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin on the topic of “legally dubious” moratoriums like the one recently passed by the City of Binghamton. Given that according to forthcoming new drilling regulations from the state Department of Environmental Conservation there would be no drilling in Binghamton anyway, Alt asks the question, just what “message” did City Council send?

Read More “Expert Says Binghamton Fracking Ban is “Legally Dubious””
Accidents | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

EPA Starts Water Deliveries in Dimock, PA
January 23, 2012January 23, 2012

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is getting itself involved in the ongoing situation in Dimock, PA by delivering water to four households that were affected by methane migration (see MDN’s recent Weekly Update for our view on EPA sticking its nose in). After the EPA told these same families two months ago their water was safe, they reversed course and now say they want to run some water tests themselves, and in the meantime they’ll deliver water to four of eleven families who have refused the Pennsylvania DEP’s settlement of the matter.

The EPA promised water to these same families a few weeks ago and reneged within 24 hours. This time they kept their promise.

Read More “EPA Starts Water Deliveries in Dimock, PA”