Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson made a passing reference to natural gas and hydraulic fracturing at a Congressional hearing last week. Both anti- and pro-drilling supporters felt she leaned in their respective direction. Here is what has been reported about her comments:
Read More “EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Likes Natural Gas, But Isn’t So Sure About Fracking”
Columnist Bill Hammond in the New York Daily News has some advice for his fellow New Yorkers: Stop freaking about fracking. In a column published Tuesday, Hammond says, among other things:
Road damage from truck traffic to Marcellus Shale drilling sites has overwhelmed the West Virginia Department of Highways (DOH) ability to respond, according to one DOH official.
Read More “Road Damage from Gas Drilling in WV Overwhelms Highway Department”
In an interesting development, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has sent along marching orders to the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to complete the next version of the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS)—the new guidelines to be used in drilling in the Marcellus Shale in New York—by July 1st. The previous deadline was a soft deadline issued by former Gov. David Paterson of “on or about June 1st.” The new deadline issued by Cuomo is July 1st—no waffling. Cuomo has also instructed the DEC to visit a well blowout site in Bradford County, PA to see what can be learned and incorporated into the final document from that accident.
The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry has just released new employment data and with it, the number of people hired in the past 12 months to work in the Marcellus Shale drilling industry. And the numbers are startling:
Read More “PA Hires 48,000 People in Past 12 Months to Work in Marcellus Shale Drilling Industry”
The new wealth that leasing and drilling in the Marcellus Shale brings on, can also bring on a new set of challenges for landowners, many of whom are farmers who have struggled to pay the bills for years.
A case in point are the issues faced when there are multiple owners of a family farm, as told by Stuart “Buzz” Hutchison, an estate and trust attorney:
Read More “Money Problems for Landowners with Marcellus Shale Lease & Royalty Payments”
When the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently told Marcellus Shale drillers in the state to stop hauling wastewater from fracking to municipal sewage treatment plants that are not equipped to fully treat the wastewater by May 19 (see MDN story here), they all committed to comply and indeed did comply. But the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jumped in and demanded detailed plans from six drillers as to just how they planned on treating and disposing of the wastewater once the they stopped using the municipal plants.
The EPA’s deadline for the six drillers to file plans was Wednesday, May 25. Five of the six complied by the deadline:
Read More “PA Drillers Comply with Federal EPA’s Request for Information on Wastewater Disposal”
Wilkes University held a Marcellus Shale drilling forum on Wednesday. According to press reports, the upshot of the meeting was that it will not be impossible, but will certainly be difficult, to get a consensus on natural gas drilling that uses horizontal hydraulic fracturing. Read an excellent roundup of the meeting by clicking the link below.
One bit of information offered during the meeting is interesting to note:
Dominion Transmission, the pipeline transport subsidiary of energy giant Dominion, is being sued over a lease deal in Preston County, West Virginia signed in 1955. Dominion drilled a single well in 1959 which let it retain rights to develop more wells in the future in perpetuity. According to the lawsuit, Dominion assigned the lease rights to its subsidiary Dominion Transmission with plans to someday use the geological formations of the land as a natural gas storage field. Such activity would yield no royalties for the landowners who want to nullify the lease and find someone who will actually drill gas wells on the property, specifically tapping the Marcellus Shale.
A somewhat technical, but informative article on how hydraulic fracturing technology is getting more environmentally friendly was recently published in Drilling Contractor. Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, Weatherford International, GasFrac Energy Services, Universal Well Services and Frac Tech Services went on the record with Drilling Contractor about the environmental aspects of hydraulic fracturing and “green” developments.
From the introduction of the article we see the critical role fracking plays in natural gas development:
Read More “Technology Advances Lead to “Greener” Hydraulic Fracturing”
The Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia has just kicked off a new advertising campaign to educate the public to the benefits of natural gas drilling in the state.
Read More “WV Natural Gas Industry Already Employs 35K People with Average Salaries of $60K”
Two of the worlds largest energy companies have made major investments in shale gas. Exxon Mobil made a $35 billion investment when it bought XTO in 2010. Exxon’s goal is to double U.S. natural gas output in the next ten years. Chevron has concentrated its investment specifically in the Marcellus Shale with the $3 billion purchase of Atlas Energy and a large acreage deal with Chief Oil & Gas. Chevron expects to increase its output of gas seven-fold in the next few years.
But investors in each of these energy giants want “more disclosure” on the so-called environmental risks involved with horizontal hydraulic fracturing, as witnessed at their annual meetings yesterday:
A few months ago, the New York Times published a series of articles alleging that Pennsylvania’s waterways may contain radioactivity because Marcellus Shale drilling wastewater had been treated and discharged into streams and rivers in the state. The articles created a good deal of fear that drinking water supplies have been polluted in Pennsylvania.
A local union in West Virginia is set to protest natural gas transmission facilities owned by Dominion over the issue of jobs and out-of-state workers being brought in to build new pipelines in the Wetzel County.
In a press release issued yesterday, Chesapeake Energy announced it is working on 14 different roadway repair projects in Bradford and Sullivan Counties in Northeastern Pennsylvania due to be completed this summer.
Read More “Chesapeake Energy Repairing 14 Roadways in Northeastern PA This Summer”
Forced pooling is the concept that forces landowners to allow drilling under their property if enough of their neighbors have signed leases. Many people (PA Gov. Tom Corbett and MDN among them) think it’s not a good idea—calling it the equivalent of “private eminent domain.” But the reality is, it does widely exist. In fact, forced pooling exists (by various names) in all of the Marcellus Shale states except Maryland.
In New York and Pennsylvania its called compulsory integration. In West Virginia its called mandatory pooling, and in Virginia its called compulsory pooling. So when you hear those terms bandied about, it means “forced pooling.” A special note: Forced pooling provisions in both Pennsylvania and West Virginia do not (yet) apply to Marcellus Shale drilling, but proponents are trying to make it happen in those states.
Read More “Forced Pooling for Landowners in the Marcellus Shale Region”