Maryland

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

Legislature in Prince George’s County, MD Bans Fracking
April 14, 2016April 14, 2016

Taylorsville Basin – click for larger view

The anti-fossil fuel Democrat machine that runs Prince George’s County, Maryland (D.C. suburb) has voted to ban fracking in the county. Not that anyone actually wants to frack there. And not that the state doesn’t already have a moratorium in place that prevents it (see Maryland’s Pusillanimous Gov Allows Frack Moratorium to Become Law). There is no prolific Marcellus or Utica Shale running under Prince George’s County (PGC). However, there may be a portion of the Taylorsville Basin under the county, which is the excuse used by legislators in passing the ban. The Taylorsville is located mostly under Virginia (see Virginia Inches Closer to Shale Drilling in Taylorsville Basin). The PGC Dems hope their legislation will serve as a model for other counties in the state, and in fact will “lay the groundwork for a statewide ban in Maryland.” Fine. Ban it. What we hope is that all companies stop selling natural gas to Maryland and we’ll see how quickly that ban would get reversed. The people doing the banning in PGC heat their homes with natural gas, go to work in buildings that use natural gas, drive vehicles and use devices made from plastic (comes from natural gas and petroleum products). Etc. Can anyone say HYPOCRITES? More like dullards…
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Garrett County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation

Garrett County, Maryland Commissioners Commit Fracking Suicide
March 9, 2016March 9, 2016

As we told you on Monday, Garrett County, MD commissioners were contemplating committing fracking suicide by banning fracking in 41,000 acres around a lake in the county (see Maryland Continues to Shoot Itself in the Head re Shale Drilling). Even though the state hasn’t even allowed fracking yet, and even though Garrett is part of the one and a half counties with frackable shale gas under it. We’re sad to report the commissioners went ahead and pulled the trigger…
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5 Key Insights from MDN’s 2015 Databook Vol. 3 – Just Released
March 7, 2016March 18, 2016

MDN recently published Volume 3 of the 2015 Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook. In 103 jam-packed pages you will get the latest information on what’s happening (or not happening) with drilling in the Marcellus/Utica region. Much of the Databook is a series of county maps–one map for each county where there’s permit activity for Marcellus or Utica drilling. Each county map shows a dot for where a permit was issued–along with the name of the driller next to it. The maps also show major natural gas pipelines and compressor stations. Each map offers you a quick, visual way of understanding where drilling is happening, and who’s doing the drilling.

For this new edition, MDN editor Jim Willis spent several weeks compiling and completely revising a directory of frack waste facilities, including the addition of hundreds of injection wells. The 3-volume series is just $350 (single volumes are $225). All three volumes are meant to work together. This is the PERFECT resource for drillers, pipeline companies, law firms, landmen and many others. Below we’ve included sample pages along with 5 key insights from this latest edition of the Databook…
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Garrett County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation

Maryland Continues to Shoot Itself in the Head re Shale Drilling
March 7, 2016March 7, 2016

Even the Republicans in Maryland are Democrats. That’s the only conclusion we can come to, to explain why politicians in Maryland keep shooting themselves in the head with respect to shale drilling. First, the state, under former governor Martin O’Malley (who tried to run for the Democrat nomination for president and washed out) studied fracking for four long, bloody years. There’s only drillable shale deposits under 1.5 counties in the entire state–in the far western corner (Garrett County and Allegany County). As he was leaving office, O’Malley–to his credit–teed up new fracking regulations that would allow the state to begin fracking THIS YEAR. Then the new Republican governor, Larry Hogan, took office as a supporter of natural gas. He promptly wimped out after the legislature voted on a new two-year moratorium. The legislators from Garrett & Allegany counties voted FOR the moratorium! Insane. And now, the Garrett County Commissioners are considering a frack ban around one of the lakes in the county. Hello! There ain’t that many places to drill in the first place in Maryland!…
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Maryland | Statewide MD

Maryland Senate Candidate’s Full-Throated Endorsement of Fracking
February 19, 2016February 19, 2016

Dave Wallace is running for the U.S. Senate in the great state of Maryland. To be honest, we don’t know much about Dave (we don’t live in Maryland), but what we do know is that he is the only candidate running who is giving his full-throated support for fracking in The Old Line State. You read that right. A candidate that full supports fracking not only in Maryland, but across our great country. Here’s what Dave said about fracking in a column he wrote for The DC Caller…
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CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Maryland | Statewide MD

Radical Enviro Groups Continue Lawsuit Against Cove Point LNG
February 17, 2016February 17, 2016

Big Green groups, including the nutty Sierra Club and left-leaning Chesapeake Climate Action Network and the odious Earthjustice continue to pump money and lawyers and time into an effort to stop progress on Dominion’s construction of an LNG (liquefied natural gas) export facility in Cove Point, Maryland. Last June Earthjustice and its co-conspirators filed a lawsuit against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission claiming that FERC was wrong to issue a permit for the facility (see Earthjustice Asks Court to Stop Construction at Cove Point LNG). The lawsuit has progressed to the point that oral arguments will be made on April 19 before the Court of Appeals. An update on the shenanigans from fossil fuel haters ahead of this important court date…
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Maryland | Statewide MD

Captain Mercaptan Superhero is Back in Baltimore!
January 28, 2016January 28, 2016

Captain Mercaptain! (Pugh, what’s that smell?)

Captain Mercaptan is back! You may recall last fall MDN had a good time poking fun at Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) and Marvel for creating a superhero, called Captain Mercaptan, based on one of the worst odors known to mankind (see Captain Mercaptan to the Rescue! Super Hero Named After Foul Odor). Mercaptan is the chemical added to natural gas that gives it that distinctive rotten eggs smell. It’s added as a safety precaution–so your nose can tell you if there’s a natural gas leak. Who knows how many lives that smelly chemical has saved over the years? The PR folks at BGE decided to create a superhero based on the odor as a way to educate kids about the potential dangers of natural gas if they should smell it. Last week BGE announced the kickoff of the 2016 “Adventures of Captain Mercaptan, BGE Natural Gas Safety Hero Challenge.” Don your capes kiddies! Oh, and bring along a gas mask. That Captain Mercaptan dude smells!…
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CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Maryland | Processing Plants | Statewide MD

Antis Try Last Desperate Ploy to Stop Cove Point LNG in Court
November 25, 2015November 25, 2015

Dominion is working fast and furiously on constructing the Cove Point LNG export facility in Maryland. In fact, it’s now half done (see Dominion 3Q15: Progress on Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Cove Point LNG). Even though the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave its blessing on the project, and even though Dominion suffered through something like 70+ federal, state and local permits to begin building, irrational anti-fossil fuel haters are still opposing the project. We told you how some of the most extreme among them endangered fans at an NFL game recently (see Cove Point Protesters Disrupt Monday Night Football Game on TV). Now comes word that several groups of nutters, including Waterkeepers Chesapeake, Potomac Riverkeeper, Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper and others have filed a “friend of the court” brief in a lawsuit that is trying to get the project stopped cold in its tracks…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNG/LNG | Crime | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Statewide MD

Cove Point Protesters Disrupt Monday Night Football Game on TV
November 4, 2015November 4, 2015

The crazies have done it again. Did you happen to watch Monday Night Football this past Monday? It was the Indianapolis Colts playing the Carolina Panthers at the Bank of America stadium in Charlotte, NC. During the game, protesters of the Dominion Cove Point LNG plant “dramatically” rappelled from an upper deck and unfurled a banner that said “BoA: Dump Dominion”. Note that the teams are from North Carolina and Indiana, nothing to do with Maryland where the Cove Point plant is. The only tie-in is the stadium is named after Bank of America and BoA has some financial/commercial connection to Dominion. In fact, 99.9% of the people in the stadium or watching by television didn’t even know what was meant by the banner! The protesters not only endangered themselves, they endangered the people underneath them. What if the protesters had fallen? No, we’re not concerned for the nutjobs if they had Darwined themselves and dropped like a rock. We’re concerned about the people underneath them. What if the banner had fallen on people? What if a shoe had flown off one of these nutters and hit a baby on the head? The protesters finally came down and were promptly arrested for their crime…
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Databook Vol. 2: List of 101 Infrastructure Projects Worth $83B!
October 21, 2015November 2, 2015

MDN has just published Volume 2 of the 2015 Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook. In 90 jam-packed pages you will get the latest information on what’s happening (or not happening) with drilling in the Marcellus/Utica region. Much of the Databook is a series of county maps–one map for each county where there’s permit activity for Marcellus or Utica drilling. Each county maps shows a dot for where a permit was issued–along with the name of the driller next to it. The maps also show major natural gas pipelines and compressor stations. Each map offers you a quick, visual way of understanding where drilling is happening, and who’s doing the drilling. In addition, MDN editor Jim Willis spent several weeks compiling and completely revising a list of major pipeline and infrastructure projects happening throughout the northeast (and Midwest)–any project that affects takeaway capacity in the Marcellus/Utica. Jim found 101 projects in this updated list (sample below). If all projects get built, it represents a flabbergasting $83 billion worth of investment! The 3-volume series is just $350 (single volumes are $225). All three volumes are meant to work together. This is the PERFECT resource for drillers, pipeline companies, law firms, landmen and many others. Take a look at our sample pages below…
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Education | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Statewide MD

Captain Mercaptan to the Rescue! Super Hero Named After Foul Odor
October 8, 2015October 8, 2015

Captain Mercaptain

Captain Mercaptan to the rescue! This story is hilarious on many levels. We’re not making fun, well, maybe just a little. Do you know what mercaptan is? Natural gas (methane) as it comes out of the ground is colorless and oderless. If you breathe too much of it, you’ll die (suffocate) because it will cut out the oxygen you’re breathing. So natural gas utility companies, like Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE), add a chemical called mercaptan to the gas that gives it that foul, disgusting, rotten eggs smell. Ask someone who lives close to a compressor station where mercaptan is present (and leaking) and they’ll tell you just how hideous the smell can get. So BGE teamed up with Marvel Comics, of Avengers fame, to introduce a new comic book hero: Captain Mercaptan (Mercaptan Mercaptain…echo for effect). Captain Mercaptan teaches little crumb crunchers to skedaddle when they smell him. Call 911. Tell an adult. Get out of the room. A life sized Captain Mercaptan (sans the smell) visited the fifth grade class at Hampden Elementary-Middle School in Baltimore yesterday…
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Statewide MD

New Natgas-Powered Electric Plant Goes Online in…Maryland?
June 30, 2015June 30, 2015

Maryland, the state that recently banned fracking for another two years (see Maryland’s Pusillanimous Gov Allows Frack Moratorium to Become Law), has a brand new electric generation plant providing residents with 120 megawatts of electricity (powering 120,000 homes) in Harford County. The new electric plant is powered by fracked shale gas. The new Exelon Generation 120 megawatt Perryman 6 natural gas power generating unit began commercial operation on Sunday, June 28. Exelon built the plant to cut down on emissions–providing Maryland with “greener” electricity. And yet the state bans fracking. Anyone else see what a big, stinking pile of hypocrisy that is? Below are details on the new Exelon Perryman project…
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MDN Launches 2015 Marcellus/Utica Databook – 4th Year!
June 11, 2015June 23, 2015

Earlier this week Marcellus Drilling News launched the fourth series of our Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook. The 2015 edition of the Databook, Volume 1, officially launched on Tuesday. Never in our wildest dreams did we think back in 2012 that the Databook would become so popular. We’ve now published three complete series–the 2012, 2013 and 2014 series (3 volumes each, or nine volumes total) and this week begins the fourth series–for 2015. The heart and soul of the Databook is a series of maps–one for every county where permits for drilling have been issued–throughout Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. The “secret sauce” for the Databook is to visually, through maps and charts (89 of them in this edition), show you who is drilling right now or soon will be–and where they are drilling…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Maryland | Processing Plants | Statewide MD

Earthjustice Asks Court to Stop Construction at Cove Point LNG
June 3, 2015June 2, 2015

Three weeks ago MDN told you about the frivolous lawsuit filed by Earth[in]justice attempting to stop the Cove Point, Maryland LNG export plant from being built (see DOE Grants Cove Point LNG Final Approval, Earthjustice Sues). Earth[in]justice sued on behalf of themselves (they are a small group of Washington, DC lawyers backed by Big Green money), and on behalf of Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Patuxent Riverkeeper, and the Sierra Clubbers. Meanwhile, Dominion, the owner of the project, has pushed forward with construction at the site. Dominion is about to begin construction on the foundation of the new facility sometime in June, so Earth[in]justice has just filed another lawsuit–a request for a cease and desist order to stop Dominion from constructing the foundation until after their frivolous lawsuit has a chance to get in front of a sympathetic judge…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

Outsider Anti-Drilling Groups Celebrate Victory in Maryland Frack Ban
June 1, 2015June 1, 2015

As MDN reported last week, Maryland’s new Republican Governor, Larry Hogan–missing an important piece of his male anatomy–allowed a Maryland bill to become law that bans fracking in Maryland for another two years (see Maryland’s Pusillanimous Gov Allows Frack Moratorium to Become Law). That now gives non-Maryland anti-fracking groups another two years in which to lock down a total and permanent ban on fracking–which is their stated goal. The odious Food & Water Watch and other non-Maryland, outsider anti-drilling groups couldn’t be happier over the victory…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

Maryland’s Pusillanimous Gov Allows Frack Moratorium to Become Law
May 27, 2015May 27, 2015

What a disappointment Maryland’s new Republican governor, Larry Hogan, has turned out to be. On his way out of office, Maryland’s previous governor, Martin O’Malley (Democrat), created strict drilling regulations that would allow fracking in Maryland THIS YEAR (see Maryland Gets Ready to Frack! Gov O’Malley Files New Regulations). O’Malley was a disaster as Maryland’s governor, and even though he lobbed new fracking regs over the wall in a sleazy political move (he’s running for president), we tipped our hat to him for doing the right thing–even if he did it for his own personal reasons. The prospect of any fracking was too much for the environmentally insane that belong to Maryland’s legislature. They passed a two-year moratorium bill and sent it to Hogan for his signature (see Maryland Closer to a 2-Year Fracking Ban, Will Gov have Guts?). Looks like the pusillanimous Gov. Hogan doesn’t have guts after all. He’s already defeated just a few months into his first term. Last Friday the Baltimore Sun quotes his office as saying Hogan, who supposedly supports shale drilling, will let the bill become law without his signature–a cop out if ever we’ve seen one…
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