Regulation

Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | UGI Energy Services | Wyoming County (PA)

UGI Victory: Judge Rules in Favor Marcellus Gate Station in NE PA
September 3, 2013September 3, 2013

MDN told you back in April about UGI’s (a Scranton-area public utility) plan to build a new pipeline connector–called a gate station–so they could tap into abundant, cheap and locally produced Marcellus Shale gas to sell to its customers. UGI’s plan will lower the gas bill for thousands of its customers and use local Marcellus gas instead of gas piped in from the Gulf Coast. Fantastically, some hardened anti-drillers opposed the new gate station with claims of air pollution, dire consequences, blah blah–the usual banal excuses–even though there has been another gate station operating in the area for more than 50 years (see Anti-Drillers Try to Stop Pipeline Connector in NE PA).

Anti-drillers tried to stop the UGI gate station by invoking local zoning ordinances at the town level. Fortunately, a level-headed administrative law judge has put a stop to those efforts and has ruled that UGI may go ahead and build the new Marcellus gas gate station…
Read More “UGI Victory: Judge Rules in Favor Marcellus Gate Station in NE PA”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

ASTM Intl Announces Proposed Standard for Shale Oil/Gas Fracking
September 3, 2013September 3, 2013

There’s no end of governmental, quasi-governmental and private organizations that want to impose some sort of regulation on fracking. From the federal EPA on down, they all want to get their licks in. Regulation (at the state level) is of course absolutely necessary. Strong regulations to protect citizens and the environment is a must–and the responsibility for doing it lies solely with the states as a matter of Constitutional law. As for the plethora of other would-be regulators? Not needed. But that doesn’t stop them from trying anyway.

The latest organization to toss their hat in the fracking regulation ring is ASTM International–formerly known as the American Society for Testing and Materials. A very fine organization with superb standards used by many industries. However, they’re now working on a proposed standard and “best practices” for shale oil and gas drilling and fracking. We have to ask: Is it really needed?
Read More “ASTM Intl Announces Proposed Standard for Shale Oil/Gas Fracking”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Anti-Drillers Attempt a Brave Face with NY Appeals Court Decision
August 30, 2013August 30, 2013

MDN was one of the first news/blog sites yesterday to break the news that the New York Court of Appeals has decided to hear the Dryden and Middlefield appeals. This is the best possible news landowners could receive (see BREAKING: NY Court of Appeals will Hear Dryden/Middlefield Case). As promised, below is MDN’s explanation of why we believe the Court of Appeals decision is the single most positive development NY landowners have had in several years (not hyperbole!).

However, before our analysis, some background on yesterday’s decision as given by an objective news source (the Wall Street Journal) and by a not-so-objective news source (the Albany Times Union)…
Read More “Anti-Drillers Attempt a Brave Face with NY Appeals Court Decision”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

RINO NY Sen Greg Ball Comes Out in Favor of Fracking…Sort of
August 30, 2013

Anti-drilling New York State Sen. Greg Ball (a Republican-In-Name-Only from Putnam County), perhaps sensing his next election prospects slipping away, has had a conversion of sorts to becoming a teeny, tiny little bit pro-drilling. In January 2012, Ball introduced a bill that would extend New York’s fracking moratorium until June 1st of this year (Bill to Extend Fracking Moratorium until 2013 Hits NY Senate). Obviously the law didn’t pass and wasn’t even needed. However, it showed the true colors of Greg Ball. Now he’s “seen the light,” supposedly…

Ball “came out” yesterday with an editorial published on his website and picked up by several media outlets. Here is his explanation for his change of heart and new-found, lukewarm, conditional support for fracking in NY:
Read More “RINO NY Sen Greg Ball Comes Out in Favor of Fracking…Sort of”
Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Norse Energy | Regulation | Statewide NY

Norse Energy 2Q13: Concerned About Remaining ‘a Going Concern’
August 30, 2013August 30, 2013

MDN told you a few days ago about the sad state of affairs at Norse Energy (see Norse Can’t Dump NY Leases at Auction, Creditors Get Ready to Sue). The company released their second quarter update today (full copy embedded below). The update is based on the assumption the company will remain “a going concern.” They state that if they can’t sell their 130,000 acres of New York leases at a decent price, they’ll have to turn the lights off and walk away. The company is currently under bankruptcy protection and has been ordered to sell their last remaining asset–the leases.

One item from the 2Q13 update that caught our attention is that a group of approximately 60 landowners with a collective 6,000 acres are suing Norse to end their leases. Norse had invoked force majeure on the leases–a legal maneuver that states, roughly, “due to a circumstance beyond our control we’re extending the original lease term.” Of course the unforeseen circumstance is the now 5+ year moratorium on drilling in New York. If Norse starts losing already-signed leases left and right, they’ll have no assets left to sell at auction, so they are vigorously fighting the action by the landowners…
Read More “Norse Energy 2Q13: Concerned About Remaining ‘a Going Concern’”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

BREAKING: NY Court of Appeals will Hear Dryden/Middlefield Case
August 29, 2013August 29, 2013

Important and breaking news as MDN gets published… The New York Court of Appeals (our state’s highest court) has decided to review a lower court ruling on the Dryden and Middlefield cases in which townships banned shale drilling and fracking for everyone in the town. This is fantastic news for New York landowners. We will have more analysis tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s a statement issued by the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York:
Read More “BREAKING: NY Court of Appeals will Hear Dryden/Middlefield Case”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide NY | Susquehanna County

What Did NYC Lawmakers Find when Visiting NE PA Frack Sites?
August 29, 2013August 29, 2013

A small group of anti-drilling New York State lawmakers from Westchester County and New York City came to Susquehanna County, PA yesterday for a “tour” of one of the most drilled (and productive) natural gas counties in PA. We’re guessing local anti-drilling celebrity (and potty mouth) Vera Scroggins led the tour, although we don’t know for sure. Regardless of who led it, the aim was to show the devastation fracking hath wrought to this poor, defenseless county. Unfortunately for Vera and other anti-drillers, reality trumps their hallucinations.

MDN was not along for the so-called tour, but we know what the visiting city folks found because we’ve also toured the county and its drilling sites: They found a pretty, rural county where the people are happy and employed, (some of them newly rich, which disgusts the old rich of NYC), and where there is no industrial wasteland. Sometimes trucks clog the roadways–but nothing like the traffic the visiting downstate lawmakers experience every day of their lives…
Read More “What Did NYC Lawmakers Find when Visiting NE PA Frack Sites?”
Health Impacts | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Is Cuomo Buying Off Health Commissioner to Delay Fracking Report?
August 28, 2013August 28, 2013

It’s now apparent to everyone that NY Gov. Andrew “Ditherer” Cuomo is using State Health Commissioner Nirav Shah as his excuse to delay making a decision about whether or not to allow fracking in the state. What’s Shah been up to? Going on junkets–trips where he supposedly confers with people knowledgeable about fracking in other states (and countries). For what? He can’t pick up the phone and call? Doesn’t he have email (or a physical mailing address) so people can send him information? Does he need to be face-to-face so he can look in their eyes to be double-dog sure they’re telling him the truth?

Sure sounds to us like Shah is being bought off with all-expenses paid vacations (averaging about one a month) from Prince Andrew in return for being the whipping boy. Here’s the timeline of Shah’s junkets…
Read More “Is Cuomo Buying Off Health Commissioner to Delay Fracking Report?”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

New Marcellus Surface Regulations Coming for PA Drillers
August 28, 2013August 28, 2013

In February 2012, Pennsylvania passed and Gov. Tom Corbett signed the Act 13 legislation into law–the first new legislation to address shale drilling in the state (see Gov. Corbett Signs New Marcellus Drilling Law). Among the provisions in the new law was an instruction (and permission) for the Environmental Quality Board (EQB), the rulemaking body of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, to craft new regulations for drilling. The EQB wasted no time in crafting new rules for the subsurface portion of drilling (see Rewrite of 1984 PA Oil and Gas Act Underway).

The second part of the EQB’s charge is now underway. Yesterday the EQB approved and released (for public comment) new regulations aimed at surface activities associated with natural gas drilling (a summary of the new rules is embedded below, along with the full text of the proposed regulations). This new round of regulations deals with protecting public resources like parks and forests, deals with orphaned and abandoned well identification, institutes new containment rules (for fresh water and wastewater), and firms up protection of water resources…
Read More “New Marcellus Surface Regulations Coming for PA Drillers”
Alternative Energy | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

DOE Sec. Moniz Says NatGas Both Problem and Solution
August 27, 2013August 27, 2013

Obama administration officials, including the newly minted Ernest “Hair” Moniz, refuse to “debate” the mythology surrounding man-made global warming, declaring the debate is now over and that they have won a debate only just beginning! Whatever. In a speech yesterday at Columbia University, Moniz towed the Obama line that carbon emissions must be capped, especially from coal (today) and one day from natural gas too. However, the speech and the Q&A that followed weren’t all bad (from a pro-drilling perspective). Moniz is a realist, unlike many in his party. He recognizes that natural gas is a lower-carbon fossil-fuel bridge to a renewable energy future–and it’s a mighty long bridge (decades) at that.

Unfortunately we could not locate a transcript of Moniz’s speech, so we have to rely on skewed, anti-drilling reporting from Bloomberg:
Read More “DOE Sec. Moniz Says NatGas Both Problem and Solution”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

MD Anti-Drilling Group Issues Challenges “Best Practices” Report
August 27, 2013August 27, 2013

In June, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) released a draft report (dated August 2013) of “best practices for drilling and production that should be required” (see Maryland Releases Draft “Best Practices” in Shale Drilling Report for a full copy). A Maryland group calling itself Citizen Shale has just filed extensive comments–in essence a challenge–on that report. The group attempts to apply the veneer of impartiality by stating they are neither pro- nor anti-drilling and only interested in what’s best for the environment.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Citizen Shale is clearly, strongly anti-drilling and hope their comments and challenges to the recent best practices report will stall and stretch out the approval process for fracking in Maryland…
Read More “MD Anti-Drilling Group Issues Challenges “Best Practices” Report”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

API to BLM: Proposed Fracking Rule Just Isn’t Needed
August 27, 2013August 27, 2013

The Dept. of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a second version of a proposed federal rule for fracking on federal lands in May (see BLM Releases Revised Rules for Fracking – Why it Matters). There’s some, but not much, federal land in the northeastern U.S.–most federal land is located in the western U.S. In fact, according to an Energy Information Administration official, there’s not a lot of overlap between federal lands and shale plays (see EIA Deputy Says Most Federal Lands, Shale Plays Don’t Intersect). So what’s the big deal with the new rules?

The American Petroleum Institute thinks there’s enough of an overlap between federal land and shale plays that the BLM’s new fracking rule will cost drillers a boatload of money without achieving a whole lot in the way of safety or positive impact on the environment. The API is, in fact, recommending the BLM either revise their fracking rule for a third time to get it right, or better yet, just forget about the new rule altogether because it’s really unnecessary…
Read More “API to BLM: Proposed Fracking Rule Just Isn’t Needed”
Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Pro-Drilling Rally Welcomes Pres. Obama in Binghamton Aug 23
August 26, 2013August 26, 2013

Friday was a picture perfect, late summer/early fall day in Binghamton with temperatures around 75 degrees and blue skies. MDN editor Jim Willis had the pleasure of hanging out for a few hours with pro-drilling “salt of the earth” types of folks at Otsiningo Park in Binghamton, NY. About 250 pro-drillers were on hand with signs lined up along a fence bordering Interstate 81 to welcome President Barack Obama as his motorcade/bus whistled past the park on their way to Binghamton University where the President held a town hall meeting to discuss his education plans (i.e., have everyone else pay for your child’s college education via high taxes).

Drilling supporters were there to not only affirm and encourage Obama in his “support” of fracking, but to shame our spineless and indecisive governor, Andy Cuomo, for his lack of leadership on the issue of fracking and shale drilling. Drilling supporters want it known their patience has run out and they see Cuomo for what he is: kowtowing to the extreme left of his own party. It’s repugnant and it’s economically hurting landowners in the Southern Tier of New York State…
Read More “Pro-Drilling Rally Welcomes Pres. Obama in Binghamton Aug 23”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Pennsylvania | Regulation

Anti-Driller Shouts Fracking Question to Obama in PA Appearance
August 26, 2013August 26, 2013

Well, you knew it would happen. A shrill and rude anti-driller tried to shout down President Obama as he spoke at Lackawanna College last Friday. Maya van Rossum, head of the rabidly anti-drilling Delaware Riverkeeper Network, tried to get Obama to respond to a shouted question about fracking. He briefly looked up from his TelePrompter, and then went on without responding to her rude outburst. In fact, Obama (much to our dismay) did not say a word about shale drilling nor about the top notch Petroleum & Natural Gas Technology program run by Lackawanna College, even though it was a golden opportunity for him to do so…
Read More “Anti-Driller Shouts Fracking Question to Obama in PA Appearance”
Air Quality | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Research | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Did WVDEP Ignore It’s Own Research on Shale Well Air Pollution?
August 26, 2013August 26, 2013

The West Virginia Natural Gas Horizontal Well Control Act, passed and signed into law in December 2011, directed the WV Dept. of Environment Protection (WVDEP) to conduct three studies. The third and final study on air quality was released in June (see WVDEP Releases Study on Air Quality Impacts of Shale Drilling). The WVDEP said based on the data they received, no new regulations are required to control air pollution near drilling operations. However, a West Virginia University professor that oversaw the raw report given to the WVDEP disagrees with their assessment.

Dr. Michael McCawley, chairman of the Department of Occupational & Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at WVU, said he thinks a 625-foot “setback” is not far enough (in some cases) and that air emissions from Marcellus and Utica shale drilling need more regulation…
Read More “Did WVDEP Ignore It’s Own Research on Shale Well Air Pollution?”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

CSSD Says First Marcellus Certifications Coming Later this Year
August 23, 2013August 23, 2013

MDN previously told you about a new, independent group–a cooperative between the drilling industry and environmentalists–called the Center for Sustainable Shale Development, or CSSD (see Important: Drillers & Enviros Form New Group, Launch Cert Program). Members of the group on both sides have taken heat for working together to create very strict standards for Marcellus and Utica Shale drillers (see Eco Groups Shun EDF over Membership in Sustainable Shale Center).

The CSSD created a list of 15 standards they want drillers to conform to–some of the standards very costly, especially to small drillers. The group is moving forward with their plans and intends to begin certifying drillers “later this year”…
Read More “CSSD Says First Marcellus Certifications Coming Later this Year”