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Exclusive: First NY Marcellus Wells to be Drilled are Identified
February 15, 2013February 17, 2013

NOTE: Please see the correction to this story on this page:
MDN Editor Jim Willis Corrects “First NY Marcellus Wells” Story.

An astute MDN subscriber sent us a tip that the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) updated their “Notices of Intent to Issue Well Permits” web page last night at 7:00 pm (Feb 14, 2013). In the list of well permits they “intend” to issue are 43 Marcellus Shale wells and 1 Utica Shale well.

Does this mean DEC Commissioner Joe Martens is getting ready to accept the SGEIS and issue permits? We believe it’s still too early for optimism on that front. However, if New York does decide to move forward and issue drilling permits “within 10 days” after accepting the SGEIS drilling rules, it stands to reason the wells in this list will be the very first wells to receive permission to drill.

We’ve harvested the information for all of the “Intent to Issue” wells, looking up each latitude and longitude and translating it into a street address. We’ve also rearranged the information in an easier to scan and understand format. You won’t find this information anywhere else but on MDN…

Read More “Exclusive: First NY Marcellus Wells to be Drilled are Identified”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Frack Update: Cuomo Dithers, Landowners Mad, Lawyer Explains
February 14, 2013February 14, 2013

It’s painfully obvious the reason New York is not moving forward with hydraulic fracturing is because of its governor, Andrew Cuomo. He’s the man the New York Times says “is becoming Hamlet on the Shale,” meaning he’s dithering and indecisive. Not good qualities to have if you’re a political leader seeking the highest office in the country.

Yesterday, Cuomo continued his pathetic excuses about why there’s an ongoing delay with fracking in New York State. Also yesterday, the group representing 77,000 landowners with more than a million acres of land to lease fired back at the DEC’s latest delay. Plus, we have a bit more insight from a pro-fracking lawyer about Joe Martens’ mysterious statement of moving forward with permits even without new regulations. Read on…

Read More “NY Frack Update: Cuomo Dithers, Landowners Mad, Lawyer Explains”
Energy Companies | New York | Norse Energy | Statewide NY

Norse Energy: We’re Still Here, We Still Need Money & We Have Gas
February 14, 2013February 14, 2013

In a pair of press releases issued yesterday, the now bankrupt Norse Energy Corp. wanted to let the market know “we’re still here, we’re still looking for investors, and we’re still hanging on by a thread hoping that New York allows us to start drilling any time now.” That’s about the sum total of what was said.

If New York does begin to issue shale drilling permits (a really big “if”), Norse is likely to be one of the first companies to receive permission to drill because they are one of the first companies to file permit applications for drilling in the Marcellus/Utica in New York.

Read More “Norse Energy: We’re Still Here, We Still Need Money & We Have Gas”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Deadline for NY Fracking Regs Slips Again…Or Does It?
February 13, 2013February 13, 2013

This is without a doubt the most difficult article MDN has had to author—on many levels. Yesterday, New York’s Commissioner of the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), Joe Martens, announced he would not release the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) today, Feb. 13, because of a delay he’s blaming on the state health department. We previously reported that if the SGEIS was not released today, final regulations would not be adopted by Feb. 27 to allow fracking to move forward. In a statement yesterday, Martens seemed to say that’s not necessarily the case. His statement is confusing and contradictory, and frankly no one fully understands it.

MDN will break this all down and tell you what we know, what we don’t know, and what we think will happen. We have statements from State Health Commissioner Shah and DEC Commissioner Martens along with comments from various organizations with their interpretation of what it means. We will take you through the process chapter and verse—so this is a long post. We won’t keep you in suspense: We don’t know exactly what to make of Martens’ comments. It’s muddled, we believe intentionally so. The real person to keep your eye on in this theatre of the absurd is Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who seems to want to have his cake and eat it too…

Read More “Deadline for NY Fracking Regs Slips Again…Or Does It?”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Groups Want Cuomo Aide with “Ties” to Fracking Investigated
February 12, 2013February 12, 2013

Seven anti-drilling groups held yet another press conference yesterday in Albany, which is like saying the sun came up in Albany yesterday. This time the groups went a tad too far on the bizarro spectrum—even for other anti-drillers. Breathless in their charge, the assembled anti-drilling groups claimed (trumpet fanfare, ta da da da)…that Lawrence Schwartz, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s chief of staff, has $3,000-$4,000 invested in the stock market in oil and gas companies. (Gasp!)

Yes ladies and gentlemen, that puny investment means Schwartz has run a mind-fake on Cuomo, and like Svengali of old, he’s hypnotized Cuomo into allowing fracking which will poison the good citizens of New York in order to boost the value of oil and gas companies and thus his personal holdings by what, maybe $500? The price of a single bottle of fine wine at one of Cuomo’s power lunches? But hey, this is “a really serious charge,” so these fine, upstanding groups—with no conflicts of interest of their own (*cough*)—are calling on the Albany County District Attorney General’s office to investigate…

Read More “NY Groups Want Cuomo Aide with “Ties” to Fracking Investigated”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

77K NY Landowners Prepare Lawsuit Against DEC
February 11, 2013February 11, 2013

MDN editor Jim Willis caught up with the attorney for the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) at the Sunday, Feb. 10 screening of FrackNation in Binghamton, NY (video of the interview is embedded below). The JLCNY represents 77,000 New York landowners with over 1 million acres of land who are interested in leasing their land for natural gas drilling. New York State has not allowed those landowners to move forward with shale drilling for more than 4 1/2 years. Landowners, according to Kurkoski, are ready to take action if Gov. Cuomo delays it yet again this week.

MDN received a notice last Friday that the JLCNY is laying the groundwork for a lawsuit against the state for “de facto taking.” Kurkoski explains exactly what that means…

Read More “77K NY Landowners Prepare Lawsuit Against DEC”
Health Impacts | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Health Experts Completed Fracking Review >1 Month Ago
February 11, 2013February 11, 2013

This is the week New York landowners will know of Gov. Cuomo’s decision, one way or the other, about whether or not he will allow fracking to proceed in New York. In a big way, this week will determine Cuomo’s future on the national political stage. He (laughingly) thinks he has a shot a running for president in 2016. Let’s not burst his bubble at the moment.

Part of the potential setup to further delay fracking (which is really a decision by the gov to kill it) is to say “we’re waiting for the results of a health review” and blame the delay on three consultants who were hired to conduct a review of the DEC’s work in regard to fracking’s potential impacts on “public health,” whatever that is. It has just come to light those three outside experts turned in their homework more than a month ago, but DEC Commissioner Joe Martens and NYS Health Commissioner Nirav Shah have cagily concealed that little fact in statements given at recent public hearings:

Read More “NY Health Experts Completed Fracking Review >1 Month Ago”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Earthquakes | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY’s Anti-Drillers Attempt Smear of Geologists Consulting for DEC
February 7, 2013February 7, 2013

How does one convey the lunacy of the anti-drilling position in New York State? Latest example: The NY Dept. of Environment Conservation (DEC) has hired two geologists as consultants to evaluate earthquake risks associated with fracking (yes we know, there is no earthquake risk, but humor us for a bit). In a coordinated attack, anti-drillers say that because the two geologists have also done consulting assignments for nasty, evil drilling companies, they’re tainted. Damaged goods. Shills and tools of the drilling industry. Not to be trusted. Even though they’ve also done consulting work for environmentalist (anti-drilling) organizations. Doesn’t matter.

Such is how far anti-drillers have sunk in their campaign of smears and lies to try and prevent the miracle of hydraulic fracturing—which is already being done in NY in vertical conventional wells and has been for decades—from happening in the state for horizontal shale wells too.

Read More “NY’s Anti-Drillers Attempt Smear of Geologists Consulting for DEC”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Drillers: “Optimistic” DEC will Meet Feb 13 Fracking Deadline
February 6, 2013February 6, 2013

Landowners in New York State wait with bated breath for next Wednesday, Feb. 13 (one week from today), to see if the Dept. of Environmental Conservation publishes a final version of new fracking regulations. If the DEC misses the deadline next Wednesday, the new rules will almost certainly not be released on Feb. 27, which is the final deadline to release those rules or… or the process restarts. More public comments. More posturing by environmental extremists. More everything. If the deadline next Wednesday is missed, all bets are off on whether New York will ever see fracking in our opinion.

What does “the industry” think? Perhaps the best barometer of what drillers are thinking comes from Brad Gill, the executive director of the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York (IOGA of NY). He was in Albany yesterday to meet with lawmakers. Here’s what he said:

Read More “NY Drillers: “Optimistic” DEC will Meet Feb 13 Fracking Deadline”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Comptroller Bullies Cabot O&G over Frack Fluid Disclosure
February 6, 2013February 6, 2013

Being the sole person in charge of a pot of investments worth $150 billion is an awesome responsibility—and invests that person with an enormous amount of power. Power which can (and is) abused. New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli is the sole person in charge of the New York State Common Retirement Fund and he regularly throws his weight around with the companies the fund invests in to strong-arm them into doing things they typically don’t want to do. Call it bullying (because that’s what it is).

The latest example: DiNapoli, himself an anti-driller, is crowing that he forced Cabot Oil & Gas, one of the companies the Fund invests in ($35.8 million), to “publicly disclose its policy and procedures for eliminating or minimizing the use of toxic substances in its hydraulic fracturing fluids.” Never mind that Cabot already lists the components of its fracking fluids in the FracFocus.org Chemical Disclosure Registry. Let’s not let facts get in the way of a good PR campaign.

Read More “NY Comptroller Bullies Cabot O&G over Frack Fluid Disclosure”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Martens Prepares to Blame Shah if Fracking Doesn’t Happen in NY
February 5, 2013February 5, 2013

Pennsylvania is doubling their natural gas output every year by using fracking. So is West Virginia. Ohio has now joined the fracking club and is ramping up their natural gas production. All of the states in the northeast “neighborhood” are fracking—without water contamination, without pollution problems, without a negative impact on “public health,” et cetera et cetera. All except New York, which continues to dither over its decision to frack. Why? Politics. Not science, not health concerns. Politics.

In testimony before the NY legislature yesterday, Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens acknowledged if the DEC doesn’t meet a Feb. 13 deadline to publish final drilling rules the review process will need to restart—yet he also told legislators there is no projected date for finishing shale gas drilling rules and it will depend on recommendations from a health review the DEC will receive “in a few weeks.” MDN finds Martens’ comments from yesterday troubling…

Read More “Martens Prepares to Blame Shah if Fracking Doesn’t Happen in NY”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Pipelines | Spectra Energy | Statewide NY

Judge Tosses Out Lawsuit Against Spectra NYC Pipeline Project
February 5, 2013February 5, 2013

Spectra Energy continues to battle environmental extremists who want nothing to do with more natural gas (especially “filthy” shale gas) coming into New York City, even though NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg calls more natural gas “vital” to the city. Spectra has had to battle nutty protesters that strip down (see NYC Pipeline Protesters Get Naked, Paint Themselves Green), and even protesters who don’t tell themselves they’re about to break the law (see Nutjob Protester Stops NYC Pipeline Construction for 2 Hours).

The protesters and their more adult-acting supporters took Spectra to court in New York State to stop the 16-mile pipeline from New Jersey to New York City from being built. A judge has just tossed the lawsuit telling the protesters, “wrong court”…

Read More “Judge Tosses Out Lawsuit Against Spectra NYC Pipeline Project”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Home Stretch for NY Fracking Generates New Ad Campaign
February 4, 2013February 4, 2013

In what may be the final stretch of four and a half long years to win approval for New York State to begin using the miracle of hydraulic fracturing as has Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Texas, Louisiana, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Colorado and so many other states, the New York State Petroleum Council (NYSPC) has launched a new ad campaign aimed at one person: Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Listen and watch the new commercials below.

Last Friday the NYSPC issued this press announcement about the new ad campaign:

Read More “Home Stretch for NY Fracking Generates New Ad Campaign”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

IOGA NY Becomes “Adversarial” – DEC Must Revise Fracking Rules
January 25, 2013January 25, 2013

Although the latest public comment period for proposed new drilling rules in New York officially closed on Jan. 11, we’re just now learning about the “comments” (more like a treatise) made by the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York (IOGA of NY) to the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), filed on the closing day of Jan. 11.

Many of IOGA of NY’s members are small and medium-sized drillers, and according to IOGA, the DEC’s latest draft of proposed drilling rules simply go too far for smaller drillers. They also say some of the new proposals are illegal. IOGA of NY provided a detailed, 119-page response/critique to the DEC which outlines chapter and verse the changes they believe must be made to the proposed new rules from the DEC before fracking in New York would be viable. A copy of the entire 119-page response is embedded below.

Read More “IOGA NY Becomes “Adversarial” – DEC Must Revise Fracking Rules”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Democrat Senators (Yet Again) Push Fracking Ban Legislation
January 25, 2013January 25, 2013

Perhaps sensing the fracking issue is about to become moot if the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation releases new fracking rules in a few weeks, a group of anti-fracking/anti-drilling Democrat state senators are once again pushing for a law to permanently ban fracking in the Empire State.

A pair of newly-elected Democrat senators joined their colleagues on the left to try and force the issue to a vote on the Senate floor—before it’s “too late”…

Read More “NY Democrat Senators (Yet Again) Push Fracking Ban Legislation”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

A Sad Milestone: NY Fracking Moratorium Turns 4.5 Years Old Today
January 23, 2013January 23, 2013

The current moratorium on high volume hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in New York is exactly 4 years and 6 months old today. MDN keeps a handy “Moratorium Clock” in the right sidebar to remind people how long New York landowners have been denied their Constitutional property rights to allow drilling on their land in the People’s Republic of New York. Here’s how it looked this morning: