Research

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Research | Statewide PA

Former DEP Sec. Krancer Skewers Auditor General “Report”
July 24, 2014July 24, 2014

Yesterday MDN brought you the news of Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale’s politically-motivated critical report of the state’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (see Anti-Drilling PA Auditor General Criticizes DEP in “Report”). We pointed out the huge conflict of interest on the part of DePasquale (he supports a renewable energy agenda). Today we have reaction from Michael Krancer, a former Secretary of the DEP during 2012, secretary during one of the four year period covered in DePasquale’s report. In his frank style, Krancer skewers the report, while keeping a smile on his face…
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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Research | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Benesch Shale Report 2Q14: Ohio’s New Top Utica Well
July 24, 2014July 24, 2014

Each quarter the Ohio law firm of Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP produces an Ohio shale update. MDN often shares their updates–well worth your time to read. The latest edition, covering Utica Shale activity in the second quarter of 2014, is embedded below. This issue highlights Ohio’s new top producing Utica Shale well–drilled by recent upstart Rice Energy in Belmont County. They also talk about the likely forthcoming increase in Ohio’s Utica Shale severance tax–from 1% to 2.5%. It’s less than what Gov. John “foreigner hunter” Kasich wants, but something that apparently Ohio’s squishy Republicans can live with. Take time to read this well-crafted summary (will only take you a few minutes)…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Research | Statewide PA

Anti-Drilling PA Auditor General Criticizes DEP in “Report”
July 23, 2014July 23, 2014

Pennsylvania’s anti-drilling Democrat Auditor General Eugene DePasquale yesterday released a report (full copy below) criticizing the state’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) as being disorganized and ill-equipped to handle the rapid expansion of Marcellus Shale drilling in the state. What DePasquale forgot to mention in his report is his own whopping conflicts of interest. While he was a state legislator he pushed hard for so-called alternative energy programs to be funded by the state and as deputy secretary of the DEP he convinced a big wind farm operation to locate in the state. From his first day on the job, he was gunning for the Marcellus industry (see PA Auditor General Targets State’s Marcellus Drilling Industry)…
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Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Research

U.S. Hits New Daily Production Record Thx to Marcellus/Utica
July 23, 2014July 23, 2014

Genscape, an information company that tracks the flow of natural gas through pipelines in the U.S. (with some of the best intelligence in the business) announced that on Monday, natural gas production in the lower 48 states reached a new high water milestone: 70 billion cubic feet of natgas production in a single day. Which shale plays are “leading the way” in this record production, according to Genscape? Why, the Marcellus and Utica, of course!…
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Air Quality | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Washington County

Anti-Drilling Group Distributes Air Monitors, Calls it Research
July 21, 2014July 21, 2014

The Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project (SWPA-EHP) is an anti-drilling organization with a mission to prove what no one has been able to prove (after thousands of shale wells have been drilled): that Marcellus drilling makes you sick. They tried once before with a statistically invalid “survey” of 27 people (see Health “Study” of Whopping 27 People Blames Drilling for Symptoms). They’re back, trying again. This time they’ve handed over “over 100” air monitoring devices around Washington County, PA in another laughable attempt to “prove” that drilling makes you sick…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA | Wastewater

Delaware Riverkeeper Wins Right to Get Half-Baked Radiation Data
July 18, 2014July 18, 2014

In January 2013 the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced they would study the issue of radiation levels in shale oil and gas waste (see PA DEP Announces New Study of Radiation in Shale Drilling). The study would take an estimated 12-14 months. That time has come and gone. The DEP is finished with its data collection–but not quite done with analyzing, verifying and (eventually) publishing the results. Not good enough for the Delaware Riverkeeper (the eccentric Maya van Rossum, see Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN) Gets a French Kiss from Phila. Inquirer). The litigious van Rossum via her DRN filed an appeal to get her hands on the preliminary/unsubstantiated/unvetted data collected by the DEP–and she won…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

SGICC Grant Funds PA Study on Converting Marcellus Gas to Methanol
July 18, 2014July 18, 2014

The Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation & Commercialization Center (SGICC) earlier this week announced they have made a grant (amount undisclosed) to “boutique consulting firm” ADI Analytics to study whether or not it’s economically feasible for PA to convert natural gas to methanol using a small or medium size plant. The findings of the study, due later this year, could have a big impact in PA–both by using more of the abundant Marcellus Shale gas supply, and in supplying jobs and economic benefits from a methanol plant. What, you may ask, is methanol used for?…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Health Impacts | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Research | Statewide NY

NY Antis Release So-Called Compendium of Fracking Health Risks
July 16, 2014July 16, 2014

Apparently anti-drillers in New York State are tired of waiting for the State Dept. of Health (DOH) to release its findings on public healthy implications from proposed new fracking rules from the Dept. of Conservation (now six years overdue). So a group of anti-drillers calling themselves Concerned Health Professionals of New York (mostly it’s New York’s own anti-drilling diva Sandra Steingraber) put a couple of summer interns to good use and compiled a so-called “report” of alllllll the damage done by shale drilling–a compendium of its evil, nasty, vile effects. (Just don’t tell anyone in PA, WV, OH, TX, OK, CO, CA, ND or any other state where shale drilling is heavily done–those residents don’t realize they’ve been damaged)…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research

July DPR: Marcellus Production Up 28%, No End in Sight
July 15, 2014July 15, 2014

The Marcellus Shale continues to be a monster for production. Yesterday the Energy Information Administration released their latest monthly Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) and it shows the Marcellus will average 15.235 billion cubic feet a day this month, up 28 percent from a year earlier. The Marcellus now produces 16% of all natural gas in the United States. Below is the full DPR issued yesterday, along with a couple of charts not in the DPR that MDN finds useful…
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Housing | Industrialization | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Research | Statewide OH

OSU Extension Says Shale Boom Towns Don’t Have to Go Bust
July 9, 2014July 9, 2014

Are communities that see a boom from shale drilling destined to experience a bust sometime down the road? MDN recalls that was one of the main reasons Cornell “professor” Tony Ingraffea offered for why he doesn’t like shale drilling at a meeting he addressed back in 2010 (see Cornell Hydraulic Fracturing Expert Headlines First Meeting of New York Residents Against Drilling (NYRAD) in Vestal, NY). However, a new project being launched by Ohio State University’s Extension program says boom then bust “isn’t inescapable” and they aim to help communities avoid that fate…
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Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues | Research

KPMG Survey: 3/4 Energy Execs Say US Energy Independent in 15 Yrs
July 9, 2014July 9, 2014

Each year powerhouse tax and auditing firm KPMG conducts a survey of U.S. energy executives. The 2014 edition of KPMG’s Energy Industry Outlook Survey (full copy below) is in and it shows that because of shale and new energy infrastructure, 73% of energy executives believe the U.S. can attain energy independence by 2030, or sooner. That’s up 10 percentage points from KPMG’s 2013 survey. Some 37% said the single most important energy-related priority should be new pipelines and electric transmission lines…
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Alternative Energy | Economic Impact | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Research

Bloomberg: Natgas, Solar Big Winners for New Investment by 2030
July 2, 2014July 2, 2014

Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) has just published a new report titled “2030 Market Outlook” in which they predict there will be $1.3 trillion of investment in new power generation capacity over the next 15 years. The big winner for that pile of new investment ($314 billion of it) will go to–you guessed it–natural gas-fired electric generating plants. Also a big winner, according to BNEF, will be solar ($231 billion for rooftop solar panels) and wind ($200 billion spent for onshore wind farms). BNEF also makes some gutsy predictions with respect to coal…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

Yet Another “Natgas Worse than Coal” Study from Tony Ingraffea
July 2, 2014July 2, 2014

Our old friend Tony “shut all fracking down” Ingraffea, who happens to (still) hold a job teaching at Cornell University, is back with yet another “research study” that (surprise!) bashes fracking. Or more properly shale drilling. This time around Tony, who has a lucrative side job by gallivanting from anti-drilling meeting to anti-drilling meeting to spread the word that fracking is evil (see Cornell Hydraulic Fracturing Expert Headlines First Meeting of New York Residents Against Drilling (NYRAD) in Vestal, NY), says shale wells have a higher rate of failure in the cement casings in Pennsylvania and he can prove it. How?…
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Health Impacts | Industrywide Issues | Research | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WVU: 10 Ways to Reduce Enviro/Health Impacts from Shale Drilling
June 30, 2014June 30, 2014

Researchers from West Virginia University have just published a new paper aimed at reducing environmental and health risks from Marcellus Shale drilling. The paper, titled “Practical measures for reducing the risk of environmental contamination in shale energy production,” is published in the Journal Environmental Sciences: Processes & Impacts and contains 10 specific recommendations that drillers can adopt to make shale drilling safer and less impactful…
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Industrywide Issues | Research

ICF’s Elusive Report Says # of Marcellus/Utica Wells Way Up
June 27, 2014June 27, 2014

In what appears to us to be a waste of a good press release, ICF International, a consulting company, issued a release yesterday to announce the release of a new ICF report that is a “complete outlook for U.S. and Canada natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGL) and oil production through 2035.” The release is a waste because if you visit their website, we defy you to locate where you can request or look at a copy of said report, which is titled “2014 Detailed Production Report.” There are, however, a few good tidbits in the press release itself that touch on production and lateral spacing for the Marcellus and Utica Shale…
Read More “ICF’s Elusive Report Says # of Marcellus/Utica Wells Way Up”
Allegany County | Economic Impact | Garrett County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Maryland | Research | Statewide MD

Maryland Study: Marcellus Drilling Huge Benefit for Western MD
June 26, 2014June 26, 2014

A new study recently released by the Regional Economic Studies Institute (RESI) at Towson University says if Maryland would only allow Marcellus Shale drilling, two western MD counties would reap huge benefits. The study, “Impact Analysis of the Marcellus Shale Safe Drilling Initiative” (full copy embedded below) says Allegany and Garrett counties would benefit from thousands of new jobs and hundreds of million dollars in newfound revenue…
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