Hydraulic Fracturing

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

ASTM Intl Announces Proposed Standard for Shale Oil/Gas Fracking
September 3, 2013September 3, 2013

There’s no end of governmental, quasi-governmental and private organizations that want to impose some sort of regulation on fracking. From the federal EPA on down, they all want to get their licks in. Regulation (at the state level) is of course absolutely necessary. Strong regulations to protect citizens and the environment is a must–and the responsibility for doing it lies solely with the states as a matter of Constitutional law. As for the plethora of other would-be regulators? Not needed. But that doesn’t stop them from trying anyway.

The latest organization to toss their hat in the fracking regulation ring is ASTM International–formerly known as the American Society for Testing and Materials. A very fine organization with superb standards used by many industries. However, they’re now working on a proposed standard and “best practices” for shale oil and gas drilling and fracking. We have to ask: Is it really needed?
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Anti-Drillers Attempt a Brave Face with NY Appeals Court Decision
August 30, 2013August 30, 2013

MDN was one of the first news/blog sites yesterday to break the news that the New York Court of Appeals has decided to hear the Dryden and Middlefield appeals. This is the best possible news landowners could receive (see BREAKING: NY Court of Appeals will Hear Dryden/Middlefield Case). As promised, below is MDN’s explanation of why we believe the Court of Appeals decision is the single most positive development NY landowners have had in several years (not hyperbole!).

However, before our analysis, some background on yesterday’s decision as given by an objective news source (the Wall Street Journal) and by a not-so-objective news source (the Albany Times Union)…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

RINO NY Sen Greg Ball Comes Out in Favor of Fracking…Sort of
August 30, 2013

Anti-drilling New York State Sen. Greg Ball (a Republican-In-Name-Only from Putnam County), perhaps sensing his next election prospects slipping away, has had a conversion of sorts to becoming a teeny, tiny little bit pro-drilling. In January 2012, Ball introduced a bill that would extend New York’s fracking moratorium until June 1st of this year (Bill to Extend Fracking Moratorium until 2013 Hits NY Senate). Obviously the law didn’t pass and wasn’t even needed. However, it showed the true colors of Greg Ball. Now he’s “seen the light,” supposedly…

Ball “came out” yesterday with an editorial published on his website and picked up by several media outlets. Here is his explanation for his change of heart and new-found, lukewarm, conditional support for fracking in NY:
Read More “RINO NY Sen Greg Ball Comes Out in Favor of Fracking…Sort of”
Allegheny County | CONSOL Energy | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

NIMBY Town to Provide Water for Fracking at Pittsburgh Airport
August 30, 2013August 30, 2013

Two towns located near the Pittsburgh Airport are set to make big money from the drilling that will happen at the airport–even though the drilling is not within their own boundaries. How? They’re going to sell water to CONSOL Energy to be used for fracking 47 wells at the airport–up to 300 million gallons of water.

One of the towns selling water, Findlay, recently approved three new shale wells in the town–the first three to be drilled there (see Findlay Twp, PA Approves First 3 Marcellus Wells, Range to Drill). Findlay’s approval of Marcellus wells indicates they are favorable to shale drilling. The second town that will sell water for fracking at the airport, Moon Township, is not so favorable toward fracking. Last December the Moon Board of Supervisors voted to ban drilling in 75% of the their town (see Moon Twp, PA Votes to Ban Fracking in 75% of the Town). We find it interesting that a town that leans against drilling is willing to sell water for drilling–as long as the drilling is not in their backyard…

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Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Norse Energy | Regulation | Statewide NY

Norse Energy 2Q13: Concerned About Remaining ‘a Going Concern’
August 30, 2013August 30, 2013

MDN told you a few days ago about the sad state of affairs at Norse Energy (see Norse Can’t Dump NY Leases at Auction, Creditors Get Ready to Sue). The company released their second quarter update today (full copy embedded below). The update is based on the assumption the company will remain “a going concern.” They state that if they can’t sell their 130,000 acres of New York leases at a decent price, they’ll have to turn the lights off and walk away. The company is currently under bankruptcy protection and has been ordered to sell their last remaining asset–the leases.

One item from the 2Q13 update that caught our attention is that a group of approximately 60 landowners with a collective 6,000 acres are suing Norse to end their leases. Norse had invoked force majeure on the leases–a legal maneuver that states, roughly, “due to a circumstance beyond our control we’re extending the original lease term.” Of course the unforeseen circumstance is the now 5+ year moratorium on drilling in New York. If Norse starts losing already-signed leases left and right, they’ll have no assets left to sell at auction, so they are vigorously fighting the action by the landowners…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

BREAKING: NY Court of Appeals will Hear Dryden/Middlefield Case
August 29, 2013August 29, 2013

Important and breaking news as MDN gets published… The New York Court of Appeals (our state’s highest court) has decided to review a lower court ruling on the Dryden and Middlefield cases in which townships banned shale drilling and fracking for everyone in the town. This is fantastic news for New York landowners. We will have more analysis tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s a statement issued by the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York:
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BP | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Trumbull County | Utica Shale

Utica Drilling Innovation: Plastic Pipelines Replace Water Trucks
August 29, 2013August 29, 2013

An interesting innovation that we have not heard of before: BP is using temporary, plastic pipelines to transport water to the test wells they’re drilling in Trumbull County, OH. When a series of wells are finished being drilled, the pipes can be rolled up and used somewhere else without having to dig a trench and leave a permanent pipeline underground. No more thousands of trips by water trucks to drill a well!

Could this be the start of yet another new, environmentally-friendly innovation by the shale drilling industry?…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide NY | Susquehanna County

What Did NYC Lawmakers Find when Visiting NE PA Frack Sites?
August 29, 2013August 29, 2013

A small group of anti-drilling New York State lawmakers from Westchester County and New York City came to Susquehanna County, PA yesterday for a “tour” of one of the most drilled (and productive) natural gas counties in PA. We’re guessing local anti-drilling celebrity (and potty mouth) Vera Scroggins led the tour, although we don’t know for sure. Regardless of who led it, the aim was to show the devastation fracking hath wrought to this poor, defenseless county. Unfortunately for Vera and other anti-drillers, reality trumps their hallucinations.

MDN was not along for the so-called tour, but we know what the visiting city folks found because we’ve also toured the county and its drilling sites: They found a pretty, rural county where the people are happy and employed, (some of them newly rich, which disgusts the old rich of NYC), and where there is no industrial wasteland. Sometimes trucks clog the roadways–but nothing like the traffic the visiting downstate lawmakers experience every day of their lives…
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Health Impacts | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Is Cuomo Buying Off Health Commissioner to Delay Fracking Report?
August 28, 2013August 28, 2013

It’s now apparent to everyone that NY Gov. Andrew “Ditherer” Cuomo is using State Health Commissioner Nirav Shah as his excuse to delay making a decision about whether or not to allow fracking in the state. What’s Shah been up to? Going on junkets–trips where he supposedly confers with people knowledgeable about fracking in other states (and countries). For what? He can’t pick up the phone and call? Doesn’t he have email (or a physical mailing address) so people can send him information? Does he need to be face-to-face so he can look in their eyes to be double-dog sure they’re telling him the truth?

Sure sounds to us like Shah is being bought off with all-expenses paid vacations (averaging about one a month) from Prince Andrew in return for being the whipping boy. Here’s the timeline of Shah’s junkets…
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Allegheny County | CONSOL Energy | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

CONSOL Energy Reveals Drilling Plan for Pittsburgh Airport
August 28, 2013August 28, 2013

CONSOL Energy and Pittsburgh Airport officials held a joint press conference yesterday to share more of the details for CONSOL’s plan to drill on airport-owned property. You may recall the airport authority signed a deal with CONSOL in February of this year, netting the airport a nifty check for $50 million as the signing bonus (see $50M Check in the Mail: Pittsburgh Airport Lease a Done Deal). However, the signing bonus is just an hors d’oeuvre. All done and told–after receiving royalties for years to come–the airport expects the project to bring in a staggering $1 billion or more.

The proposed drilling plan (see the map below) calls for 6 well pads, 47 Marcellus Shale wells on those pads (with the possibility of drilling Upper Devonian wells later on), three fresh water ponds (“impoundments”) and 17 miles of gathering pipelines. CONSOL said that seismic testing in and around the airport property will begin in late October of this year, however, the first test wells will not be drilled until third quarter of 2014…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

New Marcellus Surface Regulations Coming for PA Drillers
August 28, 2013August 28, 2013

In February 2012, Pennsylvania passed and Gov. Tom Corbett signed the Act 13 legislation into law–the first new legislation to address shale drilling in the state (see Gov. Corbett Signs New Marcellus Drilling Law). Among the provisions in the new law was an instruction (and permission) for the Environmental Quality Board (EQB), the rulemaking body of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, to craft new regulations for drilling. The EQB wasted no time in crafting new rules for the subsurface portion of drilling (see Rewrite of 1984 PA Oil and Gas Act Underway).

The second part of the EQB’s charge is now underway. Yesterday the EQB approved and released (for public comment) new regulations aimed at surface activities associated with natural gas drilling (a summary of the new rules is embedded below, along with the full text of the proposed regulations). This new round of regulations deals with protecting public resources like parks and forests, deals with orphaned and abandoned well identification, institutes new containment rules (for fresh water and wastewater), and firms up protection of water resources…
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Alternative Energy | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

DOE Sec. Moniz Says NatGas Both Problem and Solution
August 27, 2013August 27, 2013

Obama administration officials, including the newly minted Ernest “Hair” Moniz, refuse to “debate” the mythology surrounding man-made global warming, declaring the debate is now over and that they have won a debate only just beginning! Whatever. In a speech yesterday at Columbia University, Moniz towed the Obama line that carbon emissions must be capped, especially from coal (today) and one day from natural gas too. However, the speech and the Q&A that followed weren’t all bad (from a pro-drilling perspective). Moniz is a realist, unlike many in his party. He recognizes that natural gas is a lower-carbon fossil-fuel bridge to a renewable energy future–and it’s a mighty long bridge (decades) at that.

Unfortunately we could not locate a transcript of Moniz’s speech, so we have to rely on skewed, anti-drilling reporting from Bloomberg:
Read More “DOE Sec. Moniz Says NatGas Both Problem and Solution”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

MD Anti-Drilling Group Issues Challenges “Best Practices” Report
August 27, 2013August 27, 2013

In June, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) released a draft report (dated August 2013) of “best practices for drilling and production that should be required” (see Maryland Releases Draft “Best Practices” in Shale Drilling Report for a full copy). A Maryland group calling itself Citizen Shale has just filed extensive comments–in essence a challenge–on that report. The group attempts to apply the veneer of impartiality by stating they are neither pro- nor anti-drilling and only interested in what’s best for the environment.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Citizen Shale is clearly, strongly anti-drilling and hope their comments and challenges to the recent best practices report will stall and stretch out the approval process for fracking in Maryland…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

API to BLM: Proposed Fracking Rule Just Isn’t Needed
August 27, 2013August 27, 2013

The Dept. of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a second version of a proposed federal rule for fracking on federal lands in May (see BLM Releases Revised Rules for Fracking – Why it Matters). There’s some, but not much, federal land in the northeastern U.S.–most federal land is located in the western U.S. In fact, according to an Energy Information Administration official, there’s not a lot of overlap between federal lands and shale plays (see EIA Deputy Says Most Federal Lands, Shale Plays Don’t Intersect). So what’s the big deal with the new rules?

The American Petroleum Institute thinks there’s enough of an overlap between federal land and shale plays that the BLM’s new fracking rule will cost drillers a boatload of money without achieving a whole lot in the way of safety or positive impact on the environment. The API is, in fact, recommending the BLM either revise their fracking rule for a third time to get it right, or better yet, just forget about the new rule altogether because it’s really unnecessary…
Read More “API to BLM: Proposed Fracking Rule Just Isn’t Needed”
Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Pro-Drilling Rally Welcomes Pres. Obama in Binghamton Aug 23
August 26, 2013August 26, 2013

Friday was a picture perfect, late summer/early fall day in Binghamton with temperatures around 75 degrees and blue skies. MDN editor Jim Willis had the pleasure of hanging out for a few hours with pro-drilling “salt of the earth” types of folks at Otsiningo Park in Binghamton, NY. About 250 pro-drillers were on hand with signs lined up along a fence bordering Interstate 81 to welcome President Barack Obama as his motorcade/bus whistled past the park on their way to Binghamton University where the President held a town hall meeting to discuss his education plans (i.e., have everyone else pay for your child’s college education via high taxes).

Drilling supporters were there to not only affirm and encourage Obama in his “support” of fracking, but to shame our spineless and indecisive governor, Andy Cuomo, for his lack of leadership on the issue of fracking and shale drilling. Drilling supporters want it known their patience has run out and they see Cuomo for what he is: kowtowing to the extreme left of his own party. It’s repugnant and it’s economically hurting landowners in the Southern Tier of New York State…
Read More “Pro-Drilling Rally Welcomes Pres. Obama in Binghamton Aug 23”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Pennsylvania | Regulation

Anti-Driller Shouts Fracking Question to Obama in PA Appearance
August 26, 2013August 26, 2013

Well, you knew it would happen. A shrill and rude anti-driller tried to shout down President Obama as he spoke at Lackawanna College last Friday. Maya van Rossum, head of the rabidly anti-drilling Delaware Riverkeeper Network, tried to get Obama to respond to a shouted question about fracking. He briefly looked up from his TelePrompter, and then went on without responding to her rude outburst. In fact, Obama (much to our dismay) did not say a word about shale drilling nor about the top notch Petroleum & Natural Gas Technology program run by Lackawanna College, even though it was a golden opportunity for him to do so…
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