Recycled Pap: Yale Study Says Fracking Causes STDs in Mult. States
What is it about Yale University researchers and their obsession with sexually transmitted diseases? It seems like an unhealthy obsession to us. The same Yale brain trust that brought us a sham “study” in 2018 that said fracking causes STDs in Ohio (see Yale Study Claims Ohio Utica Fracking Causes STDs) has just published a new “study” to say the same thing happens in Colorado, North Dakota, and Texas too. Another “f” word certainly can cause STDs, but not fracking. Perhaps the “researchers” got their semantics mixed up?
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The regional transmission organization (RTO) that oversees the electric grid in New England states is called ISO New England. The organization has just published new data for 2019 which contains some interesting statistics. For example, in 2019, some 48.5% of all the electricity generated in the region (the #1 source) was generated by (yep)…natural gas. That number has been pretty consistent over the past five years. The #2 source of electric generation was nuclear, at 30%. The #3 source was hydro, which produced 9% of New England’s electricity. Wait, what about wind and solar? You know, the blessed renewables that will SAVE THE PLANET. How much did they produce last year?
For many years the U.S. has imported natural gas. When you look at how much natural gas we import versus how much we now export, via LNG and pipelines, the difference is a number called “net exports.” The U.S. now exports more natural gas than it imports. The U.S. Energy Information Administration is fresh out with a report that says our “net export” number is set to *double* in the next two years.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and their monthly Drilling Productivity Report (DPR), the Marcellus/Utica region will produce 56 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) less of natural gas in the coming month of February than it will have produced in this month of January. That’s the second month in a row M-U gas production has dropped in the modern shale era. Last month’s DPR forecast a 74 MMcf/d drop for this month (see 
Just coming to light for us now is a report issued by the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) that estimates the amount of gas production royalties paid by drillers to landowners for calendar year 2017 (the most recent year available). It’s a fascinating report that breaks down royalty payments by the eight top gas-producing counties in the state. You may be surprised to learn the county producing the most natural gas in the state (Susquehanna County) does NOT, in fact, pay out the most in landowner royalties.
Three weeks ago MDN told readers the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts a slight reduction in Marcellus/Utica production will happen this month–that M-U will produce an estimated 74 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) less in January than we did in December (see 
We spotted a newly published study (published just yesterday) in Scientific Reports, an online open access scientific mega journal published by Nature, that looks at a new and better way to evaluate shale oil and gas reserves–the amount of stuff in the ground. What’s special about this report, written by researchers at the University of Utah, is that it specifically used the Marcellus Shale as its test subject.
At the end of last year/beginning of this year we noticed several articles predicting what will happen with natural gas drilling in 2020. The upshot from the experts and prognosticators quoted is that drillers will “tap the breaks” and natural gas production will, at a minimum, stay flat through 2020. Perhaps even fall a bit.
A new study conducted by the University of California San Diego and published this week in the journal Nature Sustainability says 26,610 U.S. lives were saved from 2005-2016 as a result of increasing reliance on natural gas in electric power generation. That’s right–a liberal university published a study in a liberal journal that says natural gas SAVES LIVES. You may have to pinch yourself to see if it’s a dream!
Last week the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) announced it has selected 16 projects to receive nearly $25 million in federal funding for cost-shared projects to advance natural gas infrastructure technology development. DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy will provide federal funding for these projects. Two of the 16 are located in West Virginia and will receive a cumulative $4.5 million of the $25 million (18% of the total).
Once upon a time conventional wisdom said if the price of natural gas or oil rose, the rig count would also rise and consequently more production would be the end result. The reverse was also true: falling prices equal fewer rigs and less production. But that conventional wisdom has been turned upside down with the shale revolution.
If you use the number of active rigs operating in a given shale play/state as the measure for “success,” 2019 wasn’t such a good year for the Marcellus/Utica. In January, Pennsylvania entered 2019 with 48 active rigs. In December that number was cut nearly in half, to 25 active rigs. It was a similar story for Ohio, which entered 2019 with 17 active rigs and exited with 12 rigs. West Virginia, on the other hand, entered 2019 with 15 rigs and exited the year with the same number. But at one point during the year WV had 21 active rigs. We have the monthly rig stats below for all three states.
Carnegie Mellon University is clearly feeling the heat over their overtly political, unscientific “study” that says Marcellus Shale extraction and the use of that gas is polluting the air and causing man-made global warming–and therefore killing people (see 
For months MDN has brought you bits and pieces of news from individual drillers, detailing plans to cut back on spending for new drilling in the Marcellus/Utica in 2020. It’s not just happening in the M-U–it’s happening across the country. The experts at RBN Energy have a terrific new post that pulls information about major drillers scaling back into one place. They analyze spending by three different groups of drillers: oil-focused, diversified, and gas-focused drillers. In the third category, all but one of the gas-focused drillers have major operations in the M-U. The stats are sobering. As a collective group, M-U gas drillers have pledged to cut their 2020 budgets 25% from the already-lower spending that happened this year. Ouch.
Last month MDN warned readers that we were likely at a peak, the point when the Marcellus/Utica would, after many years, begin to produce less natural gas each month than it had the month before (see