New York

Erie County (NY) | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Research

UB Defends Shale Institute & Study in Response to SUNY Board
October 15, 2012October 15, 2012

An update on the witch hunt at University at Buffalo (UB). You may recall that UB had the temerity, the gall, to establish a Shale Resources and Society Institute (SRSI) in April of this year. When said institute turned out its first report in May, which detailed how environmental problems caused by Marcellus Shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania were isolated, mostly minor and on the decline, the anti-drillers just about came off the rails. It was an all-hands-on-deck, we-must-obliterate-the-credibility-of-the-report-and-the-people-who-wrote-it campaign. And so the witch hunt began (see this MDN story).

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Carrizo Oil & Gas | Energy Companies | New York | Tioga County (NY)

Carrizo Says Owego, NY Well Vertical Only (for Now)
October 12, 2012October 12, 2012

Yesterday MDN told you about an exploratory shale well being drilled in Tioga County, NY, just a few miles outside of the Town of Owego by Carrizo Oil & Gas (see this MDN story). We said that Carrizo was drilling a vertical well with plans to turn it horizontal when and if the fracking moratorium in New York is lifted. Were we wrong?

According to an interview given by Carrrizo to NGI’s Shale Daily publication, the well being drilled near Owego will not be turned horizontal. This is what was said:

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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Otsego County | Pipelines | Statewide NY | Williams

Who is Behind StopThePipeline.org?
October 12, 2012October 12, 2012

A so-called “grassroots coalition” has formed to oppose the proposed 120-mile Constitution Pipeline. The Constitution will be built by Williams and Cabot Oil & Gas, stretching from the Marcellus Shale gas fields of Susquehanna County in northeaster Pennsylvania through New York State to Schoharie County (see this MDN story for background).

A “group” opposing the new pipeline has sprung up with an impressive web presence at the URL StopThePipeline.org. But who’s behind this group? And what are their true aims? MDN has done a bit of nosing around.

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

Town of Highland, NY Gets Sued Over Gas Drilling Ban
October 11, 2012October 11, 2012

MDN is not used to breaking the news, but that’s what we’ll do today. The Town of Highland, located in Sullivan County, NY, is about to be sued by the Highland Field & Stream Club over the town’s vote to ban gas drilling.

MDN received the following email notification from the attorney for the Highland Field & Stream Club:

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Carrizo Oil & Gas | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Tioga County (NY)

Carrizo Drills Exploratory Marcellus Well – in New York
October 11, 2012October 11, 2012

What does Carrizo Oil & Gas know about the New York moratorium on fracking we don’t? The moratorium has been in place for 4 1/2 long years now. There are some signs the moratorium may soon end—witness the parade of mainstream news sources granting political cover and “permission” to Gov. Cuomo to make a pro-fracking decision. But the standard operating procedure by the DEC’s Joe Martens until now has been stall and delay.

Enter Carrizo. Today’s Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin announces that Carrizo is drilling an exploratory vertical shale gas well outside of Owego, NY (Tioga County), squarely in the “hot zone” of the Southern Tier where gas drilling will take place. Their aim? Find out if shale gas is present in the vertical well, and then turn the well horizontal when and if the moratorium is lifted.

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

Horseheads, NY Board in No Hurry to Ban Fracking
October 11, 2012October 11, 2012

Board members for the Town of Horseheads, NY (Chemung County) are in no hurry to pass a fracking ban or moratorium. They’re waiting to see what the town zoning board says after they’ve studied proposed new drilling rules from the state Dept. of Environmental Conservation. The town board is also waiting to see whether or not the DEC even bothers to release new rules to allow fracking. Until then? No hurry, man.

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Broome County | DTE Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Susquehanna County

Bluestone Gathering Pipeline Gets NY Approval
October 10, 2012October 10, 2012

MDN friend Andy Leahy, intrepid writer of the NY Shale Gas Now blog site, has returned! Yeah! Andy’s first post since being back from a several month hiatus is an important one—one that somehow slipped by the MDN radar. The Bluestone Pipeline, a 37-mile gathering line that runs through Susquehanna County, PA and into Broome County, NY (Town of Sanford) connecting to both the Millennium and the Tennessee interstate pipelines received approval from New York State. (See this MDN story for background on the Bluestone Pipeline.)

Andy reports the developer plans to break ground in New York as early as October 20. For a full analysis and rundown on the project now that it’s moving forward, see Andy’s post by clicking the link below.

*NY Shale Gas Now (Oct 9, 2012) – Bluestone Pipeline Green-Lighted; Local Press Still Asleep at Keyboards
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pipelines | Statewide NY

NYC Pipeline Protesters Get Naked, Paint Themselves Green
October 10, 2012October 10, 2012

Oy vey! Just when you think you’ve seen and heard it all (from the loony lefties who oppose shale gas drilling), they outdo themselves once again. A group of protesters who oppose the construction of a new pipeline from New Jersey to New York City, commonly called the Spectra Pipeline after the company building it, got naked (we kid you not) and painted their bodies green, parading themselves up and down the West Side Highway—all in an attempt to call attention to their opposition. Attention they got!

Here’s what The Village Voice reports:

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

NY Daily News Says it’s Time to Frack
October 10, 2012October 10, 2012

The parade of mainstream media outlets offering NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo “permission” to make a pro-fracking decision continues. On Monday we told you about an editorial by the Washington Post and an article by the AP. Today? The New York Daily News. An editorial by the Daily News (presumably written by Mort Zuckerman) says this, in part:

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

Broome County Republicans to Cuomo: Drill Now or Move On
October 9, 2012October 9, 2012

An article published last weekend by Gannett tackles the tricky middle ground NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo is trying to navigate when it comes to fracking. MDN has gone on record with our disappointment in Cuomo and Dept. of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens. The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) is on record expressing their disappointment too (see this MDN story).

The Gannett article doesn’t add much in the way of news to the fracking-in-New-York issue, but it is noteworthy for one reason: Two prominent Upstate New York Republican politicians, both from Broome County, are quoted essentially telling Cuomo to make a decision and be done with it. To wit:

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

York, NY Votes Down Fracking Moratorium
October 9, 2012October 9, 2012

Town council members for York, NY (Livingston County) recently voted against a proposed fracking moratorium for the town. Unlike their unwise neighbors in Avon, NY (see this MDN story), York town board members took the time to carefully review the situation and instead of making a hasty political statement, they voted to remain neutral, saving the town a lot of money in legal fees to defend an illegal moratorium (the City of Binghamton’s moratorium was recently overturned).

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Broome County | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pipelines | Taxation

NY Town’s Taxes Decrease Thanks to Marcellus Activity in PA
October 9, 2012October 9, 2012

Even though New York has not allowed high volume, horizontal hydraulic fracturing (yet), some communities along the border with Pennsylvania, like MDN’s own community—the Town of Windsor (Broome County, NY)—are seeing tangible benefits. Those benefits are for every single resident, not just landowners who have leased or energy companies who drill. Windsor’s school tax bill for residents just went down! When’s the last time you heard anyone in NY say that?

MDN doesn’t know for sure, but we’d wager a large sum Windsor is the only school district in the entire state where taxes have gone down this year. Why?

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Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York

Binghamton Mayor Ryan’s New Folly: Water Testing
October 9, 2012October 9, 2012

The failed mayor of Binghamton, Matt Ryan, is going on a fishing trip—but it’s no ordinary fishing trip. He wants to see if he can’t persuade Binghamton water technicians, who constantly test water quality of the Susquehanna River, to see if drilling in Pennsylvania has in any teeny tiny way impacted the quality of the river water Binghamton uses. So far, it’s a big, fat zero. No impact. None.

But that won’t dissuade the hard-headed, way out there left-leaning Democrat Ryan. He’s now asked for “special tests.” Yeah, that’ll do the trick! We need “special” (i.e. expensive) tests:

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

Washington Post to Cuomo: Go Ahead and Frack
October 8, 2012October 8, 2012

More evidence that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is receiving media “cover” to give him room to make a decision to move forward with fracking in New York. This time it comes from none other than the editorial board of the Washington Post.

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

AP Signals Andy: It’s OK to Frack, We Understand
October 8, 2012October 8, 2012

Is the AP attempting to give NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo media cover so he can make a pro-fracking decision? Perhaps. Cuomo and the left know that if Cuomo does not approve fracking—quickly—his political future nationally is toast. There is no way he gets elected president—ever—if he doesn’t approve fracking. His supporters know it. They don’t like it, but they know it.

It’s interesting to MDN that we’re now starting to see stories like the following that tacitly give Cuomo their blessing if he ends up “making the tough choice to move forward” with fracking:

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | New York | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide MD | Statewide NY | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Utica Shale | Virginia | West Virginia

USGS Releases Official Estimate of Oil & Gas in Utica Shale
October 5, 2012October 5, 2012

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has just released their first official assessment (i.e. estimate) of how much recoverable natural gas, oil and gas liquids is located in the Utica Shale throughout Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and Virginia (a full copy of the USGS assessment is embedded below).

The USGS estimates the Utica is #3 in size behind the Marcellus (#1) and Green River Basin (#2) for volume of recoverable natural gas in the U.S. Here are the numbers from the USGS, along with and a brief introduction to their first-ever assessment of the Utica:

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