New York

New York | Statewide NY

NY Women’s Pro-Drilling Group Rallies in Albany Today
June 12, 2012June 12, 2012

In what is sure to rankle the anti-drilling movement, a new group of women have formed a pro-drilling group called “The Women’s Energy Leadership Coalition.” The new Coalition is holding a rally in Albany today to bring legislators the message that natural gas drilling can be done responsibly and safely, and New York desperately needs it—now.

The Coalition’s leader is Uni Blake, an environmental toxicologist and mother of five. Other leaders in the new coalition group are women of distinction with degrees in engineering and environmental sciences. One of the highlights of today’s meeting? A showing of Truthland, a movie made refuting Josh Fox’s fiction Gasland.

From the press release:

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

Albany County, NY Bans Fracking for 2 Years
June 12, 2012June 12, 2012

Ever so gradually the “body count” continues to rise in New York. No, not that body count. The body count of municipalities that enact bans against fracking.

Albany County (with a high concentration of liberal Democrats, so it comes as no surprise) is the latest municipality to ban fracking—but at least this ban is confined to county-owned land:

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

NY DEC and EPA Emails – Interesting, Not Earth Shattering
June 11, 2012June 11, 2012

Over the weekend, the Gannett News Service ran a story in several of its newspapers and TV stations in New York State detailing the contents of emails that have flown back and forth between the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the topic of hydraulic fracturing in New York over the past four years. A copy of the emails is embedded below.

There’s really nothing earth shatteringly new in the emails. Some interesting tidbits perhaps, but all of it now ancient history and not worth being hot and bothered about.

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Bradford County | Chemung County | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | New York | Pennsylvania

The Economics of Shale Cuttings and Landfills
June 8, 2012June 8, 2012

Some of what comes out of the holes drilled for natural gas wells is rock and dirt. More precisely, a substance called “shale cuttings.” According to the MDN glossary, shale cuttings are: “Small pieces of rock that break away during the drilling process. Cuttings are screened out of the liquid mud by using shale shakers, or screens that allow the liquid to pass through but filter out the bits of rock.”

Since 2010 the municipal landfill in Bradford County, PA has accepted shale cuttings, making a tidy sum from it ($130,000). But the cuttings, and the revenue, stopped at the end of 2011. Why? Bradford County charges more than other landfills, like the municipal landfill across the border in Chemung County, NY. Not surprisingly, drillers haul their cuttings to cheaper landfills instead.

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

Fracking Bills in NY Legislature See Movement
June 7, 2012June 7, 2012

Several bills that deal with hydraulic fracturing are making their way through the legislature in Albany, but with only eight days left in the legislative session for 2012, it’s not at all assured any of them will pass. The bills range from stricter control of fracking wastewater to an outright ban on fracking in the state—and everything in between.

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

Elected Democrats Tell Cuomo to Continue Fracking Moratorium
June 7, 2012June 7, 2012

A new partisan effort is under way to pressure New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to just keep the hydraulic fracturing moratorium in place for another year, and another year, and another year…

This effort is to get elected officials throughout the state to sign a letter which asks Cuomo to keep the moratorium in place, “until analyses have thoroughly and properly evaluated the potential health, economic, and cumulative environmental impacts on local communities.” Of course that very analysis has been going on now for four years, so may we presume another four years or more is what they’re asking for?

So far, the “letter” (which is really a website with a form on it) has 306 signatures (as of June 7) from elected representatives—everything from town clerks to county legislators to mayors—virtually of them Democrats.

You can find the letter and the list of signatories (people you should vote out of office), here: //www.nyelectedofficials.org/.
Broome County | Chemung County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY | Tioga County (NY)

NY Rumor Mill: Cuomo to Allow Test Sites for Fracking?!
June 6, 2012June 6, 2012

The anti-drillers are hot and bothered. A fringe anti-drilling group called Toxics Targeting (from where else, Ithaca, NY) held a small rally in Binghamton yesterday. They enlisted the support of the Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan to their cause. And this week’s cause? Send a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo asking him to ban fracking, but especially to drop any plans to allow the drilling of “demonstration wells” in Broome, Tioga and Chemung counties.

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

Town of Rochester, NY Considers Fracking Ban
June 6, 2012June 6, 2012

The Town of Rochester, NY, located in Ulster County along the Hudson River (and not the City of Rochester located on the opposite side of the state) is considering a ban on hydraulic fracturing:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Onondaga County | Statewide NY

Alec Baldwin Takes Aim at Fracking in Syracuse Appearance
June 4, 2012June 4, 2012

On Saturday night, a B-list actor with anger management issues (who used to be A-list), Alec Baldwin, was joined by one-trick pony Josh Fox to show Josh’s masterful propaganda film, Gasland, to a small gathering at the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse, NY.

Alec has found yet another cause célèbre—defeat fracking in New York. (Oh, and Alec’s mom lives in Syracuse, so that’s why he was really in town.)

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

AP Story: NY Should Give Up on Drilling Before It’s Begun
June 4, 2012June 4, 2012

An AP story that appeared over the weekend attempts to make the case that Pennsylvania is so far ahead in the natural gas game that New York shouldn’t even make an attempt to allow fracking. The opening paragraph compares the situation to a runner with a huge lead in a foot race—PA will dominate natural gas for years to come.

The logic of the AP writer goes like this:

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

Horseheads, NY Still Considering a Ban on Fracking
June 1, 2012June 1, 2012

As MDN previously reported, the Town of Horseheads (NY) continues to flirt with the idea of enacting a fracking ban (see this MDN story). What makes Horseheads different from the other 90 or so towns that have enacted bans in New York different is that it’s located in prime Marcellus and Utica Shale development territory—in Chemung County, just across the border from the super-hot drilling area of Bradford County, PA. If Horseheads does ban fracking, it would be the second such municipality in the Marcellus “zone” to do so, after the City of Binghamton in nearby Broome County.

Town Supervisor Michael Edwards floated the idea of a fracking ban at a recent Town Board meeting—and he’s still pursuing it:

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Madison County | New York

Local Groups Discuss Gas Drilling in Madison County, NY
June 1, 2012June 1, 2012

Citizens for Safe Energy of Madison County (NY) and The Madison County Natural Gas Development Working Group held a joint public information session on Wednesday evening to reveal findings of the Working Group’s research. One of the loud and clear messages of the evening was this advice for landowners who are contemplating leasing their land for drilling: get a lawyer first.

Working Group Chairman and Town of Nelson Supervisor Roger Bradstreet explained the geology of Madison County. The Marcellus is too shallow—too near the surface in Madison to be commercially viable—at least in most of the county. However, the Utica Shale is a viable layer to drill in the county. He also had this to say about current drilling and leasing activity in the county:

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Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation

City of Binghamton Gets Sued Over Fracking Ban
May 31, 2012May 31, 2012

Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan’s folly, a symbolic ban on hydraulic fracturing within the city, has now come back to bite him in the rear end. His folly will cost Binghamton City taxpayers a lot of money as the city has now been sued over their illegal ban, passed at the eleventh hour last December before Ryan was about to lose a majority of support from the Binghamton City Council in January (voters tossing out some of the all-Democrat council members in the last election).

The Binghamton law firm Hinman, Howard & Kattell filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in state Supreme Court on behalf of five plaintiffs to overturn the Binghamton ban.

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Energy Companies | New York | Norse Energy | Statewide NY

Norse Energy Shutting Down NY Office, Moving to Houston
May 31, 2012May 31, 2012

For more than year, MDN has periodically reported on Norse Energy as they have struggled to hold on, waiting for New York State to finally start issuing horizontal hydraulic fracturing drilling permits (see MDN’s coverage here). Norse’s strategy has been to roll the dice that New York will allow shale gas drilling. Drilling is always risky, but betting the company on New York politicians is truly a Las Vegas kind of gamble.

In order to keep going, Norse has sold off various assets over the past year. According to their first quarter 2012 update (see below), they at least have enough money in the bank to keep their U.S. operations going through the third quarter of this year. And they still have a controlling interest in 135,000 acres in New York, much of it in the Marcellus and Utica Shale play areas, should New York finally get off the dime. But in a sign that they may be giving up on the Empire State, Norse is shutting down it’s New York office and heading back to Houston.

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | New York | Statewide NY

NYS Comptroller DiNapoli Letter: Chesapeake Needs New Board
May 30, 2012May 30, 2012

Anti-drilling New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is once again going after Chesapeake Energy. Like many Democrats, he’s not one to waste a good crisis. You may recall that DiNapoli previously scolded Chesapeake over its Founders Well Participation Program (FWPP) that allowed CEO Aubrey McClendon, the guy who founded the company, to participate in each well drilled, with up to 2.5 percent ownership (see this MDN story).

Now that the board has rescinded the FWPP program after next year, DiNapoli needs something else to target, so he’s lobbying to have a new board of directors installed and sent an open letter to shareholders calling for just that (see the letter embedded below).

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Accidents | Education | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

UB Backs Away from Own Shale Institute’s New Study
May 29, 2012May 29, 2012

A few weeks ago the new natural gas institute at SUNY University at Buffalo (UB) released a 52-page study that found environmental problems caused by Marcellus Shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania were isolated, mostly minor and on the decline (see this MDN story for a copy of the study). The high priests of the enviro-left could not let a study favorable to the drilling industry stand, so a fast and furious mud-slinging contest began to see if they could besmirch, ridicule, criticize and otherwise try to blunt the effect of such a study. Their concerted (and coordinated?) campaign is having an effect.

The University at Buffalo is now distancing itself from the study, even though the study was rigorous and academically sound. Such are the vagaries (and lack of intestinal fortitude) in academe.

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