NY Landowners Plan to Use Bankrupt GASFRAC’s Waterless Frack Tech
In September MDN brought you the news that the buyer of the bankrupt Canadian waterless fracking company, GASFRAC, is shelving the waterless propane fracking product the company was known for (see New Owner “Mothballs” GASFRAC’s Waterless LPG Technology). Our comment at the time was: “The mothballing of the GASFRAC technology raises and interesting question for the effort to frack a well in Tioga County, NY, where a group of farmers had planned to use LPG fracking technology on a test well (see NY Landowners File to Frack Horizontal Well w/Waterless Tech). We sure hope they weren’t pinning their hopes on GASFRAC.” An article in the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin tells us that yes, the Tioga County landowners who want to frack New York’s first Marcellus well were–and still are–planning to use the GASFRAC technology. According to a rep from the Tioga landowner group, they have access to the equipment and technology from GASFRAC to do an LPG frack should they get a green light from the state…
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In March of this year, Syracuse University Professor Dr. Donald Siegel published the results of an extensive research study that found fracking of Marcellus Shale wells in Pennsylvania does not cause methane in water wells (see 
Finally a spot of good news in the never-ending battle to keep the federal government out of the business of regulating oil and gas drilling. Going all the way back to 2012, the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an agency that sits under the umbrella of the U.S. Dept. of Interior (DOI), proposed draft rules for fracking on federally-controlled land (see 
It’s heartbreaking, but not surprising, to see residents in a North Carolina make the same mistakes made by residents in New York State. Monday night the Stokes County (NC) Board of Commissioners voted to enact a three-year moratorium on potential shale drilling in the county. Well-meaning but completely ignorant residents agitated and cajoled the commissioners into voting for no drilling. Stokes, located in northern NC, is part of the Dan River sub-basin, which in turn is part of the larger Triassic Basin. Earlier this year the state cleared the way for fracking to begin (see 
THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum, and a bunch of her anti-fossil fuel pals delivered a letter on Wednesday to America’s most liberal governor, PA Gov. Tom Wolf, asking him to immediately suspend all further Marcellus drilling in the state and while he’s at it, stop building any new pipelines. They also “demand” (their words) that Wolf shut down his Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force which he created back in May (see 
Two years ago MDN reported on a University of Michigan research project called the Hydraulic Fracturing in Michigan Integrated Assessment (see 
Next Tuesday, Sept. 29, West Virginia State University (WVSU) will sponsor a forum on fracking and shale at WVSU’s James C. Wilson University Union in Institute, WV. The forum, titled “Fracking: In the Beginning Was the Source Rock” is free and open to the public. Keynoting the event will be award-winning Wall Street Journal energy reporter Russell Gold, who authored the book “The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World.” This is a unique opportunity to hear (and ask questions) of someone with expert insights into the shale revolution in the Marcellus/Utica and beyond–and what he sees on the horizon for the future…
Question: Where did Robin Hood live? Answer: Sherwood Forest. Everybody knows that! Don’t look now but those evil, vile, filthy frackers want to begin fracking in Sherwood Forest. Yes, THE Sherwood Forest where the mythical Robin Hood once roamed with his merry band of outlaws. Believe it or not, and against all odds, the United Kingdom recently re-elected a conservative government, by a strong majority, and that government is pushing forward with a program to encourage shale drilling in merry ole’ England–including in Sherwood Forest…
Fresh back from Shale Insight in Philadelphia, MDN editor Jim Willis is always pumped after hearing about the technology and safeguards and careful treatment the shale energy industry uses in extracting shale gas. These people are true professionals who care about the work they do–and they want to do it right. They care about the environment. They want to protect the land and our natural resources. They live in the communities where fracking is done. On the other hand, the people who profess to care about such things, anti-drillers, repeatedly prove themselves to be a) mind-numbed robots who believe whatever their movement leaders tell them, b) stark raving mad. Example: A group of extremists who happen to be “religious” have penned a letter to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf asking him to stop all fracking in the state because they fervently believe (wrongly) that fracking contributes to the mythological existence of man-made global warming. Mainstream media picks this garbage up and repeat it, like it’s a real news story…
Let’s be honest, shall we? The Catholic Church has a Marxist as its leader in Pope Francis–which is a truly sad thing for a great and significant denomination. Pope Francis, nee Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is from Argentina and he supports Marxism, as many do in South America. Pope Francis hates capitalism and appears to be more interested in advancing socialist political policies here on earth than he does in serving Jesus Christ and saving souls. The current situation with Pope Francis distresses many Catholics we personally know. The Pope has thrown in his lot with climate change liars–those who say mankind is causing the earth to warm up–because the so-called climate change movement is the new home of anti-capitalists (i.e. Marxists, i.e. Communists). Scientific fact: global average temperatures haven’t risen now for 18 years. Yesterday, The Heartland Institute participated in a Constitution Day event in Philadelphia to call attention to the Pope’s coming visit to Philly (a visit made possible via fossil fuels) and the Pope’s error-filled teachings against fossil fuels and capitalism…
In March MDN told you the sad story that Canadian waterless fracking company GASFRAC had been sold to an unnamed third party after going bankrupt (see 
The R Street Institute is a non-profit, non-partisan, public policy research organization (i.e. “think tank”) headquartered in Washington, DC with satellite offices in Florida, Texas, California, Alabama, and Ohio. After conducting an extensive review of existing published studies, R Street has found that while every form of energy has its negatives, including fracking, on the whole fracking for shale energy’s benefits far outweigh its negatives. Their findings are published in a new report titled “The Green Side of Fracking” (full copy below)…
A major defeat for Pennsylvania’s anti-drilling groups, including THE Delaware Riverkeeper, was just handed down by the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court in a Lycoming County zoning case. In Gorsline v. Board of Supervisors of Fairfield Township, anti-drilling neighbors, including Brian and Dawn Gorsline, Paul and Michele Batkowski and others (collectively “Gorsline”) sued to stop a conditional use permit granted by Fairfield Township to allow Inflection Energy to construct a well pad on the property of Donald and Eleanor Shaheen. The case was weak, but the lowest court in the PA court system–the Court of Common Pleas (i.e. county court)–said the ninny nanny neighbors had a right to strip away the Shaheen’s property rights to allow drilling on their own property. The PA Commonwealth Court obliterated the faulty reasoning of the lower court and has, significantly, redefined how courts should interpret the results of the Act 13 zoning lawsuit that allows local municipalities the right to restrict shale drilling. The Commonwealth Court decision (full copy below) has kicked the legal legs out from under those seeking to use an amicus brief filed by THE Delaware Riverkeeper in the Act 13 case…