The town of Barrington, NY (Yates County), in New York’s Finger Lakes region, has voted to approve a temporary moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in the township for a one year period to give it time to develop new zoning laws to deal with possible Marcellus Shale drilling, should the New York State moratorium be lifted.
Read More “Township in NY Finger Lakes Region Votes to Ban Hydraulic Fracturing for One Year”
For many, the New York Times is the paragon of virtue, the ultimate source, arbiter of truth, beacon of light in a world of darkness. And of course, everything you read in the Gray Lady is the honest truth—for real!
Sometimes I sigh and wish I too could live inside the liberal bubble and ignore reality and believe everything in the NYT—life would be so much simpler that way. But alas, I’m one of those few who don’t automatically believe what I read. In fact, a lot of what I read I would consider fiction, rather than fact.
Reason is a monthly print magazine with the tagline of “free minds and free markets.” It covers politics, culture, and ideas through a mix of news, analysis, commentary, and reviews. Reason does not lean right nor left, but instead makes “a principled case for liberty and individual choice in all areas of human activity.” Reason also has an operation they call Reason.tv—short online videos. MDN came across a video posted by Reason.tv yesterday called, “The Truth About Fracking.” It’s a short 5 1/2 minute interview conducted by Reason’s Nick Gillespie with science correspondent Ronald Bailey.
Read More “New Video from Reason.tv: The Truth About Fracking”
The Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) had a busy quarterly meeting on June 23, held in North East, Maryland. Among the things they did, SRBC commissioners approved 31 water resources projects, the vast majority of which are related to drilling in the Marcellus Shale. The list of new projects approved, previous projects modified and into-basin diversions is detailed below.
Five Democrat and four Republican Congressman have written a joint, bipartisan letter to President Obama encouraging him to move forward with developing natural gas in the United States, particularly by using “unconventional” hydraulic fracturing. Yes, you read that right. Democrats and Republicans together, agreeing on something—and that something is fracking.
The letter states in part:
Read More “Bipartisan Group of Nine Congressman Tell Obama to Get Fracking – Now”
Drillers in Pennsylvania who do not recycle 100 percent of the wastewater from hydraulic fracturing for reuse must dispose of that wastewater somewhere. The options are to haul the wastewater, which is mostly salt water but contains a small amount of chemicals, to certified treatment plants that are specially fitted to treat it and release it into waterways, or haul it to an underground injection well. Most of the injection wells PA drillers have been using are located in Ohio. However, two new injections wells are due to come online in Columbus Township (Warren County), PA this fall, giving drillers in PA a new option.
Read More “Two New PA Injection Wells Will Accept Fracking Wastewater Starting this Fall”
An article written by the Associated Press has been picked up and repeated by hundreds of news outlets across the country over the weekend. It is an interesting story, but there’s really nothing “new” and noteworthy about it. A number of outdoor sportsmen groups have banded together into a coalition to keep an eye on Marcellus drilling activity, to be sure it’s not harming the environment—specifically fishing and hunting—and if they detect problems, to sound the alarm and get authorities to take action before it’s “too late.” Individually the groups involved have been keeping an eye on drilling for some time. The “new news” is that these individual groups have formed an alliance and are now working together.
Read More “Outdoor Sportsmen Groups Band Together to Keep an Eye on Marcellus Drilling”
The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is conduction a multi-year study of the natural gas extraction method called hydraulic fracturing. See MDN’s coverage of the initial announcement and draft release of the study plan here. Preliminary results of the study are due in 2012, but the final results are not due until 2014.
Yesterday, the EPA announced where it will conduct its case studies. Nearly half of the sites—three of the seven—are in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale region in Bradford, Susquehanna and Washington Counties. Below is the full press release from the EPA announcing the locations, followed by a table from the EPA website charting the key issues to be investigated and the potential outcomes for the retrospective case studies.
Morgantown, WV is about to get sued for banning hydraulic fracturing outside of its borders. As MDN previously reported (see here), the Morgantown City Council voted on June 21 to ban hydraulic fracturing within its borders and up to one mile outside of its borders. The decision has shut down an active operation for two wells being drilled by Northeast Natural Energy. WV has a law allowing cities to extend their reach up to a mile in order to carry out city functions. Many think City Council has overreached in this case.
Read More “Update on Morgantown, WV Ban on Fracking Outside its Borders: You’re About to Get Sued”
Yet another hit piece by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (an editorial this time) plays up the “danger” that “the drilling industry” is not maintaining its trucking fleets. The evidence of this danger is not the number of serious accidents nor even a tear-jerker personal story of a mishap with a nasty drilling truck, but this:
Read More “The Top Reason for Ordering Marcellus Drilling-Related Truck Drivers Off the Road is…”
After two years of work and numerous revisions, the supervisors of Mount Pleasant Township in Washington County, PA have finally passed an ordinance that controls oil and gas drilling in the township, although at this point it likely won’t make much of a difference according to Range Resources.
MDN received an email alert from the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) concerning legislation that is actively being considered Albany (see the letter below). The legislation in question is the bill A3245 (full text here) which passed the New York Assembly on Monday, and bill S3472 (full text here), the Senate counterpart. The legislation, if passed, would give local municipalities the right to use zoning laws to dictate where drilling can and cannot happen within their borders. This is a major change in how New York governs the drilling industry—both Marcellus Shale drilling which has not yet begun, and existing oil and gas drilling. The language of the bill states:
After a few months of heated debate, the Morgantown (WV) City Council has voted to prohibit Marcellus Shale drilling not only within their borders, but also up to a mile outside of their borders. How can they do that? There is a provision in West Virginia state code that allows cities to extend their authority up to a mile beyond their borders to carry out city functions. It is that state loophole that Morgantown has used to shut down two wells slated to be drilled.
An editorial in today’s New York Post, authored by Lawrence Mone, president of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, makes an impassioned plea to Gov. Andrew Cuomo to lift the moratorium on Marcellus Shale drilling. The Manhattan Institute recently released a study showing the economic benefits of lifting the moratorium (see MDN’s coverage here). In today’s editorial, Mone summarizes those economic benefits this way:
Read More “Former PA Gov. Ed Rendell to NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo: Lift the Moratorium on Drilling Now”
Further proof that the New York Times series of “PA water is radioactive because treated Marcellus drilling wastewater was released into waterways” scare articles was nothing more than hot air and fiction:
Read More “PA Public Drinking Water Not Radioactive After All”
Pittsburgh and other energy-related regions of the U.S. are bouncing back from the recession faster than other parts of the country. For Pittsburgh, it’s due in no small part to Marcellus Shale drilling. According to a new report just released, Pittsburgh’s employment numbers will pull even and surpass pre-recession levels by early 2012.