An interesting “new” technology from Canadian company GASFRAC uses an alternative to water and sand in the hydraulic fracturing process:
Federal regulation (MDN would argue federal “interference”) in regulating natural gas drilling is an important issue. MDN maintains that the U.S. Constitution grants the states the right to govern what happens inside their own borders, and that the federal government has too often usurped and trampled those rights in the name of protecting the public. The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a prime example of a federal agency that frequently goes too far and oversteps its bounds. The EPA is an unelected group of people that create regulations with the force of law that are forced on states and businesses.
However, Congress seems to do what it wants to do, and agencies like the EPA are a reality we all must live with. So when Congress holds hearings and the star witness is the EPA and the topic is drilling in the Marcellus Shale and hydraulic fracturing, everyone, both for and against drilling, needs to pay attention.
Yesterday the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing titled “Natural Gas Drilling: Public Health and Environmental Impacts.” MDN believes there is much to learn in the opening statements by the Senators, and in the testimony from the witnesses who testified before the hearing.
Read More “U.S. Senate Holds Hearing on Natural Gas Drilling & Hydraulic Fracturing”
The first witness before the April 12 Senate hearing on natural gas drilling was Robert Perciasepe, Deputy Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA is currently conducting a multi-year study of the 60 year-old practice of hydraulic fracturing on the basis and claim that it may be harmful to water supplies, and since protection of the nation’s waterways has been assumed by the EPA, hydraulic fracturing (if found to be harmful) would come under the EPA’s jurisdiction and regulation. It is a back door way for the EPA to control natural gas drilling in this country.
The following is a small portion of Mr. Perciasepe’s statement before the hearing. MDN highlights it as an excellent summary of the main arguments that come from those who oppose drilling in the Marcellus Shale and other shale gas plays.
Read More “EPA Statement at Senate Hearing Outlines the Main Arguments Against Drilling”
The following is the opening statement by the Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Committee on Environmental and Public Works, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK). Sen. Inhofe offers comments from state regulators about the safety of hydraulic fracturing, and his opinion on federal vs. state regulation of it.
On March 17, 1949, more than 60 years ago, the first hydraulic fracturing job was performed on a well 12 miles east of Duncan, in my home state of Oklahoma. The practice has now been used on more than 1 million currently producing wells, 35,000 wells per year, without one confirmed case of groundwater contamination from these fracked formations. But don’t take my word for it. Let’s hear what the experts, the State regulators, have said:
Read More “Senate Hearing on Natural Gas Drilling – Sen. Inhofe”
Robert Howarth, a Cornell University professor of ecology and environmental biology, along with two other Cornell professors, Renee Santoro and Tony Ingraffea, have just published a new peer-reviewed study in the journal Climate Change titled, “Methane and the greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations.” The study evaluates natural gas from shale compared with other energy sources with respect to how much “greenhouse gases” are created during the extraction process. The study makes the claim that shale gas extraction is actually worse for the environment than burning coal because of greenhouse gases.
This newly published paper in a peer-reviewed journal is big news and has already been covered in the mainstream media echo chamber with more than 300 articles. But the criticisms have also been swift.
A balanced and common sense editorial running in today’s The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register makes the point loud and clear that the government and environmental groups should conduct all the studies they want about hydraulic fracturing and drilling in the Marcellus Shale. But please, in the meantime, don’t advocate that all drilling should stop until those studies are completed (which will take years). The editorial says, in part:
The latest group to oppose drilling in the Marcellus Shale is the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (“CBF”), a private environmentalist organization that claims to be the largest such entity dedicated to preserving the health of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Their stated mission is to “Save the Bay,” defined as attaining and maintaining clear water that is free of pollutants, and promoting oxygen levels in the Bay that support growth of underwater vegetation which in turn provides a habitat for sea creatures. The CBF’s concern is that drilling in the Marcellus Shale, much of which sits in the Chesapeake Bay watershed area, is already contributing and will continue to increase pollutants that flow into the Bay.
The CBF has gone on the offensive. CBF attorney and spokesperson Amy McDonnell wants to ensure Marcellus Shale drilling does not harm the Bay.
Read More “Chesapeake Bay Foundation Goes on Offense Against Drilling in the Marcellus Shale”
In a speech on Wednesday delivered at Georgetown University, President Obama outlined his Administration’s “Blueprint for A Secure Energy Future” (download a PDF copy of the Blueprint here). While a good deal of Obama’s solutions to America’s energy needs uses the heavy hand of the federal government to limit freedom and force people to make certain choices, he at least pays lip service to shale gas. Early on in his speech he said this:
U.S. Senator Bob Casey (Democrat, Pennsylvania), keeps wanting to get the feds involved in gas drilling in his state, and he looks for any excuse to do so. The latest excuse involves two house explosions in Bradford Township, PA, one on Dec. 12, the other on Feb. 28. Casey claims both explosions are due to natural gas drilling in the area, even though the state police fire marshal is still investigating and has not yet come to that conclusion.
In a letter to U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Sen. Casey pins the blame on migrating methane gas from nearby wells.
Read More “Sen. Bob Casey Wants Feds to Investigate PA House Explosions in Bradford Township”
Although the entire U.S. remains mired in slow growth, perhaps even a double-dip recession, there are places in the country that are seeing rapid job and economic growth. One of those places is the Bakken Oil fields of North Dakota. Another place is Pittsburgh. Why have those two areas seen such growth and economic prosperity? Hydraulic fracturing. In the case of North Dakota, it’s hydraulic fracturing of oil wells. In the Pittsburgh area, it’s hydraulic fracturing of Marcellus Shale gas wells.
Below is an recent email sent by PittsburghTODAY speaking about Pittsburgh’s economic comeback:
Read More “Pittsburgh Jobs Up, Housing Prices Up, Bankruptcies Down – Why? Hydraulic Fracturing”
West Virginia’s policy on the wastewater produced from hydraulic fracturing is to dispose of it by pumping it into injection wells.
Read More “West Virginia’s Policy on Disposing Marcellus Drilling Wastewater: Injection Wells”
Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences wants owners of private drinking-water wells located near completed natural-gas wells in the Marcellus shale region to participate in a study of the impact of gas development. The study will assess the potential impacts of Marcellus gas drilling on rural drinking water wells, according to Bryan Swistock, extension water resources specialist. The data collected from the study is for research purposes and for the education of each homeowner.
The headline of a recent editorial in The New York Post says “Frack, baby, frack!” in a play on the oft-quoted phrase “drill, baby, drill.” It is a short but good piece, summarizing where New York stands on drilling in the Marcellus Shale. It encourages newly elected Gov. Andrew Cuomo to either lift the drilling moratorium immediately, or let it expire in July, so drilling can (finally) go forward.
One of the interesting points made in the editorial is that the motives of environmental groups in opposing drilling are not 100 percent pure as the wind-driven snow, which is what they want you to believe. The truth is, opposing Marcellus drilling is “good for business.”
Read More “Motives of Anti-Drilling Groups Exposed in NY Post Editorial”
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley surprised Allegany County commissioners Sunday evening when he showed up at a meeting to discuss Marcellus Shale drilling in Maryland.
City officials in Moundsville (Marshall County), WV had a scare recently, and with good cause.
There was a lot of speculation in 2009 about a fish kill over a 30-mile stretch of Dunkard Creek in West Virginia. We now know that the cause was leakage from coal mines. But early on, wild theories were being spun. Our favorite was that the algae killing the fish, which grows only in salty water and is not native to any place in West Virginia, somehow hitchhiked to the area on Marcellus Shale drilling rigs coming from Texas and Oklahoma. Science has finally won out over fairytale, and now CONSOL Energy will pay: