Industrywide Issues

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

PA Town Supervisors Still Not Happy with Proposed Legislation
December 12, 2011December 12, 2011

The Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors (PSATS) originally opposed PA House Bill 1950 and Senate Bill 1100, the two primary bills before the General Assembly that deal with the issue of natural gas development that are now very close to reconciliation and a signature from Gov. Tom Corbett. PSATS’ primary objection is that the bills would strip away most, if not all, municipal authority to regulate gas drilling in their own communities. Recent amendments to the bills have made them “more reasonable” and more palatable to PSATS, but they are still not good enough to garner an endorsement.

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Bradford Drilling | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Norse Energy | Statewide NY

Bradford Drilling Sues Partner Norse Energy for No Drilling
December 12, 2011December 12, 2011

Norse Energy Corp, the U.S. subsidiary of the Norwegian energy company, owns leases for 180,000 net acres in New York State, 130,000 of those acres being in the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays. Norse bet the farm on New York allowing shale gas drilling long before now, and they lost (NY is still months, if not years away from allowing shale gas drilling). Norse has put their New York acreage on the auction block, looking for another company to buy it.

In the meantime, one of Norse’s drilling partners is suing them for lack of drilling according to their agreement. That agreement had nothing to do with shale gas, but instead was drilling in the Herkimer formation, a limestone-type layer in central New York. Norse seems to indicate they may restart Herkimer drilling at some point. From the Norse press release:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Pavillion, WY – Smoking Gun that Proves Fracking is Unsafe?
December 9, 2011December 9, 2011

On Thursday, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released draft findings of its investigation into groundwater contamination in the small town of Pavillion, Wyoming (a copy of the EPA draft report is embedded below). The EPA says that water in the town contains chemicals consistent with chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. Fracking has been used in a number of nearby gas wells. Needless to say, major media outlets like the AP, and anti-drilling environmentalists, are breathlessly calling this the “smoking gun” and declaring that fracking really does cause groundwater contamination after all (ban it now!). Not so fast…

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Accidents | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Dueling Press Conferences in Dimock PA
December 7, 2011December 7, 2011

In the ongoing press event that is Dimock, PA, yesterday Gasland creator Josh Fox and actor Mark Rufalo, among others, gathered in Dimock to keep up the pressure and to continue to demagogue what has really happened in Dimock. See MDN’s previous coverage for background. A brief summary of events leading up to yesterday’s dueling press conferences:

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Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Shell

Shell’s Major Shift to Natural Gas, US Gas-to-Liquids Plant?
December 7, 2011December 7, 2011

Shell is moving into natural gas in a major way. In fact, natural gas will eclipse crude oil for Shell sometime next year by being more than 50 percent of Shell’s global production. Shell has committed to spending $2 billion to build an ethane cracker plant in the Marcellus region of the U.S., and now they are talking about building a gas-to-liquids plant. Shell invested an astonishing $19 billion in a gas-to-liquids plant in Qatar. Imagine that investment coming to the U.S.! Such is the transformative power of shale gas.

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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | West Virginia | Wetzel County

Out-of-State Gas Workers Mean Continued High Unemployment
December 7, 2011December 7, 2011

One of the criticisms of the Marcellus shale gas drilling industry is that although it brings with it an economic boom, including many jobs, sometimes those jobs are taken by out-of-state workers and not local workers. Drillers will say there are not enough skilled local workers to fill the positions. Labor leaders and local economic development officials will say, “Train them and there will be!”

According to Dave Efaw, secretary-treasurer of the West Virginia State Building and Construction Trades Council, local drillers need to step up to the plate and start hiring more local workers:

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Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Shell | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Shell, One Other Company Close to Cracker Plant Announcement
December 7, 2011December 7, 2011

According to officials in West Virginia, who are super-serious about attracting at least one ethane cracker plant to their state, Shell and one other company will announce site selections for their plants in January of 2012. West Virginia fully intends that at least one of those two plants will be inside their borders, and they are pulling out all of the stops to ensure it happens. In fact, according to WV Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s chief of staff, it’s the newly-elected governor’s “No. 1 goal.”

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Has Fracking Killed the Renewable Energy Movement?
December 6, 2011December 6, 2011

It is no surprise that those who rabidly oppose shale gas drilling in general, and hydraulic fracturing in particular, do so for one primary reason: it threatens renewable energy. In fact, MDN would go so far as to say hydraulic fracturing has single-handedly destroyed the renewable energy movement, and the greenies have brought out the long knives in response.

A column by Dan Nestlerode on StateCollege.com calls attention to just how fundamental, and dramatic, a shift has taken place in the last few years, a shift that spells the end of the green/renewable energy movement.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs

New Study Shows Economic Boom from Shale Gas in U.S.
December 6, 2011December 6, 2011

A new study just released shows that natural gas drilling and production will add 900,000 jobs and $1,000 to annual household budgets across the country, on average, by 2015. And shale gas production will go from adding $76 billion to U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) now, to $118 billion by 2015.

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

PA Legislature Deals with Bonding to Decommission Gas Wells
December 6, 2011December 6, 2011

The Pennsylvania legislature has been working on new laws to tighten regulation of the Marcellus Shale drilling industry. Since January 2011, both the PA Senate and House are now controlled by Republicans, as well as the governorship, giving new Marcellus legislation a good chance of passing. The new laws are a result of, and based on, the findings of an advisory committee appointed by Gov. Tom Corbett earlier this year (see this MDN story).

Both the PA Senate and House have passed slightly different versions of legislation and those versions are now being reconciled in committee to work out the differences so a bill can be sent to Gov. Corbett for signing. One of the outstanding issues to be reconciled is how much of a bond should drillers pay to decommission a well.

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Accidents | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

EPA Tells Dimock Families Their Water is Safe to Use
December 5, 2011December 5, 2011

A new email from the federal Environmental Protection Agency says the water wells for 19 affected families in Dimock, PA have tested fine and do not pose a threat to those families. Yet, some of those families are still grabbing headlines by playing the victim, claiming their water is undrinkable. Who to believe?

The Dimock situation is difficult to understand, being shrouded in so many layers of publicity stunts it’s hard to know what the real story is. As near as MDN can tell, in a nutshell:

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

Gas Drilling’s Death by 1,000 Stalls in NY
December 5, 2011December 5, 2011

An opinion column in today’s New York Post aptly nails the situation on gas drilling in New York State. In fact, the title says it all, “Fracking in NY: death by 1,000 stalls?” MDN has been a Johnny-one-note on this topic with our assertion that Joe Martens, Commissioner of the NY Department of Environmental Conservation and the man whose job it is to get drilling going in the state, is intentionally delaying drilling because he doesn’t want to see it happen. The Post agrees.

The Post column says, in part:

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Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | NG Vehicles | Pennsylvania

NE PA County Changing Public Transport Vans to CNG
December 5, 2011December 5, 2011

The Luzerne County Transportation Authority in northeastern PA needs to replace some 60 vans they use to provide transportation for the elderly, children and special-needs persons. After researching it, the County has decided that compressed natural gas (CNG) powered vans are the best choice, due in part to low natural gas prices from an abundance of Marcellus Shale gas in PA.

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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Spectra Energy | Statewide PA

Spectra Gets FERC Approval to Expand PA Marcellus Pipeline
December 5, 2011December 5, 2011

Spectra Energy has received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval for their Texas Eastern Appalachia to Market (TEAM) 2012 pipeline expansion project which expands Texas Eastern’s existing pipeline system and allows them to deliver extra Marcellus Shale gas to the northeast market in the U.S. A map detailing the existing pipeline and the proposed upgrades is embedded below.

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

Further Reflections on the Nov 30 NYC DEC Hearings
December 2, 2011December 2, 2011

As I reported yesterday, I attended the Nov. 30 New York City hearing convened by the Department of Environmental Conservation on proposed new draft drilling regulations called the SGEIS, or Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (see MDN story here). I arrived at the TriBeCa Performing Arts Theater about 10:30 am to wait in line. Upon arriving, there were maybe 75 people in line. I immediately spotted my friend Bill desRosiers, field director with Energy in Depth – Northeast Marcellus Initiative who invited me to stand with him and his colleagues in line. Normally I don’t jump lines, but since there were perhaps 20 people between Bill and the end of the line, and the theater holds 1,000, I decided to stay and hang out.

Little did I know that our little group of pro-drillers was about the only group of pro-drillers that would attend the morning session. A few more showed up to be sure, but almost all of those who attended the morning, and according to accounts I’ve read for the evening session too, were against Marcellus Shale drilling. As I joined Bill (and later friends Tom Shepstone and Rachael Colley, also from EID-NMI), we were surrounded by anti-drillers. In fact, this gentleman was standing immediately in front of us, pointing his sign toward the street:

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

Final NY DEC Hearing in NYC – Surreal
December 1, 2011

Yesterday was an interesting experience for MDN editor Jim Willis, sitting in the NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) hearing in New York City. The hearing was the last to be convened by the DEC to accept public comments on new draft drilling regulations proposed by the DEC that will allow high volume hydraulic fracturing to commence in New York State (ie allow shale gas drilling).

The crowd at the TriBeCa Theater in lower Manhattan was almost all anti-drilling—the vast majority were from New York City, were Democrat, and were boisterously loud against fracking. They believe it cannot and should not (indeed will not) ever be allowed in New York State. As Josh Fox, creator of the Gasland movie said during his comments, he believes talking about “how” drilling can be done safely is the wrong premise. He believes the argument should be about “whether it is done at all”. And many echoed his sentiment.

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