Industrywide Issues

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    OOGA: Cracker Plants Would Turn Ethane from Expense into Cash

    There are three potential, large scale ethane cracker plants in play in the Marcellus/Utica region: Shell with a proposed plant in Beaver County, PA; Odebrecht with a proposed plant in Wood County, WV; and PTT Global Chemical with a proposed plant in Belmont County, OH. Of the three, Shell’s project seems the most likely to get built. The Odebrect plant is on hold, and the PTT plant is the new kid with lots of fanfare–but it’s way to early to gauge whether or not it’s a serious venture. We’ve written a number of stories over the years about the enormous economic benefits of a cracker plant–the jobs in building the plant, and then the jobs at the plant and the jobs for dozens/perhaps hundreds of satellite plants that will locate near it. The economic impact from a single cracker plant is upward of a staggering $20 billion. One of the often overlooked and little-talked-about aspects of the plants is what it will do for drillers. Right now a lot of ethane, the hydrocarbon that will feed these plants, is being produced in the tri-state area of PA, WV and OH. And right now ethane is an expense. Ethane is costing drillers money! They have to dispose of it somehow. When a cracker plant opens, drillers can then sell ethane to the plant and make money on ethane. It magically turns from an expense into cash…
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    Carnegie Mellon Study on Challenges of Water Mgmt in Fracking

    MDN spotted a newly published study in the journal Environmental Chemistry titled “Current perspective on produced water management challenges during hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas recovery.” The study, authored by two researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, takes a look at the impact of shale drilling on water resources–particularly the wastewater that results from fracking. MDN does not have a copy of the study. The abstract (below) doesn’t give us much to go on as to whether or not the authors believe fracking can be done safely. We also don’t know who funded the research. We offer you the summary and abstract (below) as a heads up that you can expect to read more about the study. That is, you can expect to read more about it unless the conclusion from the study says the challenges of fracking can be adequately managed. If that’s the finding, you can rely on mainstream media to totally ignore this study…
    Read More “Carnegie Mellon Study on Challenges of Water Mgmt in Fracking”

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    Pittsburgh Newspaper Calls Out Dela. Riverkeeper over Penn East

    It’s so unusual we have to highlight it. One of two major newspapers in Pittsburgh, the Tribune-Review, has called out THE Delaware Riverkeeper over its opposition to the Penn East Pipeline. The Penn East, if built, will run 114 miles from the Scranton, PA area to the Trenton, NJ area. An editorial in the Tribune-Review last Friday questions the true motivation of THE Delaware Riverkeeper in their opposition to Penn East and tells the group, in so many words, to put up or shut up. Tell us exactly how the pipeline will “damage” the environment–and if you can’t, go away and leave us all in peace to build a pipeline with tremendous economic benefits in both jobs and lower energy costs for consumers…
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    Another Reality TV Show Looks to Exploit Shale “Suddenly Rich”

    We don’t much care for reality TV shows–especially those that aim to exploit regular folks. The story of fracking and the “untold riches” that flow from it have been the fodder for previous so-called reality TV shows–shows that bombed (see Blood and Oil: New “Reality TV” Series about OH Oil Company and Who Wants to be a (Fracking) Millionaire?). There’s nothing so predictable as a bad idea getting recycled for television. So here we go again. The same people behind “Real Housewives of Orange County” has put out a casting call for people who have struck it rich by signing leases for shale fracking. The new series, titled “Suddenly Rich,” will cast more than just folks who got rich from fracking. They’ll cast people getting rich from the lottery, insurance payout, etc. In other words, they want to show how sudden big money was squandered by poor idiots that don’t know their head from other parts of their anatomy. In a word, it’s about exploitation…
    Read More “Another Reality TV Show Looks to Exploit Shale “Suddenly Rich””

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    Propane Gets its Own Congressional Caucus, Support from OH/PA/NY

    No doubt you’ve heard of Congressional caucuses, right? They are informal groups composed of members of Congress, dedicated to the promotion of a single issue or cause. One of the most prominent such groups, perhaps the most well known, is the Congressional Black Caucus. (Can you imagine a group called the Congressional White Caucus? But we digress.) There’s the Blue Dog Coalition–a group of liberal Democrats pretending to be conservatives. How about the Republican Study Committee? No, they’re not Congresspersons who need to study more. They’re a group of conservative Republicans promoting social and economic conservative values (i.e. traditional values this country was founded on). There are, according to the Congressional Research Service, some 694 (!) such groups or caucuses in the U.S. Congress. Here’s number 695: the Congressional Propane Caucus. Yes, propane, a natural gas liquid (and filthy hydrocarbon destroying Mother Earth through evil global warming) now has a group of both Republicans and Democrats (truly bipartisan) Congresspeople who have formed a caucus to promote and legislate and protect and push the use of propane–a fossil fuel. The brand new Propane Caucus has among it’s members Congressman from the Marcellus and Utica Shale region–from Ohio, Pennsylvania and (yes) even from New York…
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    NYer Sets Out to Make a Fracking Documentary that Tells the Truth

    MDN friend Victor Furman is a man on a mission. Vic is a New York landowner and a “shale gas activist” working with the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY). Vic is also co-host of the JLCNY’s JLC United Good News Table Talk Radio Show. Vic is passionate about restoring New Yorkers’ Constitutional rights to allow shale drilling. Vic’s latest project: He’s going to make a shale gas documentary–without the help of HBO and its liberal backers. Instead, Vic needs some help from pro-shale gas supporters. He’s going to travel to states that allow shale drilling and film the people who live close to it, telling their stories and reporting what he sees. As Vic says, he’ll report it all, “good, bad or indifferent.” Here’s the low down on Vic’s effort to get the truth out about shale drilling…
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    Judge Puts NC Fracking on Hold Pending Outcome of Lawsuit

    Last July MDN told you that the first permits to frack shale wells in North Carolina would start to be issued this July (see North Carolina Shames New York: Fracking Begins in 2015). The NC Mining and Energy Commission did its part and completed regulations in March (see Triassic Park: North Carolina Becomes 34th State to Frack Shale). Everything was set to go. And then the lawsuits began. A NC judge has issued a ruling that prohibits the Mining and Energy Commission from issuing any permits until another case currently before the NC Supreme Court–questioning the legality of the appointment of several boards that manage state resources and the environment–plays out. It’s a pretty safe bet that the first permits to frack in NC won’t happen in July…
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    PA Landowners Beware Antis Wanting to “Help You” w/Pipeline Deal

    Landowners in northeast and central Pennsylvania should be wary of (and avoid) a new effort to try and recruit them into a “landowner group” that’s really just an anti-drilling group being formed to fight Williams and their much-needed Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project. Two anti-drilling kids (or youths, if you prefer) are spearheading the effort. Alex Lotorto is one of them. Alex has been one of the community agitators against the natural gas fired electric generating plant proposed for Jessup, PA (see Serial Protestor Alex Lotorto Seeks New Venue in Jessup). Alex and another twenty-something anti-driller, Allison Petryk (from New Jersey), recently conducted a meeting for unsuspecting landowners at the Tunkhannock Public Library in Wyoming County…
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    Vermont Wackos (Including AARP) Oppose 43-Mile Natgas Pipeline

    The fossil fuel hating nutjobs are out in force in Vermont. Anti-drillers who hate fracking because they hate natural gas because natural gas is an evil, nasty “fossil fuel” are trying to stall progress on a 43-mile natural gas pipeline Vermont Gas Systems is laying between Chittenden and Addison counties to deliver clean burning natural gas to Vermonters. Those opposing the pipeline include the wackos from a group called Rising Tide Vermont. But unfortunately, the pipeline is also being opposed by the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association (companies that deliver fuel oil) and opposed by even the socialist Vermont AARP. Who knows why the old farts association is opposing the pipeline–probably because no one paid them off (as others have done in the past). It’s a sad state of affairs, but Vermont Gas Systems is going on the offensive with a PR campaign…
    Read More “Vermont Wackos (Including AARP) Oppose 43-Mile Natgas Pipeline”

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    Moody’s Says O&G Company Default Rate in 2015 Going Higher

    On Tuesday Moody’s Investors Service released a new report titled “Oil and Gas: The Bad, Ugly and Good.” The 12-page, which will set you back $550 (or free if you’re company subscribes to Moody’s) says, in essence, because the price of oil is recovering slowly, instead of quickly, “weaker oil & gas issuers are at a much greater risk of default.” That is, some drillers in 2015 will either go under or get bought out. How many? A high level summary of the report (below) doesn’t say how many. What it does say is that of all the companies rated by Moody’s with a credit rating of B3 or lower (too much debt, not enough revenue), 15% of all the companies in that list are oil & gas companies. That’s up from 8% of all companies in the list a year ago. In other words, it’s getting worse for drillers (or exploration & production companies, as it’s more properly called)…
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    New Bill “Encourages” FERC to Make Speedier Pipeline Approvals

    Senator Shelley Moore Capito, from West Virginia, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, recently introduced a bill that speed up the approval time for new pipeline projects. The “Oil and Gas Production and Distribution Reform Act” strengthens the role of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to better coordinate government agencies involved in the pipeline permitting process. That is, it gooses FERC and tells them to hurry it up (especially with Marcellus and Utica pipeline projects)–and reportedly gives them new tools and new deadlines to do so…
    Read More “New Bill “Encourages” FERC to Make Speedier Pipeline Approvals”

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    Drexel U Study Finds Little Air Pollution Near Marcellus Sites

    Real ScienceFinally some real, honest, independent research into the effects of shale drilling on air quality has just been published in the peer reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology. Researchers from Drexel University published the results of air quality research titled “Atmosphere Emission Characterization of Marcellus Shale Natural Gas Development Sites” (full copy below). Rather than focus solely on the release of methane as a global warming concern, the Drexel researchers looked at volatile organic compounds and other pollutants that are a true health concern for people living close to drilling sites and compressor stations. The researchers took measurements using a more accurate instrumentation/methodology than other studies have used and they collected 17 samples at 13 sites including wells, drilling rigs, compressor stations and processing areas. This kind of research is long overdue. What did they find?…
    Read More “Drexel U Study Finds Little Air Pollution Near Marcellus Sites”

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    Penn State Defends Controversial Water Contamination Study

    Two weeks ago MDN covered the news that researchers from Penn State had published a study that reportedly showed a Marcellus Shale wastewater impoundment had leaked and some of the wastewater had found its way to a crack underground and traveled up to a mile and a half away to contaminate 3 water wells. This happened in 2010–five years ago (see Penn State Finds Chemical Migration in 3 PA Water Wells from 2010). It seemed at first blush that this was important research not because it proves “fracking contaminates water wells, told you so told you so” as anti-drillers claim–but because of the research tools innovated by the team to detect small amounts of chemicals that may in fact come from shale drilling. However, a few days later the news broke that one of the so-called researchers on the team had actually been a consultant and worked for the three families with the contaminated water wells, helping them in their lawsuit against the driller. When that little overlooked and omitted fact became known, embarrased mainstream news organizations did something we rarely see–they printed retractions/corrections noting the huge conflict of interest (see Reversal: Media Discredits Penn State Water Contamination Study). It gave Penn State a major black eye and damaged their credibility. So Penn State fired off their own mea culpa to defend the research study and the “facts” of how this kerfuffle came to be…
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    NY Antis Use Same Strategy for Pipelines: “We Need Health Study”

    The anti-drilling nutters in New York are somewhat drunk on their own success. The strategy of “we need to wait until a health study is done” worked so well to delay fracking in NY, the nutters are (predictably) back and now trying to use the same strategy with regard to building new pipelines. It’s no secret that infrastructure–i.e. pipelines–are desperately needed to get Marcellus Shale gas out of Pennsylvania and into markets like New York, New England and beyond. Anti-drillers (actually fossil fuel haters) believe they can now pressure NY officials to delay permits for pipelines in the same fashion they delayed fracking long enough to kill it. The new tactic is to claim pipeline compressor, metering and regulation stations are toxic for those who live near them. In other words, more lying, scare tactics to cover up the fact it is fossil fuel hatred that motivates them and not concern for your health…
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    PA Gov Wolf Takes Aim at Bakken Oil Trains Traveling Thru PA

    Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is now taking aim at railroads transporting Bakken crude oil that pass through PA on their way to refineries along the East Coast. While railroads are typically regulated by the federal government, Wolf is a) hoping to pressure railroads apart from the feds, and b) may try to sneak in his own regulations on top of federal regulations. He’s hired an “expert,” Dr. Allan Zarembski, to look into the matter for the next three months–to provide Wolf with “policy recommendations” (which means new rules and regulations are on the way). Wolf sent a letter (copy below) to CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway telling them to shape up…
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    NY Riverkeeper Sues Federal DOT Over New Oil Train Regs

    The fossil fuel hating New York Riverkeeper–not to be confused with fossil fuel hating THE Delaware Riverkeeper–has just sued the U.S. Dept. of Transportation over rules the DOT recently issued with regard to railroads transporting crude oil (usually Bakken crude) through New York State. Riverkeeper is being joined in their frivolous lawsuit by several other odious anti-drilling, anti-capitalist Big Green organizations: Earthjustice, Waterkeeper Alliance, ForestEthics and the Sierra Clubbers. Riverkeeper says the DOT’s new rules for oil trains won’t protect rivers like the Hudson…
    Read More “NY Riverkeeper Sues Federal DOT Over New Oil Train Regs”