Industrywide Issues

Commodity Price | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Muskingum County | Ohio

New Gas-Fired Electric Power Plant in Ohio
May 29, 2012May 29, 2012

Another story about how electric generating plants are switching from coal to natural gas. This one comes from Ohio, where Appalachian Power brought a newly completed gas-fired plant in February near Dresden. Why switch from coal to gas? It’s all in the economics. The cost of coal has skyrocketed from $43.75 per ton in 2007 to $63.78 in 2011, an increase of 46 percent. At the same time, natural gas has gone from over $14 per million Btus to around $2.70 today. Need we say more?

But at what price is it more economical to use coal rather than natural gas? Thanks to Appalachian Power, we now know.

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

PA Dems Introduce 6 New Bills to “Fix” Act 13 Drilling Law
May 29, 2012May 29, 2012

Pennsylvania Democrats have introduced a series of six grandstanding bills into the state legislature called the “Marcellus Compact” that stand no chance of passage. But that’s not why they introduced them. The purpose is to have an issue they can demagogue as they try to win back control of one or both state houses in the next election.

According to the Dems and the sycophantic media that supports them:

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Bradford County | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

PA Court Overturns Lower Court on Zoning Compressor Plants
May 29, 2012May 29, 2012

A new ruling in Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court will have far-reaching implications for municipalities that try to apply zoning regulations to a select part of the drilling process, like compressor stations. Compressor stations are necessary to move gas along pipelines—from the well to a point where the gas can be processed and eventually sold. A three judge panel has just overturned a lower court’s decision on whether or not townships can regulate compressors separately from other drilling activities.

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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA Engineering Firms Expand During U.S. Recession – Why?
May 29, 2012May 29, 2012

There’s one industry that’s been recession-proof over the past four years. Can you guess which one?

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Accidents | Bradford County | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

Possible New Case of Methane Migration Near PA Gas Wells
May 25, 2012May 25, 2012

A potential case of methane migration from nearby Marcellus Shale gas well drilling is being investigated by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in Bradford County, PA. Three residential water wells and two streams have high levels of methane. A Chesapeake drilling operation is located about a half mile from the residential water wells.

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

Ohio Passes New Drilling Law, Gov. Kasich Will Sign
May 25, 2012May 25, 2012

Ohio’s new shale oil and gas drilling legislation (SB 315) has now passed both the House (73-19) and the Senate (21-8) and is on the way to Gov. John Kasich’s desk for his signature, which it will receive. The bill as passed is 220 pages long and wide-ranging in its scope, covering not only shale oil and gas extraction, but renewable energy, water conservation, and wastewater treatment. The bill reportedly contains some of the strictest rules in the nation for hydraulic fracturing.

So what’s in the bill? MDN doubts you want to read through 220 pages to find out. Embedded below is the 70-page summary overview version. However, here’s a few brief highlights of what’s in it:

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Exporting | Industrywide Issues

Japanese Invest Big Money in U.S. Shale Gas
May 25, 2012May 25, 2012

The Japanese have a huge appetite for U.S. shale gas and they’re investing big money to get access to it. Two Japanese and a French firm are putting up $1 billion of the $5 billion cost to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Louisiana. Now all they need is government approval for the exports.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

FracFocus.org Chemical Reporting Service Expands Rapidly
May 25, 2012May 25, 2012

FracFocus.org, the hydraulic fracturing chemical registry website, is now just over one year old and contains detailed information on the fracking chemicals used in over 18,000 hydraulically fractured wells. FracFocus.org is an independent organization that enjoys both drilling industry and environmental group support. With over 200 drillers now submitting data to the FracFocus.org website, it has become the de facto standard source for fracking chemical data, expanding rapidly each month as more and more drillers use the service.

A press release issued today describes FracFocus.org in more detail and links to online training offered by the organization along with a video of highlights from the past “wild ride” year:

Read More “FracFocus.org Chemical Reporting Service Expands Rapidly”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH

Anti-Driller Groups in Ohio Don’t Like Being Legally Neutered
May 24, 2012May 24, 2012

Ohio legislators have been working to craft new shale oil and gas drilling rules that will do more to protect the environment, and at the same time, help protect the fledgling shale drilling industry in the state. New legislation passed in committee yesterday that will now go to the full House includes a provision to help prevent frivolous lawsuits brought by deep-pocketed anti-drilling groups, like the Ohio Environmental Council and the Sierra Club. These groups, who are opposed to expanded use of fossil fuels, use the legal system to tie up shale drillers in court and force them to spend huge sums of money as a tactic to reduce fossil fuel mining and use.

When the Ohio House added a protection against such shenanigans, predictably the anti-drillers objected.

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

NY DEC Chief Martens Says Fracking Can be Done Safely
May 24, 2012May 24, 2012

Finally, one thing that Joe Martens has said publicly that MDN fully agrees with. Martens, for those new to the drilling debate in New York, is the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation—the organization that is tasked with regulating oil and gas drilling in the state. Martens is also the former long-time president of the Open Spaces Institute, an organization dedicated to stopping development of land. Strange choice by Andy Cuomo to run the organization tasked with developing the state’s land. But whatever.

Here’s what Martens said at a conference yesterday in New York City:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Animated Map Shows Vertical vs Horizontal Gas Wells in PA
May 24, 2012May 24, 2012

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has created a very cool animated map showing the transition from conventionally drilled, vertical natural gas wells to unconventional, horizontally fracked natural gas wells (Marcellus wells) from January 2005 to April 2012 (a copy of the video is embedded below). Just as cool—and startling—are a couple of bar charts (also embedded below) showing the dramatic increase in the volume of natural gas production in PA while at the same time the number of gas wells, the number of holes drilled in the ground, has gone down! How can that be?

Fracked horizontal wells drilled in shale formations are far more productive than conventional, vertically drilled wells.

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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | UGI Energy Services

Proposed Compressor Plant Near Wilkes-Barre Criticized
May 24, 2012May 24, 2012

Residents gathered in West Wyoming (Luzerne County), PA to hear about plans from UGI Energy Services, subsidiary of UGI Utilities, to build a natural gas compressor plant in the township. The compressor plant will help bring Marcellus Shale gas through a new 28-mile pipeline UGI is building from Wyoming County to Luzerne County. Getting shale gas to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area will lead to a 40 percent reduction in natural gas bills for customers over the next four years, according to UGI.

But the compressor plant is not without its critics…

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Exporting | Industrywide Issues

U.S. Shale Gas Exports to Europe Will Grow 74% by 2035
May 24, 2012May 24, 2012

Amazingly, if you were to add up the volume of available shale gas in Europe, it totals an estimated 639 trillion (with a “t”) cubic feet of natural gas, more than four times the estimates for the Marcellus Shale in the U.S. Yet equally amazing European countries are either banning fracking or have instituted moratoria—they don’t want to use their own natural resources. No problem! The U.S will be happy to sell them some of ours.

Read More “U.S. Shale Gas Exports to Europe Will Grow 74% by 2035”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Sierra Club Hindering Change from Coal to Natural Gas
May 23, 2012May 23, 2012

In what can only be described as idiotic, the Sierra Club is actively preventing utility companies from converting electrical generating plants from coal to natural gas—because they don’t like fracking. This kind of stuff has to stop.

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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pipelines | Spectra Energy | Statewide NY

FERC Approves Spectra Energy’s $1.2B NYC Natural Gas Pipeline
May 23, 2012May 23, 2012

Spectra Energy’s proposed $1.2 billion natural gas pipeline for New York City finally won approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Monday. The 20-mile new pipeline to be built will connect New York to New Jersey and deliver 800 million cubic feet of natural gas per day to homes and businesses in New York. Most of the gas will come from the Marcellus Shale. It will ease the energy needs of New York because starting in 2015 the City will no longer allow No. 6 fuel oil to be burned.

The new pipeline and the energy it will deliver by saving all that oil burning will be the equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the road. That’s a good thing, right? So how have some New Yorkers responded? Thankful that they too will be able to access cleaner burning, lower cost natural gas? Thankful that this new pipeline will result in cleaner air? You guessed it—they don’t want it!

Read More “FERC Approves Spectra Energy’s $1.2B NYC Natural Gas Pipeline”
Accidents | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County

PA Resident Wins Right to Appeal DEP Water Contamination Case
May 23, 2012May 23, 2012

The Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) ruled on May 16 that a Washington County resident who claims that nearby shale gas drilling is responsible for his water well being contaminated with methane and chemicals can appeal a Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) determination that his well was not contaminated by shale drilling.

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