New York

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    Mike Bloomberg Gives Sierra Club $30M to Fight Coal, But Loves Gas

    Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is one conflicted dude. On the one hand he loves natural gas (a fossil fuel) and thinks we should have more of it, and on the other hand he hates coal. So get this… On Wednesday Bloomberg attended a big soiree where he handed a personal check for $30 million (part of a $110 million donation) to the nutters of the Sierra Club to further fund their “Beyond Coal” campaign. At the event he was asked if he would be supporting the Sierra Club’s Beyond Natural Gas campaign. He said no. He not only said no, he went on (later in the day) to devastate every argument the Sierra Club has against natural gas. Bloomberg, in a Wall Street Journal interview on Wednesday, took pot shots at Andrew Cuomo’s anti-fracking ban. Bloomberg loves gas but hates coal. Like we said, one conflicted dude…
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    PA Health Expert to Address NY “Study” on Fracking Health Impacts

    In December, Dr. Theodore Them, MD, MS, PhD, MPH was a guest on the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) Good News Table Talk Radio program (see PA Public Health Expert Destroys NY Health Study, Frack Ban). We are excited to announce Dr. Them is returning for another session this coming Sunday evening at 7 pm on Binghamton radio station WNBF 1290 (listen online here). Dr. Them has reviewed the so-called health review peddled by New York State Acting Health Commission Howard Zucker and will share his findings about the MANY shortcomings in Zucker’s “review”…
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    NY High Court Decision Creates Toxic Environment for O&G Companies

    court gavelA court case decided earlier this week by New York’s Court of Appeals (NY’s highest court), will, in our opinion, have a profoundly negative effect on oil and gas development in the state, forever. Or until another court case overturns it (which seems very unlikely). The case, as its core, is about the question of whether or not state action or inaction constitutes an extraordinary action, in essence an Act of God outside of the control of parties who sign a contract. Years ago landowners signed leases to allow oil and gas drilling, often for a few bucks and acre, long before Marcellus and fracking were common, household words. Then came delay after delay in New York–from the governor–and eventually a more or less semi-permanent ban on fracking. Energy companies argued that the leases they had signed could be extended until the day they are allowed to drill in the Marcellus because of “force majeure”–the concept that due to circumstances beyond our control we could not drill as we intended during the original term of the lease, usually five years. The NY Court of Appeals on Tuesday decided that the state preventing drilling does not qualify as force majeure after the original five-year period of a lease (full copy of the decision below). If the original lease was extended for some reason and then the driller was prevented from drilling during the extended time due to state laws preventing it, it’s not force majeure in the eyes of the “wise” justices in Albany…
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    Syracuse U Divests from Fossil Fuels, NYU Says “Irresponsible”

    Silly (and frankly stupid) “green” students at universities who apparently don’t have enough homework to keep them busy have lately been protesting and attempting to get the schools their parents pay so much money to, to divest from any stock holdings in evil, filthy, nasty fossil fuel companies. No, we’re not making this up. These idiots, who believe in global warming fairy tales, are demanding, like the petulant undisciplined children they are, that universities pull out a gun and just shoot themselves in the head financially. And you know what? Syracuse University has just done it. They’ve just committed financial suicide by bowing to pressure from children and divesting any fossil fuel stocks from their $1.2 billion endowment. Forcing Coach Jim Boeheim to retire, and now divesting from fossil fuels? We’re officially no longer Orange basketball fans. Meanwhile, the divest from fossil fuels issue was extensively studied by New York University–and they concluded to do such a thing is nuts…
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    Power Lines and Pipeline Corrosion – A Quick MDN Primer

    MDN told you yesterday about a story in the anti-drilling Albany Times Union newspaper that seeks to spread FUD–fear, uncertainty and doubt–about the proposed Kinder Morgan Northeast Extension Direct pipeline (see Albany Times Union Says Electric Lines will Corrode NED Pipeline). The meme trying to be spread by the TU is that if Kinder moves forward with a plan to co-locate the pipeline along miles and miles of high voltage power line corridors, the power lines will eat away the pipeline and turn it into a ticking time bomb that will one day explode. That’s our words, not the TU’s words, but that’s clearly the impression the TU reporter attempts to convey in the article. We poked fun at the notion that electric lines corrode pipelines. However, it does happen! No less than three sharp MDN readers, one of them from the federal government, emailed with information about the phenomenon of pipeline corrosion from AC power lines. The upshot is that a) this is a known issue, b) there are ways to safely mitigate any potential corrosion from AC power lines, and c) pipelines have been co-located along power line corridors for decades–safely…
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    Albany Times Union Says Electric Lines will Corrode NED Pipeline

    In an effort to bend over backwards, forwards and in any direction that will help, Kinder Morgan continues to have multiple talks with multiple communities in an effort to build their $6 billion extension to the Tennessee Gas Pipeline, a project called Northeast Energy Direct (NED). The pipeline would stretch from New York State through Massachusetts into New Hampshire before re-entering Massachusetts and terminating near Boston. It aims to bring desperately needed natural gas to New England. Yesterday we told you about the gutsy move by a local gas utility in MA that said if the pipeline isn’t built, no gas new customers (and no new gas appliances for existing gas customers) would be allowed–indefinitely (see Guts: No New Pipeline in MA? Then No New Natgas for Utility Customers). One of the ways Kinder hopes to minimize the project’s impact is by running the pipeline through existing rights of way where electric power lines are run. But ninny nanny anti-drillers have a counter argument even for that. Get this (it’s really quite funny): The anti-drilling Albany Times Union is reporting that the presence of power lines way up in the air will corrode pipelines deep under ground–so say “numerous scientific studies.” The TU refers to just one such study, written for Israel (not even a North American study). We’d say the TU is diggin’ deep in their propaganda advocacy to prevent shale drilling and pipelines…
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    USGS Says There’s Plenty More Fossil Fuels to Come in Appalachia

    There were plenty of fossil fuels in the past 150 years in Appalachia–an area stretching from the northeast to the south–and there’s plenty more where those came from. That’s the conclusion from an updated series of papers collected together in a new U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper (#1708) called “Coal and Petroleum Resources in the Appalachian Basin: Distribution, Geologic Framework, and Geochemical Character” (free access, linked below). The USGS says, “Professional Paper 1708 is a modern, indepth collection of reports, cross sections, and maps that describe the geology of the Appalachian basin and its fossil fuel resources. This publication supplements and updates older USGS regional studies of Appalachian basin coal and petroleum resources.” Here’s an abstract/summary of what’s in the new report…
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    Liberty Says “Non-Fracked” Trinidad Gas Better than Marcellus Gas

    For some time a controversy has been brewing in (where else?) New York State. But this controversy isn’t about fracking–at least not directly. Liberty Natural Gas filed a plan back in 2010, prior to the Marcellus Shale revolution, to construct an off-shore LNG import (not export) facility off the coast of New York and New Jersey–in the ocean. A floating LNG facility. A pipeline would run from the off-shore terminal to Jones Beach, NY and from there would connect to a Transco pipeline lateral. But something happened on the way to the forum–the Marcellus Shale boom. There is no longer a need for the terminal. Anti-drillers (anti-fossil fuelers, really) are dead set against it. The Marcellus revolution caught a lot of people by surprise, including Liberty. So did Liberty acknowledge the project is no longer needed? Nope. They’re trying to convince anti-drillers the project is still needed because it will bring in “non-fracked” gas from places like Trinidad. That is, they’re shooting the very industry they belong to right in the head, and attempting to appease the nutters on the other side that will never be appeased. Not a very smart move by Liberty…
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    Good News & Bad News with Constitution Pipeline in PA/NY

    The good news is that the Constitution Pipeline–a pipeline that will flow Marcellus Shale gas from the enormously productive gas fields in Susquehanna County, PA up into New York, all the way to Schoharie County–is getting built. Construction starts in the next three months. The bad news is that construction will cause pain for some of the 651 landowners along its route. Of those 651 landowners, 125 had refused to sign right-of-way agreements with Williams to install the pipeline (19% of the total). The pressure of eminent domain court action forced many of them to sign–really, they had no choice. For those who didn’t sign, the courts have determined compensation (and forced them to accept it) in all but four remaining cases–all of them in New York State. Those cases are now under review and will soon be resolved. It is a done deal and there’s no stopping it. Some of the cases of landowners who opposed the pipeline, highlighted in an AP article, are due to their anti-drilling philosophy. But there is one case that we find distressing–a farmer who didn’t reject the pipeline–he just wanted it moved to a different part of his farm to prevent disrupting future plans…
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    NFG Building Compressor Station in NY to Pump More PA Marcellus Gas

    In an effort to pump more cheap, abundant, clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas from Pennsylvania into frackless (and feckless) New York State, National Fuel Gas Company has announced they’re building a $42.5 million compressor station in Cattaraugus County, NY in the Town of Hinsdale (western part of the state). Amazingly the county wants it! And the county industrial development agency (IDA) has approved it. While construction is going on, some 100 workers will be employed earning close to $7 million…
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    Radio Program to Discuss the Junk Science Behind NY’s Frack Ban

    A shout-out to those who live in the Greater Binghamton area–and even those beyond our area–to listen in this Sunday evening from 7-8 pm to radio station WNBF AM-1290 in Binghamton to another edition of Table Talk with the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY). This week’s guest is Dr. Gilbert Ross, Medical Director of the American Council on Science and Health. Dr. Ross will discuss high volume hydraulic fracturing and the illegal and unscientific ban which stole away the mineral rights of upstate New York landowners. If you’re not in the Binghamton area, you can tune in live online at //wnbf.com (click the big orange LISTEN LIVE button). More on this weekend’s program…
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    NY’s Millennium Pipeline Launches Open Season to Expand

    The Millennium Pipeline–a natural gas pipeline running through upstate New York’s Southern Tier area from Corning, NY to Rockland County, NY–announced a new open season yesterday. The open season will sign up new customers from now until the end of the month, March 31. The Millennium, which is jointly owned by NiSource, National Grid and DTE Energy, plans to expand facilities along the line, increasing capacity. That usually means they will install some new loops, or additional pipelines right next to the existing pipeline, along with upgrades to compressor plants. The purpose? Deliver more clean-burning natural gas to customers throughout the northeast…
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    NYS DEC Releases 2013 Annual Report: Not One Marcellus Mention

    By Andy Leahy

    Sometime last week, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation’s Mineral Resources Division quietly posted its 2013 annual report–finally getting around to covering that year’s activity in the extractive (and regulatory) industries, concerning oil, gas, and other minerals. The report covers a year that ended some 14 months previously, which is a typical breakneck schedule in the Empire State for finishing up these kinds of things. No surprises on the highlights. Natural gas production was down 11%. Oil production was down 5%. Completed wells were down 3%. Drilling permits issued were down 5%. How about the number of occurrences of such phrases or words as “Marcellus shale,” “Utica shale,” “hydraulic,” “frack,” or possibly even “SGEIS”?…
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    NY Town Hopes to Attract Drillers Using Low Volume Fracking

    A story about fracking in New York first caught our eye because it’s one of the only (perhaps the only) mainstream media story to admit that fracking has been and still is happening in New York State. If you’ve read MDN for any length of time you know we’ve been pointing that out until we’re blue in the face. Let us say it again: Fracking using low volumes of water (under 75,000 gallons) has been and continues to be used in New York State. Mainstream media outlets apparently have a news blackout on that score–which leads anti-drillers to believe there is no fracking in NY and that Cuomo’s recent decision will keep it that way. Sorry Charlie (and Bill, and Sandra, and Chip)…that’s just not the truth. Once we read more, it was apparent that the bigger story (the story within the story) is what’s happening in the Town of Windsor, NY–where MDN HQ is located, where the temperature this morning was 0! Windsor is actively looking at the possibility of attracting drillers who may want to use low-volume fracking, or even no fracking, to drill gas wells in the town…
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    NY Antis Flood FERC in Fight Against Dominion’s New Market Project

    By Andy Leahy

    stack of papersBy most measures, Dominion Transmission’s New Market Project is a fairly dull $159 million capacity upgrade to an existing natural gas pipeline which runs across upstate New York from the PA line, west of Horseheads, northeasterly to the state’s Capital Region (see the map below). We are now about a month away from the originally forecast April 2015 date when Dominion thought it might get a green light from FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Docket Number CP14-497). September 2015 was originally forecast for beginning construction (280 jobs, all temporary, as are all construction jobs), while November 2016 was the target in-service date (adding 10 to 12 permanent jobs, running forward)…
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    Peer Review Fraud at Cornell, Ithaca College re Fracking “Studies”

    It seems you have to go all the way to Canada to find real investigative journalism. The Toronto Financial Post exposes the fraud perpetrated by “acting” New York State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker in using a number of so-called “studies” to support his ban fracking recommendation last year that were authored by, and “peer reviewed” by people like the anti-drilling Sandra Steingraber–who is paid with Park Foundation money and holds a position on the faculty of Ithaca College, where she teaches nothing. She’s a paid environmentalist hack. A pretender. The Financial Post calls Zucker’s use of so-called studies written by anti-drillers and “peer reviewed” by Steingraber and other zealots “junk science” in support of “New York’s phoney fracking ban”…
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