Industrywide Issues

Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Virginia | Warren County

Marcellus is “Game Changer” for New Electric Power Plants
September 20, 2011September 20, 2011

Dominion will build a huge, new 1,300-megawatt power plant in Virginia—and it will be powered by Marcellus Shale gas. Final regulatory approval for the plant will come sometime in 2012, and the construction will be completed by 2014. The fact that power generating companies are constructing new power plants that use natural gas as the sole fuel source signals an important shift in the energy picture for the U.S.

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA DEP Reorganizes to Better Handle Marcellus Drilling
September 20, 2011September 20, 2011

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is reorganizing, largely in an effort to better handle Marcellus Shale gas drilling in the state. According to DEP Secretary Michael Krancer, the new structure will make it easier to catch and punish the “cheaters.”

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | EXCO Resources | Hess | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Williams Production | XTO

65 Marcellus Well Casing Violations in PA So Far in 2011
September 19, 2011March 24, 2012

Recently released data on drilling violations from the PA Department of Environmental Protection show that problems continue with the cemented steel casings that are designed to protect groundwater from methane and the fluids used to frack wells. The violations do not mean methane or fluids escaped into local groundwater aquifers—but the potential exists when a well is not cased properly. So far in 2011, 65 wells have been cited for faulty casing and cementing. Out of the many thousands of wells drilled and fracked each year in Pennsylvania, that’s not a bad ratio, but it’s certainly nowhere near acceptable. As DEP Secretary Michael Krancer has said, “One case of methane migration or well contamination is one case too many.” The industry needs to do better.

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Otsego County | Regulation

Second Lawsuit Filed Against NY Town Challenges Drilling Ban
September 19, 2011September 19, 2011

One day after Anschutz Exploration announced it would file a lawsuit against Dryden, NY (Tompkins County) to overturn a local ban on gas drilling in that township (see MDN story here), another lawsuit against another township in New York State has been filed. This new case was filed by landowner and township resident Jennifer Huntington against the Township of Middlefield in Otsego County. This suit, like the one from Anschutz, says the township has passed what amounts to an illegal law targeting the oil and gas industry, an industry that is specifically regulated by the state according to New York State law. The township’s ban infringes Ms. Huntington’s private property rights as a landowner to allow gas drilling on her land. A copy of the lawsuit is embedded below.

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Centre County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

PA Religious Group Says Marcellus Gas Drilling is Immoral
September 19, 2011September 19, 2011

As predicted by MDN on Friday (see here), the Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light (PA-IPL) religious organization declared in their press conference of Sunday that “ethical drilling” of Marcellus Shale gas essentially equals “no drilling.” Like many other anti-drilling organizations, the PA-IPL is driven by ideology: they seek renewable energy nirvana. They have drunken deeply from the man-causes-global-warming mythology/religion. They view fossil fuels as immoral. MDN suspects however, that the leaders of the PA-IPL don’t peddle bicycles everywhere they want to go but instead use gas-powered vehicles. And no doubt they fly around on jets burning fossil fuels to spread their inanities. And heat their homes with nasty coal-generated electricity. Can anyone say “hypocrite”?

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Commodity Price | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

Wind Farm Project Canceled Due to Cheap Marcellus Gas
September 19, 2011September 19, 2011

Those who oppose natural gas drilling do so because it threatens their ideology that renewable energy should be the only available option. Renewable energy supporters don’t seem to care that it costs 3-5 times more (that’s 300-500 percent more) for electricity from renewable sources than from fossil fuel sources. Rather than celebrate our good fortune in finding a cheap, abundant source of something that pollutes far less than other sources—shale gas—they attack it and claim it’s just as bad as the dirtiest coal. It’s sad, really.

Here’s yet another example of so-called renewables failing the economic test, an example sure to push some of the antis over the edge. It looks like the $1 billion Great Lakes offshore wind farm is yes, out of wind (bad pun intended). And the reason why it’s being canceled? Marcellus Shale gas—abundant, and cheap.

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

Penn Environment Lies About Flooded Drilling Rig
September 16, 2011September 16, 2011

If you’re against drilling and desperate to make your case, why tell the truth when a lie will conveniently do? That is, of course, until the lie is exposed.

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Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Monongalia County | Northeast Natural Energy | Regulation | West Virginia

Morgantown, WV Update: Fracking to Begin Next Week
September 16, 2011September 16, 2011

It seems the opposition to two Marcellus Shale gas wells being drilled outside Morgantown’s borders is petering out. Press accounts talk of “a handful” of area residents protesting outside of the drill sites this week—meaning less than a dozen, perhaps a single family, who knows?

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Centre County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

PA Religious Group to Lecture Industry on Ethical Drilling
September 16, 2011September 16, 2011

This should be interesting. On Sunday, the Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light (PA-IPL) religious organization will tell the drilling industry how they should do their business. Apparently there is something called “ethical drilling” that the good people of the PA-IPL will reveal. Notice, as MDN has repeatedly pointed out, that ideology (or philosophy, or in this case, faith) is the reason anti-drillers—and make no mistake, this group is anti-drilling—oppose shale gas drilling. They view it as a threat to the renewable energy nirvana they want to impose on everyone else. In the case of this organization, they attempt to transform the drilling argument into a moral one, meaning if you disagree with their viewpoint, you’re immoral. Nice try.

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Air Quality | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

EPA to Hold Hearings on Rules to Reduce Fracking Air Pollution
September 16, 2011September 16, 2011

Being “forced” by a lawsuit, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) drafted new rules and regulations for oil and gas drillers that use hydraulic fracturing. The new rules require drillers to use new or improved processes and equipment (at great expense) in an attempt to cut the level of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other air pollutants the EPA says are emitted during the completion of hydraulically fractured wells. MDN wrote an extensive article on this, complete with a copy of the 604-page list of rule changes (see here).

The EPA is moving forward with several public hearings on the rule changes, the first of which will be in Pittsburgh on Sept. 27th.

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Anschutz Exploration | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Tompkins County

Driller Sues NY Town to Challenge Local Drilling Ban
September 15, 2011September 15, 2011

Anschutz Exploration this week will file a lawsuit against the Town of Dryden (NY) to strike down the town’s recently passed ban on gas drilling. Dryden is a small township with two villages—Dryden and Freeville—located in Tompkins County, near Ithaca. Its land area is 94.2 square miles with some 13,500 people living there.

In New York, the state reserves the right to regulate the oil and gas industry and, according to state law, local municipalities are restricted to regulating road use with respect to oil and gas drilling. Dryden’s measure banning drilling (passed in August) is, according to the drilling industry, illegal. This lawsuit will challenge it.

Dryden officials argue that the state does not and cannot tell a municipality how it can regulate other industries, and the gas industry should be no different. It is a classical constitutional issue and both sides are watching this one closely.

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Accidents | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Susquehanna River Contaminated, but Not by Fracking Chemicals
September 15, 2011September 15, 2011

The mighty Susquehanna River is 464 miles long, running from upstate New York through Pennsylvania and into Maryland before emptying into the Chesapeake Bay. Much of the Susquehanna runs through prime Marcellus drilling country along the way.

Last week, the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee dropped massive amounts of rain along the Susquehanna and its tributaries, causing some of the worst flooding ever for communities along the path of the river. Some activists who oppose Marcellus Shale gas drilling speculated that fracking chemicals have now found their way, via the floodwaters, into the Susquehanna River. But their concern is misplaced. Fracking chemicals have not fouled the river, but there’s plenty of other things as a result of TS Lee that have:

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Chief Gathering | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines

Dallas Twp, PA Approves Natural Gas Pipeline Near School
September 15, 2011September 15, 2011

On Wednesday, Dallas Township (Luzerne County), PA supervisors voted unanimously to approve an agreement with Chief Gathering to run a natural gas pipeline within a third of a mile of the Dallas district schools and through a local housing development. Some of the residents who attended the meeting strongly objected to the vote, accusing the supervisors of approving an agreement not available for review by residents and accusing Chief and other drilling industry companies of “monster arrogance.”

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Broome County | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Landowners Face New Threat: Floodplain Boundaries
September 14, 2011September 14, 2011

As many of you have heard via the national media, the Binghamton, NY (Broome County) area—where much of the drilling in New York State is likely to occur once drilling begins—was just hit with the worst flooding in its history, after the previous “worst ever” flooding occurred only five years ago, in 2006. This type of flooding is referred to as a “100-year flood” and it causes the government to re-draw floodplain maps to indicate where such areas are capable of extreme flooding.

Landowners who live in the Greater Binghamton area and who want to lease their land for shale gas drilling will want to closely watch where the boundaries are drawn because the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which regulates shale drilling, is looking to put land inside those floodplains off limits to drilling.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Canadians Establish New “Guiding Principles” for Fracking
September 14, 2011September 14, 2011

Canadian natural gas producers recently announced new guiding principles (embedded below) for hydraulic fracturing that guide water management and improved water and fluids reporting practices for shale gas development in Canada. The principles were created by members of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) and apply to all CAPP natural gas producing members, large and small, operating in Canada.

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Bradford County | Energy Services | Fayette County | Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pentex Pipeline | Peregrine Keystone Gas Pipeline | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Washington County

Two More Gathering Pipelines Seek PA Public Utility Status
September 14, 2011September 14, 2011

Even though Laser Northeast Gathering has withdrawn its application to become a public utility with the power of eminent domain as MDN reported yesterday, two other pipeline companies with applications before the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission continue to move forward. Peregrine Keystone Gas Pipeline plans to construct a gathering line in Greene, Fayette and Washington counties in western PA, and Pentex Pipeline plans a gathering pipeline in Bradford County in northeast PA.

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