Industrywide Issues

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    OH Anti-Driller Suing MWCD Asks EPA to Stop OH Injection Wells

    The virulently anti-drilling and misnamed Fresh Water Accountability Project (FWAP) has just generated more toilet paper, er, a press release in which they claim they’ve written a letter to the Region 5 office of the federal Environmental Protection Agency asking the EPA to trample on the U.S. Constitution by stripping away the right of Ohio to issue permits for Class II injection wells. Nothing new there–such groups habitually like to enforce their fascism on common folks (which is why they should be vigorously opposed and defunded).

    The interesting thing to MDN is not that the FWAP is generating yet another fundraising press release–but that it was written by Lea Harper–you know, the woman who’s suing the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District to try and stop fracking and drilling on MWCD land around Seneca Lake (see Anti-Drillers Win Minor Victory Against Muskingum Watershed Dist). It’s also no coincidence that Lea Harper and her FWAP is being partially (or wholly) funded by the odious and fascist Food & Water Watch. That is, FWAP is nothing more than a front for FWW. We just thought you’d want to know how incestuous it is with anti-drillers…
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    Groundhog Day: Bloomberg’s Radioactive Reportage Keeps Returning

    Another “It’s radioactive!” hit piece from Bloomberg. We swear that reporters with an anti-drilling agenda simply have an editorial calendar and every X months it’s “write another story about how the Marcellus is producing radioactive drill cuttings and wastewater.” Sprinkle said story with comments from discredited professors from places like Duke University, vague innuendo about glowing in the dark, and voilà–another deadline met, another hit piece delivered.

    That about sums up the latest piece of rubbish that passes for journalism at Bloomberg–where the only thing radioactive is the reporting…
    Read More “Groundhog Day: Bloomberg’s Radioactive Reportage Keeps Returning”

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    Shell Meetings Today in Beaver County, PA on Ethane Cracker Plant

    Shell is holding two public meetings today at the Shadow Lakes club in Hopewell (Beaver County), PA to discuss the possibility of building a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant in Monaca, PA. The meetings, according to Shell, are not an indicator that Shell has decided to move forward with the project. The meetings are, according to Shell, a way for the company to hear concerns from the people who live in the area and would potentially be affected by the plant, and for Shell to share information on where the project stands at this point and what’s ahead. It’s all about good, two-way communication.

    More details about the meetings today, and a brief background on the proposed Shell ethane cracker…
    Read More “Shell Meetings Today in Beaver County, PA on Ethane Cracker Plant”

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    EIA Drilling Productivity Report – Marcellus Flirts with 15 Bcf/d

    The monthly Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) from our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) was issued on Monday (see a copy embedded below). It shows that the average daily production from the Marcellus Shale will go up–again–in May. In April average daily Marcellus production was forecast at 14.52 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). In May it will be 14.77 Bcf/d–getting really really close to 15 Bcf/d.

    Since last October when the EIA first started publishing the monthly DPR, Marcellus production has gone up each and every month–with no end in sight. Below is the full report from April, along with screen shots of two charts found on the EIA website but not (yet) in the report. We keep needling them to include these two charts in the PDF of the report…
    Read More “EIA Drilling Productivity Report – Marcellus Flirts with 15 Bcf/d”

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    Clean Energy Plans NatGas Electric Generation Plant in Lordstown

    Clean Energy Future, a company based in Boston, MA, had a “first date” night Monday in Lordstown (Trumbull County), OH. Clean Energy proposes to build an $800 million electric generation plant on 57 acres on Salt Springs road in Lordstown. The plant will be fired by natural gas from the Utica and Marcellus. Clean Energy was there to talk with town residents and to ask the village board to rezone the area so they can build. About 150 people attended date night to size up Clean Energy and their plan.

    If the board decides to approve the project, construction would begin in December 2015. However, the plant won’t be completed and online until 2018. Yeah, it takes a long time to build these complex plants–which are made all the more necessary and urgent because of President Obama’s war on coal and the EPA’s strict new rules on burning coal. Here’s how the first date went in Lordstown on Monday:
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    Forced Pooling in WV: Dead Issue that Won’t Stay Dead

    Dead–but won’t stay dead (zombies anyone?). That’s the situation with forced pooling in West Virginia. Two months ago MDN reported that the forced pooling issue had once again died in the regular legislative session (see WV Forced Pooling Bill Dies in Committee, Yet Again). Drilling industry supporters vow that they will make yet another run at introducing and passing a law in the 2015 legislative session to allow forced pooling in the Mountain State. The West Virginia Chamber of Commerce is adding its voice as a supporter of forced pooling. The Chamber has begun a publicity campaign to support forced pooling, complete with a website (www.poolingtogether.com).

    Forced pooling is a contentious issue. A few obstinate and frankly unreasonable holdouts who resist drilling can spoil it for all of their neighbors. However, MDN remains firm in our view that property rights are sacrosanct. You shouldn’t be able to tell me I can’t allow drilling on or under my property–and I shouldn’t be able to tell you that you must allow it. We continue to believe that’s the only defensible position on the issue of forced pooling. West Virginia is one of the few active oil and gas states without a forced pooling law and the drilling industry aims to change that. Here’s more on the dead issue that just won’t stay dead in WV:
    Read More “Forced Pooling in WV: Dead Issue that Won’t Stay Dead”

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    Virginia Inches Closer to Shale Drilling in Taylorsville Basin

    For some time MDN has been watching the first stirrings of what may eventually be horizontal drilling and fracking in Virginia. But it’s not along the western fringes where the Marcellus layer is present. Instead, the attention has been in the eastern/central part of the state (see Fracking Finally on the Way in Virginia? Maybe Yes, Maybe No). Virginians, like Marylanders, New Yorkers and others that haven’t yet experienced the miracle of Marcellus Shale drilling have been fed a line of equine feces from fossil-fuel haters. Things like “It’ll contaminate yer water aquifers, man.”

    We spotted an article about a very interesting meeting between Texas-based Shore Exploration and Production and area residents at a town hall meeting at the University of Mary Washington in Dahlgren (King George County), VA on Monday. From the article we learn that Shore has now leased 84,000 acres in the Taylorsville basin–south and east of Fredericksburg, VA. We also learn that the company’s CEO Ed DeJarnette, who presented at the meeting, is in ill-health and close to death. DeJarnette said he wants to use non-water-based hydraulic fracturing. His preference is to use nitrogen fracking (which is interesting to us). But DeJarnette, under heavy questioning, admitted Shore may sell the leases and he couldn’t guarantee whoever buys those leases will not use water-based fracking. Here is a report of the lively and interesting meeting from Monday…
    Read More “Virginia Inches Closer to Shale Drilling in Taylorsville Basin”

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    Energy Co Exec Gets in the Face of Virginia Anti-Driller

    Shore Exploration and Production CEO Ed DeJarnette Jr. addressed a town hall style meeting at the University of Mary Washington in King George County, VA on Monday night (see our companion article). There were residents there who had honest questions and concerns about the potential for shale drilling and fracking in their neighborhood. And then there were the stock, knee-jerk, hackneyed anti-drillers, as there always are. You can usually spot them because they like to stick video cameras in your face, like Mary Trout (from King George, VA) likes to do. Apparently they’re so starved for attention they turn to posting boring videos on YouTube for their 15 seconds of fame.

    When Mary tried to pester Ed DeJarnette with questions about fracking, he literally got in her face–so she couldn’t record what he was saying with her ubiquitous camera. Love it! We wish more pro-drillers would use that tactic–throw it right back at the opposition and “get in their face.” Here’s how it went Monday night…
    Read More “Energy Co Exec Gets in the Face of Virginia Anti-Driller”

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    Fracking on the Way in North Carolina, Still a Long Road Ahead

    Fracking is on the way in North Carolina and likely to begin about a year from now, which is great news for North Carolinians. No, there is no Marcellus or Utica Shale under North Carolina, but there is the Dan River Basin and the Deep River Basin in central NC–basins which contain organic-rich shale rock. However, before the drill bit hits the ground next year, the NC Mining and Energy Commission needs to finish up proposed new drilling regulations, hold public hearings, and get the state legislature to sign off on the final version. In other words–it’s still a long road from here to there.

    Here’s an update on what needs to happen, and on efforts by virulently anti-drilling groups with words like “riverkeeper” and “clean water” in the name attempting to perform an ideological abortion on the miracle of shale drilling before it can be born in NC…
    Read More “Fracking on the Way in North Carolina, Still a Long Road Ahead”

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    Devastating Critique of New Ingraffea/Howarth Methane Study by EID

    Yesterday MDN highlighted a new “study” that purports to say methane is leakin’ out all over the place when shale wells are drilled (see Another Day, Another Sham Study on Marcellus Methane Leaks). MDN was not the only pro-drilling publication to notice the release of the study–and to question it’s sham “research.” The always excellent Energy in Depth took a close look and wrote a devastating article that rips the veneer off this latest anti-drilling effort to cast doubt on natural gas drilling in our country.

    Have a look at EID’s “Five Facts about Ingraffea and Howarth’s Latest Methane Study”…
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    PA Dem Candidates’ Siren Song: Severance Tax “for the Children”

    not for the childrenOnce upon a time there was a man who worked really really hard. He was the type to arrive at work early, stay late, and go the extra mile. He paid (as we all do) nearly half of the money he earned in taxes–federal income tax, social security tax, Medicare tax, disability tax, property tax, school tax, state income tax, sales tax on everything he purchased, and fees on just about everything his hands ever touched. It adds up to about 50% of the man’s income (as it does for every single person reading this), whisked away and given to other people. However, because the man made a pretty good salary, the man’s neighbor had a brilliant idea: Each day when the man arrived home the neighbor was waiting, with gun in hand. He would point the gun at the man’s head and demand the man give him “just 5%” of what the man earned that day. It was so easy, the neighbor did this every day–and he targeted other nearby suckers, er hard-working people too–collecting 5% from them.

    Getting shaken down for 5% (on top of 50%) isn’t all that bad, is it? Sure it belongs to the people who worked so hard to earn it. Sure the people who earned it played by the rules, were super careful and considerate of those around them–upstanding members of the community. But the money is going to a good cause–the neighbor’s pocket! (Did we mention the neighbor with the gun doesn’t work nor earn a dime on his own?) Of course, in time, the neighbor with the gun got more greedy and 5% eventually turned into 10%, but hey, the people earning the money still got to keep 40%. I mean, good golly, 40% out of 100% ain’t all that bad, is it?…
    Read More “PA Dem Candidates’ Siren Song: Severance Tax “for the Children””

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    Did ODNR Overreact & Set Earthquake Detect Bar Too Low?

    An article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer provides some perspective on Ohio’s new rules regarding fracking and earthquakes. As MDN reported yesterday, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) is sortof, kindof convinced that a fracking operation over a previously unknown fault line triggered a series of earthquakes (see ODNR Says Youngstown Earthquakes “Probably” Caused by Fracking). The earthquakes were essentially undetectable at the surface, but it makes for great headlines.

    What else can trigger an earthquake? How about 67,000 football fans stamping their feet? Yep–that happened earlier this year in Seattle, WA at CenturyLink Field during the NFL playoffs. Marshawn Lynch made a touchdown and the fans went wild, stamping their feet, which created a detectable earthquake–at the same level now measured for in Ohio. All of which means Ohio has set the bar pretty low and just about anything can set off the earthquake alarm…
    Read More “Did ODNR Overreact & Set Earthquake Detect Bar Too Low?”

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    Is MWCD Lease for Piedmont Lake, OH with Antero a Good Thing?

    MDN previously reported that as early as this Friday the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) will vote to approve a proposed lease that would allow Antero Resources to drill around, and even under, Piedmont Lake (see MWCD Close to Signing Utica Lease for Piedmont Lake, OH Property). We told you yesterday that a lawsuit to prevent drilling at another MWCD property–Seneca Lake–is proceeding, which begs the question, will something similar happen with the Piedmont Lake deal (see Anti-Drillers Win Minor Victory Against Muskingum Watershed Dist)?

    MDN was contacted by a reader who lives in the Piedmont Lake area–Eric Fenster. Eric seems like a reasonable guy–not adamantly opposed to all shale drilling. But he is concerned about what may happen if Antero leases and begins to drill in the Piedmont Lake area. Eric tells MDN he lives a few miles from an active drill site (not under MWCD oversight) and has personally experienced 24/7 truck traffic, noise and flaring from that site. He’s not excited about more of it near where he lives. Eric’s chief concern is that the lease as proposed is essentially unenforceable when it comes to industrialization concerns like truck traffic, noise and lights. He believes the MWCD has the right to enter into the lease legally, but he views such an agreement as an abuse of MWCD’s stewardship and authority. We bring you Eric’s viewpoint (below) not because we agree or endorse it, but because he’s one of the few who respectfully wants to argue the opposing viewpoint and make a case for his views based on logic and reason. We appreciate that. You decide if his arguments have merit…
    Read More “Is MWCD Lease for Piedmont Lake, OH with Antero a Good Thing?”

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    Aubrey McClendon Wants Ohioans to Help Him Frack the Utica

    Good news for Ohio Gov. John “foreigner hunter” Kasich: The man who once famously said he’s the biggest fracker in the world, former Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon, wants Ohians to help him frack the Utica Shale in Ohio. Aubrey’s new company, American Energy Partners, has a huge “help wanted” billboard along Route 315 near Ohio State University (Columbus, OH). Since Aubrey was booted from Chesapeake Energy last year by corporate raider Carl Icahn, he’s started a new company and has hauled in over $3 billion of seed capital to keep on frackin’.

    Want a good job? Contact American Energy Partners in Ohio…
    Read More “Aubrey McClendon Wants Ohioans to Help Him Frack the Utica”

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    Frack Sand Train Derails Near Allentown, 6 Cars Spill Near Homes

    MDN is always a sucker for a good railroad story. We love how the fracking industry has breathed new life into the short line railroad business–especially in Pennsylvania. However, this particular railroad story is not such a happy one (although it could be worse).

    Last Saturday a 45-car train for the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad was pulling a load of frack sand through Northampton County (Allentown area) when six of the cars derailed, spilling sand. Even though the accident happened in a populated area near homes and businesses, because the train was going a very slow 5 miles per hour, no one was hurt and no homes or businesses were damaged. Cleanup of the mess is set to begin today…
    Read More “Frack Sand Train Derails Near Allentown, 6 Cars Spill Near Homes”

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    Another Day, Another Sham Study on Marcellus Methane Leaks

    This one is rich. Apparently Cornell anti-drilling professor (and erstwhile stand-up comic) Tony Ingraffea’s name is so toxic when it comes to discredited research, that when he’s part of yet another sham “study” on methane (as in a new one released yesterday), his name doesn’t even come up in the official press release. Neither does his partner in crime Robert Howarth. Both have authored previous “studies” that were completely refuted as junk science. Their names are tucked away in the list of esteemed authors for a new study titled, “Toward a better understanding and quantification of methane emissions from shale gas development” (abstract below). This latest fiasco was published yesterday on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences website. In a nutshell, the “researchers” flew a plane over gas drilling operations in Pennsylvania to collect and analyze samples, looking for that evil fugitive from justice (and causer of global warming)–methane. The so-called study’s findings? There’s a whole lotta methane leakin’ out down they’a. But it gets better.

    You might think an evaluation of methane coming from rocks would include at least one geologist–you know, the scientists that study rocks? For this study, the two lead authors are a chemistry professor (from Purdue University) and an evolutionary biologist (from Cornell). Not one geologist in the entire list. We wonder–did these smarter-than-the-rest-of-us researchers take into account that herd of cattle grazing near the drill site? You do know that cows burping and farting produce more methane per year than oil and gas operations, according to our own federal EPA, right? (See: Biggest Producer of “Fugitive” Methane is… Cows?!). Did our eager beaver researchers take into account all those belching/flatulating bovines as they were flying around the PA countryside with loads of farms?…
    Read More “Another Day, Another Sham Study on Marcellus Methane Leaks”