Hydraulic Fracturing

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

FrackNation’s McAleer to Attend Gasland 2, Plans to Confront Fox
April 17, 2013

Phelim McAleer, the creator/writer/director of the fabulous documentary FrackNation is going to attend the premier of Josh Fox’s Gasland 2 “documentary” at the Tribeca Film Festival next week. According to Phelim, he will “likely clash with Fox” at the screening.

In case you haven’t yet seen it, FrackNation is a must-see film (see MDN Reviews New Documentary FrackNation). Phelim has tried, repeatedly, to get Fox to debate him–but so far Fox has been a coward (see GASLAND vs FrackNation: Josh Fox Refuses to Debate Phelim McAleer). So Phelim has decided to take it Josh at his own screening. We love Phelim’s fearlessness! (Interesting how telling the truth makes you confident and fearless.)

Here’s the announcement from Phelim about attending Gasland 2:
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Sierra Club Lies (Yet Again) and Hits Rock Bottom
April 17, 2013

MDN has long chronicled the antics of anti-drilling groups like the Sierra Club, an organization that once-upon-a-time embraced natural gas as a bridge fuel, but lately has started lying about the benefits of clean-burning natural gas because it threatens their rather twisted view of an alternative energy nirvana “if only”…if only natural gas wasn’t so darned cheap and getting in the way of more windmills and solar panels.

Energy in Depth’s California chapter penned an excellent article pointing out the outright lies of the California chapter of the Sierra Club in their efforts to persuade residents to reject fracking in that state. Listen up CA: Don’t make the same mistakes we’ve made here in NY. Even Gov. Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown likes fracking! Here’s the excellent EID-CA article:
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

PBS ‘Innovation Trail’ Does Sloppy (Lazy?) Reporting on JLCNY
April 16, 2013April 16, 2013

Although it’s often maddening, to MDN, it’s sad to have to report on the bias (or laziness) in the mainstream media with regard to the drilling issue. Today we bring you one of the many examples we could have—and we bring it because of its particularly egregious nature. Innovation Trail is a collaboration between six upstate New York public media outlets. A reporter from the Buffalo PBS station, WBFO, posted an article yesterday that makes a factually wrong statement about the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY). If the reporter, Ashley Hassett, had bothered to check with the JLCNY instead of dutifully regurgitating propaganda from a radical group like Food & Water Watch, she might have preserved a bit of journalistic integrity with this story.

Using the ultra-radical Food & Water Watch (FWW) as her only source, Hassett posted a story with the theme that farmers and "foodies" (foodies being the radicals at FWW) are getting together to encourage Gov. Cuomo to adopt a ban on fracking. It was in the context of this so-called story she unknowingly (our preferred view) or perhaps knowingly made a statement about the JLCNY and their position that is an outright lie…

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Allegheny County | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Education | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

The Nutty Antics of Anti-Drilling Kids – Pittsburgh Edition
April 16, 2013April 16, 2013

Just a few days after MDN editor Jim Willis visited Pittsburgh, a small group of 15 anti-drillers made fools of themselves in front of EQT Plaza in downtown Pittsburgh. Their (latest) cause? They don’t like the new Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD) and EQT’s participation in it. They believe the CSSD legitimizes "dirty" fossil fuels, like clean-burning natural gas, and since they (irrationally) hate all fossil fuels, any effort at ensuring mining of those fuels is done safely is tantamount to killing Mother Earth. Wackos.

To illustrate the "folly" of big, nasty drillers cooperating with eco-nut organizations like GASP and the Heinz Foundation, this small group of true believers (local college students with time on their hands, from a Fruit Loops organization called the Energy Action Coalition) staged a mock wedding in front of EQT…

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Shale Drilling Bills that Failed in 2013 Legislative Session
April 15, 2013April 15, 2013

Whether it was from industry lobbying, landowner pushback, or just lack of interest, a number of bills introduced in the West Virginia legislature’s 60-day session for 2013 (which adjourned Saturday) failed to get enough traction for a vote and have died.

A short list of the measures that didn’t measure up:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

JLCNY Keeps up Letter Writing Pressure on NY Gov. Cuomo
April 15, 2013April 15, 2013

The 77,000-member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York issued another request from gas drilling supporters late last week to keep sending letters to Gov. Andrew Cuomo in an attempt to convince him to move forward with authorizing drilling. Saying that "we ARE winning in NY," and that this is now "a numbers game," JLCNY president Dan Fitzsimmons provided two more form letters for supporters to print out and send (both embedded below). MDN encourages you to do it…

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Washington County | Wastewater

PA Rep Jesse White to Introduce Law Banning Open Frack Ponds
April 15, 2013April 15, 2013

PA State Rep. Jesse White, a Democrat from Cecil with an ongoing grudge match with Range Resources (and someone who claims to be in favor of responsible drilling), will soon introduce a bill into the PA legislature that would ban Marcellus Shale wastewater frack ponds. He’s looking for co-sponsors for the legislation and using the new Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD) as his political cover/excuse to push for it.

White incorrectly states the CSSD’s new standards call for the elimination of open impoundments or frack ponds. Standard #3 says no open ponds for fracking fluid, but Standard #4 says open frack ponds are permissible for "produced" or "flowback" water—the deep layer salt water that comes out after the drilling fluid has been removed (see MDN’s summary of the rules here: Important: Drillers & Enviros Form New Group, Launch Cert Program). Although he uses the CSSD for justification, White’s proposal goes well beyond what they’re stipulating…

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Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Schramm

New Schramm "Monster" Drilling Rig Almost Ready, Heading to Ohio
April 12, 2013April 12, 2013

West Chester, PA company Schramm Inc. is putting the finishing touches on a new automated drilling rig, the very first T500XD Telemast, that can lift 250 tons of pipe and drill more than 15,000 feet deep. The first new rig of its kind is already spoken for: It’s headed to Ohio where Alpha Hunter will use it to drill in both the Marcellus and Utica Shale…

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Oneida County | Regulation

Another Day, Another Misguided NY Community Bans Fracking
April 12, 2013April 12, 2013

The Oneida County legislature has banned fracking on county-owned lands—even though fracking isn’t currently allowed in the state. Apparently fixing problems that don’t exist passes for doing important legislative work in Oneida County. Must be the taxpayers in Oneida like funding that sort of thing…

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

DOI Sec. Salazaar Says New BLM Fracking Rules Release "Imminent"
April 12, 2013April 12, 2013

MDN has previously chronicled the proposed new rules from the Dept. of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management for fracking on federal lands in the past. Recently BLM floated a copy of those new rules which were roundly criticized by the drilling industry. So they pulled the new rules, revised them, and sent them to the White House for review (see BLM Sends New Draft Fracking Rules to White House for Review).

The release of the revised BLM rules, according to outgoing Secretary of Interior Ken Salazaar, is "imminent"…

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Onondaga County | Regulation

Flags at Half-Staff Again – Another NY Town (Stupidly) Bans Fracking
April 11, 2013April 11, 2013

Lower the flags at town halls across the state to half-staff once again to mourn the fact that another small misguided group of people have destroyed any chance their neighbors will be able to lease their land and allow safe drilling for natural gas. This time it’s happened in the Town of Otisco, NY. The vote to strip away landowners’ rights was unanimous by five people–we list their names below and when their terms expire just in case you want to vote against them next time around…

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH | Wastewater

Radioactive Frack Waste Regs Coming Out of the Ohio Budget Bill
April 11, 2013April 11, 2013

Three Ohio state agencies requested a change in the way the state regulates and disposes of drilling waste that contains naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically-enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM). So new provisions were added to, of all things, the Ohio budget bill. Will politicians never learn?

Looks like the radioactive waste regulations are coming out of the budget bill and will instead be combined into their own, standalone bill. But that won’t happen until sometime this fall…

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

Marcellus Region Contains Huge 33% of All U.S. Recoverable NatGas
April 10, 2013April 9, 2013

The Potential Gas Committee (PGC), a private non-profit organization loosely affiliated with the Colorado School of Mines, performs a comprehensive study of potential supplies of natural gas in the United States every two years. The 2012 study has just been released and it’s truly astonishing. PGC says as of the end of 2012, the U.S. has a technically recoverable resource base of 2,384 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas—the highest number they’ve seen since they started their evaluations 48 years ago. The 2012 number is a whopping 26% increase from just two years ago, when it was 1,898 Tcf. (MDN has embedded a slide presentation below with some useful charts—be sure to check out the chart on page 7.)

Aside from the sheer increase, the other major item to note about the 2012 study is that the PGC credits the Marcellus Shale with pushing the "Atlantic region" of the country to the top as the country’s "richest resource area" with a full 33% of recoverable natural gas. PGC credits the Marcellus Shale for the Atlantic’s rise to prominence. Thank you for fracking!

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eCORP International | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Non-Flammable Liquid Propane Used for 100% Waterless Fracking
April 10, 2013April 9, 2013

An interesting press release from eCORP Stimulation Technologies was issued last week about a new patented innovation that allows the company to manufacture a 100% nonflammable propane fracking fluid. Propane fracking has advantages because it goes down as a liquid, does it’s work in breaking apart the rock, then evaporates to a gas and comes back out the hole and is recovered.

You may recall last year eCORP had a deal with GASFRAC (another waterless fracking solution) to potentially drill and frack wells in Tioga County, NY. That deal, however, fell through (see Tioga County, NY Lease Deal with eCORP Falls Apart). After the deal fell apart, eCORP worked on developing its own waterless fracking solution. We reported in January that eCORP was testing the new technology on their first well in the U.S. (see eCORP Tests New Waterless LPG Fracking Method on First Shale Well). Apparently the tests have gone well. Here’s the latest from eCORP:

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Oneida County | Regulation

Oneida County, NY Legislators Vote on Frack Ban Wednesday
April 10, 2013April 9, 2013

It looks like the Oneida County, NY legislature is poised to ban non-existent fracking on county-owned land in a vote scheduled for 2 p.m. this afternoon. In one sense, this is an empty political gesture—Gov. Cuomo hasn’t approved fracking, so there’s nothing to ban. Plus, the proposed ban would only involve county-owned land, which is a tiny fraction of all land in Oneida County. You may say, “So what if they do ban it? No big deal, right?”

Here’s why this vote is important: Energy companies take notice of these things, and if drilling ever does come to New York (as most think will happen), drillers may be inclined to skip by Oneida County if they know the political leadership there, presumably acting with the consent of the majority of the population, doesn’t want fracking. If you live in Oneida County and favor drilling, you may want to attend the vote this afternoon and make your voice heard…

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

100 “Americans Against Fracking” Badmouth Energy Nominee Moniz
April 10, 2013April 9, 2013

It’s crunch time as President Obama’s pick to head the Dept. of Energy, Dr. Ernest Moniz, headed to his confirmation hearings beginning yesterday with U.S. Senators. More than 100 extremist anti-drilling "groups" have joined forces under the banner "Americans Against Fracking" (AAF) to throw verbal tomatoes at the good doctor. AAF sent a letter (full copy embedded below) to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The letter is signed by 100 individuals masquerading as groups, asking the Senators to reject Dr. Moniz because of his "deep ties to the oil and gas industry."

It doesn’t matter that Dr. Moniz is really smart—like Albert Einstein smart. He made a tragic error by uttering words no liberal can ever utter without dire repercussions: fracking and natural gas are (gasp!) OK and will help get us to the alternative energy nirvana future. Such sentiments are just not acceptable to Food & Water Watch and the other eco-nut "groups" who signed the letter…

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