Maryland Publishes New Fracking Rules, 30-Day Comment Period
As MDN reported in September, the Maryland Dept. of the Environment (MDE) beat the Oct. 1 deadline to release onerous new fracking regulations (see Maryland Beats Deadline, Submits Onerous New Fracking Rules). The new rules, for all intents and purposes, will result in a defacto ban on fracking in Maryland. Which is a shame. We couldn’t find a copy of the rules at the time. The MDE published the final rules in the Monday edition of the Maryland Register (see it below). What happens now? A 30-day public comment period begins, which will result (already has resulted) in lots of petulant bleating about banning fracking in the Old Line State, after which the regs will get adopted, and beginning next year when fracking can begin, it won’t. Frankly, Maryland is just going through the motions…
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Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe recently approved changes to environmental regulations that requires “mandatory disclosure of fracking chemicals, baseline water testing and monitoring, and spill prevention and response planning.” While leftie Big Green groups love the new rules, the drilling industry is working to ensure trade secrets (exact combinations of chemicals) can’t be discovered by using Freedom of Information Act laws. The big news, for MDN, is that with the enactment of these new rules (see a copy below), it appears shale fracking is a huge step closer to happening in the Old Dominion…
Donald Trump’s victory in winning the presidency–whether you voted for him or not–is a victory for the oil and gas industry. Fracking is now not in danger of being banned, as it would have been with Hillary Clinton. The Washington “swamp” (“wetland” for greenies) as Trump and his running mate Mike Pence call it–is about to get drained. That includes the rogue, out-of-control Environmental Protection Agency, among others. Radical environmentalists are shocked and suicidal. We’re delighted! The people of this country have spoken…
In May MDN told you about a group of brave landowners in Wayne County, PA who have had their property rights stolen by the Delaware River Basin Commission (see 
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently launched a “What If…?” series to counter the radical “keep it in the ground” movement–a movement that irrationally hates the use of fossil fuels. In August the Chamber released their first such report, titled “What If…Energy Production was Banned on Federal Lands and Waters?” (see 
We laugh every time we read about peak oil and peak natural gas theorists, and mainstream “reporters” from places like the New York Times trumpeting that any day now natural gas is going to peter out. It’s just a flash in the pan. “Everybody” knows that shale wells are weak, pathetic performers than run out of juice almost as fast as their drilled. We’ve read stories about how shale drilling is a ponzi scheme. We’ve read stories that very soon we’ll run out of new places to drill, and then it’s all over. Except…except it’s all not true. None other than the U.S. Energy Information Administration has just posted a brief article that details, using real research, that horizontally drilled shale wells are MORE productive over the long-term than conventional wells. That is, they are more productive for longer than a conventional well. But that won’t stop the peakers and ponzi schemers from pedaling their pap…
The 16,000-member Pennsylvania Medical Society is controlled by a small and dedicated group of radical leftists. They’re also shockingly stupid, for doctors and medical people (you might want to seek medical care in another state). The PA Medical Society’s 300-member House of Delegates voted unanimously to pass a resolution calling for a total ban on fracking in the Keystone State. Stop it–all of it–right now. That’s what they said. Even though there is no evidence that fracking harms human health. That is, independent studies done all say the same thing: fracking is safe. However, biased bought-and-paid-for studies say fracking will kill ‘ya. We find it astonishing that there was not one single delegate who didn’t vote for the resolution–which proves our point that radical, lock-step lefties control the society…
Here’s a story you have to go to a non-US (i.e. objective) newspaper to find. Stephen Tindale is a “lifelong green” and once ran the organization Greenpeace, for five years. He’s written and published an op-ed in the UK Sun titled, “As a lifelong Green, I’M convinced fracking’s the only solution to energy problems.” You read that right! Here’s someone with a brain–someone willing to open his mind and willing to objectively view the evidence before his eyes. And what does he see? Fracking shale formations is the answer, not the problem. Here’s what he said last week…
For years now the radical Park Park Foundation has been buying its research from a few select professors at a few select universities. One of the scientists for sale is Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment (see 
It’s been 10 looooooong years, but finally the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has just posted a lease sale auction for 33 parcels in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest (WNF). Although there are some 18,000 acres under consideration for leasing by the BLM in WNF, this first batch amounts to about 1,600 acres–most of it in Monroe County, OH. Monroe is a prime location for Utica Shale drilling. WNF is the only national forest in Ohio and portions of it are found in Athens, Gallia, Hocking, Jackson, Monroe, Morgan, Noble, Lawrence, Perry, Scioto, Vinton, and Washington counties. WNF is a “patchwork” of public land scattered among private land. Some 60% of the mineral rights below WNF are privately owned. Those mineral rights owners have been denied the use of their property rights for a decade. The BLM controls drilling on federally-protected lands like WNF. Last November the BLM held a series of hearings about finally beginning to drill in WNF. With this auction, it appears that not only will public land get leased, but drilling on private land in WNF can go forward as well…
Over the past six months or so MDN has repeatedly read about drillers in the Marcellus/Utica drilling longer laterals (the horizontal part of the well) and using way more sand to keep the cracks propped open longer. And between longer laterals and more sand, drillers in the northeast are getting higher output from their wells. So it was with some interest (and skepticism) that we read about new research that says longer laterals don’t lead to greater production totals. The research is from a respected source: Bernstein Research. However, the data used was only from the Barnett Shale–so it’s not clear to us how relevant the findings are for northeast drillers. Here’s what the research says…
Last Friday MDN reported that none other than the man-made global warmists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a research report admitting that cows and rice farms are the real cause of an increase in global methane emissions–NOT shale drilling (see 
MDN previously reported that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) planned to publish the final regulations in the Oct. 8 Pennsylvania Bulletin (see 
NOAA–the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration–contains some of the biggest kool-aid drinking man-made global warming fanatics on the planet. So we found it interesting that the mighty NOAA has just released new research that finds yes, so-called “fugitive” methane that escapes into the atmosphere is up–way up. And yes, oil and gas drilling contributes WAY MORE to the fugitive methane problem “than previously thought.” And yes, methane leaks from fossil fuel development represents something like 20-25% of of the total “problem.” But then those same researchers, in little teeny tiny type add this: “However, the findings also confirm other work by NOAA scientists that conclude fossil fuel facilities are not directly responsible for the increased rate of global atmospheric methane emissions measured in the atmosphere since 2007.” That is, while the shale revolution has grown exponentially over the past 10 years, and while the rate of fugitive methane has grown during that same period–the growth has NOT come from oil and gas development. Instead, it’s coming from rice paddies and cow farts/burps…
We’re not trying to beat a dead horse here with yet more coverage of last week’s PA Supreme Court ruling in yet another Act 13 case (see