New York

East Resources | Energy Companies | Erie County (NY) | New York | Statewide NY

National Media Acknowledges Marcellus Shale Saved the Bills
September 15, 2014September 15, 2014

It’s not often that MDN sets the trend for national news, but we have to say we believe we did this time. Going back to June 2014, MDN speculated that if the Buffalo Bills franchise was purchased by billionairre Terry Pegula, it would be Marcellus money funding the purchase (see Fascinating Connection Between NFL & Marcellus/Utica). We then brought you the news that Aubrey McClendon, the former Chesapeake CEO and fracking “bad boy” the media loves to hate, would also help fund the purchase via his purchases of Marcellus and Utica property from Pegula (see Aubrey McClendon’s Money Makes Purchase of Buffalo Bills Possible). Last week the deal was struck and indeed, Pegula the Marcellus fracking billionaire, was the winner (see Buffalo Bills Stay in Buffalo, Thanks to $1.4B of Marcellus Money). After we reported that story on Wednesday, it took a couple of days, but eventually even Gannett and the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin had to admit we were right. In an interesting twist, the PSB reports that NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo is gushing with praise for Pegula, which of course just points out his sleazy, political double-standard on the fracking issue…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Gov Cuomo Comments on Fracking, Hounding by Protesters
September 10, 2014September 10, 2014

He speaks! The man-child Andrew Cuomo, erstwhile (and rumored) Governor of New York, someone who has a problem making decisions (should I wear the black tie or the blue tie?), had to run a small gauntlet of anti-drilling protesters to cast his ballot in yesterday’s statewide primary. Cuomo, as we’ve chronicled for years, refuses to allow fracking in New York ahead of this November’s election. The betting money is that he will allow it after the election. When asked about the anti-drilling protesters outside the polling place, Cuomo uttered an entire paragraph on the topic–more than he’s said in a year…
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East Resources | Energy Companies | Erie County (NY) | New York

Buffalo Bills Stay in Buffalo, Thanks to $1.4B of Marcellus Money
September 10, 2014September 10, 2014

For some time we’ve followed, with interest, the story of the sale of the Buffalo Bills NFL football team (see Fascinating Connection Between NFL & Marcellus/Utica). East Resources–an oil & gas driller with extensive holdings in the Marcellus–is owned by Terry Pegula. Terry sold much of his Marcellus holdings in 2010 to Shell/SWEPI for $4.7 billion. He later purchased the Buffalo Sabres NHL hockey team. Not long ago he sold off more (the rest?) of his Marcellus and Utica acreage to Aubrey McClendon for $1.75 billion (see Aubrey McClendon’s Money Makes Purchase of Buffalo Bills Possible). Terry has, according to “sources” of Buffalo Business First, won the bidding contest for the Bills. The price? Uncoincidentally, $1.4 billion–the highest price paid for any NFL franchise in the history of the league…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Public Opinion | Statewide NY | Statewide PA

Univ of Mich Polls PA & NY on Fracking Views – Paradox in Results
September 9, 2014September 9, 2014

The University of Michigan is fresh out with the results of a poll they conducted in April and May of both New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians and their attitudes on the issue of Marcellus Shale drilling and fracking. We’re not quite sure if the results can be relied on simply because of the small number polled–just 405 New Yorkers and 411 Pennsylvanians. However, the results are interesting nonetheless. If you drill down to the actual questions asked, and the responses (full copy below), you’ll find that in both NY and PA when asked how much the respondent has heard (knows) about fracking–a lot, a little, or never heard of it before–more than half said they’ve heard “a little” about it: 55% in NY and 52% in PA. Even more shocking is that 11% in NY and 10% in PA had “never heard” of fracking before. Add the numbers up and it equals 66% of NY residents and 62% of PA residents that know little to nothing about fracking–which is a huge opportunity for those of us with the truth about this miracle to communicate our message to them and educate them on the benefits of fracking…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

JLCNY “David” Goes Up Against Park Foundation “Goliath”
September 8, 2014September 8, 2014

MDN recently received the following fundraising letter from the 70,000-member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY). The JLCNY runs on a shoestring budget. Although many landowners belong to the JLCNY “umbrella” organization through local landowner groups, most of them do not contribute money to the JLCNY. The JLCNY has been on the front lines of the fight to get shale drilling authorized in New York. As they point out in the letter, it’s a real David and Goliath kind of struggle–with mom and pop landowners as David and Park Foundation-backed liberal enviro groups (and their minions) as Goliath. The happy thought we had in reading the letter below is that we know how the original David & Goliath story turns out–the one from 3,000 years ago. Let’s hope we get a repeat with the shale drilling struggle, which right now seems hopeless, in New York State…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

Who Knew? “Massive” Marcellus is Drilled in “Two Dozen States”
September 4, 2014September 4, 2014

Wow, the Marcellus must have grown quite a bit overnight when no one was looking. According to a reporter at Newsday (Long Island newspaper, sixth largest regional newspaper in the country), “More than two dozen states permit drilling in the massive Marcellus Shale deposit.” Last time we checked there are three states drilling in the Marcellus: Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. Most of it happens in two states: PA and WV. When reporters are that sloppy, it makes you wonder if anything else in the article is actually true. In this case, it’s an article about the differences of opinion by gubernatorial candidates in NY on whether or not to allow fracking in the Empire State…
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Economic Impact | Education | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide NY | Statewide PA

Penn State to Study Effects of “Mailbox Money” in PA Marcellus
September 3, 2014September 3, 2014

Have you ever heard the phrase “mailbox money” used to describe royalty checks (and singing bonuses) landowners receive for Marcellus Shale wells? We hadn’t either–but apparently that’s the phrase that’s used, somewhat pejoratively, to describe this economic miracle. We wonder how money flowing to snotty rich people who inherited their wealth is described–maybe “lazy money” or “daddy’s money” or “trust fund money”? But we digress. Researchers at Penn State University have received a $150,000 grant (“grant money”) to research whether or not Marcellus money going to previously poor, dumb farmers in PA (our interpretation) makes a difference to the health and well being for the kids in those households, vs. the poor, dumb farmer kids across the border in NY who are kept in poverty by the actions of NY’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, who refuses to allow Marcellus drilling. The study will evaluate whether or not Marcellus money affects a child’s well-being–ranging from behavior, psychological and health factors to school success…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Otsego County | Pipelines | Williams

Cooperstown Refuses $20K Grant from Williams for Fire Equipment
September 2, 2014September 2, 2014

Back in March, MDN wrote an article highlighting the practice by Williams and their Constitution Pipeline of handing out grants to worthy causes and organizations, like fire departments, the Boy Scouts and local Chambers of Commerce. Anti-drillers typically call it payola, or greasing the skids to make those communities more accepting of the pipeline when it comes time to build it (see Constitution Pipeline Payments to Groups – Donations or Payola?). To be honest, we struggle with the issue ourselves. We think it’s great to make those payments–but we think it’s probably better to make the payments after the pipeline is fully approved and ready to be built (or already built). For us the issue is one of timing, not about the payments themselves. However, for the dunderheads in the Village of Cooperstown, NY (yes, where the Baseball Hall of Fame is located), officials there refuse to allow the local fire department to apply for a $20,000 matching grant with Williams to purchase new equipment–simply because they’re so opposed to anything to do with natural gas and fossil fuels…
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Broome County | Chenango County | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Delaware County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Schoharie County | Susquehanna County | Williams

Final EIS for Constitution Pipeline Delayed Another 2 Months, Ugh
August 26, 2014August 26, 2014

The Constitution Pipeline, which MDN has covered for more than two years, is a $683 million Williams pipeline project with backing from Cabot Oil & Gas that will run from Cabot’s gas fields in Susquehanna County, PA all the way to Schoharie County, NY. It’s an important project for Cabot Oil & Gas since it will move an additional half billion cubic feet of natural gas per day for the company. A month ago MDN told you the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was due “any day” (see Constitution Pipeline Update from Cabot – Final EIS Due Any Day). The EIS was already delayed, and now we learn that it’s delayed yet again. According to top energy blogger and analyst Richard Zeits, the EIS for the Constitution is now delayed until the end of October–another two months…
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Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion | Statewide NY

Quinnipiac Poll Finds New Yorkers Still About Split on Fracking
August 25, 2014August 25, 2014

A couple of different polling agencies regularly ask New Yorkers their opinion about fracking in the Empire State. It’s always been roughly 50/50 for and against. Downstate, near New York City, it tends to be slightly higher against, and Upstate, in places like Broome County (where MDN is written) it tends to be slightly higher in favor of fracking. Recently one of two main polling agencies, Siena College, tried a new twist, which utterly bombed. They decided to poll in those places most likely to see drilling–except they included places that won’t see drilling and ignored two of the largest counties that would see drilling (see Siena Poll of Upstate NYers on Fracking Fatally Flawed). Garbage in, garbage out. Quinnipiac University is the other major pollster for New York. They’ve decided to stick with their routine questions and poll a sampling of all New Yorkers. And what does it show?…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Cornell Prof Asks Gov. Cuomo to Lift Drilling Ban, Uses Real Science
August 14, 2014August 14, 2014

Not all of the professors who work at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) are out there ranging like Robert Howarth and Tony Ingraffea, who have made a cottage industry for themselves (and collected big bucks from the Park Foundation) bashing away at shale drilling. Their most infamous anti-drilling work claims burning coal is better for the environment than burning natural gas (see New Cornell University Study Says Shale Gas Extraction Worse for Global Warming Than Coal). And yet they still have jobs at Cornell. Gotta love tenure. Fortunately there’s a counterbalance at Cornell. A group of Cornell professors, including Dr. Larry Cathles, previously pointed out the gaping holes in Howarth & Ingraffea’s “research” (see New Cornell Study Says Coal is Not Cleaner than Natural Gas). Dr. Cathles recently sent an outstanding letter to NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo urging him to lift the shale drilling moratorium, giving Cuomo a Cliff Notes version of the real science that proves natural gas benefits the environment, rather than the reverse…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide NY | Statewide PA

Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin Pair of Drive-by Anti-Drilling Articles
August 11, 2014August 11, 2014

Yet another pair of drive-by articles on shale drilling appeared in the Sunday edition of the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin. First, a front page story built on a false premise–that the recent sham report by the politically ambitious (and anti-drilling) Auditor General of Pennsylvania issued three weeks ago contains “lessons to be learned” for New York. Pennsylvania’s anti-drilling Democrat Auditor General Eugene DePasquale took office promising to conduct an anal exam of the Dept. of Environmental Protection. Apparently he couldn’t find good dirt on the agency from 2012 onward, so he went back in time using the wayback machine to dig up old news and try to construct a report that says the PA DEP has big problems (see Anti-Drilling PA Auditor General Criticizes DEP in “Report”). That sham report, written by a man who’s seeking to make a name for himself so he can run for governor of PA in the future (and someone who heavily promoted wind farms, the energy source that “lost” to shale gas), is used as the basis for an article by a Gannett reporter to further the meme that shale drilling in NY is too risky and should not happen…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion | Statewide NY

Siena Poll of Upstate NYers on Fracking Fatally Flawed
August 1, 2014August 1, 2014

Sure looks to MDN like the so-called unbiased, independent pollsters at Siena College have pulled a fast one. They’ve either unintentionally, or perhaps intentionally, cherry-picked polling results in order to report in their latest poll that “51 percent of voters int the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes oppose hydrofracking, compared to 39 percent in support.” Here’s why the poll, and therefore it’s results, are fatally flawed and meaningless…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Towns that Ban Fracking Could be Bankrupted by Takings Lawsuits
July 31, 2014July 31, 2014

New York townships that recently won the right to outright ban shale drilling with a 3-2 majority vote by a town board may want to rethink their ill-advised votes. Due to a tip from a sharp MDN reader, we bring you a press release from the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO) about recent court decisions in Colorado. Similar to the New York case, some municipalities in CO have attempted outright bans of fracking–and those cases, contrary to what happened in NY–are being lost. (Certainly not the first time NY has been out of step on important issues.) One study mentioned in the NARO announcement says that bans and moratoria in Boulder County, CO could result in more than one billion dollars of “takings” lawsuits by landowners. In other words, the lawsuits will bankrupt the towns and villages stupid enough to enact a ban. Are you listening Dryden and Middlefield? You won round one in NY–but the battle is far from over and taxpayers in your towns may one day rue your decision to act foolishly to ban fracking…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Broome County | Industrywide Issues | New York

Anti-Drillers to Push Their Message at Binghamton Spiedie Fest
July 31, 2014July 31, 2014

Anti-drillers will infest, er, attend the Binghamton Spiedie Fest that runs from tomorrow, August 1st, through the weekend. They will, as they have in past years, have an “information” (i.e. lying propaganda) table at the event. They’re desperately trying to get volunteers to show up and “man” the table–by offering them a free pass to enter the event. For those outside of the Southern Tier region, the Spiedie Fest and Balloon Rally is the biggest such regional fair each summer–drawing in around 100,000 visitors. Anti-frackers are using it to spread their lies…
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New York | Statewide NY

Revisiting the Bakken Crude Shipment Through NY Debate
July 30, 2014July 30, 2014

Let’s revisit the issue of Bakken Shale oil traveling on down the train tracks. MDN has written to criticize New York anti-drillers who fought to get train movement information released–not so people could be safer but so they could use the information in their PR offensive against shale drilling. In the process they’ve made New Yorkers less safe (see New York Caves to Anti-Drillers Again: Discloses Oil Train Movements). Is there, however, another side to this story? A North Dakota resident sent out an op-ed to a number of media outlets, including MDN. In it he calls out his own state government for their unwillingness to force Bakken drillers to first separate out natural gas liquids from the light sweet crude produced in the Bakken–chemicals that make train shipments much more volatile and explosive. He says he supports drilling and simply wants the output from Bakken drilling cleaned up before shipping–to make it safer. Is it really that simple?…
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