New York

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    Erie County, NY Falls for the FWW Lie, Bans Fracking & Road Salt

    On Monday MDN told you about an eminent vote in western NY to ban fracking (see Erie County (Buffalo) NY to Vote on “Near-Ban” of Fracking). Yesterday, legislators for Erie County, NY fell into the trap set by the odious Food & Water Watch–legislators voted 9-2 to ban the use of road salt and dust suppressant safely manufactured from brine water that comes from oil and gas drilling. They also voted to deny taxpayers in Erie County the right to profit from drilling on county-owned land, when and if it ever comes to the county.

    Right at the front of the hit parade gloating was FWW agitator, er, “organizer” Rita Yelda, who continues to falsely slander fracking and the products made as a result of fracking, like deicer (road salt). We hope Erie County residents enjoy paying for steep legal fees when this illegal law is challenged next year by Buffalo-based National Fuel (Seneca Resources)…
    Read More “Erie County, NY Falls for the FWW Lie, Bans Fracking & Road Salt”

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    Groton, NY (borders Dryden) Votes DOWN 6-Month Frack Moratorium

    Whattya know? Maybe there is hope for the People’s Republic of Tompkins County, NY after all. Tompkins County is home to anti-drilling organizations including the partisan Park Foundation and the many people it funds–like Cornell professors Tony Ingraffea and Robert Howarth, and the wife and husband lawyer team of Helen and David Slottje, who make mischief at local town board meetings, encouraging them to institute illegal bans and moratoriums on fracking.

    One of the the towns the Slottjes duped into passing a ban was Dryden, NY–in Tompkins County. The Dryden ban has been appealed all the way to the highest court in New York, the Court of Appeals where the case will be heard in early 2014. We’re sure the taxpayers of Dryden enjoy footing that portion of the legal bill not generously covered by the Park Foundation. Anywho, the town next door to Dryden is Groton. The Groton town board voted down a proposed six-month moratorium on fracking at their Tuesday night meeting. It’s a small victory for democracy and right thinking. Too bad some of Groton’s common sense wouldn’t rub off on their Dryden neighbors…
    Read More “Groton, NY (borders Dryden) Votes DOWN 6-Month Frack Moratorium”

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    Can Towns Ban Fracking in NY? Webinar Today Tackles Question

    Can localities ban oil and gas development in New York State? That is the question New York’s highest court (Court of Appeals) will answer when it hears arguments by attorneys representing Norse Energy and a dairy farmer versus the towns of Dryden and Middlefield. The decisions in these two important cases could have a huge impact on the future of shale development in New York. If the court decides that municipalities can ban drilling town- or citywide, MDN believe’s it lights out on serious shale drilling in New York–forever. Happily, we don’t think the court will decide that way.

    A webinar is being offered today, Wednesday, Dec. 11 at 1 pm that will address that issue. Greg Sovas, President and owner of XRM, LLC and former Director of the Division of Mineral Resources at the NYS DEC will review the history of the supersession clause and its importance, implementation over the past thirty years and what has changed, the arguments being made on both sides in the court case, and how a decision either way could affect the future of oil and gas development in New York State.  A Q&A at the end.

    MDN encourages you to attend this 30-minute presentation. Sign up here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/694678240.

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    Williams Files to Expand Marcellus Pipeline in Broome County, NY

    Two years ago the newly completed Laser Northeast Gathering pipeline, a 33-mile pipeline stretching from Susquehanna County, PA across the border into Broome County, NY where it connects to the Millennium Pipeline, was sold by Delphi Midstream Partners to Williams Partners (see Laser Northeast Pipeline Selling to Williams for $750M). There is “new news” to share about the formerly named Laser, now named the “New York Mainline,” courtesy of MDN friend Andy Leahy, writing on his excellent NY Shale Gas Now! blog.

    Sifting through a pile of digital paperwork, Andy found that in early December Williams filed a request to expand the Laser/NY Mainline by adding an additional 16″ pipeline loop–right here in the good old Town of Windsor, NY (where MDN is written!). The new pipeline loop will expand the capacity of Marcellus Shale gas flowing out of northeast PA and into the Millennium pipeline. Here’s Andy’s report…
    Read More “Williams Files to Expand Marcellus Pipeline in Broome County, NY”

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    Anti-Drillers Oppose Converting 2 NY Electric Plants to NatGas

    This is the tale of two electrical generating power plants. Both are located in New York State–on opposite sides of the state. One is in Tompkins County (near Ithaca, NY), the other in Chautauqua County (Dunkirk, near Buffalo, NY). Both are powered by coal and both will either need to convert to natural gas or close down.

    Something else both have in common: anti-drilling nutters want them closed rather than converted  from burning coal to burning natural gas–even though closure means school and property taxes in both areas will go through the roof–higher than the nosebleed rates they already are. In both cases the power plants are the single largest taxpayer in their respective municipalities. Makes no difference to the nutters because most of them don’t live there and could care less. An update for both the Cayuga Power Plant and the Dunkirk Power Plant…
    Read More “Anti-Drillers Oppose Converting 2 NY Electric Plants to NatGas”

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    Inergy: Boycott NY Businesses that Support ‘Gas Free Seneca’

    boycottIt’s interesting to MDN that when anti-fracking protesters call for boycotts of businesses that either support or (gasp) are part of the shale drilling industry, such a boycott is considered brave and courageous and a-OK. But when someone on the pro-drilling side suggests those who support fracking and the natural gas industry may want to boycott the businesses donating money and time to fight the natural gas industry, that’s “bullying” and mean and evil. Anyone else smell a hypocritical rat? We’re referring to a recent brouhaha over Inergy Midstream’s (now part of Crestwood Midstream) plan to develop a liquid propane storage facility using depleted salt caverns along the edge of Seneca Lake near Watkins Glen, NY. MDN has long covered the fight by Inergy to bring the only new storage facility proposed in the northeast (badly needed), and the people who want to stop it (see NY Protesters Arrested for Blocking NatGas Storage Facility).

    In June, a VP for Inergy sent an email to 25 people suggesting they may want to boycott the businesses using their time and money to actively oppose the Inergy facility. Those businesses are part of the “Business Coalition” of the organization called Gas Free Seneca (GFS). The email sent by the Inergy VP–now six months old but but just coming to light–has GFS in a tizzy. GFS has responded with their own email that they are “extremely disturbed” by this “bullying” from Inergy. That is, GFS doesn’t like the shoe being on the other foot for a change (poor babies). We have the story of the email, and the list of the (current) 181 NY businesses that Inergy (and you) may want to consider boycotting…
    Read More “Inergy: Boycott NY Businesses that Support ‘Gas Free Seneca’”

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    Minor Incident in with Millennium Pipeline NY Compressor Station

    The Millennium Pipeline was supposed to have completed a new compressor station near Hancock (Delaware County), NY in November. They’re getting close to being done, but not quite there yet. The new 15,900 horsepower compressor facility will add an additional 107.5 million cubic feet per day of capacity to the Millennium Pipeline, allowing them to pump more Marcellus Shale gas to the Algonquin Gas Transmission interconnect at Ramapo, NY.

    Whether it was part of normal work to get the facility ready or there was a “problem” with bringing the compressor online, last Thursday Millennium personnel knocked on the door of the only residence living close to the facility and requested the family either stay inside for the next several hours, or immediately evacuate for a few hours while Millennium vented natural gas from the facility. The family (wisely) decided to evacuate for several hours…
    Read More “Minor Incident in with Millennium Pipeline NY Compressor Station”

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    Erie County (Buffalo) NY to Vote on “Near-Ban” of Fracking

    The odious Food & Water Watch (FWW), a partisan anti-drilling organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., is behind a scare effort to get the Erie County (Buffalo), NY legislature to ban fracking on county-owned land, ban the treatment of frack wastewater, and ban the use of processed brine (sometimes erroneously called frack wastewater) as a deicer and dust suppressant throughout the county. Using processed brine–water from drilled gas wells with heavy minerals and anything harmful removed–as a deicer and dust suppressant has been happening safely across the country for years. Hey, if Erie residents want to double the price they pay for road salt (and they use a LOT of road salt for Buffalo winters), who are we to stop them?

    The full Erie County legislature will vote on the ill-advised proposed ban this week at its December 12th meeting:
    Read More “Erie County (Buffalo) NY to Vote on “Near-Ban” of Fracking”

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    IOGA of NY Dumps PR Consultant, Media Speculation Goes Wild

    This is an “inside baseball” kind of story–or in this case, inside New York oil & gas politics. The Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York (IOGA of NY) recently underwent some belt-tightening. You look over your budget–the money coming in and the money going out–and you make decisions. That’s what companies, and organizations, do. The government doesn’t do that because they just take it from we citizens to pay for their voracious drunken spending habits. But that’s another story for another time.

    IOGA of NY looked at declining membership revenues because oil and gas drillers are leaving or staying away from New York over an ongoing five and a half year moratorium, and IOGA decided they could do without the services of their high priced PR consultant. Happens every day in thousands of companies and organizations across the world. But only in NY do the media try to fabricate a story out of it to say IOGA of NY is throwing in the towel…giving up…admitting defeat. We say it’s wishful thinking on the part of NY’s anti-fracking media. IOGA of NY is doing nothing of the sort…
    Read More “IOGA of NY Dumps PR Consultant, Media Speculation Goes Wild”

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    Pathetic Response to Threatened Lawsuit over NY Frack Regs

    On Monday, Tom West, an attorney for Norse Energy, sent a “demand” letter addressed to NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens with the not-so-subtle threat that unless Martens releases the fracking regulations (called the SGEIS), Norse will sue Martens, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and State Health Commissioner Nirav Shah under Article 78 for not doing their jobs. That is, Norse (via West) will sue to force the release of the SGEIS (see Tom West Demands DEC Com. Martens Release the SGEIS – Soon). All three of the anti-fracking cabal (Cuomo, Martens, Shah) got the letter.

    So far Cuomo himself hasn’t had the guts to say anything about the letter or potential lawsuit. Neither has Joe Martens. Instead, they continue to let State Health Commissioner Shah catch the spears for it. At a public health forum in Manhattan on Tuesday, Shah addressed the issue by saying, in essence, Shazam! We done just got us some new informations in just the past few weeks (can ya’ll believe that?)! Ya’ll can’t rush this, ya know. To which we say, “pathetic”…
    Read More “Pathetic Response to Threatened Lawsuit over NY Frack Regs”

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    NY Farm Bureau “Shoots Down” Anti-Fracking Plank at State Meeting

    The New York Farm Bureau is a grassroots organization made up of volunteers–farmers–to lobby for agricultural issues. It is a superlative organization. The folks who belong are salt of the earth types of people–people who don’t want their land ruined because they make their living from the land. If anyone is concerned about the potential harm from hydraulic fracturing, it is the farmers on whose land the procedure will be done. They have a vested interest in ensuring their land remains workable.

    So it’s no small thing that some farmers introduced a resolution that calls for a ban on fracking in New York. And it’s also no small thing that the resolution was voted down–overwhelmingly–by the majority of members. That is, New York farmers have looked across the border to their farming cousins in Pennsylvania, and over in Ohio, and in West Virginia, and they see that fracking has not harmed the land there and have rightly concluded it would work just fine here in New York too…
    Read More “NY Farm Bureau “Shoots Down” Anti-Fracking Plank at State Meeting”

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    Tom West Demands DEC Com. Martens Release the SGEIS – Soon

    just do your jobYesterday Tom West, lead attorney with The West Firm in Albany, NY, issued a “demand” letter to Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens (full copy of the letter embedded below). The hand-delivered letter (arrived around 12:30 pm we’re told) tells Martens that, as MDN revealed last week, The West Firm has been retained as legal counsel for Norse Energy (see Norse Energy Suing NY Gov Cuomo to Force Release of SGEIS). The letter asks (actually demands) that Martens inform West within the next two weeks of the “date certain in the near future” he plans to release the SGEIS drilling regulations…or else.

    The “or else” is not spelled out in the demand letter, but we know what it is: If Martens does not release the drilling rules promptly, West will file an Article 78 lawsuit to force Martens–and Gov. Cuomo and Health Commissioner Nirav Shah–to get off their rear-ends and just do their jobs. That’s what an Article 78 is–a citizen or company’s legal way of forcing recalcitrant and disobedient public servants (Martens, Cuomo and Shah) to do the job they were hired to do. So three cheers for Norse Energy and Tom West! Finally we should start to see a resolution to the 5 year, 4 month and 10 day old defacto ban (i.e. “moratorium”) on shale drilling in New York…
    Read More “Tom West Demands DEC Com. Martens Release the SGEIS – Soon”

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    21 LNG Fueling Stations Coming to NY in Next 5 Years, Maybe

    Recently MDN brought you the story that New York State is the only state in the union that does not allow liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage and fueling stations (see LNG Storage/Fueling Stations Latest Anti-Drilling Target in NY). Such facilities were banned after a tragic accident at a Staten Island LNG facility killed 40 workers in the early 1970s. Wacko anti-drillers oppose building new ones because, well, they’re wacko. Calmer heads, however have prevailed and the Dept. of Environment Conservation expects to finalize new regulations early next year to allow construction of LNG storage/fueling facilities that can super-cool and store natural gas in a liquefied state.

    Why is it important that NY get with the program? Why do we need LNG anyway? Because entire trucking fleets–like that of UPS–are converting from diesel to LNG because it’s cleaner burning and cheaper. LNG is a true win/win, regardless of what the ninny nanny naysayers say. Once the new regs are in place, the DEC estimates NY will see 21 new LNG facilities built over the next five years…
    Read More “21 LNG Fueling Stations Coming to NY in Next 5 Years, Maybe”

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    Lies, Damn Lies…and NY State Polls on Fracking

    Last week MDN brought you the news that the Marist College poll shows a slight change of public opinion in New York State with respect to whether or not the state should allow shale drilling/fracking (see Latest Marist NY Poll Shows Slight Increase in Frack Opposition). The Marist poll showed, roughly, 37% favor fracking, 47% oppose it, and 16% are clueless. The day after the Marist poll was issued, Quinnipiac University issued their poll. Because the wording is slightly different, the Quinnipiac Poll found New Yorkers are more evenly split: 44% support fracking, 46% oppose it and just 10% are clueless.

    Which just goes to show the immortal words of Mark Twain are as true today as they were more than 100 years ago. Here’s the detailed poll results from the latest Q poll…
    Read More “Lies, Damn Lies…and NY State Polls on Fracking”

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    Latest Marist NY Poll Shows Slight Increase in Frack Opposition

    opinion pollA new public opinion poll of New Yorkers was released yesterday by the Wall Street Journal/NBC 4 New York/Marist College. Among the questions asked was this one: “Hydrofracking is a process of splitting rocks underground to remove natural gas. From what you have read or heard, do you generally support or oppose hydrofracking in New York State at the Marcellus Shale?” For years the answers have been roughly even, about 40% for, 40% against and 20% clueless.

    This latest NY poll shows the following statewide average: 37% support fracking, 47% oppose it, and 16% are clueless/unsure. So, a few more of the unsure people have now become sure and it’s breaking against fracking, maybe a few who used to support it no longer do, and those who were against it remain ideologically rigid and impervious to overwhelming evidence that fracking is safe (i.e. willfully stupid). End result: a few more are now in the opposition column. However, it’s when you dig into the numbers and the breakdowns by party, political philosophy, gender and geography that it becomes interesting…
    Read More “Latest Marist NY Poll Shows Slight Increase in Frack Opposition”

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    Big News: Bloomberg Writes Positive Marcellus Shale Article!

    Whenever we start reading a Bloomberg article about the Marcellus Shale, shale gas drilling in general, or fracking, we just know how skewed to the anti-drilling side of the ledger the story will be. So imagine our surprise when we read an article that actually reports (gasp!) the truth about the Marcellus Shale. Even though Bloomberg usually tells us the low price of natural gas can’t last, the whole shale gas thing is a house of cards waiting to collapse, drillers are trying to hoodwink investors, blah blah blah–this time even Bloomberg can’t ignore the fact that natural gas being piped into New York City is selling below the price of the benchmark Henry Hub in Louisiana–and likely will for years to come. Thanks to the Marcellus.

    The Bloomberg article does a good job of giving the big picture with respect to gas prices and how drilling has become more efficient, how infrastructure (pipelines) are helping to get all that gas to market (abundance of supply equals lower prices), and predicting what’s coming next. At the end of the article is an obligatory few sentences from anti-drillers about how shale drilling will poison all of our water and make farms uninhabitable. Well, it is Bloomberg after all. But on balance, this is a good article and worth your time to read. The article begins this way…
    Read More “Big News: Bloomberg Writes Positive Marcellus Shale Article!”