Industrywide Issues

Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Drillers, Industry Groups File to Join Act 13 Lawsuit
April 9, 2012April 9, 2012

The oil and gas industry in Pennsylvania is not sitting on the sidelines idly while a group of municipalities attempts to temporarily halt, and eventually overturn the new Act 13 drilling legislation passed earlier this year. Seven municipalities along with an enviro-leftist group and a doctor are suing the state to stop Act 13 (see this MDN story for background, and this guest post from one of the litigants).

The Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association and the Marcellus Shale Coalition have filed a petition seeking to join the lawsuit—on the other side, trying to stop the lawsuit by the municipalities.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Industry Reacts to Interior Sec. Salazar Fracking Statement
April 9, 2012April 9, 2012

Last week, MDN reported the comments made by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as he toured a drilling “man camp” in the Bakken Shale of North Dakota (see this MDN story). Salazar made the comment that his Interior department is working on new rules for hydraulic fracturing, which seems premature given that the Environmental Protection Agency, another federal agency, is working on a multi-year study of fracking. We now know that the rules Salazar was referring to are for fracking on federal lands that come under the jurisdiction of Bureau of Land Management, an Interior sub-agency. We also now have industry reaction to his statement.

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Education | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

SUNY’s First Shale Institute to be Located in…Buffalo?
April 9, 2012April 9, 2012

The State University of New York (SUNY) system with 64 campuses across the state has its first bona fide shale institute, but it’s not located in the hotbed of where shale drilling will happen, when it happens. Drilling will likely be prevalent in what is known as the Southern Tier of New York, counties like Broome, Tioga, Chemung, Steuben, and perhaps northward into Tompkins, Cortland and Chenango, and east to Otsego, and Delaware. That’s likely where you’ll see the first permits and the first wells drilled.

But the first SUNY shale institute will be located at the University of Buffalo. From the UB press release:

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CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Wildlife

Drillers, Ecologists Work Together to Protect Wildlife
April 9, 2012April 9, 2012

An interesting article in yesterday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette explores how drilling firms and wildlife groups are working together to protect endangered species and reviving long-gone habitats for other species. It begins this way:

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Susquehanna County

PA Supreme Court to Consider Shale Gas Mineral Rights Case
April 5, 2012April 5, 2012

An update on what could be a very important case for many landowners in Pennsylvania: On Tuesday, April 3, the PA Supreme Court agreed to hear a Susquehanna County case called Butler v Powers estate. The case concerns whether or not natural gas rights are a part of “mineral rights” in old leases where it’s not specifically spelled out. PA law precedent since 1882 known as the “Dunham rule” is that natural gas is not part of mineral rights unless specifically stated as such. If the Supreme Court overturns that precedent, it would threaten hundreds of drilling leases now in place throughout PA.

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Broome County | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Equinor/Statoil | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Tioga County (NY)

Judge Orders Arbitration in Chesapeake ‘Force Majeure’ Case
April 5, 2012April 5, 2012

U.S. District Judge David N. Hurd ordered that a lease dispute case between a group of landowners in Broome and Tioga counties (New York) and Chesapeake Energy will go to arbitration for about 150 of the landowners. That’s not-so-good news for those landowners who want to keep the case in federal court. But he also ruled a second case with 32 landowners can go forward in federal court because those leases did not contain an arbitration clause. That’s good news for those landowners, and may end up being good news for those in arbitration. A copy of the judge’s order is embedded below.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Public Opinion

Leftist PRWatch Claims Fracking Causes Breast Cancer
April 5, 2012April 5, 2012

Although it’s preferable to ignore (in an effort to retain one’s sanity) the lie machine that purports to warn us of the environmental holocaust hydraulic fracturing will bring, sometimes we have to respond to the truly egregious whoppers that are spun by the far, far kooky left. Like Daily Kos/Bill Maher kooky. One such organization is the innocent sounding PRWatch, a website of the equally innocent sounding Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). The CMD and PRWatch are somewhere left of Vladimir Putin and Fidel Castro, just to provide perspective.

PRWatch published a whopper yesterday that attempts to tie fracking to breast cancer. Just for good measure, the article also says fracking causes spontaneous abortions and birth defects, and is even responsible for crime against women. Who knew?

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eCORP International | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Landowner Coalition News | Lease & Royalty Payments | New York | Tioga County (NY)

eCORP & Tioga County Landowners Become Partners in Lease Deal
April 4, 2012April 4, 2012

eCORP International and the Tioga County (NY) Landowners Group, also known as Southern Tier Energy Partners (STEP), released details of their new deal to lease 135,000 acres in Tioga County, NY with an eye to using LPG waterless fracking (press release below). It is an interesting deal—not at all typical of the usual leases between drillers and landowners. Perhaps it’s the way of the future in a low commodity gas price environment?

Here’s the low down: eCORP and STEP crafted a deal that makes landowners majority owners of shell companies that control the land. That is, the landowners will become “drillers,” or rather silent partners with the main driller, eCORP—but partners nonetheless, and they collectively will be majority partners, with eCORP a minority partner. eCORP and STEP are tying the knot and getting married—for this deal.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Act 13 Lawsuit Plaintiffs Seek Injunction to Stop Law Now
April 4, 2012April 4, 2012

The plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed last week seeking to overturn PA’s newly adopted Act 13 law that overrides local municipal zoning ordinances of the oil and gas industry, filed a motion yesterday asking the court for an injunction to prevent the new law from going into effect on April 14.

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Pittsburgh Cheerleads (but doesn’t join) Act 13 Lawsuit
April 4, 2012April 4, 2012

Pittsburgh City Council, long-time opponents of the Marcellus Shale drilling industry, passed a resolution called a “Will of Council” yesterday supporting the lawsuit filed by seven municipalities, the Delaware Riverkeepers and others against the State of Pennsylvania’s newly adopted Act 13 law. The Act 13 law replaces local zoning ordinances with a state ordinance when it comes to oil and gas drilling (see this MDN article about the lawsuit). Council President Darlene Harris sponsored the measure and all nine city council members signed it. A full copy of the resolution and a letter signed by all council members is embedded below.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Interior Sec. Ken Salazar Offers Statement on Fracking
April 4, 2012December 11, 2012

Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar recently said that his agency is working on new regulations that will lower the risk of water supplies becoming tainted from hydraulic fracturing operations. Whatever that means. Sec. Salazar was touring a “man camp” housing settlement in the Bakken Shale area of North Dakota on Monday and during a back and forth with the press had this to say on the topic of hydraulic fracturing:

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Commodity Price | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Low NatGas Prices Translate to Electricity Rate Cut by Peco
April 4, 2012April 4, 2012

Yet another Pennsylvania utility is lowering rates customers pay—this time it’s a rate cut for electricity by Peco Energy which supplies the Philadelphia area. Low cost natural gas is being used in electrical generating plants and the utility is passing along the lower cost to produce electricity to its customers, thanks in part to an abundant supply of Marcellus Shale natural gas.

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

Online Map Shows How Much PA Towns Will Make from Impact Fee
April 4, 2012April 4, 2012

A website MDN has previously highlighted, FrackTrack.org, has published an interactive map that helps Pennsylvania residents track whether or not their county and local municipality has voted to accept the recently passed impact fee law (screen shot below). The map includes a clock counting down to the final deadline. The first deadline under the new law is for counties, which was 60 days from when the measure passed. The second deadline is for municipalities, which is 60 days after that. Combining the two you get 120 days total, of which we now have 69 days left.

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Guest Post | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Washington County

Guest Post: Peters Twp Responds to MDN on Act 13 Lawsuit
April 3, 2012April 3, 2012

Last week, MDN wrote an article about the just-filed lawsuit by a group of Pennsylvania townships seeking to strike down provisions in a new PA law referred to as Act 13 (see this MDN story). Act 13 preempts local zoning ordinances that prohibit or regulate oil and gas drilling and replaces those ordinances with a set of rules from the state. In essence, Act 13 substitutes the state’s “one size fits all” zoning ordinance for local zoning ordinances. MDN’s comment at the end of that article was that in examining some of the attachments to the filed lawsuit it seems to MDN that anti-drillers are the ones driving the lawsuit.

David Ball, a council member from Peters Township (Washington County), PA—one of the towns filing the lawsuit—emailed MDN to challenge our view and assessment that he and others filing the lawsuit are anti-drilling, and to further explain their reasons for the lawsuit. MDN asked permission to publish his comments and he accepted. This is not the very first, but perhaps the second or third guest post on MDN. We are happy (from time to time) to offer guest posts that disagree with our own views if that post is courteous, serious and advances the discussion. This one does and we thank Mr. Ball for taking the time to write.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Ohio Petroleum Council Calls Utica/Marcellus “Game Changer”
April 3, 2012April 3, 2012

Terry Fleming, executive director of the Ohio Petroleum Council, recently visited the offices of The Daily Jeffersonian newspaper to talk about Utica and Marcellus drilling in the state. Among his comments were predictions about just how big the economic impact of shale drilling will become in Ohio over the next few years:

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Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Video

New Video: Women of the Marcellus
April 3, 2012April 3, 2012

MDN is really pleased to share a new video highlighting how Marcellus Shale development is impacting families in Pennsylvania. While many know about the economic impacts and consumer savings made possible by shale gas, this video highlights the personal stories of three families whose lives have been made materially better because of Marcellus Shale drilling in Pennsylvania.

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