Hydraulic Fracturing

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

Highland Park, NJ First Town in State to Ban Fracking – So What
September 19, 2013September 19, 2013

Egged on by community agitators like the anti-drilling Food & Water Watch and Sierra Club, Highland Park, NJ just became the first municipality in the state to officially ban fracking. Big deal. There is no fracking in NJ right now, Highland Park is too populated to support fracking, and there’s nothing worth fracking under the land in Highland Park anyway. But don’t tell the ~~potheads~~ concerned citizens in the protest lines–they’re having too much fun protesting to be bothered with the facts…

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Health Impacts | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Eco Group Sues Health Dept/Shah to Release Frack Health Study
September 18, 2013September 18, 2013

MDN has made it plain we believe New York State Dept. of Health Commissioner Nirav Shah, who in February of this year said he was just “weeks away” from releasing the results of his research on the potential public health impacts of proposed new fracking rules from the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation, is covering for his boss, Gov. Andrew “Ditherer” Cuomo (see Cuomo Underling Shah: “No Timetable” on Fracking Decision). We on the pro-drilling side of the debate are not the only ones unhappy with the Cuomo/Shah marionette show.

This week an anti-drilling group from the Finger Lakes area–the Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association–sued Shah and the Dept. of Health in an attempt to get the research documents finally released. The Association previously filed Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests in an effort to obtain the documents but Shah refused. Now the courts may finally force Andrew the Great Ditherer to finally get off his rear-end and make a decision by requiring Shah to release his findings…
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Commodity Price | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Former DOE Sec. Chu: Have Your (Fracking) Cake & Eat it Too!
September 18, 2013September 18, 2013

Steven Chu, former Secretary of Energy in the Obama administration (from 2009-2013) was the keynote speaker at America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) energy summit in Columbus, OH this week. Speaking yesterday to the assembled group of pro-drillers, Chu said fracking can be done safely. According to Chu, it’s possible to “have your cake and eat it too.” That is, fracking is safe and it provides inexpensive energy.

Chu also predicted the price of natural gas for the next 20 years (brave man)…
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Carroll County | Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Roads | Utica Shale

Carroll County, OH Transformed by Utica Shale Drilling
September 18, 2013September 18, 2013

What’s it like when drilling comes to town? Who better to tell us than someone from “the epicenter” of drilling in eastern Ohio? Amy Rutledge is director of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce. She spoke this week at an energy summit in Columbus sponsored by America’s Natural Gas Alliance.

Startling fact #1: According to Rutledge, Carroll County has fewer than 30,000 people living it–but when drilling came to town, 200 property owners in Carroll became instant millionaires from the bonus checks they received. Startling fact #2: Drillers have (so far) paid over $40 million to rebuild Carroll County’s roadways–that’s 80 years worth of road work completed in two years for a county with an annual budget of just $500,000 allocated for roads…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Onondaga County | Public Opinion

Syracuse Poll: 83% Say Frack Here, Frack Now
September 18, 2013September 18, 2013

We think this is kind of funny. The Syracuse Post-Standard, a strongly anti-drilling publication, has done its best pejorative reporting on the issue of fracking in an attempt to whip up dissent in central New York. In their latest attempt to plant the seeds of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about fracking, they run a pro-drilling video created by the American Petroleum Institute on their website. In the introduction/setup for the video they remind people of a broken pipeline due to flooding. Then they ask people to fill out a snap poll asking whether or not fracking should be allowed here, in New York State.

The results of the poll (below) are astonishing. Although you might think readers of the Post-Standard would be largely anti-drilling, it’s quite the opposite. Out of 857 respondents (including yours truly), 83%, or 715 votes, say frack here, frack now. A paltry 86 people (10%) want it banned…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

IOGA NY Launches “Natural Gas Number” Series to Educate Albany
September 18, 2013September 18, 2013

Who doesn’t remember, with fondness, growing up watching Sesame Street? On the air since 1969, Sesame Street has done more to influence and educate children (many now adults) than any other television show in the last 45 years. Their iconic “Today’s episode is brought to you by the letter — and the number –” made learning fun. Perhaps in a nod to the success of Sesame Street (or perhaps not), the Independent Oil & Gas Association (IOGA) of New York has launched a new campaign series called “Natural Gas Number” aimed at legislative leaders in Albany–people who badly need to learn the basic facts about drilling.

IOGA’s first “brought to you by” number is 1,882 — the number of days that have passed since the moratorium on shale drilling in New York began…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Coming Soon: PA Drillers to Pay 56% More for Marcellus Permits
September 18, 2013September 18, 2013

Looks like permit fees for PA drillers are about to go up. The PA Environmental Quality Board proposed increasing the fee in a filing last week.

If adopted as proposed, the permit fee for an unconventional horizontal shale well will go from $3,200 to $5,000–a healthy 56% jump…
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Crude Oil | Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

IHS Study: Worldwide Shale Oil Deposits are Huge
September 18, 2013September 18, 2013

Global research company IHS released a new study yesterday about the huge supply of oil (yes, oil) that now exists worldwide because of shale. Oil retrieved from shale deposits is referred to as “tight oil” and according to IHS, the world apart from North America has nearly 300 billion (with a “b”) barrels of tight oil available–if they have the will to get it. In order to get it, they’ll have to frack for it. For perspective, the U.S., the biggest oil consumer in the world, consumed 6.7 billion barrels of oil for all of 2012 (according to EIA statistics).

The new IHS study is titled Going Global: Predicting the Next Tight Oil Revolution. Unfortunately we could not get our hands on a copy to review. However, we were able to find a chart reportedly from the study which shows how big the deposits of tight oil are by region (see our Pinterest images on the right side of any MDN web page). The surprise for us: The biggest potential non-U.S. source of tight oil is Africa…
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Air Quality | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

New Study Final Nail in Coffin of Inflated Fugitive Methane Claims
September 17, 2013September 17, 2013

In 2011 Cornell professors Robert Howarth and Anthony (Tony) Ingraffea published a study that claimed drilling for natural gas is actually worse than burning coal because extracting natural gas leads to high levels of “fugitive methane” escaping into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming (see New Cornell University Study Says Shale Gas Extraction Worse for Global Warming Than Coal). It was a “you can’t really be serious” moment, calling into question the academic rigor (or lack thereof) at Cornell. The problem with Howarth and Ingraffea’s work is that it was all theoretical–no actual data measurements on which they based their claims.

A peer-reviewed study by MIT was later published using actual data that roundly refuted the work of Howarth and Ingraffea (see New MIT Study on Fugitive Methane Discredits Cornell Study). Now, a second peer-reviewed study has just been published by in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Titled “Measurements of methane emissions at natural gas production sites in the United States” (full copy embedded below), the study uses data from 190 actual well sites and calculates that less than half of one percent (0.42% on average) of natural gas escapes from well sites during extraction (“fugitive methane”). This is much less than Howarth and Ingraffea “estimated” with their theoretical study. This new study puts the final nail in the coffin of efforts to discredit natural gas drilling as worse than coal based on wildly inflated fugitive methane numbers…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Group Seeks Volunteers to Sample Rivers/Streams Near Fracking
September 17, 2013September 17, 2013

Increasingly MDN receives a lot of email from both pro- and anti-drilling organizations and groups. We select only those items that we believe would be of interest to you. Below is one such item. A few days ago we received a forwarded email from someone working with the Three Rivers QUEST (3RQ), a water monitoring program managed by the WV Water Research Institute. West Virginia University also has some sort of involvement, according to the 3RQ website.

3RQ is looking for volunteers for their water monitoring program in WV–people to take water samples from rivers and streams “down wind” (or rather downstream) from active shale drilling sites. We fully expect most people who participate in the program are anti-drilling in philosophy. However, good science is good science. MDN believes it would be a good will gesture for pro-drillers to also volunteer…
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Energy Companies | Energy Services | EQT Corp | Green Field Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

EQT First Driller to Frack a Marcellus Well Using 100% Field Gas
September 16, 2013September 16, 2013

Marcellus Shale driller EQT was the first driller to use liquefied natural gas (LNG) to power a drilling rig starting in 2012 (see EQT Converts 2nd Drilling Rig in WV Marcellus to Run on LNG). EQT continues to be a trailblazer. They announced today that by using technology from Green Field Energy Services, they have just completed fracking a Marcellus well using 100% “field gas” or methane produced right at the well site.

They not only drill for the gas, but the gas they drill for, they turn around and use to drill a neighboring well which cuts down on emissions, truck traffic and cost. How cool is that?…
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Allegheny County | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation

Pittsburgh Dem Proposes Ban on Drilling in County Parks
September 16, 2013September 16, 2013

Should counties allow shale drilling to take place in or under county parks? It’s a politically charged issue, that’s for sure. Some political leaders, instead of facing the issue head-on, try to “kick the can down the road” and delay the discussion for years.

In a surprise editorial, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette takes liberal Democrat Councilwoman Barbara Daly Danko (Allegheny County) to task for proposing to delay discussion and debate about this important issue. Last week she introduced a bill that would ban drilling in Allegheny County parks until 2017. The PPG says it’s not necessary and makes a decision that much harder later on…
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Energy Services | FMC Technologies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Wastewater

FMC: Shale Industry Must Achieve 100% Frack Wastewater Recycling
September 16, 2013September 16, 2013

At last week’s 2013 YOUNG Expo, FMC Technologies vice president of surface technologies, Johan Pfeiffer, said water use for fracking is a big deal–such a big deal that the shale drilling industry needs to move to 100% recycling of fracked wastewater. Soon. If we don’t? An ominous prediction from Pfeiffer: “If we don’t address the water issue we will lose it.”

FMC is a huge oilfield services and equipment company with a vested interest in the issue. They are right now conducting a pilot program in Colorado for a new technology that removes impurities and chemicals from frack wastewater. Pfeiffer explained a bit about their new and unique technology…
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Economic Impact | Erie County (NY) | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | New York | Pipelines | Statewide NY | Supply Chain

A New Marcellus Pipe Manufacturing Plant Comes to…New York???
September 13, 2013September 13, 2013

Maddening? Yes. Startling? True. Teeth-gritting? You bet. Ironic and mystifying? Supremely so.

A Middle Eastern company has just announced they will invest $102 million to build a factory in South Buffalo, NY that will employ 170 people making steel pipes for the…wait for it…shale drilling industry. And who should plant his mug right in the middle of this announcement to take credit for the investment and jobs it will bring to the state? Gov. Andy Cuomo–the man who can’t decide whether or not he’ll approve fracking in New York. You can see why we’re having such a conflicted and mixed(-up) reaction…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Wayne County

DRBC Director Carol Collier Announces Her Retirement
September 13, 2013September 13, 2013

Executive director of the Delaware River Basin Commission, Carol Collier, apparently has had enough. She announced yesterday she will retire as of March 12, 2014. You may recall Collier was shamed and humiliated on camera by filmmaker Phelim McAleer in his top-notch documentary FrackNation (see the video embedded below). Collier and her support of anti-drilling causes like the fictional Gasland movie is one of the primary reasons landowners in Wayne County, PA still have had no shale drilling–even though other PA counties all around them not in the Delaware River Basin have had drilling for years.

What does Collier’s retirement mean for the future of Marcellus Shale drilling in the DRBC’s jurisdiction? No one yet knows, but landowners are hopeful. One thing you can be sure of: Even though Collier mouths platitudes about finishing up regulations before she retires that will eventually allow drilling, there will be no movement on that issue from now until March. Of that we’re confident. Here’s Collier’s announcement from yesterday:
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Ohio | Statewide OH | Supply Chain

OH Company Turns Drill Cuttings into Clean Fill Dirt in 24 Hours
September 13, 2013September 13, 2013

An intriguing supply chain story that caught MDN’s eye: An Ohio company has figured out a way to speed up the work of Mother Nature in decomposing the nasty stuff that contaminates “drill cuttings”–the rock and soil left over from drilling natural gas or oil wells. Drill cuttings are typically hauled off to a landfill where it takes Mother Nature hundreds (sometimes thousands) of years to fully break down the chemicals (naturally and not-naturally occurring) in drill cuttings.

Ohio Soil Recycling greatly speeds up the natural process and turns drill cuttings into soil suitable for use as “clean fill dirt” in as little as 24 hours!…
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