Regulation

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”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Athens County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation

Athens Election Board Votes Against Anti-Frack Ballot Measure
August 23, 2013August 23, 2013

Members of the Athens County, OH Board of Elections voted last Thursday to not put a proposed anti-fracking measure on the ballot in the November election that would not only ban fracking in City of Athens, but also up to 20 miles outside of the city–a breathtaking, egregious power grab that the election board’s attorney advised them against supporting. One member of the Election Board who is anti-fracking, having signed an anti-fracking petition before assuming her office, properly recused herself from the vote citing ethics requirements. The rest of the board members unanimously voted against running the wrong-headed proposal on the ballot this fall.

Anti-drillers from the misnamed “Athens Bill of Rights Committee” are considering their next move, likely legal…
Read More “Athens Election Board Votes Against Anti-Frack Ballot Measure”
Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation

JLCNY Update on Friday’s Pro-Gas Rally for Obama/Cuomo
August 22, 2013August 22, 2013

Yesterday MDN told you about the “Pro-Gas President Rally” family picnic/fun day planned by the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) for Friday in Otsiningo Park–the day President Obama visits Binghamton, NY (see JLCNY Picnic Celebration for Obama’s Visit to Binghamton).

MDN received the following important update about that event:
Read More “JLCNY Update on Friday’s Pro-Gas Rally for Obama/Cuomo”
Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation

JLCNY Picnic Celebration for Obama’s Visit to Binghamton
August 21, 2013August 20, 2013

What a difference between planned rallies from the anti- and pro-drilling camps that will assemble this Friday, August 23, when President Obama visits Binghamton. Yesterday MDN told you about plans for the nutter squad (see NY Anti-Drillers Plan “Red Letter Day” for Obama Binghamton Visit). Compare that announcement, which is almost painful to read so laced with negativity and vitriol, with the announcement below from the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY), which is respectful, hopeful and positive.

The JLCNY will not protest and picket Obama when he visits Binghamton. Instead, they’re heading to a local park for a day-long picnic. Of course bring your big signs so Obama sees it when he passes by–but the JLCNY event is about celebration, even though this group of people has far more to be negative and angry about. The two announcements illustrate the stark contrast between the kinds of people that make up each group. It’s like night and day…
Read More “JLCNY Picnic Celebration for Obama’s Visit to Binghamton”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio | Regulation

Anti-Drillers to Throw a Big Party this Weekend in Youngstown, OH
August 21, 2013August 20, 2013

Calling all fossil-fuel haters–get your “frack” on–it’s time to paaarrrrrttttaaay! Anti-frackers will assemble in Youngstown, OH this weekend for a party in support of a truly stupid ballot measure that will be voted on (for a second time) this November. If passed, the new law would not only ban fracking in Youngstown–but also ban businesses involved with the shale oil and gas industry from operating in Youngstown. Such a measure would be a catastrophe for the economy of the just-starting-to-recover Youngstown, but this bunch will be so high they won’t notice…
Read More “Anti-Drillers to Throw a Big Party this Weekend in Youngstown, OH”
Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Onondaga County | Regulation

Cowardly Cuomo Will Not Visit Syracuse/Binghamton with Obama
August 20, 2013August 20, 2013

Gov. Andrew “Spineless” Cuomo–who laughably thinks he has a shot at one day being president–will not join President B.H. Obama when Obama visits the “hotbed” of fracking controversy in Cuomo’s own state–Syracuse and Binghamton, NY. Why won’t Cuomo be on the platform with his political idol? Fear of facing angry landowners and supporters of shale drilling. Cuomo knows he is loathed in shale country in upstate NY and doesn’t want to answer tough questions about fracking or risk being seen for what he is: indecisive and weak.

Cuomo has ended his own future political ambitions over the fracking issue and everyone knows it–except, apparently, him…
Read More “Cowardly Cuomo Will Not Visit Syracuse/Binghamton with Obama”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Democrats: Internal Fighting Over Vote to Ban Shale Drilling
August 19, 2013August 19, 2013

Well well, finally a mainstream media outlet that is talking about the elephant (or in this case the donkey) sitting in the room that’s so big, it can no longer be ignored–i.e. the firestorm that has erupted inside the Pennsylvania Democrat Party over their idiotic vote in June to support a statewide, ongoing moratorium/ban of Marcellus Shale drilling (see PA Democrat Party Votes to End Marcellus Shale Drilling Statewide). MDN previously told you about the building dissension within elected Democrat ranks over the vote (see 18 PA House Democrats Dissent from Party’s Vote for Frack Moratorium).

We wouldn’t call the internal squabbling in the Democrat Party a full-blown internecine war–yet. However, it’s getting there, according to an article printed over the weekend in the Harrisburg Patriot-News. Be forewarned that the Patriot-News article is written from a Democrat apologist viewpoint that tends to downplay how serious this issue is within Democrat ranks–but they can’t cover up the truth. The article is more of a begrudging, feet-dragging “guess we have to write about this” article than a gleeful “screw the Republicans again” article they would rather write. Keep that in mind as you read:
Read More “PA Democrats: Internal Fighting Over Vote to Ban Shale Drilling”
Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Should the Full 7-Member PA Supreme Court Re-Hear Act 13 Case?
August 19, 2013August 19, 2013

The PA townships that sued the State of Pennsylvania last year over a section of the new Act 13 law that prevents towns from slapping their own zoning requirements on top of a uniform state zoning standard sense they may have won at the state Supreme Court level (which will allow them to zone) and are arguing against having oral arguments re-heard by all seven justices.

The original case–arguably one of the most important to come before the state Supreme Court in a long time–was originally heard by seven justices last fall–but one of the seven has since resigned due to campaign fundraising irregularities. The six justices remaining are three Democrats and three Republicans. Court watchers predict the Act 13 case decision will break down along party lines. If it’s a split decision at the Supreme Court level, the lower court ruling which favors the towns will stand. So the towns are arguing they don’t want the case re-heard by a full panel, now that a seventh justice (a Republican) has just taken the bench.
Read More “Should the Full 7-Member PA Supreme Court Re-Hear Act 13 Case?”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH | Wastewater

OH Democrat Senator Wants Total Ban on Wastewater Injection Wells
August 19, 2013August 19, 2013

Ohio Senator Michael J. Skindell (Democrat, District 23) has introduced a bill in the state legislature that will ban disposal of fracking wastewater via injection wells. Yet another elected anti-drilling Democrat who’s trying to shut down one of the safest forms of energy in the world–shale gas. If you shut down disposal of fracking fluid, you shut down drilling…
Read More “OH Democrat Senator Wants Total Ban on Wastewater Injection Wells”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Research | Statewide PA

Shale Gas Roundtable Issues Recommendations for PA Gas Drilling
August 16, 2013August 16, 2013

In March, MDN told you about the Shale Gas Roundtable, a group of high level participants from industry, government and academe organized and run by the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute on Politics (see Out of the Shadows: Another New Group Wants to Regulate PA Shale). The Roundtable has intentionally maintained a low profile–some might call it secrecy–in an attempt to craft a set of recommendations that will be taken seriously by both sides of the drilling debate and actually acted on, instead of being shelved as just another list of “nice to do” initiatives.

The group, which first met in September 2011, came all the way out of the shadows yesterday by releasing a 139-page report (full copy below) on their best thinking and recommendations to date. The report is a duesy–and we mean that in a mostly good way. Thorough and long, and full of concrete recommendations, the report tackles everything from proposed changes in the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection to new standards for water sourcing, biodegradable fracking chemicals, erosion controls, proposed new laws and even (yes) a vote in favor of forced pooling as the best way to minimize disturbance of surface land…
Read More “Shale Gas Roundtable Issues Recommendations for PA Gas Drilling”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Obama’s New EPA Chief McCarthy Shows Her True Tyrannical Colors
August 15, 2013August 15, 2013

In what MDN views as an illegal seizing of power, the Obama administration and it’s newly appointed EPA administrator, Gina McCarthy, say they’re done waiting for Congress to act on the issue of mythological man-made global warming and so they, like the bullies they are, will now act unilaterally and in contravention of the U.S. Constitution by using so-called “administrative authorities” (i.e. executive orders) to force their distorted worldview on all Americans–this year. In other words, more of our freedoms are about to die. Is there no one in Congress willing to impeach these people and reign them in–before the country goes all the way into the crapper?

Here is what the out-of-control-and-never-should-have-been-confirmed EPA chief McCarthy said yesterday in Boulder, CO:
Read More “Obama’s New EPA Chief McCarthy Shows Her True Tyrannical Colors”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

EIA Deputy Says Most Federal Lands, Shale Plays Don’t Intersect
August 15, 2013August 15, 2013

Is all the hullabaloo over new Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rules for fracking on federal lands just a bunch of, well, hullabaloo? According to Howard Gruenspecht, deputy administrator at the Energy Information Administration (EIA)–perhaps. In a speech he delivered yesterday at the Summer NAPE Expo in Houston, Gruenspect said that most federal lands are located in the western part of the U.S., and most shale plays don’t overlap with those lands. Which is an interesting perspective because according to the American Petroleum Institute the BLM rules as originally drafted would cost drillers big bucks (see New BLM Fracking Rule will Cost Drillers Nearly $100K per Well).

Some of Gruenspecht’s comments from yesterday’s early morning session:
Read More “EIA Deputy Says Most Federal Lands, Shale Plays Don’t Intersect”
Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Regulation | Wastewater | West Virginia

Wheeling, WV Approves GreenHunter Frack Wastewater Facility
August 14, 2013August 14, 2013

With capes gently flapping in the breeze, it was a crushingly sad defeat for the brave and noble Wheeling Water Warriors who sought to stop the evil frackwater company from establishing yet another facility along the shores of the pristine (*cough*) Ohio River…. OK, enough of that drivel! A great victory for GreenHunter Water and for sanity: The Wheeling (WV) Planning Commission has approved GreenHunter’s plan to develop a frack wastewater recycling/barge facility at the former Seidler’s Oil Service site on North 28th Street. The plan, opposed by a small band of anti-drilling protesters who called themselves the Wheeling Water Warriors, came before the Planning Commission several times without a vote in recent months (see Wheeling Delays Vote Again on GreenHunter Wastewater Facility).

The Commission took up the matter again at it’s Monday meeting and finally voted to approve GreenHunter’s plan. Eventually, GreenHunter hopes to use the facility to not only recycle shale drilling wastewater, but also ship some of it (by barge) down the Ohio River to locations in Ohio for disposal via injection wells. Shipping wastewater by barge is currently under review at the federal level, awaiting approval…
Read More “Wheeling, WV Approves GreenHunter Frack Wastewater Facility”
Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Washington County

Range Resources Argues with Mt Pleasant over Water Impoundment
August 14, 2013August 14, 2013

Range Resources seems to have a problem maintaining good relations with southwestern PA townships on the matter of water impoundments. In May, MDN told you about Cecil Township’s concerns over a 15 million-gallon water impoundment still actively used by Range even though the three gas wells at the impoundment site were drilled long ago (see Cecil, PA Supervisors Want Better Relations with Range, but…). Range had another tangle with a town board last night–this one in Mt. Pleasant Township. The same issue has once again appeared: a water impoundment is being used not for the wells drilled at the site, but for other wells being drilled in the region.

According to Cecil and now Mt. Pleasant officials, Range has the habit of expanding the use of water impoundments from their original intent. Range says the water impoundments are properly regulated by the state and not the towns. Who’s right?
Read More “Range Resources Argues with Mt Pleasant over Water Impoundment”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Wayne County

Hypocritical Governor of Delaware: No for Thee But Yes for Me
August 14, 2013August 14, 2013

The anti-drilling Democrat governor of Delaware–Jack Markell–is one of five voting members of the Delaware Basin River Commission (DRBC). He’s been a reliable “no” vote when it comes to the release of new drilling rules to allow Marcellus Shale drilling in the Delaware River Basin since 2011, even though there is no Marcellus gas under his own state (see DRBC Says No Marcellus Vote Until Nov. 2012 Earliest).

Last month, Gov. Markell attended an event to celebrate the conversion of a coal-fired power plant in Dover, DE to clean-burning, cheap Marcellus Shale natural gas. Er, what’s wrong with this picture?…
Read More “Hypocritical Governor of Delaware: No for Thee But Yes for Me”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Gov. Cuomo Continues Trend of Excuses on Fracking Issue
August 13, 2013August 13, 2013

Is New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is an economic ignoramus? His own statements seem to indicate he’s clueless when it comes to the benefits of shale drilling and how it would impact the upstate economy.

Yesterday, Gov. Spineless offered yet more excuses for his waffling on the issue of fracking:
Read More “Gov. Cuomo Continues Trend of Excuses on Fracking Issue”