Health Impacts | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA
“Study” Says PA Fracking Makes Pregnant Women Depressed
Another so-called “study” has appeared bashing Pennsylvania Marcellus fracking. This one is co-authored by a global warming Kool Aid drinker affiliated with the Post Carbon Institute, making the claim pregnant women in Pennsylvania have a 4% higher chance of becoming anxious and/or depressed if they live near fracking activities. How these people are not laughed out of any room they walk into is beyond us.
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A new group has formed in New York State with the aim of using a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision as ammunition to sue NY over its ban on hydraulic fracturing. The new group, called Landowner Advocates of New York (LANY), was started by MDN friend Vic Furman. Could this finally be the solution to force Andrew Cuomo to allow fracking?
Yet another cockamamie “study” (i.e. propaganda) about the negatives of fracking–this one done by the University of New Hampshire claiming a few hikers and outdoor enthusiasts in Pennsylvania will have to find someplace else to hike and enthuse…because of evil Marcellus fracking. The thing that really angers us is that Pennsylvania taxpayers paid for this “study”!
In May 2016, a landowner in Wayne County, PA filed a lawsuit against the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) asking a judge to declare that the DRBC does not have jurisdiction to prevent construction of a natural gas well (see 
A little over a year ago CNX Resources announced that the company had signed a long-term contract with Evolution Well Services to use Evolution’s 100% natural gas-fueled electric pressure pumping equipment (see 
It’s no secret that the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) had a hand in the original research that resulted in the shale revolution. It was George Mitchell who pioneered the first shale wells–but he did so based on research performed by the federal government. The DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy remains active to this day in researching new and better ways to extract and use fossil fuels, much to the dismay of global warming fundamentalists. One of the ways Fossil Energy accomplishes its mission is to fund research projects by academic institutions–and even private companies. Fossil Energy has just announced a new round of $44.5 million in grants aimed at improving fracking (yes! fracking) technology, and improving our understanding of shale plays.
We had high hopes for Steve Tambini, former vice president of operations at Pennsylvania American Water, when he was appointed Executive Director of the Delaware River Basin Commission in 2014 (see 
From time to time MDN highlights new technologies used in shale drilling. We’ve talked about companies developing alternatives to water as a fracking fluid, things like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG or propane) fracking (see 
One of the false allegations made against shale drilling is that it somehow pollutes the air–of particular concern near schools. A new independent two-year study commissioned by Range Resources at one of their drilling sites, located about a mile from a local school, thoroughly debunks that allegation. A first-of-its kind public health and long-term ambient air monitoring report (full copy below) provides analysis from nearly two years of continuous data from an unconventional Marcellus Shale well site nearby a high school and elementary school campus in Washington County, PA. The study found no health impacts from shale drilling.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, arguably PA’s worst governor in a generation, has just thrown in his lot with uber-leftists Andrew Cuomo (governor of NY), Phil Murphy (governor of NJ), and John Carney (governor of DE) to support a total, permanent ban on fracking *and a ban on any drilling-related activities* in the Delaware River Basin (DRB). Put another way, Wolf has just turned his back on thousands of PA citizens living in the Wayne and Pike counties (in PA) who could be, right now, benefiting from Marcellus Shale drilling.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has just upheld a lower court opinion that allows shale drilling to happen *anywhere* in a township, so long as such drilling satisfies standards to protect public health, safety and welfare. This is the end of the road for a lawsuit funded by Big Green that began in 2015 in Westmoreland County, PA.
Coastal Chemical, the North American subsidiary of German company Brenntag, sells chemicals (used in fracking) to the oil and gas industry. Coastal Chemical wants to build a chemical storage facility in Montgomery (Lycoming County), PA, near Williamsport. The facility would house ten tanks, each holding 12,000 gallons of chemicals. The local volunteer fire chief and the local emergency management coordinator are both “strongly opposed” to the project.
In February Pennsylvania State Sen. Lisa Baker introduced Senate Bill (SB) 305, which would make a proposed Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) frack ban officially a government “taking” under eminent domain (see 
Anti-fossil fuelers really have no shame. We recently spotted an article that purports to lay out the case, chapter and verse, for how “frackers” are engaging in “accounting shenanigans” covering up true reserve estimates and depreciation expenses. In other words, they’re cooking the books, lying to investors. And ultimately America’s fracking boom as been “a bust.” Nonsense.
In the same way America’s “unnecessary” and audacious effort to put a man on the moon in the 1960s produced the unintended consequence of discovering new materials and inventions that have fundamentally changed our society (practical applications, like computers), so too has the “unnecessary” practice of hydraulic fracturing led to new discoveries and information about how the human body works–enlightening scientists, ultimately improving human health.