Industrywide Issues

Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | West Virginia

Another New Entrant in the Ethane Cracker Plant Sweepstakes
January 13, 2012January 13, 2012

A new entrant has entered the ethane cracker plant sweepstakes, this one claiming they can build a cracker plant for one-third of the cost of others. Earlier this week, Keith Pauley, president and chief executive officer of the Mid-Atlantic Technology, Research & Innovation Center (MATRIC) said that MATRIC has launched a subsidiary company, Aither Chemicals, to leverage “off patent” technology created by Union Carbide in the 1970s that will make building an ethane cracker plant much less expensive than competing technologies.

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

EPA’s Judith Enck Critiques NY Fracking Regulations
January 13, 2012January 13, 2012

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed a 26-page critique of New York’s draft hydraulic fracturing regulations, known as the SGEIS, three hours before the filing deadline on Wednesday (a copy of the letter is embedded below). This is the same EPA that just started a multi-year study of fracking that’s not due to be completed until 2014. Funny how they can be experts on fracking now, although their plan for how to study fracking was only released two months ago and they’ve barely begun to study it (see this MDN story).

This is also the same EPA who decided there was no problem with drinking water in Dimock, then said there’s gaps in the data, decided to ship water to Dimock residents, recanted on the water shipments less than 24 hours later, and has been silent since. Yeah, that EPA.

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Baker Hughes | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | West Virginia

Baker Hughes Expands in WV, Sets Sights on the Marcellus
January 13, 2012January 13, 2012

Baker Hughes, one of the world’s largest oilfield and shale gas service companies, is building a new $40 million facility in Harrison County, West Virginia, and along with it, generating 275 new jobs. According to Baker Hughes president Paul Butero, the company plans to become a “major player” in the Marcellus Shale.

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

PA DEP Sec Krancer Tells EPA You Don’t Understand Dimock
January 12, 2012January 12, 2012

Michael Krancer, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, sent a letter to federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 3 Administrator, Shawn Garvin, on Jan. 5 about the situation in Dimock, PA (a copy is embedded below). The letter is a follow-up to a conversation between the two about the long history and ongoing media circus that is Dimock. In the letter, Mr. Krancer says:

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Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

White House Credits Marcellus & Fracking for Economic Boom
January 12, 2012January 12, 2012

Yesterday, the White House released a report titled “Investing in America: Building an Economy that Lasts” (a copy of is embedded below). The report credits the Marcellus Shale and fracking with fueling an economic boom in the U.S.

The relevant section says this:

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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | PVR Partners | Susquehanna County

PVR Buys Rail-Trail Right-of-Way for Pipeline in PA
January 12, 2012January 12, 2012

A possible new Marcellus Shale pipeline is in the works in Susquehanna County, PA (northeast region of the state). Yesterday, Penn Virginia Resource Partners (PVR) announced they signed a deal granting them a right-of-way along a the Rail-Trail from Union Dale, PA to the New York State border. The plan is to connect wells in Susquehanna County to the Tennessee Pipeline in Union Dale.

PVR is a coal and natural gas midstream company with 4,200 miles of natural gas gathering pipelines and seven natural gas processing plants. The amount to be paid for the right-of-way was not disclosed.

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

Today: NY Deadline Day for Comments on New Drilling Regs
January 11, 2012January 11, 2012

Today is the latest deadline from New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens to file comments on New York’s proposed new drilling rules, known as the SGEIS. Yesterday, both pro- and anti-drilling groups descended on Albany with thousands of letters of support (or opposition). Prior to yesterday the DEC reported having received over 20,000 written statements. That number, after yesterday, is likely to double.

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Accidents | Bradford County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

Fracking Fluid Spill in Bradford PA Result of Sabotage
January 11, 2012January 11, 2012

According to police reports, between midnight and 8:30 am early Tuesday, someone intentionally tampered with a tank on a well pad in Bradford County, PA, resulting in a spill of up to 20,000 gallons of fracking wastewater. Fortunately the wastewater was contained in a plastic liner designed for just such a scenario. There are no reports that the wastewater escaped the containment area. PA State Police are investigating.

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Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

PLCA Says Teamsters “Misstate Facts” on Pipeline Strike
January 11, 2012January 11, 2012

An update on the Teamsters’ strike that has brought Marcellus Shale pipeline construction to a halt in several locations. On Jan. 3, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) announced that as many as 700 pipeline construction workers were preparing to strike against the Pipe Line Contractors Association (PLCA) over a contract that originally expired in January 2011 but was extended until Dec. 31, 2011 (see this MDN story). The Teamsters said the PLCA “wants to force Teamsters into a 401(k) savings plan and ultimately eliminate all traditional defined benefit pensions.”

The PLCA has responded with their side of the story. Their response? The Teamsters “misstate the facts” of the dispute (i.e., they’re lying). The PLCA says they do not want to end traditional defined benefit pensions, and that if the PLCA were to put retirement benefits into the new pension fund preferred by the Teamsters, it would put workers’ retirement at risk as the new fund (like the old one in dispute) is nearing insolvency without a government bailout.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Marcellus Shale Gas Fuels PA Hotel Industry Growth
January 11, 2012January 11, 2012

An analysis of hotel occupancy rates in northeast Pennsylvania by PKF Consulting, published on Hotel Online, shows the huge impact Marcellus Shale gas drilling is having in the region. PKF reports that revenue per available room (RevPAR) has grown at an annual rate of 14.8 percent from 2007 to 2011. Additionally, the average daily room rate (ADR) has grown a “remarkable” 7.8 percent annually during the same period. Compare PA’s northeast Marcellus hotels with national averages for the same period, which were 1.7 percent RevPAR and 0.7 percent ADR.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD | Taxation

MD Marcellus Shale Commission’s First Report Issued
January 10, 2012January 10, 2012

The first of three reports due from the Maryland Marcellus Shale Safe Drilling Initiative Advisory Commission has just been issued. A copy of the 46-page report—about how to tax and sue the drilling industry—is embedded below. It’s interesting reading.

On June 6, 2011, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley signed an Executive Order establishing the Marcellus Shale Safe Drilling Initiative, which includes an Advisory Commission with 13 members to assist the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in a multi-year study of potential Marcellus Shale drilling in the state. “In the state” actually means just two western counties where there is Marcellus Shale: Allegany and Garrett.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

NYT: Kerfuffle Among Anti-Drilling Groups in New York
January 10, 2012January 10, 2012

A surprisingly balanced article in the New York Times yesterday takes a look at the anti-drilling movement in New York State. The article, written by Peter Applebome, focuses on the “divide” in the anti-drilling movement between those who want strict drilling laws in New York versus those who want to ban drilling outright.

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Supreme Court’s Indecision on Local Regulation of Drilling
January 10, 2012January 10, 2012

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Friday declined to hear a four-year-old case over how much leeway local municipalities have in regulating drilling within their borders. Does the court’s refusal to hear the case mean local governments will have more, or less, latitude than they do now? Depends on who you ask.

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

EPA Promises Water for Dimock PA, Reneges 24 Hours Later
January 9, 2012January 9, 2012

The news out of Dimock, PA is coming so fast and furious, it’s hard to keep track of it all. First, a brief background on the situation in Dimock, the context you almost never read in the mainstream media:

In 2008, Cabot Oil & Gas drilled a number of Marcellus Shale gas wells in Dimock Township in Pennsylvania, a rural area in the northeastern part of the state, in Susquehanna County. Homeowners located along the Carter Road area noticed high levels of methane in their drinking water. After an investigation by the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the DEP fined Cabot in 2009 stating that Cabot’s operations in the area caused methane to migrate into a local water aquifer serving anywhere from 13 to 19 houses, depending on the changing storyline.

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

New Cases of Methane Water Well Contamination by Cabot in PA
January 9, 2012January 9, 2012

Three private water wells in Lenox Township (Susquehanna County), PA have been contaminated with methane from nearby Marcellus Shale drilling done by Cabot Oil & Gas according to the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Cabot has installed methane detection alarms in the three homes and has vented the affected wells.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

EPA “May” Start Testing Dimock, PA Water in 2 Weeks
January 6, 2012January 6, 2012

Earlier this week, MDN reported that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an agency prone to overstep its legal authority, is once again nosing around Dimock, PA (see this MDN story). After writing to tell Carter Road residents in the Dimock area that their drinking water was just fine on Dec. 2 of last year, they reversed course last week and expressed concerns over “gaps” in water testing data. Now it seems that the EPA themselves will conduct their own tests of water in Dimock.

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