Hydraulic Fracturing

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

Anti-Drillers to Throw a Big Party this Weekend in Youngstown, OH
August 21, 2013August 20, 2013

Calling all fossil-fuel haters–get your “frack” on–it’s time to paaarrrrrttttaaay! Anti-frackers will assemble in Youngstown, OH this weekend for a party in support of a truly stupid ballot measure that will be voted on (for a second time) this November. If passed, the new law would not only ban fracking in Youngstown–but also ban businesses involved with the shale oil and gas industry from operating in Youngstown. Such a measure would be a catastrophe for the economy of the just-starting-to-recover Youngstown, but this bunch will be so high they won’t notice…
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Antero Resources | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Prometheus to Supply Antero Resources with LNG for Drilling Rigs
August 20, 2013August 20, 2013

In April MDN told you that Antero Resources was the second Marcellus/Utica Shale driller that would convert its drilling rigs to run on 100% liquefied natural gas, or LNG (see Antero Res 2nd Marcellus Driller to Use 100% NatGas Rig Engines). Seems Antero now has a supplier that will deliver the LNG and the necessary equipment to Antero’s drill sites to power those rigs. That supplier is Prometheus Energy Group…
Read More “Prometheus to Supply Antero Resources with LNG for Drilling Rigs”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York

NY Anti-Drillers Plan “Red Letter Day” for Obama Binghamton Visit
August 20, 2013August 20, 2013

Walter Hang, proprietor of a company called Toxics Targeting, and the loony brigade from New York Residents Against Drilling (NYRAD) will be out in force at President Obama’s appearance this Friday at Binghamton University. MDN has attended various anti-drilling meetings in the past (as a reporter, not a supporter) and has ended up on email lists including Mr. Hang’s.

Hang sent the following email alert to all the faithful encouraging them to turn out on Friday, with the subject line “URGENT ALERT! URGENT ALERT! OBAMA AT BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY FRIDAY – AUGUST 23rd”:
Read More “NY Anti-Drillers Plan “Red Letter Day” for Obama Binghamton Visit”
Antero Resources | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Ritchie County | Statewide WV | Tyler County | West Virginia

More on that Half Billion Dollar Antero Water Pipeline in WV
August 20, 2013August 20, 2013

We have a few more helpful details on Antero’s project to build an 80-mile water pipeline from the Ohio River to Tyler and Ritchie counties in West Virginia. The project has been approved and will cost Antero $525 million (that’s over half a billion). However, when complete, the new pipeline and other infrastructure Antero has and is building will reduce their cost to drill a well by $600,000. They plan to drill some 30% of their wells this year using water from this project, and 90% of the wells they drill in 2014.

More information about the project, which Antero has been tight-lipped about:
Read More “More on that Half Billion Dollar Antero Water Pipeline in WV”
Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Onondaga County | Regulation

Cowardly Cuomo Will Not Visit Syracuse/Binghamton with Obama
August 20, 2013August 20, 2013

Gov. Andrew “Spineless” Cuomo–who laughably thinks he has a shot at one day being president–will not join President B.H. Obama when Obama visits the “hotbed” of fracking controversy in Cuomo’s own state–Syracuse and Binghamton, NY. Why won’t Cuomo be on the platform with his political idol? Fear of facing angry landowners and supporters of shale drilling. Cuomo knows he is loathed in shale country in upstate NY and doesn’t want to answer tough questions about fracking or risk being seen for what he is: indecisive and weak.

Cuomo has ended his own future political ambitions over the fracking issue and everyone knows it–except, apparently, him…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Democrats: Internal Fighting Over Vote to Ban Shale Drilling
August 19, 2013August 19, 2013

Well well, finally a mainstream media outlet that is talking about the elephant (or in this case the donkey) sitting in the room that’s so big, it can no longer be ignored–i.e. the firestorm that has erupted inside the Pennsylvania Democrat Party over their idiotic vote in June to support a statewide, ongoing moratorium/ban of Marcellus Shale drilling (see PA Democrat Party Votes to End Marcellus Shale Drilling Statewide). MDN previously told you about the building dissension within elected Democrat ranks over the vote (see 18 PA House Democrats Dissent from Party’s Vote for Frack Moratorium).

We wouldn’t call the internal squabbling in the Democrat Party a full-blown internecine war–yet. However, it’s getting there, according to an article printed over the weekend in the Harrisburg Patriot-News. Be forewarned that the Patriot-News article is written from a Democrat apologist viewpoint that tends to downplay how serious this issue is within Democrat ranks–but they can’t cover up the truth. The article is more of a begrudging, feet-dragging “guess we have to write about this” article than a gleeful “screw the Republicans again” article they would rather write. Keep that in mind as you read:
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Research | Statewide PA

Shale Gas Roundtable Issues Recommendations for PA Gas Drilling
August 16, 2013August 16, 2013

In March, MDN told you about the Shale Gas Roundtable, a group of high level participants from industry, government and academe organized and run by the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute on Politics (see Out of the Shadows: Another New Group Wants to Regulate PA Shale). The Roundtable has intentionally maintained a low profile–some might call it secrecy–in an attempt to craft a set of recommendations that will be taken seriously by both sides of the drilling debate and actually acted on, instead of being shelved as just another list of “nice to do” initiatives.

The group, which first met in September 2011, came all the way out of the shadows yesterday by releasing a 139-page report (full copy below) on their best thinking and recommendations to date. The report is a duesy–and we mean that in a mostly good way. Thorough and long, and full of concrete recommendations, the report tackles everything from proposed changes in the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection to new standards for water sourcing, biodegradable fracking chemicals, erosion controls, proposed new laws and even (yes) a vote in favor of forced pooling as the best way to minimize disturbance of surface land…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

Is an “Independent” Shale Research Organization Possible?
August 16, 2013August 16, 2013

The Shale Gas Roundtable–a southwestern PA group made up of representatives from the oil and gas industry, government and academe–released an important new study on Wednesday with a list of comprehensive recommendations for how shale drilling can and should go forward in Pennsylvania (see today’s companion story). One of the boldest proposals by the group is the establishment of an independent research organization to study the effects of shale drilling. The trick is to craft an organization whose research is unassailable–no accusations that “industry” or “enviro groups” funded the research and therefore said research is skewed or tainted. How to do that?

The Roundtable proposes to borrow an idea from the automotive industry…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Obama’s New EPA Chief McCarthy Shows Her True Tyrannical Colors
August 15, 2013August 15, 2013

In what MDN views as an illegal seizing of power, the Obama administration and it’s newly appointed EPA administrator, Gina McCarthy, say they’re done waiting for Congress to act on the issue of mythological man-made global warming and so they, like the bullies they are, will now act unilaterally and in contravention of the U.S. Constitution by using so-called “administrative authorities” (i.e. executive orders) to force their distorted worldview on all Americans–this year. In other words, more of our freedoms are about to die. Is there no one in Congress willing to impeach these people and reign them in–before the country goes all the way into the crapper?

Here is what the out-of-control-and-never-should-have-been-confirmed EPA chief McCarthy said yesterday in Boulder, CO:
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

EIA Deputy Says Most Federal Lands, Shale Plays Don’t Intersect
August 15, 2013August 15, 2013

Is all the hullabaloo over new Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rules for fracking on federal lands just a bunch of, well, hullabaloo? According to Howard Gruenspecht, deputy administrator at the Energy Information Administration (EIA)–perhaps. In a speech he delivered yesterday at the Summer NAPE Expo in Houston, Gruenspect said that most federal lands are located in the western part of the U.S., and most shale plays don’t overlap with those lands. Which is an interesting perspective because according to the American Petroleum Institute the BLM rules as originally drafted would cost drillers big bucks (see New BLM Fracking Rule will Cost Drillers Nearly $100K per Well).

Some of Gruenspecht’s comments from yesterday’s early morning session:
Read More “EIA Deputy Says Most Federal Lands, Shale Plays Don’t Intersect”
Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Washington County

Range Resources Argues with Mt Pleasant over Water Impoundment
August 14, 2013August 14, 2013

Range Resources seems to have a problem maintaining good relations with southwestern PA townships on the matter of water impoundments. In May, MDN told you about Cecil Township’s concerns over a 15 million-gallon water impoundment still actively used by Range even though the three gas wells at the impoundment site were drilled long ago (see Cecil, PA Supervisors Want Better Relations with Range, but…). Range had another tangle with a town board last night–this one in Mt. Pleasant Township. The same issue has once again appeared: a water impoundment is being used not for the wells drilled at the site, but for other wells being drilled in the region.

According to Cecil and now Mt. Pleasant officials, Range has the habit of expanding the use of water impoundments from their original intent. Range says the water impoundments are properly regulated by the state and not the towns. Who’s right?
Read More “Range Resources Argues with Mt Pleasant over Water Impoundment”
Antero Resources | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Antero Resources Rolls Dice on 1/2 Billion Dollar Marcellus Pipe
August 14, 2013August 14, 2013

According to a story in The Wall Street Journal, Antero Resources will spend half a billion dollars to construct an 80-mile pipeline in the Marcellus/Utica Shale region. But this rather expensive pipeline will not carry natural gas, gas liquids or even oil. Instead, it’s a pipeline that will deliver water from the Ohio River to some of Antero’s most active drilling locations scattered in West Virginia and Ohio–to be used for fracking.

For Antero with some 100K acres of leased land in the Marcellus, committing to half a billion dollars (the company grossed $265 million last year) is a huge roll of the dice…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Wayne County

Hypocritical Governor of Delaware: No for Thee But Yes for Me
August 14, 2013August 14, 2013

The anti-drilling Democrat governor of Delaware–Jack Markell–is one of five voting members of the Delaware Basin River Commission (DRBC). He’s been a reliable “no” vote when it comes to the release of new drilling rules to allow Marcellus Shale drilling in the Delaware River Basin since 2011, even though there is no Marcellus gas under his own state (see DRBC Says No Marcellus Vote Until Nov. 2012 Earliest).

Last month, Gov. Markell attended an event to celebrate the conversion of a coal-fired power plant in Dover, DE to clean-burning, cheap Marcellus Shale natural gas. Er, what’s wrong with this picture?…
Read More “Hypocritical Governor of Delaware: No for Thee But Yes for Me”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Gov. Cuomo Continues Trend of Excuses on Fracking Issue
August 13, 2013August 13, 2013

Is New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is an economic ignoramus? His own statements seem to indicate he’s clueless when it comes to the benefits of shale drilling and how it would impact the upstate economy.

Yesterday, Gov. Spineless offered yet more excuses for his waffling on the issue of fracking:
Read More “Gov. Cuomo Continues Trend of Excuses on Fracking Issue”
Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Dimock: Tell a Lie Long Enough… 2 Residents Want Case Reopened
August 13, 2013August 13, 2013

The Dimock, PA story simply won’t go away–because the mainstream media won’t let it. Tell a lie long enough… Two Susquehanna County residents (one of them from Dimock, the other from 20 miles away from Dimock) who have sued Cabot Oil & Gas claiming nearby drilling and fracking polluted their water wells, are on their way to Washington, DC in yet another publicity stunt to request the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) re-open its investigation of Dimock. Apparently the “revelation” that someone inside the EPA may have created a PowerPoint slide favorable to their plight has given them renew hope. So off they go–even though the EPA has already conducted a months-long, detailed scientific study of 64 water wells all around Dimock Township and found very few problems–almost all of which have been or could be corrected (see EPA Closes the Door on Dimock Investigation – Water is Clean).
Read More “Dimock: Tell a Lie Long Enough… 2 Residents Want Case Reopened”
Air Quality | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Which Option are PA Drillers Choosing for New Air Emission Regs?
August 13, 2013August 13, 2013

Last week MDN told you that tough new air emission standards would begin this week for drillers in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale (see Tough New Air Standards for PA Marcellus Drillers Start Next Week). The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is giving drillers two options: either get an air quality plan pre-approved by the DEP for every well drilled (adding lots of time to drilling a well), or comply with the DEP’s stricter version of new federal standards issued in April 2012–that is, become certified that every well you drill lives up to a certain standard.

Which option are drillers choosing–a plan for every well or the tweaked federal standard? According to the industry organization Marcellus Shale Coalition, looks like most drillers are going with…
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