Hydraulic Fracturing

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    Did ODNR Overreact & Set Earthquake Detect Bar Too Low?

    An article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer provides some perspective on Ohio’s new rules regarding fracking and earthquakes. As MDN reported yesterday, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) is sortof, kindof convinced that a fracking operation over a previously unknown fault line triggered a series of earthquakes (see ODNR Says Youngstown Earthquakes “Probably” Caused by Fracking). The earthquakes were essentially undetectable at the surface, but it makes for great headlines.

    What else can trigger an earthquake? How about 67,000 football fans stamping their feet? Yep–that happened earlier this year in Seattle, WA at CenturyLink Field during the NFL playoffs. Marshawn Lynch made a touchdown and the fans went wild, stamping their feet, which created a detectable earthquake–at the same level now measured for in Ohio. All of which means Ohio has set the bar pretty low and just about anything can set off the earthquake alarm…
    Read More “Did ODNR Overreact & Set Earthquake Detect Bar Too Low?”

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    Is MWCD Lease for Piedmont Lake, OH with Antero a Good Thing?

    MDN previously reported that as early as this Friday the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) will vote to approve a proposed lease that would allow Antero Resources to drill around, and even under, Piedmont Lake (see MWCD Close to Signing Utica Lease for Piedmont Lake, OH Property). We told you yesterday that a lawsuit to prevent drilling at another MWCD property–Seneca Lake–is proceeding, which begs the question, will something similar happen with the Piedmont Lake deal (see Anti-Drillers Win Minor Victory Against Muskingum Watershed Dist)?

    MDN was contacted by a reader who lives in the Piedmont Lake area–Eric Fenster. Eric seems like a reasonable guy–not adamantly opposed to all shale drilling. But he is concerned about what may happen if Antero leases and begins to drill in the Piedmont Lake area. Eric tells MDN he lives a few miles from an active drill site (not under MWCD oversight) and has personally experienced 24/7 truck traffic, noise and flaring from that site. He’s not excited about more of it near where he lives. Eric’s chief concern is that the lease as proposed is essentially unenforceable when it comes to industrialization concerns like truck traffic, noise and lights. He believes the MWCD has the right to enter into the lease legally, but he views such an agreement as an abuse of MWCD’s stewardship and authority. We bring you Eric’s viewpoint (below) not because we agree or endorse it, but because he’s one of the few who respectfully wants to argue the opposing viewpoint and make a case for his views based on logic and reason. We appreciate that. You decide if his arguments have merit…
    Read More “Is MWCD Lease for Piedmont Lake, OH with Antero a Good Thing?”

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    Aubrey McClendon Wants Ohioans to Help Him Frack the Utica

    Good news for Ohio Gov. John “foreigner hunter” Kasich: The man who once famously said he’s the biggest fracker in the world, former Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon, wants Ohians to help him frack the Utica Shale in Ohio. Aubrey’s new company, American Energy Partners, has a huge “help wanted” billboard along Route 315 near Ohio State University (Columbus, OH). Since Aubrey was booted from Chesapeake Energy last year by corporate raider Carl Icahn, he’s started a new company and has hauled in over $3 billion of seed capital to keep on frackin’.

    Want a good job? Contact American Energy Partners in Ohio…
    Read More “Aubrey McClendon Wants Ohioans to Help Him Frack the Utica”

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    CT May Pass Frack Wastewater Ban; Should PA Pass CT NatGas Ban?

    Even though there is no frackable shale under the ground in Connecticut, state legislators on Monday advanced a bill that will ban frack wastewater and (presumably) drill cuttings from states with fracking operations–like Pennsylvania. We’re reasonably certain no frack wastewater or drill cuttings have ever been hauled to Connecticut for disposal, so this bill seems to be yet another empty gesture. However, the bill does seem to be headed for passage by a May 7 deadline.

    So MDN would like to propose a new bill for PA legislators: How about a law that prohibits the sale of natural gas extracted by fracking to states like Connecticut that don’t want to help out with waste disposal? Seems fair to us. It’s not like Connecticut residents would have to go without natural gas–they can buy it from Russia’s Gazprom for oh, $100-$150 per thousand cubic feet (instead of purchasing PA’s Marcellus gas for $3-4 per Mcf). How about it PA? Let’s play a little hardball and see how those conceited New Englanders like a little taste of their own legislative medicine…
    Read More “CT May Pass Frack Wastewater Ban; Should PA Pass CT NatGas Ban?”

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    Anti-Drillers Win Minor Victory Against Muskingum Watershed Dist

    Last October MDN told you about a lawsuit filed by a Guernsey County, OH couple seeking to stop drilling and fracking under Seneca Lake (Ohio). The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) approved a $40.3 million lease with Antero Resources to allow drilling around and under 6,400 acres, including the Seneca Lake. It’s not surprising that the odious Food & Water Watch is behind the lawsuit (see Muskingum Watershed Taken to Court by Anti-Frackers (Yawn)). Last week a Franklin County judge ruled that the lawsuit brought by Leatra Harper and her husband Steven Janstro (strong anti-drillers) can move forward.

    Below is the story of their minor victory, a decision that simply means the lawsuit continues, for now. However, it brings up an important issue. Later this week the MWCD is due to sign another lease with Antero–this one for drilling around and under 6,700 at Piedmont Lake (see MWCD Close to Signing Utica Lease for Piedmont Lake, OH Property). Will this small victory at Seneca Lake embolden the odious Food & Water Watch to find sympathetic, fossil fuel-hating landowners around Piedmont to stir up yet another new lawsuit?…
    Read More “Anti-Drillers Win Minor Victory Against Muskingum Watershed Dist”

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    Marcellus/Utica Anti-Drilling Group Back with Impacts “Research”

    The Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative (MSSRC) attempts to pass itself off as a non-partisan, “just the facts ma’am” kind of organization dedicated to measuring the “impacts” of Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling. They are anything but. The organization is extremely partisan and anti-drilling, backed by the likes of the Heinz Endowments and Park Foundation, two organizations that back only anti-drillers when it comes to the issue of shale drilling (just ask Bobby Vagt, former president of the Heinz Endowments, Bobby Vagt Out as Pres of Heinz Endowments – Fracking Connection?).

    Last November the MSSRC issued a faux research “report” that said, “Nah, Marcellus/Utica doesn’t create all that many jobs after all” (see Anti-Drilling Cabal Issues Biased Report on Marcellus/Utica Jobs). The anti-drilling MSSRC is back with a series of four “case studies” on counties in the Marcellus/Utica and how they’ve fared with a number of metrics. As you might expect, the “study” found loads of negative impacts. It’s all crap, but we highlight it for you so you know that it’s crap and so you’re not taken in by their lame attempt at covering up who they really are and their insidious agenda…
    Read More “Marcellus/Utica Anti-Drilling Group Back with Impacts “Research””

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    Sierra Club Pumps Out More Yada Yada in Anti-Fossil Fuel “Report”

    yada yadaThe Sierra Club continues to marginalize itself as an extremist, out-of-touch, agenda-driven huckster of fascist idealism (we know how to run your life better than you do), as proven by their latest diatribe against the miracle of safe, clean hydraulic fracturing and all things fossil fuel. Yesterday the extremists at the Sierra Club vomitted out yet another so-called report called “Dirty Fuels, Clean Futures” (full copy embedded below) in which they espouse the same old same old yada yada yada. Solar is wonderful yada yada. Fracking is evil yada yada. Burning fossil fuels will fry the planet yada yada. Obama’s dictatorial ways are to be praised, Heil Barack! yada yada. Everything is “dirty” if it’s not on the Sierra Club’s approved list.

    And so it goes. Complete and utter refuse. (Please don’t EVER give the Sierra Club a dime of your money.) They even stoop so low as to profile Susquehanna County minor celebrity anti-driller Vera Scroggins in the report (page 23). Apparently Vera is a hero in the wacko world of enviro-extremists. Good–they can have her. We provide you with the so-called “press release” and a full copy of the so-called “report” below, simply because it’s a slow news day and we like to express our utter contempt and disgust with the lies pumped out daily by the odious Sierra Club…
    Read More “Sierra Club Pumps Out More Yada Yada in Anti-Fossil Fuel “Report””

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    JLCNY Says Nirav Shah Departure Won’t Slow Down Fracking Lawsuit

    Ya just can’t keep good help if you only pay ’em $130,000 a year. So says the man-child who is governor of New York–Andy Cuomo. In a vainglorious attempt to spin the very bad news (for him) that his top health official has had enough of his dithering ways, Gov. Cuomo yesterday told reporters the ongoing so-called health review of new fracking rules has nothing to do with Shah’s departure. Shah is heading as far from New York as he can get, to California. Cuomo’s convinced we’re all idiots and don’t see the truth (see our article from yesterday, State Health Com. Nirav Shah has Enough of Andy Cuomo, Leaving NY).

    In comments yesterday Cuomo said Shah makes $130,000 per year, when it’s actually $136,000. Like most politicians, Cuomo plays fast and loose with numbers. The health department first said Shah is leaving in June, but then Shah said no, I’m outta here on May 4th, and so the health department backpedaled, sputtered, and said well yeah, we guess it is May 4th after all. What a dysfunctional joke (that’s not very funny for the residents of NY). The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) is certainly not amused. They issued a statement yesterday that their lawsuit against Shah (and/or his replacement), and Gov. Cuomo and DEC Commissioner Joe Martens will proceed full speed ahead, regardless of Shah’s departure. We hope the JLCNY continues their lawsuit against Shah all the way to California for his collusion with Cuomo and Martens to prevent drilling for the past year and a half…
    Read More “JLCNY Says Nirav Shah Departure Won’t Slow Down Fracking Lawsuit”

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    Sham Study by UK Authors Says PA Shale Wells Fail at High Rate

    A new “study” is starting to make the rounds in the incestuous echo chamber of anti-drillers and their sycophantic supporters in the mainstream media. The study, titled “Oil and gas wells and their integrity: Implications for shale and unconventional resource exploitation” is published in the “peer-reviewed” Marine and Petroleum Geology journal (full copy of the study embedded below). It’s written mainly by UK authors, with a couple of US authors thrown in to sweeten the pot. None of them are from universities in Pennsylvania. Here’s a typical headline generated by this new study: “Pennsylvania Fracking Wells Are Dangerous, Study Finds.” Which is a lie. But the media hopes you won’t read beyond the headlines. We actually do.

    Here’s the first thing to know about this “study”: There is no (that is zero) new data in the study. It’s a review of other people’s data and research in “the published literature and online.” That is, the authors didn’t do any actual science or field work–they just read what anti-drilling wackos have published on websites and in print and rounded it all up and called it science. The second thing to know, regarding their evaluation of the data from Pennsylvania, is this: “the search criteria used to categorise leakage incidents in Pennsylvania followed the approach described by [Anthony] Ingraffea.” That is, the authors intentionally chose to ignore the better data of what constitutes well leakage in Pennsylvania tabulated and tracked by the agency charged with monitoring it (the PA DEP) and instead chose to use Cornell anti-drilling professor Tony Ingraffea’s wild interpretations of the DEP data. That right there tells you all you need to know about this sham of a “study”…
    Read More “Sham Study by UK Authors Says PA Shale Wells Fail at High Rate”

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    State Health Com. Nirav Shah has Enough of Andy Cuomo, Leaving NY

    keep calm and blame the whipping boyApparently Dr. Nirav Shah, State Health Commissioner in New York, is tired of being Andrew Cuomo’s tool–Andy’s whipping boy. For more than a year Cuomo has been able to hide behind an unfinished so-called public health review of proposed new fracking rules, proposed by the state’s Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC). In what can only be called a conspiracy, DEC Commissioner Joe Martens asked Shah for a review of the SGEIS with an eye to how shale drilling may (or may not) affect this nebulous concept called “the public health.” It’s now obvious that both Martens and Cuomo had set up Shah as the fall guy, requesting (we suspect) that Shah intentionally delay his findings. Shah has been carrying their water for more than a year now. Recently Norse Energy and the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York sued Cuomo, Martens and Shah to force them to finish the health review and release the new drilling regs (see D-Day: JLCNY Files Lawsuit Today Against Cuomo, Martens, Shah).

    Yesterday Shah announced he is stepping down from his position in June. He’s had enough of this incestuous mess called New York State politics, and enough of the man-child Andy Cuomo–a pathetic politician who can’t make a decision about fracking. The reason we suspect Cuomo asked Shah to delay the results of his “health review” is because a) Shah originally said the review would be done within several weeks, which has turned into more than a year, and b) Shah is leaving to become Chief Operating Officer of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan in southern California–at double or triple his current salary. It’s a huge promotion. You think Kaiser would hire a new COO who is inept and can’t complete a simple and straightforward health review? No way–which tells you Shah was delaying at the request of Cuomo and Martens. And he’s now had enough…
    Read More “State Health Com. Nirav Shah has Enough of Andy Cuomo, Leaving NY”

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    WV Conference Speaker Says PA is Tops with Spill Containment Regs

    The main focus for the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association’s ShaleSafe Conference and Expo at Oglebay Park in Wheeling this week was silica dust exposure (see MDN’s related article published today). However, another session was a close second as Topic A–the session on spill containment. The sole presenter on spill containment was Beth Powell from New Pig Energy. Spill containment became a huge topic for everyone in West Virginia after a chemical spill related to coal mining affected the drinking water for 300,000 WV residents earlier this year. In the aftermath of that spill, the WV legislature passed new regulations for chemical storage tanks–regulations that affect not only the coal industry guilty of the spill, but also the shale drilling industry too (see Impact of WV’s New Chemical Tank Law on Marcellus Drillers).

    Ms. Powell had some interesting things to say about spill containment–and she should know since well pad containment systems are New Pig’s business. Among her comments, Powell said Pennsylvania’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) regulations are far more strict than either West Virginia or Ohio when it comes to spills and spill containment. Now that’s something you don’t hear from anti-drillers in PA who try to paint the DEP as lax, derelict in their duty, and in bed with the drilling industry…
    Read More “WV Conference Speaker Says PA is Tops with Spill Containment Regs”

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    Act 13 Case Goes Back to Court, Drillers Petition to Join Lawsuit

    The Marcellus Shale drilling industry in Pennsylvania is trying to make some lemonade from the truckload of lemons handed to them by the PA Supreme Court’s ill-fated decision to let seven selfish townships gut the state’s Act 13 drilling law passed in 2012. We’ve covered the issue extensively (see a list of MDN’s Act 13 articles here). Perhaps the most egregious and outrageous miscarriage of justice in the case is that the drilling industry, which is directly affected by the case, was never allowed to join the case. The courts said they didn’t have “standing”–and yet those same courts allowed the virulently anti-drilling Delaware Riverkeeper Network to be party to the case. Simply boggles the mind.

    The PA Supreme’s in their “wisdom,” decided the zoning portions of the case and sent the rest of the case back to a lower court so they could finish gutting the Act 13 law. As MDN previously reported exactly a month ago, the drilling industry has, once again, respectfully requested they be allowed to join the case now that it’s in the home stretch (see Drillers Petition PA Court (Again) to Participate in Act 13 Case). While the drilling industry can’t undo what has been done by the Supreme Court, it is clear that they believe they can lessen the damage done if they win certain arguments in lower court–arguments like affirming the Public Utility Commission’s authority to review whether a zoning ordinance crosses the line and preempts state oil and gas law. In other words, the seven selfish towns may not have gotten their own selfish way after all–not entirely. The hearing on whether to allow the industry to join what’s left of the lawsuit is today…
    Read More “Act 13 Case Goes Back to Court, Drillers Petition to Join Lawsuit”

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    Exxon Mobil Shaken Down by NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli

    GoodFellasThe Comptroller of the State of New York, Thomas DiNapoli, is the sole person in charge of The New York State Common Retirement Fund–a fund with $160 billion in it. DiNapoli, or rather the NYS Common Retirement Fund, owns $1.02 billion of Exxon Mobil stock. Unfortunately, DiNapoli is an anti-drilling bully (see our list of MDN articles here). When someone like DiNapoli has you by the short hairs and is pulling, you ask him how high he wants you to jump. That’s what’s happening to Exxon Mobil.

    DiNapoli is forcing Exxon Mobil to write a cockamamie report on the so-called hazards of fracking, to be released this September on the Exxon website. So what if the report shows there are no (or very few) actual hazards in fracking? Yeah, right. They don’t call people like Tommy DiNapoli a goodfella for nuttin’. Exxon is getting shaken down by a bullying investor that holds a lot of stock. And not just any investor–but a government official to boot. It’s sleazy, it’s disgusting, and it’s New York politics. What do you think Exxon’s report on fracking will say?…
    Read More “Exxon Mobil Shaken Down by NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli”

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    Anti-Frackers Win Lawsuit Against Muskingum Watershed District

    Last October MDN told you the anti-drilling group calling themselves the FreshWater Accountability Project (FWAP), a front group for the Washington, D.C.-based (and odious) Food & Water Watch had thrown a snit fit and sued the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District’s (MWCD) to gain access to personal details (names, addresses, phone numbers) of people living in the watershed so FWAP and FWW could launch smear campaigns against the MWCD over their decision to sell a thimble full of water for fracking and lease some of their considerable acreage for shale drilling (see Muskingum Watershed Taken to Court by Anti-Frackers (Yawn)).

    Last week the liberal Fifth District Court of Appeals granted the anti-drillers their wish: access to MWCD records along with a fine for holding back the information. Let the smear campaigns begin!…
    Read More “Anti-Frackers Win Lawsuit Against Muskingum Watershed District”

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    Anti-Drillers Force 3rd Vote on Frack Ban in Youngstown

    Even the Democrat Mayor of Youngstown, OH knows that passing a fracking ban for the city would be a “job killer.” Too bad the nutters on his side of the political isle don’t listen to reason. In January MDN told you that the nutters had gathered enough signatures to force a third time-and-money-wasting vote on whether or not the city should outright ban fracking within its borders (see Third Time the Charm? Youngstown Anti-Drillers Try Again for Ban). Not that passing a ban would make a difference–there’s little chance of any active drilling in and around Youngstown. It would be a poke in the eye–spit in the face–of the drilling industry. The drilling industry notices such things and elects to take their business elsewhere when it happens. Hence Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally’s comments last week encouraging residents to reject the ban when they vote on May 6th.

    Along with Mayor McNally, local union reps from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Ohio Council 8 says three votes is enough and it’s time for this crap to stop…
    Read More “Anti-Drillers Force 3rd Vote on Frack Ban in Youngstown”

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    Lawyers Gutting Act 13 Law Claim PA DEP Covers Up Water Problems

    gutted deerThe Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), along with the Act 13 law, has come under heavy fire from anti-drillers and the seven selfish towns who want to overturn Act 13. Even though the DEP is dedicated to the health and safety of the people and environment in PA, they’re regularly (falsely) accused of colluding with “industry” and throwing both people and the environment under the metaphorical bus. The latest accusations against the DEP stem from the Act 13 lawsuit remanded by the PA Supreme Court back to a lower court. Anti-drillers are doing their best to gut the protections afforded in Act 13 because they want the chance to re-do it and “do it right” (meaning onerous new regulations). And so after the seven selfish towns pulled on one Act 13 thread (zoning) and won, their action now threatens to unravel the entire law (see Ongoing Fallout from PA Supreme Court’s Wrong Act 13 Decision).

    Lawyers for the seven selfish towns who are making an attempt to gut the entire Act 13 law in the lower court are accusing the DEP of intentionally suppressing information about contamination of private water wells due to drilling-related activity. The lawyers, along with a sycophantic media willing to regurgitate their claims, say that DEP regulators don’t keep files or issue violation notices to drillers in cases where the driller reaches a private settlement with a landowner. That is, they say it’s a government cover-up of enormous proportions. Which is, of course, preposterous. But it sure sells a lot of newspapers…
    Read More “Lawyers Gutting Act 13 Law Claim PA DEP Covers Up Water Problems”