Regulation

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Act 13 Author Responds to Charge “Doctors Will be Gagged”
April 13, 2012April 13, 2012

Anti-drillers who oppose the new Act 13 drilling legislation in Pennsylvania have focused on a provision in the law that they claim “gags” doctors and health care workers, preventing them from sharing information about the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing if they learn what those chemicals are in the course of treating a patient. Yes, the anti-drilling claims are convoluted and trumped up, but its all about the headlines, and the headlines (courtesy AP and others) almost all manifestly read that “Act 13 gags doctors and enforces secrecy” or some such. The legislative author of Act 13, PA Speaker of the House Sam Smith, called the allegations “outrageous” and issued the following statement yesterday:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Judge Grants Injunction for Zoning Portion of Act 13 Law
April 12, 2012April 12, 2012

Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Senior Judge Keith Quigley issued a 120-day injunction yesterday to stop a small but important portion of the newly passed Act 13 Marcellus drilling law. Seven PA townships had filed a lawsuit to overturn Act 13 (see this MDN story). As part of their lawsuit, they filed a petition seeking an injunction from stopping the law from going into effect this Saturday, April 14. Judge Quigley’s injunction only deals with the provisions in the law that deal with changes to zoning regulations—the part that would replace local zoning laws with a “one size fits all” state law. Everything else in Act 13, including collection of an impact fee, will go into effect on Saturday.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Otsego County | Regulation

Pittsfield, NY Votes to NOT Ban Fracking
April 12, 2012April 12, 2012

While attending the first ever Natural Gas Career and Education Expo held at Broome Community College yesterday, MDN learned of some good news—news that does not get reported by local or statewide media. Board members for the Town of Pittsfield, NY voted earlier this week to table a measure that would ban fracking. Pittsfield is a small township in Otsego County, not far from Middlefield where a lawsuit is underway to overturn a fracking ban there.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Ulster County

Olive, NY Town Board Votes to Ban Fracking
April 11, 2012April 11, 2012

Another town in New York has decided to ban hydraulic fracturing—this one in Ulster County:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA

New PA Bill Would Require Real-Time Monitoring of Gas Wells
April 11, 2012April 11, 2012

On Monday, Pennsylvania State Representative Duane Milne, a Republican from Chester, PA (near Philly) held a press conference in his district to announce new Marcellus Shale legislation he will soon introduce. The legislation would require all natural gas wells—wells yet to be drilled and wells already drilled—to install real-time safety monitoring using technology called a wireless mesh network (WMN). The bill will also include real-time monitoring of natural gas pipelines using WMN.

WMN is a series (or network) of wireless transmitters that doesn’t need the Internet in order to “talk” with each other. The transmitters would automatically alert the Department of Environmental Protection and county emergency management organizations if it detects a problem.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

The EPA and Pavillion: Sloppy or Criminal?
April 10, 2012April 10, 2012

An exceptionally well written article about the EPA and their backpedaling on their own tests in Pavillion, Wyoming appears on today’s American Thinker blog. You may recall that the EPA tried to say there is a direct link between chemical contamination of ground water supplies around Pavillion and hydraulic fracturing of gas wells in the area. MDN pointed out early on that even if such a link is eventually made, the geology where those wells were drilled is sandstone (not shale), and the wells are shallow (not deep, like the Marcellus). In other words, the EPA was trying to gin up hysteria by using an apples and oranges comparison (see this MDN story).

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Act 13 Lawsuit and its “Supporters”
April 10, 2012April 10, 2012

The Pittsburgh newspapers want us to believe there is a huge surge of support behind a lawsuit recently filed against what is known as Act 13—a new law passed just a few months ago in Pennsylvania that updates Marcellus oil and gas drilling rules in the state. Although the law brought much-needed new regulations to the Commonwealth, it also contained two measures that have particularly irked those who oppose drilling: an impact fee instead of a severance tax, and preemption of local oil and gas zoning ordinances with a “one size fits all” set of ordinances from the state. MDN will not recount the arguments for and against, you can read them by doing a search for “Act 13 lawsuit” in our search box (upper right corner).

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Drillers, Industry Groups File to Join Act 13 Lawsuit
April 9, 2012April 9, 2012

The oil and gas industry in Pennsylvania is not sitting on the sidelines idly while a group of municipalities attempts to temporarily halt, and eventually overturn the new Act 13 drilling legislation passed earlier this year. Seven municipalities along with an enviro-leftist group and a doctor are suing the state to stop Act 13 (see this MDN story for background, and this guest post from one of the litigants).

The Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association and the Marcellus Shale Coalition have filed a petition seeking to join the lawsuit—on the other side, trying to stop the lawsuit by the municipalities.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Industry Reacts to Interior Sec. Salazar Fracking Statement
April 9, 2012April 9, 2012

Last week, MDN reported the comments made by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as he toured a drilling “man camp” in the Bakken Shale of North Dakota (see this MDN story). Salazar made the comment that his Interior department is working on new rules for hydraulic fracturing, which seems premature given that the Environmental Protection Agency, another federal agency, is working on a multi-year study of fracking. We now know that the rules Salazar was referring to are for fracking on federal lands that come under the jurisdiction of Bureau of Land Management, an Interior sub-agency. We also now have industry reaction to his statement.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Act 13 Lawsuit Plaintiffs Seek Injunction to Stop Law Now
April 4, 2012April 4, 2012

The plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed last week seeking to overturn PA’s newly adopted Act 13 law that overrides local municipal zoning ordinances of the oil and gas industry, filed a motion yesterday asking the court for an injunction to prevent the new law from going into effect on April 14.

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Pittsburgh Cheerleads (but doesn’t join) Act 13 Lawsuit
April 4, 2012April 4, 2012

Pittsburgh City Council, long-time opponents of the Marcellus Shale drilling industry, passed a resolution called a “Will of Council” yesterday supporting the lawsuit filed by seven municipalities, the Delaware Riverkeepers and others against the State of Pennsylvania’s newly adopted Act 13 law. The Act 13 law replaces local zoning ordinances with a state ordinance when it comes to oil and gas drilling (see this MDN article about the lawsuit). Council President Darlene Harris sponsored the measure and all nine city council members signed it. A full copy of the resolution and a letter signed by all council members is embedded below.

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

Online Map Shows How Much PA Towns Will Make from Impact Fee
April 4, 2012April 4, 2012

A website MDN has previously highlighted, FrackTrack.org, has published an interactive map that helps Pennsylvania residents track whether or not their county and local municipality has voted to accept the recently passed impact fee law (screen shot below). The map includes a clock counting down to the final deadline. The first deadline under the new law is for counties, which was 60 days from when the measure passed. The second deadline is for municipalities, which is 60 days after that. Combining the two you get 120 days total, of which we now have 69 days left.

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Guest Post | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Washington County

Guest Post: Peters Twp Responds to MDN on Act 13 Lawsuit
April 3, 2012April 3, 2012

Last week, MDN wrote an article about the just-filed lawsuit by a group of Pennsylvania townships seeking to strike down provisions in a new PA law referred to as Act 13 (see this MDN story). Act 13 preempts local zoning ordinances that prohibit or regulate oil and gas drilling and replaces those ordinances with a set of rules from the state. In essence, Act 13 substitutes the state’s “one size fits all” zoning ordinance for local zoning ordinances. MDN’s comment at the end of that article was that in examining some of the attachments to the filed lawsuit it seems to MDN that anti-drillers are the ones driving the lawsuit.

David Ball, a council member from Peters Township (Washington County), PA—one of the towns filing the lawsuit—emailed MDN to challenge our view and assessment that he and others filing the lawsuit are anti-drilling, and to further explain their reasons for the lawsuit. MDN asked permission to publish his comments and he accepted. This is not the very first, but perhaps the second or third guest post on MDN. We are happy (from time to time) to offer guest posts that disagree with our own views if that post is courteous, serious and advances the discussion. This one does and we thank Mr. Ball for taking the time to write.

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Energy Services | GASFRAC | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY | Tioga County (NY)

Anti-Driller Campaign Against LPG Fracking Begins in NY
April 2, 2012April 2, 2012

It certainly didn’t taken long for anti-drillers to start talking down LPG (waterless) fracking. Just last week, a Tioga County, NY landowner group announced they will sign a lease with eCorp to allow drilling on 135,000 acres in New York using a proprietary technology by Canadian company GASFRAC (see this MDN story). The waterless technology uses liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), a gel-like substance that replaces water in fracking. Perhaps most importantly, by using LPG fracking, eCorp can move ahead with permitting and drilling now (in New York!), ahead of the release of new fracking regulations that have been stalled in a four-year review process.

MDN predicted that with almost all stated reasons to oppose water-based fracking now removed, anti-drillers would invent new reasons to oppose LPG fracking. MDN’s prediction has already come true. An article printed in the “news” section of the Albany Times Union, which clearly is an opinion piece, says this:

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Anadarko | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Otsego County | Regulation | Statewide NY | Tompkins County

Dryden & Middlefield NY Drilling Bans Officially Appealed
March 30, 2012March 30, 2012

An update on the two New York lawsuits recently decided in lower courts that upheld local municipal bans on hydraulic fracturing and gas drilling:

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Lawsuit Filed: PA Towns Sue State over Marcellus Act 13 Law
March 30, 2012March 30, 2012

A threatened lawsuit to overturn Pennsylvania’s newly passed Act 13 law that preempts local zoning ordinances passed to prevent shale gas drilling has finally materialized. The lawsuit was filed yesterday by seven PA municipalities and several other people (a copy of the lawsuit is embedded below). Act 13, signed into law in February by Gov. Tom Corbett, contains a provision that disallows local PA municipalities from passing zoning laws that are specifically aimed at preventing shale gas drilling. The loss of zoning power has some municipalities hopping mad.

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