Hydraulic Fracturing

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    Erie County, NY Falls for the FWW Lie, Bans Fracking & Road Salt

    On Monday MDN told you about an eminent vote in western NY to ban fracking (see Erie County (Buffalo) NY to Vote on “Near-Ban” of Fracking). Yesterday, legislators for Erie County, NY fell into the trap set by the odious Food & Water Watch–legislators voted 9-2 to ban the use of road salt and dust suppressant safely manufactured from brine water that comes from oil and gas drilling. They also voted to deny taxpayers in Erie County the right to profit from drilling on county-owned land, when and if it ever comes to the county.

    Right at the front of the hit parade gloating was FWW agitator, er, “organizer” Rita Yelda, who continues to falsely slander fracking and the products made as a result of fracking, like deicer (road salt). We hope Erie County residents enjoy paying for steep legal fees when this illegal law is challenged next year by Buffalo-based National Fuel (Seneca Resources)…
    Read More “Erie County, NY Falls for the FWW Lie, Bans Fracking & Road Salt”

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    Very Cool Map from ODNR Showing OH Utica Wells Permitted/Drilled

    Last week the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) released a very handy map that shows where Utica Shale drilling is happening in the state. It has different colored dots to denote where permits have been issued, where wells have been drilled, and where wells have been drilled and are now producing. Running along the right bottom corner is a tally (as of 12/6/13) for how many permits have been issued by driller, which now totals over 1,000 permits.

    We really like this map, and you think you will to! Here it is:
    Read More “Very Cool Map from ODNR Showing OH Utica Wells Permitted/Drilled”

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    PA DEP Launches Public Comments on New Drilling Rules, Roadshow

    The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and their Environmental Quality Board are launching a 60-day public comment period starting Dec. 14 to allow PA residents to comment on proposed new Marcellus Shale drilling rules called for under the Act 13 law passed in early 2012. The new rules will address well pad construction, water impoundments,  pipelines and surface impacts of drilling, among other things. It is a major revision to PA’s drilling rules.

    In addition to emailing or sending in hard copy, the DEP will conduct a series of road shows in various locations to discuss the proposed new rules. They’re also holding two online webinars (Dec. 19 and Jan. 3). The announcement from the DEP about the proposed new rules and the comment period:
    Read More “PA DEP Launches Public Comments on New Drilling Rules, Roadshow”

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    Groton, NY (borders Dryden) Votes DOWN 6-Month Frack Moratorium

    Whattya know? Maybe there is hope for the People’s Republic of Tompkins County, NY after all. Tompkins County is home to anti-drilling organizations including the partisan Park Foundation and the many people it funds–like Cornell professors Tony Ingraffea and Robert Howarth, and the wife and husband lawyer team of Helen and David Slottje, who make mischief at local town board meetings, encouraging them to institute illegal bans and moratoriums on fracking.

    One of the the towns the Slottjes duped into passing a ban was Dryden, NY–in Tompkins County. The Dryden ban has been appealed all the way to the highest court in New York, the Court of Appeals where the case will be heard in early 2014. We’re sure the taxpayers of Dryden enjoy footing that portion of the legal bill not generously covered by the Park Foundation. Anywho, the town next door to Dryden is Groton. The Groton town board voted down a proposed six-month moratorium on fracking at their Tuesday night meeting. It’s a small victory for democracy and right thinking. Too bad some of Groton’s common sense wouldn’t rub off on their Dryden neighbors…
    Read More “Groton, NY (borders Dryden) Votes DOWN 6-Month Frack Moratorium”

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    New Drilling Regulations Coming to OH in Next 30-60 Days

    coming soonThe Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) will soon release new rules for shale drilling in the state. The new rules will cover well pad construction, wastewater treatment and a number of other aspects of drilling. According to ODNR’s Chief of the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management, Rick Simmers, the new rules are “good stuff.” The question is, good for who?

    Some of the new rules will be released later this month and some in early January. Others will take longer. The route to becoming enforceable “law” (or “regulation” which is the same thing) is somewhat circuitous. The rules will be subject to a 30-day public comment period and will go before a special committee with members from both the OH State Senate and House before final approval and acceptance…
    Read More “New Drilling Regulations Coming to OH in Next 30-60 Days”

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    WV Well Pad Liner Company Gets Shot of Investment Money to Grow

    Extreme Plastics Plus (EPP) has been manufacturing and installing well pad liners since 2007. Pad liners protect the ground from accidental spills of frack wastewater and chemicals used during the drilling process. Located in Fairmont, WV, EPP’s customers are in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region. In order to expand, EPP has just accepted an undisclosed amount of investment money from Hastings Equity Partners. According to EPP CEO Bennie Wharry, the money, and Hastings’ expertise, will help EPP grow “to the next level.”

    The Hastings/EPP announcement:
    Read More “WV Well Pad Liner Company Gets Shot of Investment Money to Grow”

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    Can Towns Ban Fracking in NY? Webinar Today Tackles Question

    Can localities ban oil and gas development in New York State? That is the question New York’s highest court (Court of Appeals) will answer when it hears arguments by attorneys representing Norse Energy and a dairy farmer versus the towns of Dryden and Middlefield. The decisions in these two important cases could have a huge impact on the future of shale development in New York. If the court decides that municipalities can ban drilling town- or citywide, MDN believe’s it lights out on serious shale drilling in New York–forever. Happily, we don’t think the court will decide that way.

    A webinar is being offered today, Wednesday, Dec. 11 at 1 pm that will address that issue. Greg Sovas, President and owner of XRM, LLC and former Director of the Division of Mineral Resources at the NYS DEC will review the history of the supersession clause and its importance, implementation over the past thirty years and what has changed, the arguments being made on both sides in the court case, and how a decision either way could affect the future of oil and gas development in New York State.  A Q&A at the end.

    MDN encourages you to attend this 30-minute presentation. Sign up here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/694678240.

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    EIA’s Dec DPR: Marcellus Now Provides 18% of US NatGas

    Our new favorite monthly report from the ace analysts at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) was issued yesterday–the latest and third installment of the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). We’ve embedded a full copy of the report below for your viewing pleasure (love the charts they use). The monthly DPR provides key information about how quickly wells decline in production–it’s one report you want to keep a close eye on.

    In addition to the latest DPR below, we’ve also included screenshots for two tables with the raw numbers EIA uses to generate the reports (tables we wish they would include in the monthly DPR). Below the DPR we’re including a bit of analysis work done by the EIA based on the DPR. The EIA analysts say their research shows the mighty Marcellus, as of this month, is producing 18% of all natural gas produced in the U.S. A single play! Truly astonishing. It shows the incredible importance of the Marcellus to our country’s energy infrastructure…
    Read More “EIA’s Dec DPR: Marcellus Now Provides 18% of US NatGas”

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    Erie County (Buffalo) NY to Vote on “Near-Ban” of Fracking

    The odious Food & Water Watch (FWW), a partisan anti-drilling organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., is behind a scare effort to get the Erie County (Buffalo), NY legislature to ban fracking on county-owned land, ban the treatment of frack wastewater, and ban the use of processed brine (sometimes erroneously called frack wastewater) as a deicer and dust suppressant throughout the county. Using processed brine–water from drilled gas wells with heavy minerals and anything harmful removed–as a deicer and dust suppressant has been happening safely across the country for years. Hey, if Erie residents want to double the price they pay for road salt (and they use a LOT of road salt for Buffalo winters), who are we to stop them?

    The full Erie County legislature will vote on the ill-advised proposed ban this week at its December 12th meeting:
    Read More “Erie County (Buffalo) NY to Vote on “Near-Ban” of Fracking”

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    IOGA of NY Dumps PR Consultant, Media Speculation Goes Wild

    This is an “inside baseball” kind of story–or in this case, inside New York oil & gas politics. The Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York (IOGA of NY) recently underwent some belt-tightening. You look over your budget–the money coming in and the money going out–and you make decisions. That’s what companies, and organizations, do. The government doesn’t do that because they just take it from we citizens to pay for their voracious drunken spending habits. But that’s another story for another time.

    IOGA of NY looked at declining membership revenues because oil and gas drillers are leaving or staying away from New York over an ongoing five and a half year moratorium, and IOGA decided they could do without the services of their high priced PR consultant. Happens every day in thousands of companies and organizations across the world. But only in NY do the media try to fabricate a story out of it to say IOGA of NY is throwing in the towel…giving up…admitting defeat. We say it’s wishful thinking on the part of NY’s anti-fracking media. IOGA of NY is doing nothing of the sort…
    Read More “IOGA of NY Dumps PR Consultant, Media Speculation Goes Wild”

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    Pathetic Response to Threatened Lawsuit over NY Frack Regs

    On Monday, Tom West, an attorney for Norse Energy, sent a “demand” letter addressed to NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens with the not-so-subtle threat that unless Martens releases the fracking regulations (called the SGEIS), Norse will sue Martens, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and State Health Commissioner Nirav Shah under Article 78 for not doing their jobs. That is, Norse (via West) will sue to force the release of the SGEIS (see Tom West Demands DEC Com. Martens Release the SGEIS – Soon). All three of the anti-fracking cabal (Cuomo, Martens, Shah) got the letter.

    So far Cuomo himself hasn’t had the guts to say anything about the letter or potential lawsuit. Neither has Joe Martens. Instead, they continue to let State Health Commissioner Shah catch the spears for it. At a public health forum in Manhattan on Tuesday, Shah addressed the issue by saying, in essence, Shazam! We done just got us some new informations in just the past few weeks (can ya’ll believe that?)! Ya’ll can’t rush this, ya know. To which we say, “pathetic”…
    Read More “Pathetic Response to Threatened Lawsuit over NY Frack Regs”

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    Must-See Video Sticks It to Hollywood Anti-Frackers

    Throwing their own words right back in their smug faces, a new video released on Tuesday by the Western Energy Alliance uses real people to tell the truth about fracking, and tells off the know-nothing Hollwood stars that appear in a recent anti-fracking video.

    A Washington Times story about the new video appears directly below, followed by the video itself. Please take time to give it a watch–it’s under one minute long and will put a smile on your face like it did ours…
    Read More “Must-See Video Sticks It to Hollywood Anti-Frackers”

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    More Global Warming Flummery – Latest Scare Report Issued

    A new report is out on the hazards of global warming…blah blah blah…fill in the blanks. If the warmers detect the general public doesn’t believe as fervently as they used to about global warming–if people are going a little bit squishy and starting to ask uncomfortable questions–it’s time to ratchet up the rhetoric and start talking about impending doom and a coming environmental holocaust. Trouble is, they keep doing it–decade after decade–and the environmental holocaust never seems to arrive. So they have to start blaming hurricanes and big winter storms–things we’ve had for, oh, millions of years–on global warming. Do they really think we’re that stupid?

    And so enters yet another shrill global warming flummery study from the left-leaning National Research Council–because the general population needs another good scare. The compliant New York Times does as good a job as any at trumpeting this latest false alarm. We learn that even though global warming hasn’t really caused any problems yet, when it does, baby it’s gonna happen “all at once” and be “really bad”…honest…
    Read More “More Global Warming Flummery – Latest Scare Report Issued”

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    Who Dat Sneakin’ Around my Well Pad…PA DEP?!

    We’re not quite sure what to make of this one… PA State Sen. Scott Hutchinson (Republican from Butler County) has introduced legislation to prohibit the state Dept. of Environment Protection (DEP) from using video surveillance cameras, some of them with “night vision”, to monitor and enforce environmental laws at oil and gas sites. DEP also uses “unmarked cars” in drive-by inspections and Hutchinson wants that fixed too.

    Is the DEP being shifty? Are they sneaking around? Should they better announce themselves? Or is this just a tempest in a teapot as DEP says it is? You decide…
    Read More “Who Dat Sneakin’ Around my Well Pad…PA DEP?!”

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    The “Flexible” (and Capricious) Ways of EPA Admin. McCarthy

    It used to be that the law (and regulations, which are based on and have the power of law) were “blind” and not a respecter of men nor companies. The law was designed to apply to all equally and without exception. But when you have a law-breaker–someone who flouts the law–as your president, you then get a situation where the law is twisted to the political whims of those in power. Don’t like a particular law because you oppose it? No problem–just ignore it and don’t enforce it. Don’t like the political blow back of enforcing laws and regulations you yourself passed? No problem–just be “flexible” with how you implement said law or regulation.

    The latest “flexible” Obama official is none other than newly minted EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, who is signaling she won’t enforce the draconian carbon regulations her agency recently established that are designed to kill coal. Instead of killing coal all at once, she’ll toy with it, like a cat with mouse…
    Read More “The “Flexible” (and Capricious) Ways of EPA Admin. McCarthy”

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    US Chamber to Obama: Don’t Let EPA Screw Up Fracking Miracle

    One of the finest organizations in America–the U.S. Chamber of Commerce–sent a warning to President Obama yesterday to put him on notice that if the Obama Environmental Protection Agency continues down the road of federal regulation of fracking (something that is unconstitutional by the way), it will kill the very jobs and economic success that Obama has had nothing to do with but takes credit for. OK, the Chamber didn’t use that exact language, but that’s our take on their sentiment.

    Chamber President Thomas Donohue essentially said “don’t go there” with respect to the EPA wanting to horn in with regulating fracking…
    Read More “US Chamber to Obama: Don’t Let EPA Screw Up Fracking Miracle”