Regulation

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Consulting Company Successfully Repels Smear-job by NYPIRG
April 25, 2013April 25, 2013

An attempted smearing of the independent consulting company Ecology and Environment, Inc. by Gannett and anti-drilling groups like NYPIRG has not worked. In 2011 E & E authored a study for the state Dept. of Environmental Conservation on the economic benefits of shale drilling and fracking. Earlier this week the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York (IOGA of NY) sent a letter to Gov. Cuomo telling him his indecision is killing all drilling in the state (see IOGA of NY to Cuomo: Your Indecision is Killing ALL NY Drilling). One of the 200 signatories of the letter was E & E, which Gannett and NYPIRG trumpeted as proof the study was not impartial and that the entire set of draft regulations it’s a part of should be scrapped (see NYPIRG calls on Cuomo to rescind fracking review).

Not so fast, says E & E. They are not members of IOGA of NY and only paid membership dues for one of their employees so that person could monitor the meetings and publications of IOGA of NY, according to a letter they sent to the DEC (letter embedded below). What will anti-drillers use now to try and discredit the DEC’s work on new rules for fracking? Here’s the story on E & E and IOGA:

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

Video: Martens Riffs on Why NY Fracking Decision Taking So Long
April 24, 2013April 24, 2013

New York Commissioner of the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), Joe Martens, was questioned by Gannett reporter Jon Campbell on Monday about the status of New York’s fracking decision. Below is Campbell’s summary of that conversation, and a video of the interview, so you can hear and see Martens in his own words.

Bottom line: Martens and State Health Commissioner Nirav Shah are running interference for their boss, Andrew “Ditherer” Cuomo–giving him time to make up his mind. In the meantime, Martens and Shah are riffing (making it up as they go) when asked to defend why it’s taking so long. Give the video a watch…

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

New Interior Secretary Jewell Says BLM Fracking Rules Coming Soon
April 24, 2013April 24, 2013

Newly approved Sec. of Interior, Sally Jewell, said on Monday that new rules for fracking on federal lands from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will be out “fairly soon.” She also said “one size doesn’t fit all,” apparently trying to assuage concerns by the drilling industry that the federal government is attempting a takeover of regulating fracking. She even claimed she was a fracker once upon a time…

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Harvard Law School Says FracFocus "Fails" as Compliance Tool
April 24, 2013April 24, 2013

The online national hydraulic fracturing chemical registry called FracFocus was launched in April of 2011. Created and managed by the Ground Water Protection Council and Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, two organizations whose missions both revolve around conservation and environmental protection, FracFocus was created to provide the public access to reported chemicals used for hydraulic fracturing within their area. By all accounts it’s been a great success with most oil and gas drilling companies participating and supplying data about their drilling operations to the organization.

However, yesterday FracFocus came under heavy criticism from the Harvard Law School who published a 16-page study (embedded below) that says FracFocus doesn’t go far enough—they say voluntary reporting by drillers is “spotty” and the trade secret provision that allows drillers to hold back some information is “overly broad.” The title of this “study” claims that, “FracFocus fails as a regulatory compliance tool.” HLS’ proposed fix? Bring in the feds…

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

IOGA of NY to Cuomo: Your Indecision is Killing ALL NY Drilling
April 23, 2013April 23, 2013

Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York (IOGA of NY) executive director Brad Gill and hundreds of other signatories sent a letter (copy embedded below) to Gov. Andrew “Ditherer” Cuomo yesterday to inform him that not only is his indecision on the fracking issue preventing new jobs and new companies from coming to New York, it’s also causing the existing drilling industry in the state to leave.

Gill says the industry is “in crisis” and although it has been operating in NY for decades, it’s 5,000 direct and 50,000 indirect jobs are leaving the state in droves. Hey Andy, there is a cost to indecision…

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

Cuomo’s Update on Fracking in NY: “Nothing New”
April 22, 2013April 22, 2013

Gov. Andrew “Ditherer” Cuomo was asked on Friday for an update on his decision about whether or not fracking will be allowed in New York State. Once again, he blamed an underling for his lack of performance and leadership, saying he’s still waiting for NYS Health Commissioner Nirav Shah to provide a report…

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

Will 2 Billboards Convince Youngstown Residents Ban Fracking?
April 22, 2013April 22, 2013

A handful of Youngstown, OH anti-drillers who are, frankly, quite ignorant of how fracking works (they apparently don’t know it’s heavily regulated), have foolishly spent their money on two billboards in the city to try and convince unsuspecting neighbors to pass a May 7 resolution to ban fracking in Youngstown—a loud and clear signal that Youngstown doesn’t want to participate in the economic miracle Utica Shale drilling is bringing to the state.

A Youngstown attorney says anyone reading the language of this bill (if it does pass) will think the city is populated with idiots. He’s right…

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH

Ohio Oil & Gas Regulatory & Environmental Matters eBook
April 22, 2013April 22, 2013

The lawyers at Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP write an excellent blog on oil and gas drilling in Ohio called the Oil and Gas Law Report. They’ve compiled a number of those articles into a handy PDF ebook (embedded below), covering regulations and environmental issues impacting Ohio’s oil and gas drilling industry. This little ebook (28 pages) is useful for lawyers, drillers and landowners alike…

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

NY Sen. Grisanti’s Office Responds to MDN on Fracking Legislation
April 19, 2013April 19, 2013

Yesterday, MDN told you that Buffalo-area State Sen. Mark Grisanti had re-introduced several bills from last year that deal with fracking. Specifically, his bills would treat fracking wastewater as hazardous waste, disallow wastewater to be used as a de-icer on roads, and prohibit wastewater from treatment at municipal sewage plants (see NY Senator Grisanti Introduces 3 Fracking Bills – Is it a Sign?).

MDN concluded there was really nothing new or noteworthy about the re-introduction of the bills—it’s not a “sign” that fracking is about to be allowed in the state. However, we sent off a question to Grisanti’s office, just to be sure. We got back this response:

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation

Sanford Rescinds No Frackspeak at Meetings, Lawsuit Dropped
April 19, 2013April 19, 2013

MDN previously told you the story of Sanford (Broome County), NY town officials who had grown tired of the ceaseless, endless droning of anti-drilling wackos at every single town meeting. In Sept. 2012, Sanford town officials voted to forbid frackspeak (pro or anti) at future town meetings so they could actually get town business done instead. Big mistake—never deny a wacko time to vent. Sanford’s action to “limit free speech” precipitated a lawsuit by the National Resources Defense Council and Catskill Citizens for (So-Called) Safe Energy (see NRDC & CCSE Sue Sanford, NY over No-Frackspeak Resolution).

Update: In light of the deep-pockets lawsuit by these well-funded (with out-of-state money) organizations, Sanford has reversed course and rescinded its ban on frackspeak. The lawsuit has now been dropped by NRDC and CCSE. Cue music to “Send in the clowns“…

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

U.S. House Hearing: States (Not Feds) Should Regulate Oil & Gas
April 19, 2013April 19, 2013

A couple of recent law school grads from SUNY Buffalo now work as environmental, health, and safety regulatory analysts researching New York’s proposed regulations to allow fracking. They launched a blog site in February called New York State Fracking Unplugged. It’s a very informative blog site (be sure to bookmark and read it). On Wednesday, one of the lawyer/authors, Robert Grimaldi, penned a post covering a story that’s received very little mention in the mainstream press: this week the U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing to examine whether or not individual states can handle their own oil and gas regulatory oversight without the need for the feds to butt in (which is contra to the U.S. Constitution).

Grimaldi’s report:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Drillers Say Permits Take Too Long to Get Approved
April 19, 2013April 19, 2013

West Virginia drillers were not happy last year that it was taking three, sometimes four months to get a new Marcellus or Utica Shale drilling permit approved by the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). DEP Secretary Randy Huffman pledged to trim that number to 60 days. However, he now says 75 days is a more realistic target for drilling approvals given the complexities of horizontal drilling.

More than two months to approve a permit is still not good enough, according to Corky DeMarco, executive director of the WV Oil & Natural Gas Association…

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

NY Senator Grisanti Introduces 3 Fracking Bills – Is it a Sign?
April 18, 2013April 18, 2013

Buffalo-area State Senator Mark Grisanti, a Republican, recently re-introduced several bills he previously introduced last year about this time, dealing with hydraulic fracturing in New York State. MDN received a tip from a Norse Energy investor forum that Grisanti had introduced a bill that creates a high volume hydraulic fracturing waste tracking system at the Dept. of Environmental Conservation. True, he did indeed introduce that bill (again) and the bill has been sent on to the Senate Environmental Conservation committee. Norse investors, among others, are attempting to read any tea leaves they can find for news that New York is about to allow horizontal fracking. Is this such a sign?…

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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Medical Socity of NY Renews Call for Fracking Ban at Confab
April 18, 2013April 18, 2013

The (Liberal, Anti-Drilling) Medical Society of the State of New York renewed their call for a statewide ban on fracking at their “House of Delegates” confab last weekend in Tarrytown, NY. This is not the first time this lefty group has called on state politicians to continue screwing landowners in the state out of their Constitutional right to drill on their own land.

Of interest, there was a guest speaker at the meeting—someone very much a part of the NY fracking story. A potential conflict of interest?…

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Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Drillers Have 2 Weeks to Review Complex New Air Pollution Regs
April 18, 2013April 18, 2013

The West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection’s Division of Air Quality recently issued a draft document of new and revised regulations for controlling air pollution from oil and gas drilling well sites—and it’s a doozy. At 135 pages long (full copy embedded below), good luck reading, deciphering, and preparing to make intelligent comments on it—all by April 29th! (Railroading?) It appears to MDN the draft regulations are mostly aimed at complying with new rules issued by the federal EPA.

It seemed to us in a cursory glance that the internal combustion engine (in particular) is in the cross hairs…

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Air Quality | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Laurel Mountain Midstream | MarkWest Energy | Regulation

EPA Makes MarkWest, Laurel Mountain an Offer They Couldn’t Refuse
April 17, 2013April 17, 2013

The heavy hand of the federal Environmental Protection Agency continues to insert itself into regulating oil and gas drilling (contrary to the U.S. Constitution that grants that right to the states). The latest example is an “agreement” from two midstream companies–MarkWest Liberty Midstream and Laurel Mountain Midstream–to implement expensive new measures to comply with EPA’s air regulations. Neither MarkWest nor Laurel Mountain have done anything wrong. Neither has had an accident or pumped too much nasty stuff into the air. The EPA wants them to install equipment that will (in their opinion) help prevent an accident or the possibility of too much air pollution in the future.

When the howitzer cannon of the federal EPA is pointed at your head, you nod up and down politely…
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