Regulation

Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Sen Inhofe Takes Helm of EPW, Targets EPA, Endangered Species Act
January 8, 2015January 8, 2015

The cavalry has just arrived! Very good news: U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe, Republican from the great state of Oklahoma, will be the new chairman of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW). Top on Inhofe’s agenda is to reign in an out-of-control Environmental Protection Agency, and clamp down on the nonsense and abuse of the Endangered Species Act. Both of those things, plus others (like beating back an effort to redefine “waters of the United States” to include everything but mud puddles), will benefit the shale drilling industry in the northeast and beyond. At MDN HQ we’re doing the happy dance that Inhofe is at the helm of the EPW! Here’s the announcement, which sets out Inhofe’s focus and agenda…
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Health Impacts | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Marcellus Shale Health Advisory Panel Proposed, Again
January 7, 2015January 7, 2015

State Sen. Joe Scarnati, Republican and President Pro Tempore of the PA Senate, says he will reintroduce a bill to form a Marcellus Shale health advisory panel. This is the second time Scarnati has pushed the concept (went nowhere in the last session). The panel would have nine members and would consider available research and provide expert guidance and opinion to PA elected officials, regulators and the general public. The problem is, Scarnati’s plan calls for half (four) of the nine panel members to be politicians, including Scarnati himself. Seems to us if the intent is to get at the science and offer untainted advice, you need to remove the politicians from the mix…
Read More “PA Marcellus Shale Health Advisory Panel Proposed, Again”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide NY | Statewide PA | Williams

Earthjustice, Others Ask FERC to Reconsider Constitution Pipeline
January 7, 2015January 7, 2015

Thank God the Constitution Pipeline is fully authorized and permitted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see FERC Issues Final Approval for Constitution Pipeline in PA/NY). We still have to sit through nutty anti-drillers parading before the microphones at New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) hearings about the Constitution–but that should be just a formality. At least we hope it’s a formality–one never knows with anti-drillers like Joe Martens helming the DEC. It shouldn’t be long now before the backhoes start digging. But what’s that we hear in the distance? The hyena yapping of far-left environmentalist wackos? Yep. Earthjustice, Sierra Clubbers, Catskill Mountainkeeper and other anti-drilling groups have asked FERC to reconsider their permitting of the Constitution, telling FERC they didn’t do their job right…
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Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Rally Fires Up Landowners to Fight Cuomo Frack Ban
January 6, 2015January 6, 2015

New York landowners assembled in downtown Binghamton, NY at the Holiday Inn yesterday to attend a protest rally organized by the 70,000-member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY). The crowd at the rally was enormous–at least 500 people (perhaps more) who filled a banquet hall and spilled out into the corridor. The crowd was fired up and ready to do something to counter Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decision to ban fracking in the Empire State. MDN editor Jim Willis was there and witnessed something he has not previously witnessed: conservative, quiet, “salt of the earth” farmers and landowners were mad and loud and noisy and they wanted Gov. Cuomo to hear it. It seems Gov. Cuomo has stirred up a sleeping giant and that giant is now on the move. The one question on everyone’s mind at the meeting, What can we do now?…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Butler County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Rex Energy

Martian Update: Principal Doesn’t want Rex Drilling Near his Home
January 5, 2015January 5, 2015

Between Christmas and New Year, Middlesex Township (Butler County), PA held the second of what may be up to five hearings on the already-granted permits for Rex Energy to drill five wells on a single well pad in the township. You may recall that two agitating “environmental” groups–headquartered on the other side of the state, in the Philadelphia area–along with four parents from the Mars School District, filed an appeal of the legal and legitimate permits granted by the state Dept. of Environmental Protection to Rex in September (see Rex Drilling Operation Near Mars School Put on Hold). The first hearing was held in November and the antis (as they always do) droned on for more than four hours (see Martians & Enviro Groups Continue to Block Rex Drilling in W PA). They continued their whine-fest on Dec. 29th with another five hours of mind-numbing sameness–drilling will kill us, drilling will pollute Mother Earth, yada yada yada. The main excuse is that drilling 3/4 of a mile from a local school will harm the kiddies. No mention that at least two school districts in the state, one close to Mars, has allowed drilling ON SCHOOL PROPERTY with no harm to the kiddies in those districts. At the hearing on the 29th, we get the REAL story behind the (ab)using of children as an excuse. One of the Mars School District principals lives near the drill pad and he opposes drilling near his expensive new home…
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Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation

Feds Eye Regulating Local Natgas Gathering Pipelines
January 5, 2015January 5, 2015

Is it a good idea for the federal government to start regulating local natural gas gathering pipelines? We can debate whether or not it’s good to have more federal encroachment on the states, but at the end of the day, it may be academic because the feds intend to do it. The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has been studying the issue of local gathering line regulations since 2011 and will, later this year, propose new regulations (i.e. un-legislated laws). Although new regulations may be coming from the PHMSA, it’s not clear to us who (which agency, federal or state) would enforce those new regulations. Likely state regulators would enforce the new regulations…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Obama Sec of Interior Says Frack Bans ‘Wrong Way to Go’
January 5, 2015January 5, 2015

President Obama’s Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell, told a PBS reporter she thinks fracking bans, like those passed by several California towns and by the state of New York, are “the wrong way to go.” She says, in so many words, that fear-mongering results in bad laws, like frack bans. Needless to say, anti-drilling zealots are not pleased that Jewell, who happens to be a former petroleum engineer (someone with a brain who knows what she’s talking about), has popped their pretentious bubble and questioned their fear-mongering tactics…
Read More “Obama Sec of Interior Says Frack Bans ‘Wrong Way to Go’”
Alternative Energy | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY: Forget Shale Methane, Tap Organic Waste (i.e. Poop) Instead
January 5, 2015January 5, 2015

We had to pick ourselves up off the floor after laughing so hard at the latest machinations to be turned out by the in-the-tank-for-Andrew-Cuomo and left-of-Vlad-Putin Albany Times Union. The TU recently ran a commentary piece by the anti-drilling “Energy Vision” organization that, we kid you not, says forget about evil, nasty fossil fuel methane. Instead, we need to start using “renewable” methane–from poop…
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Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Reminder: NY Landowner Frack Ban Protest Today in Binghamton, NY
January 5, 2015January 5, 2015

A quick reminder from the Central New York (CNY) Landowner Coalition–perhaps the largest of the member coalitions that belong to the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY)–that today, Jan. 5, there is a mass protest scheduled in Binghamton, NY to send the message very loud and very clear to Gov. Andrew Cuomo that he screwed up big-time with his politically-based decision to ban fracking in the Empire State. Here’s the details for the protest:
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

Anti Groups Ask FERC to Stop Construction on Cove Point LNG Plant
December 31, 2014December 31, 2014

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recently concluded a years-long process of evaluating all of the ins and outs, environmental and otherwise, for the proposed LNG (liquefied natural gas) export facility in Cove Point, Maryland. FERC decided, after years of research, untold thousands of comments and hundreds of hours of testimony, to approve the project (see Dominion Gets Final Fed Approval to Build Cove Point LNG Plant). Dominion has since broken ground and is actively building the new plant. So what do the environmental extremists from the Allegheny Defense Project (ADP) and Wild Virginia, people who hate fossil fuels, do? They tell FERC, “You didn’t do your job right, stop Dominion’s construction until we can file a lawsuit to block the project.” Before ADP and Wild Virginia can file a lawsuit, they must first get a “rehearing” with FERC, something they’ve requested. FERC takes its time with these things, and the groups are afraid Dominion’s construction will get far enough along that the project can’t be stopped. So ADP and Wild Virginia are asking FERC to temporarily stop the Dominion project until the rehearing, the inevitable ruling in favor of Dominion, and then a newly-minted lawsuit can be filed in federal court. In other words, ADP and Wild Virginia want FERC to help them stack the deck against Dominion. FERC isn’t playing along…
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Bradford County | Health Impacts | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Research | Statewide NY | Statewide PA

PA Public Health Expert Destroys NY Health Study, Frack Ban
December 30, 2014December 30, 2014

The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) is a 70,000-member group of frustrated landowners who have had their Constitutional property rights stripped away by a spineless governor. In an effort to get the truth out about shale drilling and its affects–both good and bad–the JLCNY has taken to the airways with a periodic (every 3-4 weeks) radio program that airs Sunday evenings for an hour on Binghamton’s WNBF 1290 AM radio station. This past Sunday night the latest program aired and it was a must-listen program. The special guest was Dr. Theodore Them, MD, MS, PhD, MPH. Dr. Them is a specialist in environmental medicine working at Guthrie, the 19th largest health care system in the United States. Dr. Them lives in Bradford County, PA, within five miles of 100+ Marcellus Shale gas wells. Dr. Them was on the program to discuss the so-called “health impacts” report recently delivered by New York State Commissioner of Health Dr. Howard Zucker (see After 6+ Years, Andrew Cuomo Bans Fracking in New York). Dr. Them, in our considered opinion, completely destroyed the “findings” in Zucker’s report. We have the full one-hour program below for your listening edification…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion | Regulation | Statewide NY

Q Poll: Majority of New Yorkers Support Cuomo’s Frack Ban
December 29, 2014December 29, 2014

If we New Yorkers are ever to one day see shale drilling and fracking in the Empire State, we must face the truth squarely in the face. We must be willing to admit to ourselves what the facts are (relative to the PR war we are in) and move on from there. A Quinnipiac University poll conducted shortly after Gov. Cuomo’s ignominious decision to ban fracking throws a bucket of cold water in our collective faces and is a wake-up call for those of us who support drilling (which is the correct and righteous position on this issue). The poll, conducted statewide, shows that NY state voters approve of Cuomo’s decision to ban fracking by a margin of 55% to 25% who oppose his decision. Republicans, sadly, support his decision by 42% with 40% opposed, and Democrats are simply in lock-step mode (they don’t think for themselves anymore, too much hassle): they support the man-child’s decision by 67% to 11% against the decision. Not one single party, gender, age or regional group had a majority that disapproved of Cuomo’s decision to ban fracking. That’s the bad news. Here’s the good news…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH

Water Withdrawals from Creeks Next Point of Attack for Antis in OH?
December 29, 2014December 29, 2014

Are water withdrawals the next point of attack for anti-drillers in Ohio? Perhaps. We noticed an interesting story where a pair of elected Democrats (one from the Ohio House, one from the Ohio Senate) are making noise about the drilling industry’s unrestricted right to withdraw water from creeks as long as they report it to the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR). The Dem politicians seem to be saying they would like to slap a new law in place to limit (or disallow) water withdrawals…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

WashPo: NY Gov Cuomo “Ignoble”; Wrong on Frack Ban
December 29, 2014December 29, 2014

The Washington Post, one of the more liberal newspapers in the country and self-appointed arbiter of national news, released an editorial (penned by their very own reporters/editors) that floored us. The Post editorial says fracking is OK when done right, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo screwed up with his decision to ban fracking. Duck down! Was that a flock of pigs flying by?…
Read More “WashPo: NY Gov Cuomo “Ignoble”; Wrong on Frack Ban”
Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Landowners Fight Back Against Cuomo Frack Ban, Rally on Jan 5
December 24, 2014December 24, 2014

Two important bits of news for New York landowners–a group not broken and not cowed by the likes of Andrew Cuomo. First, the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) is hosting an important radio show on Sunday, Dec. 28 with special guest Dr. Gilbert Ross from the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). Dr. Ross will debunk the sorry, lame excuses offered by NY State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker and his so-called report on fracking. Second, the JLCNY has put the word out that they will hold a rally at the Holiday Inn Arena in Binghamton, NY on Monday, Jan. 5 at 4 pm. The JLCNY needs every pro-driller and family member who can, to attend. Details below on both…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH | Wastewater

OH Anti Group Wants EPA to Suspend ODNR Injection Well Oversight
December 24, 2014December 24, 2014

Whenever anti-drillers in a given state don’t like how the state environmental authority is doing its job, they run to the federal government like a petulant child clinging to its mother’s skirt. “Mommy, mommy! Johnny hurt my feelings!” Such is the case with Ohio Citizen Action (OCA), an anti-drilling group that is accusing the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) of falling down on the job when it comes to regulating injection wells–wells used to dispose of frack wastewater. OCA’s demand? That the federal EPA suspend ODNR’s oversight of the injection well program in Ohio and that the feds move in and take over. OCA used 16 untrained volunteers (activists), gave them mountains of official paperwork from the ODNR archive, and armed each of them with yellow highlighters. The 16 untrained volunteer activists found every reference they could of what they say is incompetence and malfeasance by the ODNR, stitched it all together in a “report” (full copy below), and are now calling on Mommy EPA to “do something” about it…
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