API to BLM: Proposed Fracking Rule Just Isn’t Needed
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…
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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).
A landman for Penn-Star Energy of Butler, PA, working to secure leases for Range Resources, is accused of a huge scam.
MDN attended and reported on the grand opening of a new CNG fueling station in Susquehanna County, PA last week (see 
Ohio’s dream to be the future host of an ethane cracker plant is still very much alive, according to U.S. Sen. Rob Portman from Ohio. Portman, along with Greg Sullivan, area manager for MarkWest Energy, spoke at the Ohio Mid-Eastern Governments Association meeting yesterday. According to Sullivan, a source to ship the ethane produced by their plant to when it separates the ethane from the natural gas liquid stream is “our big challenge.” MarkWest’s only current option is to ship it to Canada via the Mariner West Sunoco pipeline (see