Hydraulic Fracturing

Allegheny County | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation

Pittsburgh Suburb Considers New Regulations on Shale Drilling
June 18, 2014June 18, 2014

A single, lying town resident in White Oak, PA (Pittsburgh suburb) has the town council up in arms by claiming the town is about to be drilled by Marcellus Shale drillers and they “will do as they please if they aren’t regulated.” Uh, just one problem there Mr. Lying Town Resident: The state Dept. of Environmental Protection already regulates the industry–quite heavily. And the town can’t regulate it without violating state law…
Read More “Pittsburgh Suburb Considers New Regulations on Shale Drilling”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Assembly Once Again Passes Frack Moratorium Bill (Yawn)
June 17, 2014June 17, 2014

Yesterday two sleazy New York City politicians–Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee Chairman Robert Sweeney–announced that, as they have done for the last three years running, they have arm-twisted downstate Democrats to approve an Assembly bill that would continue to ban hydraulic fracturing for (unbelievably) another three years–even though it’s already been banned for six years! Assembly bill A.5424-B was passed mostly along party lines. Donna Lupardo-D, whose district includes potential drilling locations in Broome County, NY, shamefully voted “yes” to pass it (she needs to be tossed at the next election). Not that any of it makes a hill of beans worth of difference. It will never pass the Republican-controlled Senate in NY…
Read More “NY Assembly Once Again Passes Frack Moratorium Bill (Yawn)”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Public Opinion | Statewide PA

PA Residents Rank Gasland Dead Last in Trustworthy Info Sources
June 17, 2014June 17, 2014

Who do Pennsylvanians trust when it comes to information about Marcellus Shale drilling? A poll of PA residents in 21 counties–between June and October 2012–tried to answer that question. The results of that poll, and an analysis of the results, is published in the June 2014 Energy Research & Social Science journal. Titled “Hydraulic fracturing and the management, disposal, and reuse of frac flowback waters: Views from the public in the Marcellus Shale,” the poll shows that of the eight primary ways people were getting information about fracking, dead last in “trustworthiness” was Josh Fox’s fictional movie Gasland. What strikes MDN as odd is why it took a year and a half to publish the results…
Read More “PA Residents Rank Gasland Dead Last in Trustworthy Info Sources”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Butler County | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Rex Energy

Martians Threaten Lawsuit Against PA Town to Prevent Drilling
June 17, 2014June 17, 2014

For some time MDN has chronicled the liberal push-back from anti-drillers in the Mars School District in Butler County, PA. First we told you they need their heads examined after refusing a lease from Rex Energy that would have netted money “for the children” on the order of $1 million (see Earth to Mars (School District) – Time to Check into Funny Farm?). Then we told you that supervisors in Adams Township, where the Mars School District is located, wisely decided to not restrict drilling by Rex Energy on property near the school (see Adams Twp, PA Votes to NOT Block Drilling “Near” Mars School). Now the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is saying it’s “not a given” that the agency will grant Rex a permit to drill on any property near the school…
Read More “Martians Threaten Lawsuit Against PA Town to Prevent Drilling”
Clearfield County | Education | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

Clearfield County Residents: Get $100 to Learn about Marcellus
June 16, 2014June 16, 2014

How would you like to earn a cool $100–just for learning about Marcellus Shale drilling? That’s the promise from Penn State to those who live in and around Clearfield County, PA. Penn State, using funding from the National Science Foundation, is offering a 10-week course called Marcellus Community Science Volunteer Program on Monday nights in DuBois. Adults will learn all about the science behind shale drilling, along with its benefits and drawbacks. This is not the first group Penn State has done this with. They ran the same course earlier this year…
Read More “Clearfield County Residents: Get $100 to Learn about Marcellus”
Dominion Exploration | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Westmoreland County

Muchas Gasias: Beaver Run Reservoir Hires Auditor for Royalties
June 13, 2014June 13, 2014

Waaaaay back in March 2009, when MDN was still in it’s blog infancy, we told you that Westmoreland County, PA supervisors had voted to lease land at the Beaver Run Reservoir to Dominion to drill five Marcellus Shale wells (see Westmoreland County, PA Supervisors Vote to Approve Drilling on County Land). The reservoir provides drinking water to some 60,000+ customers in five southwestern PA counties. What! Marcellus wells next to–even under–a fresh water reservoir? Say it ain’t so!! But it is, and it’s worked out so well (with NO water contamination issues), that over the years those initial five wells have sprouted to become 37 wells with more on the way. The wells at Beaver Run Reservoir are raising so much money for the county they’ve hired a “drilling auditor” to keep track of royalty revenues, which this year will exceed $6 million…
Read More “Muchas Gasias: Beaver Run Reservoir Hires Auditor for Royalties”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

Canadian University Research Finds Fracking & Shale Drilling Safe
June 12, 2014June 12, 2014

A pair of reports were released last week by researchers at Cape Breton University (Canada). The first report on fracking and water says fracking does not contaminate water aquifers (groundwater supplies). The second report on well integrity says that while not industrial process like drilling a well can 100% prevent any leakage (of methane), current technologies are pretty darned good and getting better and there’s nothing to worry about (our paraphrase of course). These reports will help clear the way for fracking in Canada (hopefully where the Canadian Utica Shale is located, in Quebec). MDN has included more excerpts below, along with full copies of both reports that say shale drilling and fracking are A-OK for Canada…
Read More “Canadian University Research Finds Fracking & Shale Drilling Safe”
Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Last Gasp in Dimock Couple’s Quest for Riches
June 11, 2014June 11, 2014

Scott and Monica Ely, who once willing leased their land to Cabot Oil & Gas in Dimock, PA, then saw big bucks when their water turned cloudy, ostensibly from methane they say was the result of nearby shale drilling from Cabot, have won the right to have their “negligence” lawsuit against Cabot to continue. The single count of negligence is the only thing U.S. District Magistrate Judge Martin C. Carlson said could continue. All other claims made by the couple have been dismissed by Judge Carlson…
Read More “Last Gasp in Dimock Couple’s Quest for Riches”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Public Opinion | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Voters Like Marcellus Fracking – Analyzing the Latest Q-Poll
June 11, 2014June 11, 2014

A poll by Quinnipiac University of Pennsylvania voters released last week has turned up some interesting insights into the prevailing attitudes of PA voters with respect to Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, the issue of Marcellus Shale drilling and the issue of whether or not to allow drilling under (not on) state lands in PA. All of the mainstream media focused on a single number: 57% of those polled oppose Corbett’s executive order to allow a tiny bit more drilling, after former Gov. Ed Rendell had thrown the door wide open during this tenure, under PA’s state lands and parks. That’s the headline, the narrative, and the “it’s all over for Corbett as soon as the fat lady sings” talking points they all work from. MDN has a different take on the numbers and what they mean…
Read More “PA Voters Like Marcellus Fracking – Analyzing the Latest Q-Poll”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Media in the Anti-Drilling Tank for Tom Wolf/Tom Steyer
June 11, 2014June 11, 2014

PA Democrat nominee for governor Tom Wolf is set to get something like $14.3 million from a big-time anti-driller from California, Tom Steyer (see CA Anti-Driller Tom Steyer Purchasing Tom Wolf PA Governorship). In other words, Steyer will buy the election for Wolf–all Wolf has to do is shut down Marcellus Shale drilling in the state. Such a small price to pay. You might think PA media would be all over such a story–but then, you would be wrong. Because PA’s state-run media is “in the tank” for Wolf and the fossil fuel-hating Steyer. So instead, we get stories from newspapers like the Philadelphia Inquirer that focus on drilling companies chipping in a few thousand here and there to Republican Tom Corbett’s campaign. It’s typical of the sleaze we’ve come to expect from PA’s mainstream media…
Read More “PA Media in the Anti-Drilling Tank for Tom Wolf/Tom Steyer”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Wastewater

New Texas Technology Cleans Frack Water Really Fast
June 5, 2014June 5, 2014

Frack wastewater is pretty big deal. Although many drillers recycle it, some don’t or can’t, and it ends up going back into the ground–via an injection well. How much better would it be to clean it up and re-use it? A Texas company is doing just that–with the help of Texas A&M University researchers. ARANA Water Technologies has innovated a new recycling process with some amazing results. Raw frack water goes in, and 26 minutes later the water coming out is 99+ percent free of petroleum hydrocarbons, and metals in the water like arsenic, aluminum, iron, and selenium have been reduced by 90+ percent. While this isn’t strictly a Marcellus/Utica story, we expect this technology will soon be available in the Marcellus/Utica and so is worth highlighting…
Read More “New Texas Technology Cleans Frack Water Really Fast”
Albany County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Fate of NY Fracking Now in Hands of 7 Judge Court of Appeals
June 4, 2014June 4, 2014

Yesterday was an important day for the future of fracking in New York State. Attorneys Tom West (from Albany) and Scott Kurkoski (from Binghamton) argued before the New York State Court of Appeals, NY’s highest court, in the Dryden and Middlefield town ban cases. MDN has some of the comments made at the trial by both sides, a statement from the Joint Landowner’s Coalition of New York (JLCNY), and a rough estimate of when a decision will be rendered…
Read More “Fate of NY Fracking Now in Hands of 7 Judge Court of Appeals”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Flaming Idiot Rachel Maddow Features Debunked Flaming Hose Video
June 4, 2014June 4, 2014

No one ever accused Rachel Maddow of intellectual heft. And no ever accused MSNBC, the channel where she hosts a show immodestly called The Rachel Maddow Show, of being a real news channel. But Rachel disgraced herself even more than usual recently when she showed a clip from Josh Fox’s fictional Gasland movie with a Texas landowner lighting a garden hose on fire. That clip has since be proven to be a fraud (by a Texas judge) perpetrated by Fox and the landowner, but there was Rachel showing it and talking about it as if it were a common occurrence wherever there’s fracking. Simply boggles the mind…
Read More “Flaming Idiot Rachel Maddow Features Debunked Flaming Hose Video”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Smoking Gun in NY? Cuomo Political Aides Met with Shah & Martens
June 3, 2014June 3, 2014

Let’s give credit where it’s due. Gannett repeatedly filed Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests to get schedule details about former Commissioner of the New York State Dept. of Health (DOH) Nirav Shah. Gannett has been fishing to see who Shah talked to in his now 1.5+ year “review” of proposed fracking regulations–a process that Shah himself said should only take a few weeks to complete (see NY Health Com. Nirav Shah Says Fracking Health Review Almost Done). Not long after that statement, Shah did some major backpedaling and refused to peg a date when he would finish his review (see Cuomo Underling Shah: “No Timetable” on Fracking Decision). It’s now a year and a half later. The question we posed at the time was, who’s pulling Shah’s strings? Thanks to some (rare) investigative reporting by Gannett–now we know. Andrew Cuomo was and is pulling the strings, and there’s a smoking gun to prove it…
Read More “Smoking Gun in NY? Cuomo Political Aides Met with Shah & Martens”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide VA | Virginia

Virginia Reviews Fracking Regs with Eye to Allow Shale Drilling
June 2, 2014June 2, 2014

This Wednesday the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME) will have a first meeting to look at the state’s existing rules on fracking. A panel of state officials, a representative from the drilling industry, and “others” (environmentalist wackos?) will assemble in Richmond to review the regulations on the books now, and make recommendations on things to change in anticipation of drillers who have expressed an interest in drilling in some of Virginia’s shale plays. No, the shale drillers are interested in is not the Marcellus (found along the western fringes), but instead is the Taylorsville Basin, located south and east of Fredericksburg, VA (see Virginia Inches Closer to Shale Drilling in Taylorsville Basin)…
Read More “Virginia Reviews Fracking Regs with Eye to Allow Shale Drilling”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Supply Chain

Innovative Solar Powered Access Control Gate for Well Pads
June 2, 2014June 2, 2014

Quick–for those lucky enough to have visited an active drill site in the Marcellus or Utica (or really, any active shale drilling site anywhere), what’s the first thing you notice? Think back to when you arrived. Before you’re even allowed onto the drill pad, the first thing you encounter is a security guard who exits a small security shack to find out who the heck you are and what the heck you want. The guards we’ve met have been very pleasant. They’ll record your name and license plate number, and hand you a hard hat–to be worn at ALL times that you’re visiting the drill site. Safety first and always! We’re certainly not out to fire security guards, but a Colorado company has invented a pretty ingenious gate/barrier (think the gates that come down at railroad crossings) that is battery operated, recharged on solar power, and even has an intercom–all of it totally unattended. No security guard. Punch in a keycode or a keycard, the gate goes up, person goes through…
Read More “Innovative Solar Powered Access Control Gate for Well Pads”