Want to know what chemicals are being used at a nearby Marcellus gas well that’s being drilled near you in Pennsylvania? Right now, it’s not so easy to find out. Here’s how Pennsylvania’s fracking chemical disclosure rules work, which went into effect in February of this year:
Read More “What Chemicals are Being Used by Marcellus Drillers in PA?”
Quinnipiac University of Hamden, CT just completed a new statewide public opinion poll in New York which shows some interesting results about New Yorker’s attitudes toward drilling. Overall, more New Yorker’s favor drilling in the Marcellus Shale than oppose it. Hydraulic fracturing, the method used by drillers to free the gas, has been so misrepresented by those opposed to drilling that New Yorkers are still leery of it, even though most don’t even understand what it is and how it works. Overall 52 percent of New Yorkers believe fracking will damage the environment, but nearly half, 47 percent, believe the economic benefits are worth the risk.
Read More “Quinnipiac Poll Shows NYers Support Fracking Despite Concerns”
The state of West Virginia is investing $250K in a company that turns ethane from Marcellus gas wells into ethylene. Think of it as a “mini-cracker plant”. Shell and other large energy companies are looking to establish large cracker plants in the Marcellus region—a chemical plant that will take over $1 billion to build (see this MDN story). In the meantime, smaller and leaner companies are providing some of the same kinds of service a cracker plant provides—at much less of an investment. Aither Chemicals is one of those companies.
Read More “WV Invests $250K in Marcellus Ethane Processing Plant”
In early May, the federal Department of Energy (DOE), under the direction of DOE Secretary Steven Chu, assembled a panel of seven experts to create a list of industry “best practices” for shale gas drillers (see MDN story here). Known as the Shale Gas Subcommittee of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB), the group was charged with producing an initial report in 90 days that will identify immediate steps “to improve the safety and environmental performance of hydraulic fracturing.” That first report was released today (a full copy is embedded below).
Read More “DOE Report Recommends Fed Takeover of Shale Gas Regulation”
The ongoing battle between Morgantown, WV and Northeast Natural Energy over two proposed gas wells located close to Morgantown continues, and gets interesting. Northeast had been working with Morgantown to address concerns that the two wells they propose to drill are close to the water intake for the city. Northeast believed everything was fine until city council voted to ban hydraulic fracturing both inside and outside of its borders—up to one mile outside (allowable under WV law). Northeast’s proposed wells are within that one mile radius, so the ban shut them down. Or did it?
According to press accounts, Northeast has just started work drilling the second Marcellus gas well and plans to start fracking the first well in September, regardless of the ban:
Read More “Northeast Continues Drilling in Morgantown Despite Ban”
At the prompting of the federal EPA, and perhaps to preempt any action from the EPA, state officials in the Marcellus region are looking closely at air pollution issues that may be caused by shale gas drilling. For example, permits are likely on the way for drillers in Ohio for a whole list of commonly used equipment found in drilling operations, including…diesel and internal combustion engines?!
Read More “OH to Require Permits for Diesel Engines at Drilling Sites (!)”
Mingo Junction, a small village along the Ohio River in Jefferson County, Ohio is looking to tap into revenue from the Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling industry spouting up around it. The mayor and village council are trying to locate alternative sources of revenue since the local steel mill closed, leaving the village in a lurch after constructing a new water treatment plant specifically at the mill’s request. Mingo Junction is looking to leverage the one thing it has plenty of—water.
Read More “OH Village Wants a Fracking Water Treatment Plant”
It seemed for a while like passing Marcellus drilling bans was all the rage for cities in West Virginia. Now it seems they can’t repeal those bans fast enough. The latest to repeal a previous ban is Wellsburg:
Read More “Another WV City Repeals Previous Marcellus Drilling Ban”
Even though New York still has not adopted new drilling regulations, and likely won’t until late this year, and even though drilling will not begin until 2012 at the earliest, New York politicians are lining up to dip their hands into driller’s and landowners’ pockets. The latest example is New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli who has proposed a bill to the state legislature to create a driller-funded pool of money (i.e. a new tax on drillers) to cover the cost of any future accidents that may (or may not) happen because of drilling.
The problem, of course, is that any pool of money in Albany—home of politicians with sticky fingers—has a half-life of about 30 minutes before it will be borrowed, moved from one side of the ledger to the other, or otherwise disappear.
Read More “NY Comptroller Wants New Tax to Cover Gas Drilling Accidents”
Laser Northeast Gathering recently broke ground is quickly working to complete a new 30-mile shale gas pipeline, called the Susquehanna Gathering System, that spans much of Susquehanna County in northeastern Pennsylvania and crosses the southeast corner of Broome County in New York State where the pipeline will connect to the larger Millennium interstate pipeline (see this MDN story).
But Laser is having troubles with drilling underneath Laurel Lake Creek, a waterway considered to have “exceptional value” by the PA Department of Environmental Protection. In the span of just a few weeks, drilling under the creek resulted in three separate incidents of non-toxic drilling mud being spilled into the creek, the latest incident occurring on Monday.
Read More “Three Mud Spills in PA Creek from Laser Pipeline Construction”
Even though the economy is in the dumper, the price for oil and gas is dropping and unemployment is at record highs, the natural gas industry—shale gas in particular—is adding jobs at a rapid pace. The entire energy sector including oil and gas is on track to add 200,000 jobs in 2011—an astonishing number given economic conditions.
Read More “Shale Gas Industry Continues to Add Jobs at Rapid Pace”
Just how big a deal is shale gas in the U.S. in general, and the Marcellus Shale in particular? According to a mergers and acquisitions report for the energy sector just released by PricewaterhouseCoopers, shale gas is driving most of the energy deals happening right now:
Read More “Shale Gas Drives Most Energy Company Deals in Past 3 Months”
A new set of rules governing pipeline construction permits issued by the U.S. Army Corps or Engineers is causing extreme delays in getting gas from wells to market according to Chesapeake Energy. The new rules have turned what was an average 45-day process to file paperwork into a 300-day process.
The bottom line is that wells that are drilled and completed sit idle because gathering pipelines aren’t being built to them, and consequently landowners are not receiving royalty checks.
Read More “New Pipeline Permit Rules Delay Landowner Royalties in PA”
On Monday, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, the head of Gov. Tom Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission, did a Q&A session via text chat with readers of the Philadelphia Inquirer to answer questions about the final report of 96 recommendations filed by the Commission and about the work they performed to arrive those recommendations. The questions covered jobs, taxes, regulation, pollution and more. Among the Q&A was this excellent exchange on taxes that puts to bed the widespread misunderstanding that the drilling industry is not paying taxes and “if only PA had a severance tax it would solve the budget problems in the state”:
Read More “PA Lt Gov Cawley Addresses Severance Tax in Chat Session”
Just an observation, but you know the New York Times is in trouble when political blog sites like the Politico, a popular (and leftist) website has to write puff pieces to prop up the journalistic malpractice being printed by the Times against the natural gas industry. Case in point:
Politico: New York Times vs. natural gas industry
Don’t forget to vote in this week’s MDN poll, which asks the question:
With respect to shale gas drilling, is the New York Times a reliable source of information?
The poll is found on the right-hand side of any page on the MDN website.
The New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) leased 19,000 acres of state forestland to Chesapeake Energy and Fortuna Energy (now Talisman Energy) in 2006 to allow gas drilling. The deal provided state coffers with $9 million and the promise of 12.5 percent royalties on any gas produced. Those leases are due to expire Nov. 15 of this year, but Chesapeake has let the DEC know it believes the leases for its share (15,472 acres) should be extended, a legal phrase called force majeure, because of the moratorium that has been in place since 2008 on hydraulically fractured gas drilling. In a letter to the DEC, Chesapeake implied they will sue the state to extend the lease agreements if the state does not willingly agree to an extension.
Read More “Chesapeake Threatens NY with Lawsuit on State Land Leases”