New York

New York | Tioga County (NY)

Pro-Drilling Rally to Support NY Gov Candidate Tomorrow
July 14, 2014July 14, 2014

Rob Astorino is running on the Republican ticket for governor, against Democrat Andy Cuomo. Astorino’s running mate, for Lt. Governor, is Chris Moss. Both are strongly pro-drilling and would move to immediately allow fracking in New York if elected. Of course, they don’t stand a prayer of a chance, much as we’d love to see them elected. (Sorry to be brutally honest, but you know us.) At any rate, pro-drilling landowner coalitions are urging their members to attend a rally where Astorino and Moss will speak–in Owego, NY–tomorrow night (Tuesday, July 14). The rally will be held at Hickories Park from 7:00-8:30 pm. Anti-drilling nutters are encouraging their protest brigade to turn up, so it’s important for pro-drillers to attend and and show your support for drilling in New York…
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Broome County | Lease & Royalty Payments | New York

Hope for NY Landowners? Kirkwood Coalition Gets Lease Offer
July 11, 2014July 11, 2014

Back in March, MDN started to hear rumors that the Kirkwood, NY Gas Coalition (outskirts of Binghamton, NY, in Broome County) would soon call for an all-hands meeting of coalition members to consider an offer to lease coalition land for drilling (see Kirkwood NY Landowner Group Actively Negotiating Lease Deal). Then all of the wheels fell off the wagon when NY’s highest court decided 3 of 5 town members can, at a whim, decide to ban shale drilling town-wide (see Shale Drilling in NY is Over – High Court Upholds Town Bans). We figured after that debacle the Kirkwood deal and any other pending deals would likely disappear like a summer morning fog when the sun rises. But what’s this? An offer has been made to members of the Kirkwood Coalition–and it appears to be a pretty good one…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Enviro Groups Seek to Use Oil Trains to Their Advantage
July 9, 2014July 9, 2014

Spurred on by several accidents of trains transporting light crude oil from the Bakken Shale, one month ago the federal government ordered railroads to share more details about those shipments with the states through which they pass. One of those states is New York. Some (a lot) of Bakken crude goes to the Port of Albany, where terminals store the oil and transfer it to ships and barges heading down the Hudson River. New York State is still deciding what information, and how much, to share with the public. The information, according to railroad CSX, is supposed to be shared with first responders (and not the general public). That’s just not good enough for virulent anti-drilling groups like Earthjustice, the Sierra Clubers and THE Riverkeeper…
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Alternative Energy | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Otsego County | Regulation | Statewide NY | Tompkins County

MDN Calls on NY Towns to Ban Windmills; Boycott Cooperstown
July 1, 2014July 1, 2014

They’re noisy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They use rare earth minerals in their manufacturing process and endanger Chinese workers who have to mine the toxic metals from the ground. They kill bald eagles and bats and all manner of birds. No one wants to live next to one going whup whup whup 24/7 (drives the neighbors insane). We’re talking of commercial windmills of course. Today MDN kicks off a campaign to get 170 New York townships to ban windmills. Oh, and while we’re at it, let’s also have town boards ban big solar farms too…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Reaction to NY High Court’s Ill-fated Decision to Allow Town Bans
July 1, 2014July 1, 2014

Yesterday MDN brought you the sad news that New York’s highest court has sided with towns giving them the right to completely ban shale drilling (see Shale Drilling in NY is Over – High Court Upholds Town Bans). Today we bring you reaction from several New York pro-drilling groups, along with quotes from others, both for and against drilling. This is a really bid deal–a “10” on the news scale. So we need to devote some time to reactions to the court’s ill-fated decision…
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Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Norse Energy | Regulation | Statewide NY

Shale Drilling in NY is Over – High Court Upholds Town Bans
June 30, 2014June 30, 2014

This is a very sad day indeed. We’ve just received word that New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, has reaffirmed two lower court rulings that allows entire townships in the state to strip away property owners’ rights to allow drilling, in contravention to the U.S. Constitution. The two cases, long chronicled here on MDN, are the “Middlefield” and “Dryden” cases (see NY Pro-Drillers File Final Briefs in Dryden/Middlefield Cases for background). What does it mean? In our opinion it means there will never be any meaningful shale drilling in New York. No driller in his right mind will roll the dice, lock up thousands of acres by spending millions of dollars, just to see it all disappear at the next town board election with a vote by 3 of 5 people. What a complete and utter tragedy this is for freedom-loving Americans who happen to live in the increasingly communistic state of New York. Below is a copy of the decision…
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Crestwood Midstream | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Inergy | New York | NGLs | Regulation | Statewide NY

JLCNY to Cuomo: Authorize Seneca Propane Storage Facility
June 27, 2014June 27, 2014

For years MDN has told you about the proposed Inergy (now Crestwood Midstream) plan to open a badly needed underground propane storage facility along the shore of Seneca Lake in New York–in an already depleted salt mining cavern. In March 2013, 12 virulent anti-drilling protesters were arrested for blocking access to the facility–a facility that hasn’t yet been fitted for propane (see NY Protesters Arrested for Blocking NatGas Storage Facility). We’ve also pointed out New Yorkers pay nosebleed rates for propane because our governor refuses to permit the facility (see Northeast Propane Shortage – Andrew Cuomo Partially to Blame). There is a new effort under way to get some action on the Seneca propane storage facility from the 70,000-member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Group Says EPA “Kill Coal” Regs Not Enough – Kill Natgas Too
June 25, 2014June 25, 2014

Sad and predictable. That’s how we label an article/press release published by the certifiably insane anti-drillers at the Catskill Citizens for (So-Called) Safe Energy. Their latest tirade is against the federal Environmental Protection Agency. You may recall the EPA recently declared war on electricity in this country (see Obama’s Climate Madness Metastasizes – EPA Kills Coal Electricity). It seems the Obama EPA’s plan to destroy electricity in this country by requiring a 30% reduction in carbon emissions (the stuff you breathe out with every breath) from electric plants isn’t good enough for the brainiacs at Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy. They want to drive the nail all the way in the coffin and take everyone back to the stone ages…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Otsego County | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide NY | Williams

Save the Bald Eagles in NY! Next Hurdle for Constitution Pipeline
June 24, 2014June 24, 2014

You’ve heard of save the whales, save the snail darters, and maybe even save the tree bats (see Natgas Jumps Thru Hoops for Bats While Solar Farm Torches Turtles). The latest anti-drilling faux excuse for stopping the already-authorized, permitted and public hearing’d to death Constitution Pipeline in upstate New York is, yes, save the American bald eagle! We learn from the anti-drilling Oneonta Star that bald eagles are rather discriminating. They don’t mind traffic noise from a busy interstate highway less than a half mile from their nests–but if Williams happens to do a little blasting of bedrock so they can lay pipe–that will scare the bald eagles right out of their tail feathers…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Millennium Pipeline | New York | Orange County | Pipelines

NY Anti-Driller Claims Compressor Station Causing Son’s Asthma
June 20, 2014June 20, 2014

A small group of virulent anti-drillers from New York City, who flee the city on the weekends and live in places like Orange County, NY, are once again slandering Marcellus drilling in New York State by targeting industry-related initiatives like pipeline compressor stations. To wit: A family who opposed the compressor station built by the Millennium Pipeline in Minisink, NY (southwest Orange County) now claim their 16-year old son has had a “sudden onset” of asthma which occurs only when they flee the city for the weekends to their summer home in Minisink. They conveniently blame the compressor station. What to do? Hire a so-called consultant to address a small group in the area, get a local reporter to show up and regurgitate a whopping pack of lies to scare everyone who reads the local rag…
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East Resources | Energy Companies | Erie County (NY) | New York

Will Marcellus Blood Money Buy the Buffalo Bills?
June 20, 2014June 20, 2014

If you’re an anti-driller in Western New York and a Buffalo Bills fan, you’re in a serious quandary. The Bills NFL franchise is for sale, for the first time ever, and it may be your single best hope for keeping the Bills in Buffalo is if Terry Pegula buys the team. As MDN previously reported, Pegula is the owner of the Buffalo Sabres NHL team. He’s also the founder and CEO of East Resources, an evil oil and gas company. Could it be that the Marcellus Shale–and money derived from it–will save the Buffalo Bills? Can anti-drillers ever live with themselves if that happens? Will anti-drilling Bills fans switch allegiance to their arch rivals the New York Giants or the hated Pittsburgh Steelers if Pegula buys the Bills with his Marcellus “blood money”? All burning questions for inquiring minds…
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Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Geologists Finally Get Some “Professional” Respect in NY
June 18, 2014June 18, 2014

It’s taken nearly 20 years, but finally this week a bill has passed both the New York State Assembly and Senate, and will almost certainly be signed by man-child Gov. Andy Cuomo, that recognizes “geologist” as a professional occupation (complete with state licensure requirements) on the same order as engineers, surveyors, etc. That is, “geologist” in NY has now received status as a “professional” occupation…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

JLCNY “Outraged” by NY Assembly Democrat Moratorium Bill
June 18, 2014June 18, 2014

Yesterday MDN told you about the third time in as many years that New York City Democrats have attempted to pass an ongoing moratorium (really a ban) on Marcellus Shale drilling in the state (see NY Assembly Once Again Passes Frack Moratorium Bill (Yawn)). The Dems are lead (by the nose) by Assembly Speaker Sheldon “sleazy” Silver and his henchman on the Environmental Conservation Committee Robert Sweeney. Disgusting politicians both. Yesterday afternoon MDN received a statement from the 70,000 member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York stating they are “outraged at the continued attempts by the New York State Assembly to stall safe, responsible natural gas development.” Indeed they should be…
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New York | Statewide NY

NY Democrat Writes about Environmental Benefits from Fracking
June 18, 2014June 18, 2014

Are there any Democrats left in New York (or anywhere else for that matter) that can still approach the issue of shale drilling and hydraulic fracturing in a calm, reasoned manner? Are there any Dems left in NY who would dare to actually voice support for Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling? Indeed there are. At least one, anyway. And he’s a former member of the New York State Assembly and a former member of the Assembly’s Environmental Conservation Committee…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Assembly Once Again Passes Frack Moratorium Bill (Yawn)
June 17, 2014June 17, 2014

Yesterday two sleazy New York City politicians–Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee Chairman Robert Sweeney–announced that, as they have done for the last three years running, they have arm-twisted downstate Democrats to approve an Assembly bill that would continue to ban hydraulic fracturing for (unbelievably) another three years–even though it’s already been banned for six years! Assembly bill A.5424-B was passed mostly along party lines. Donna Lupardo-D, whose district includes potential drilling locations in Broome County, NY, shamefully voted “yes” to pass it (she needs to be tossed at the next election). Not that any of it makes a hill of beans worth of difference. It will never pass the Republican-controlled Senate in NY…
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Chautauqua County | Economic Impact | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Taxation

Western NY Power Plant Approval to Convert from Coal to Natgas
June 17, 2014June 17, 2014

Last December His Lordship, the man-child Andrew Cuomo, slogged through the nasty snow in western New York to grant a wish to some of his subjects. He told Dunkirk that they have his permission to convert a coal-burning electric generating plant to burn natural gas (see Dunkirk, NY Electric Plant Saved – Converting from Coal to NatGas). It may not sound like a big deal, but that plant was a whisker away from closing–and if it did, it would have gutted the region’s budget. The power plant contributes 42% of the revenue the City of Dunkirk collects in taxes, and 30% of the budget for the local school district. How did Dunkirk repay NRG Energy for keeping the plant open? By shoving a big stick in their eye with a vote to ban fracking (see Dunkirk, NY City Council Bites Off the NatGas Hand that Feeds It). How’s that for gratitude?! Last week the state Public Service Commission announced their final approval on NRG’s $140 million plan to convert the coal-burning plant to natgas…
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