Statewide NY

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    NY Artist “Channels” Grandma Moses to Paint Anti-Fracking Pictures

    FWIW…There is an upstate New York artist who claims famed (and dead) American folk artist Grandma Moses took over her body and guided her hand to produce–yes–anti-fracking art. You really cannot make this stuff up, it’s so off the charts bizarre. She claims her art shows the effects big oil and gas companies have had on upstate New York–except there have been no effects because there’s been no drilling! But facts never get in the way of good fiction, either on the page or on the canvass. Apparently the anti-fracking artist can’t find any museums in New York to show her Moses-inspired art, so she’s displaying (right now) at a museum in Vermont…
    Read More “NY Artist “Channels” Grandma Moses to Paint Anti-Fracking Pictures”

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    NY Frack Ban Regs “at Printer”; Is There a Potential Loophole?

    Art of the LoopholeNew York State’s anti-drilling Dept. of Environmental Conservation Commissioner, Joe Martens, is doing his best to concoct a litigation-proof Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS). The SGEIS is the document that will find too many “troubling” aspects of fracking to allow it in New York. Except there’s potentially a loophole coming in the SGEIS, if press reports can be believed. Fracking WILL be allowed IF it uses under 300,000 gallons of “liquid”–the liquid most likely being water. (A typical well takes 5-8 million gallons of water to frack.) The NY loophole of using up to 300,000 gallons of liquid leads pro-drillers like MDN to muse: Is there an alternative liquid, other than water, that can be used to frack a well economically at under 300K gallons? What if the substance is foam and not liquid–is foam exempt from the 300K gallon cap? Or how about this: Can a driller use 299,999 gallons of water to frack a well and get enough gas out of it to break even and wait until the idiot we have in office now (Gov. Andrew Cuomo) is gone and go back later and re-frack the same well once the 300K gallon restriction is lifted? Hey, it’s fun to speculate. We’re not trying to foster false hope, but we do wonder if there’s a loophole in the SGEIS that can be exploited so landowners and drillers (the good guys) can beat extremist environmentalists like Cuomo, Martens and Yoko Ono (the bad guys)…
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    New Report Exposes NY’s Fraudulent “Science” Used to Ban Fracking

    A new report just published by the always excellent Energy in Depth (EID) shreds to pieces the so-called science used by anti-driller and still Acting Commissioner of the New York State Health Department Howard Zucker. The report, titled “A Look Inside New York’s Anti-Fracking Echo Chamber” (full copy below) details Zucker’s use of a bunch of anti-driller-backed research reports, compiling them into a document he used as cover to recommend a ban on fracking in the Empire State. Zucker’s corruption is now exposed for the world to see. Simon Lomax from EID presented a copy of the highly damaging report to a House of Representatives committee hearing yesterday, convened to discuss state and local bans on fracking. New York officials are spitting and sputtering and backpedaling. They can’t find a rock big enough to hide under…
    Read More “New Report Exposes NY’s Fraudulent “Science” Used to Ban Fracking”

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    Going Amish? NY Nutters Push to Dump All Fossil Fuel Use by 2030

    Have you noticed how anti-drilling nutters have become even more shrill lately? They never were “reasonable” people–able to be reasoned with. But lately…wow. How about this example: A fringe collection of 70 “groups” (each “group” is a single person or perhaps half a dozen people a most) that you’ve mostly never heard of are supporting an initiative in New York called 100% Renewable Energy by 2030. They are true global warming believers–and God help you if you try and talk any sense to them on that topic. This group of 70 is attempting to build on the success of pressuring the spineless Andrew Cuomo in banning fracking by banning the use of fossil fuels by 2030. Yes, they’re totally nuts–we know that. Yes, they ignore facts like the materials used to make their precious windmills and solar panels are highly toxic and put the health of workers in places like China in constant danger. They never let facts get in the way of a good fantasy. And so now they peddle this concept that “if we only had the political will, we could be using 100% so-called renewable energy” in 15 short years. We call it psychotic…
    Read More “Going Amish? NY Nutters Push to Dump All Fossil Fuel Use by 2030”

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    ExxonMobil Donates $47M to Higher Ed, Including Marcellus Region

    ExxonMobil runs an incredibly generous program called the Educational Matching Gift Program under which they have just donated $47 million to ~900 colleges and universities across the United States. Here’s how it works: for every $1 ExxonMobil employees, retirees, directors and surviving spouses contribute to the Matching Gift Program, ExxonMobil matches it with $3. In Pennsylvania, the total pot donated to higher education was $3.8 million. In Ohio, it was $909,000. Virginia colleges are getting $1.3 million. New York State colleges and universities are getting a whopping $3.4 million–after New York State has screwed ExxonMobil royally (the company has lost millions of dollars in lease expirations when it couldn’t drill shale wells in the state because of Andrew Cuomo’s fracking ban). And yet, ExxonMobil gave money to the Empire State anyway, to some of the very schools who provide shelter and sponsor anti-drilling zealots. It shows the caliber of the people who run the company. One more: New Jersey, big users of oil and gas, but haters of pipelines and shale drilling, got $1.1 million…
    Read More “ExxonMobil Donates $47M to Higher Ed, Including Marcellus Region”

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    New Bill Aims to Keep Drilling/Pipelines Out of Dela. River Basin

    A new bill aimed at restricting shale drilling and pipelines in the Delaware River Basin has just been re-introduced by a pair of Delaware Democrats in Congress. It flies under the name of the Delaware River Basin Conservation Act. This is the fifth time the bill has been introduced (in 2013 it was HR 644, click here for the full text of the bill). The bill would vest the already out-of-control U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with power and money to “identify and implement conservation activities” in the Delaware River Basin. The tipoff that this is anti-drilling is that it’s being promoted by the William Penn Foundation as well as the Delaware River Basin Commission. DRBC board members say the bill doesn’t step on their toes at all. In fact, DRBC welcomes the bill because it will help with “defending environmental quality in ways that are outside of its [DRBC’s] operations.” In other words, it’s one more tool to ensure shale drilling never happens in the Delaware River Basin…
    Read More “New Bill Aims to Keep Drilling/Pipelines Out of Dela. River Basin”

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    JLCNY Rally in NY to Support Defense of Property Rights Bill

    In January of this year, an upstate New York Congressman, Tom Reed (Corning, NY) introduced a bill that would, if adopted, provide relief to NY landowners who have been screwed over by Andrew Cuomo’s decision to ban fracking in the Empire State. The bill is called the Defense of Property Rights Act (DOPRA) and it changes “takings” laws in an important way–it changes the law to say if government action causes a landowner economic harm “in whole or in part” the landowner has a takings claim (see Federal Defense of Property Rights Act Explained; End of Frack Bans?). The “in part” language is the key because until now, the entire value had to be “taken” in order to bring a takings claim. As we pointed out back in January, this is an important law for all landowners everywhere, not just in NY–a law that prevents tyrannical politicians like Cuomo from overstepping their authority. The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) is holding a rally this Saturday in Painted Post, NY to support Congressman Reed and his legislation…
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    AP Takes Swipe at NED Pipeline over Export Issue, MDN Responds

    Once again the AP attempts to make a case against Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline project that would stretch from Pennsylvania through New York (following the Constitution Pipeline’s route) and into Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and back into Massachusetts near Boston. NED is a huge $6 billion project that will provide jobs for thousands (while it’s constructed) and abundant, cheap Marcellus Shale gas for New Englanders, saving them on the order of $1 billion per year on utility bills for decades to come. But irrational hatred of fossil fuels continues to rein in liberal New England, where many oppose the project (see Deerfield, MA Hoping Kinder Morgan Sues Them over Pipeline “Ban”). The AP has taken up the “most of the gas flowing through the pipeline will get exported” argument, in an effort to stop the pipeline (so much for unbiased “reporting”). Exported where and how? Via one of five planned LNG export facilities in Canada, four of them in Nova Scotia. Just one little problem there AP, it looks very doubtful that any of those plants will actually get built (see Moody’s: “Vast Majority” of LNG Export Projects Will be Canceled). That kind of takes the wind out of the “it’ll all get exported” argument, eh? But let’s assume at least one of those LNG export plants does get built…
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    Cuomo’s Response to Upstate on Fracking: Shut Up, New York

    New York Post yesterday takes direct aim at the folly of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s frack ban. It calls him out for promoting an “economic development” program that so far has spent $28 million on advertising and has created 78 jobs ($368,000 per job). Cuomo is an utter failure on so many levels. In talking about the frack ban, we loved this particular passage from the column (and you will too)…
    Read More “Cuomo’s Response to Upstate on Fracking: Shut Up, 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…
    Read More “Mike Bloomberg Gives Sierra Club $30M to Fight Coal, But Loves Gas”

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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”…
    Read More “PA Health Expert to Address NY “Study” on Fracking Health Impacts”

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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…
    Read More “NY High Court Decision Creates Toxic Environment for O&G Companies”

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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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