Regulation

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

Reaction to NY High Court’s Ill-fated Decision to Allow Town Bans
July 1, 2014July 1, 2014

Yesterday MDN brought you the sad news that New York’s highest court has sided with towns giving them the right to completely ban shale drilling (see Shale Drilling in NY is Over – High Court Upholds Town Bans). Today we bring you reaction from several New York pro-drilling groups, along with quotes from others, both for and against drilling. This is a really bid deal–a “10” on the news scale. So we need to devote some time to reactions to the court’s ill-fated decision…
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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Portage County | Regulation | Wastewater

Anti-Drillers Try to Close Portage County, OH Injection Well
July 1, 2014July 1, 2014

Two anti-drilling groups–Concerned Citizens of Ohio and the the Virginia-based Center for Health, Environment and Justice–have filed a reckless complaint with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency alleging an injection well in Portage County, OH has been illegally accepting millions of gallons of frack wastewater. The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) disagrees. Here’s a breakdown of the situation and the claims and counter claims…
Read More “Anti-Drillers Try to Close Portage County, OH Injection Well”
Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Norse Energy | Regulation | Statewide NY

Shale Drilling in NY is Over – High Court Upholds Town Bans
June 30, 2014June 30, 2014

This is a very sad day indeed. We’ve just received word that New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, has reaffirmed two lower court rulings that allows entire townships in the state to strip away property owners’ rights to allow drilling, in contravention to the U.S. Constitution. The two cases, long chronicled here on MDN, are the “Middlefield” and “Dryden” cases (see NY Pro-Drillers File Final Briefs in Dryden/Middlefield Cases for background). What does it mean? In our opinion it means there will never be any meaningful shale drilling in New York. No driller in his right mind will roll the dice, lock up thousands of acres by spending millions of dollars, just to see it all disappear at the next town board election with a vote by 3 of 5 people. What a complete and utter tragedy this is for freedom-loving Americans who happen to live in the increasingly communistic state of New York. Below is a copy of the decision…
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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Washington County

Peters Twp Continues to Plot and Plan to Stop Drilling
June 30, 2014February 3, 2015

Peters Township (in Washington County, PA) is one of the seven selfish townships that sued the state and eventually won to dismantle large and important pieces of the Act 13 Marcellus drilling law (see Lawsuit Filed: PA Towns Sue State over Marcellus Act 13 Law and PA Supreme Court Rules Against State/Drillers in Act 13 Case). Peters continues to meet and plot how they can further undermine drilling in their township, even after winning the Act 13 lawsuit…
Read More “Peters Twp Continues to Plot and Plan to Stop Drilling”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Another PA Senate Bill Seeks to Help Conventional O&G Drillers
June 30, 2014June 30, 2014

MDN recently reported on legislation making headway in Pennsylvania that would split regulations between conventional and unconventional oil and gas operators in the state (see PA Legislation to Split Conventional/Unconventional Regs Advances). A second PA Senate bill, SB1310, is also making its way through the legislative process. MDN views 1310 as a “helper bill” for SB1378. SB1310 would create a new group called the Pennsylvania Grade Crude Development Advisory Council that would be composed of 17 members (yes, it already sounds bloated) to “assist” the PA Secretary of the Dept. of Environment Protection. Assist the secretary with what?…
Read More “Another PA Senate Bill Seeks to Help Conventional O&G Drillers”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Athens County | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Ohio | Regulation | Wastewater

Athens, OH Anti-Drillers Lose Appeal to Stop Injection Well
June 27, 2014June 27, 2014

In January of this year, the anti-drilling Athens County Fracking Action Network (ACFAN) filed a legal challenge to the permit issued by the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) that approved a new injection well in Athens County (see Athens County, OH Anti-Drillers Sue to Stop New Injection Well). Earlier this month the Ohio Oil & Gas Commission, the organization that hears such appeals, dismissed the appeal by ACFAN…
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Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Wastewater

Will NJ Gov Christie Veto Frack Wastewater Ban a 2nd Time?
June 27, 2014June 27, 2014

In September 2012 the New Jersey legislature passed a bill that would ban New Jersey from accepting and processing wastewater from the Marcellus Shale. Gov. Chris Christie vetoed the measure (see NJ Gov. Christie Vetoes Frack Wastewater Ban Bill). The NJ legislature yesterday just “opps, I did it again” passed another bill–essentially the same as the one from two years ago–and has sent it on to Gov. Christie. Will he sign it this time?…
Read More “Will NJ Gov Christie Veto Frack Wastewater Ban a 2nd Time?”
Crestwood Midstream | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Inergy | New York | NGLs | Regulation | Statewide NY

JLCNY to Cuomo: Authorize Seneca Propane Storage Facility
June 27, 2014June 27, 2014

For years MDN has told you about the proposed Inergy (now Crestwood Midstream) plan to open a badly needed underground propane storage facility along the shore of Seneca Lake in New York–in an already depleted salt mining cavern. In March 2013, 12 virulent anti-drilling protesters were arrested for blocking access to the facility–a facility that hasn’t yet been fitted for propane (see NY Protesters Arrested for Blocking NatGas Storage Facility). We’ve also pointed out New Yorkers pay nosebleed rates for propane because our governor refuses to permit the facility (see Northeast Propane Shortage – Andrew Cuomo Partially to Blame). There is a new effort under way to get some action on the Seneca propane storage facility from the 70,000-member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Legislation to Split Conventional/Unconventional Regs Advances
June 26, 2014June 26, 2014

In early May three Pennsylvania Republican legislators said they would introduce new legislation to separate regulations for conventional (vertical only) and unconventional (shale) drilling in the state (see New PA Bill Would Separate Conventional/Unconventional Regulations). The intent is to plug some holes, they say exist, in the relatively new Act 13 law that makes small mom-and-pop drillers who sink only vertical wells adhere to regulations meant for big shale drillers. The bills were introduced and they’re now receiving attention and we’d say even likely to pass…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA’s PUC Pro-Drilling Chairman Powelson Leads Mid-Atlantic Group
June 26, 2014June 26, 2014

MDN told you a month ago that the anti-drilling StateImpact Pennsylvania (PBS “reporters”) had claimed another scalp in their anti-drilling campaign by forcing PA Public Utilities Commission chairman Rob Powelson to resign from the Greater Philadelphia Energy Action Team–a Chamber of Commerce organization aimed at promoting business and all forms of energy in the state (see StateImpact PA Claims Another Scalp for their Anti-Drilling Wall). We’re happy to report Powelson has come roaring back. He’s strongly pro-Marcellus drilling and he’s just been sworn in as President of the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners (MACRUC). It’s good to have a pro-driller in charge of MACRUC…
Read More “PA’s PUC Pro-Drilling Chairman Powelson Leads Mid-Atlantic Group”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Group Says EPA “Kill Coal” Regs Not Enough – Kill Natgas Too
June 25, 2014June 25, 2014

Sad and predictable. That’s how we label an article/press release published by the certifiably insane anti-drillers at the Catskill Citizens for (So-Called) Safe Energy. Their latest tirade is against the federal Environmental Protection Agency. You may recall the EPA recently declared war on electricity in this country (see Obama’s Climate Madness Metastasizes – EPA Kills Coal Electricity). It seems the Obama EPA’s plan to destroy electricity in this country by requiring a 30% reduction in carbon emissions (the stuff you breathe out with every breath) from electric plants isn’t good enough for the brainiacs at Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy. They want to drive the nail all the way in the coffin and take everyone back to the stone ages…
Read More “NY Group Says EPA “Kill Coal” Regs Not Enough – Kill Natgas Too”
Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Regulation

Supreme Court Tells EPA: You Can’t Just Rewrite Law
June 24, 2014June 24, 2014

One of the Obama administration’s favorite tactics to do illegal end-runs around Congress (remember–Congress writes the laws, the President enforces them) is to have rogue agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency claim sweeping powers under older/existing laws. Like the Clean Air Act. Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court yanked on the EPA’s leash pretty hard and said, “Heal boy, sit down.” The EPA tried to simply rewrite a law passed by Congress in how the agency treats so-called greenhouse gases. The EPA didn’t like what Congress wrote, so they rewrote it. The justices said, “No, you can’t do that,” to the EPA. However, as Justice Antonin Scalia pointed out from the bench, the EPA still got almost all of what it wanted in this decision…
Read More “Supreme Court Tells EPA: You Can’t Just Rewrite Law”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Otsego County | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide NY | Williams

Save the Bald Eagles in NY! Next Hurdle for Constitution Pipeline
June 24, 2014June 24, 2014

You’ve heard of save the whales, save the snail darters, and maybe even save the tree bats (see Natgas Jumps Thru Hoops for Bats While Solar Farm Torches Turtles). The latest anti-drilling faux excuse for stopping the already-authorized, permitted and public hearing’d to death Constitution Pipeline in upstate New York is, yes, save the American bald eagle! We learn from the anti-drilling Oneonta Star that bald eagles are rather discriminating. They don’t mind traffic noise from a busy interstate highway less than a half mile from their nests–but if Williams happens to do a little blasting of bedrock so they can lay pipe–that will scare the bald eagles right out of their tail feathers…
Read More “Save the Bald Eagles in NY! Next Hurdle for Constitution Pipeline”
Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Royalty Bill 1684 Off the Agenda, Likely for Rest of 2014
June 20, 2014June 20, 2014

Pennsylvania landowners can and should be angry with the Republican-controlled PA House of Representatives. Word has just come that an important royalty bill–HB 1684–is now on the “back burner” until fall. Fall is the height of the election season and you know darned well nothing will get done on the bill at that point–so for all intents the bill is dead for this year. Which is a shame. What is HB 1684? Our shorthand name for the bill is the “stop Chesapeake Energy from screwing landowners out of their royalties” bill…
Read More “PA Royalty Bill 1684 Off the Agenda, Likely for Rest of 2014”
Accidents | Carrizo Oil & Gas | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Wyoming County (PA)

PA DEP Fines Carrizo $192K for 2 Incidents in Wyoming County
June 19, 2014June 19, 2014

In Mach 2013 Carrizo Oil & Gas was fracking a Marcellus Shale well in Wyoming County, PA when they lost control of the well and wastewater and brine started coming out of the well faster than they could handle it–about 800 gallons a minute. Eventually about 200,000 gallons of wastewater and brine overflowed at the site (see Carrizo Problem Fracking NE PA Well, Evacuates 3 Nearby Families). About a month later, after investigating the damage, the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) allowed Carrizo to resume their fracking and drilling operations in that area (see Carrizo Resumes Fracking at Site of Spill in Wyoming County, PA). It’s now more than a year later and the DEP has just handed Carrizo a $192,044 fine for failing to keep control of the well, which resulted “in environmental degradation and the evacuation of citizens from their homes.” The fine also covers a second, much smaller incident that happened in April 2013…
Read More “PA DEP Fines Carrizo $192K for 2 Incidents in Wyoming County”
Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Washington County

Court Says Range Resources Must Disclose Chemicals in SW PA
June 19, 2014June 19, 2014

Three families who live near a former drill site and frack wastewater impoundment at the Yeager Marcellus Shale site in Washington County, PA sued Range Resources in May 2012 claiming the air they breathe and the water they drink had been contaminated by Range’s operation at the site (see EPA Investigating Range Drill Site in Western PA). Litigation ensued, and years passed. In November of last year, County Judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca gave Range and its contractors 30 days to cough up a list of all the chemicals ever used at the site, right down to the kind of oil used in the engines of vehicles visiting the site (see PA Judge Forces Range, Contractors to Provide Chemical List). That didn’t happen because Range appealed. Last week Range lost the appeal…
Read More “Court Says Range Resources Must Disclose Chemicals in SW PA”