Morgantown Official Backpedals After Drilling Ban Overturned
It’s always interesting to watch politicians operate after a humiliating defeat. Politicians’ DNA does not allow them to simply look inward and recognize their own errors. They always look outward and blame others, or in some cases, declare the defeat was a good thing and accomplished just what they wanted all along! I refer to the situation in Morgantown, WV. In June, Morgantown City Council members voted to ban hydraulic fracturing both inside and up to one mile outside their borders (see this MDN story). This threatened a pair of Marcellus Shale wells being drilled about a mile from city lines. The result? The driller, Northeast Energy, sued the city. Last week a judge overturned the city’s ban and now hydraulic fracturing will commence (see this MDN story). All told, Northeast probably lost about a month out of their original drilling schedule (they continued drilling anyway, the ban specifically prohibited fracking and not drilling per se).
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For some time now, MDN has covered the hydraulic fracturing ban passed by the city of Morgantown, West Virginia (
Want to know what chemicals are being used at a nearby Marcellus gas well that’s being drilled near you in Pennsylvania? Right now, it’s not so easy to find out. Here’s how Pennsylvania’s fracking chemical disclosure rules work, which went into effect in February of this year:
In early May, the federal Department of Energy (DOE), under the direction of DOE Secretary Steven Chu, assembled a panel of seven experts to create a list of industry “best practices” for shale gas drillers (
The kick-off meeting for Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s recently appointed Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission happened yesterday at Rocky Gap State Park in western Maryland. It was the first meeting in what will be a three year process—a final report from the Commission is due in August of 2014. Such a long delay puts Maryland at the back of the pack for Marcellus shale drilling (
Even though the New York Times’ own public editor has written two articles criticizing the Times for its slanted and inaccurate coverage of the natural gas drilling industry (
Just last week, MDN wrote about New Martinsville, WV enacting a Marcellus drilling ban (
Pittsburgh City Councilman Doug Shields, who will soon be leaving office, is staunchly anti-drilling. He led the successful effort to have hydraulic fracturing and shale gas drilling banned in the City of Pittsburgh. The ban was enacted by City Council last November. Now that Mr. Shields has landed on the happy shores of no drilling, he wants to burn the ships to ensure future Council members can’t undo all of his good work. His method? Amend the City’s Home Rule Charter to permanently ban drilling anywhere in the city limits.
On May 31 of this year, NY Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to force the federal government “to commit to a full environmental review of proposed regulations that would allow natural gas drilling – including the potentially harmful "fracking" technique – in the Delaware River Basin” (
The U.S. Department of Energy is funding a number of research projects to help find ways to extract more energy from unconventional oil and gas resources while reducing environmental risks. The DOE grants amount to $12.4 million.
Once again New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens has delayed the start of Marcellus gas drilling—this time by at least an additional 30 days, maybe longer. The “nearly” final draft drilling regulations, called the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS), were released on July 8 (originally supposed to be released July 1 as ordered by Gov. Andrew Cuomo). At that time, Mr. Martens said there would be a 60-day public comment period that would begin in August. Then the DEC would review those comments, tweak the regulations, and issue the final regulations sometime late this year.
MDN has previously commented on the obvious vendetta by the New York Times against the natural gas industry, most particularly in articles written by Ian Urbina (