Statewide NY

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

NY Update: New Rules Won’t Be Done Before Fall
April 20, 2012April 20, 2012

Is it any surprise that eager beaver, go-get-em NY Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens now says that his department’s review of comments on proposed new fracking rules won’t be done before end of summer, “perhaps”? No, not a surprise at all. This is typical Martens delay tactic behavior.

Martens, speaking in Albany on Thursday, told business leaders of this arbitrary new delay. Can anyone say “productivity challenged”?

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

Timeline for New York Drilling Ban Court Case
April 20, 2012April 20, 2012

Tom West, an attorney handling a combined appeal of two New York cases where local judges upheld drilling bans passed by local townships, laid out a timeline for when the combined case will be heard and decided at an Albany conference yesterday. The two original cases are from Dryden, in Tompkins County, and Middlefield, in Otsego County.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

NY Post Picks Up on Anti-Fracking Preservation League
April 20, 2012April 20, 2012

At the end of March, MDN told you about the latest anti-fracking group to come along, The Preservation League of New York State (see this MDN story). The editorial page of the New York Post has now picked up on the same story:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

Park Foundation Admits Anti-Fracking Advocacy
April 16, 2012April 16, 2012

Kind of interesting that the anti-drilling Park Foundation has outted itself as one of the major funding sources of anti-fracking movement. An article in the Sunday Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin (and run in other Gannett newspapers) chronicles that the Park Foundation, a foundation started by Roy Park, media mogul, has funneled more than $3 million to anti-drilling groups since 2009. Energy in Depth has long exposed the Park Foundation, headquartered in Ithaca, NY as a major source of funding for anti-drilling groups. Apparently the mainstream media can no longer ignore this 800 pound gorilla in the room, and so has spun a story about how wonderful it is that the tiny Park Foundation is doing this bit of community work as an antidote to the evil, nasty behemoth drilling industry. Nice try MSM.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

Anti-Drillers Organize to Oppose LPG Fracking in NY
April 13, 2012April 13, 2012

It’s time for MDN to say, “I told you so.” More than two weeks ago MDN said the following when it was announced a group of New York landowners are about to sign a lease and move forward with waterless LPG fracking technology:

So MDN asks, what will the enviro-left do when all of their stated reasons for opposing fracking are gone? That’s right, they’ll invent new reasons to continue covering the ugly fact that they are prejudiced against fossil fuels and that anything not “sustainable” and “alternative” is not acceptable in their worldview. It will be fascinating to watch how this develops. (MDN: Alternative Fracking Method May Soon Debut – in New York!)

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Commodity Price | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Statewide NY | Statewide PA | Steuben County

NY Customers See 50% Price Decrease from PA Marcellus Gas
April 10, 2012April 10, 2012

Utility customers of Corning Natural Gas Corp. in New York State’s Finger Lakes region can thank their neighbors south of the border in Pennsylvania that they are now paying 50 percent less for their natural gas than they paid just one year ago. And they can also thank the energy companies who use hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale.

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Education | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

SUNY’s First Shale Institute to be Located in…Buffalo?
April 9, 2012April 9, 2012

The State University of New York (SUNY) system with 64 campuses across the state has its first bona fide shale institute, but it’s not located in the hotbed of where shale drilling will happen, when it happens. Drilling will likely be prevalent in what is known as the Southern Tier of New York, counties like Broome, Tioga, Chemung, Steuben, and perhaps northward into Tompkins, Cortland and Chenango, and east to Otsego, and Delaware. That’s likely where you’ll see the first permits and the first wells drilled.

But the first SUNY shale institute will be located at the University of Buffalo. From the UB press release:

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Energy Services | GASFRAC | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY | Tioga County (NY)

Anti-Driller Campaign Against LPG Fracking Begins in NY
April 2, 2012April 2, 2012

It certainly didn’t taken long for anti-drillers to start talking down LPG (waterless) fracking. Just last week, a Tioga County, NY landowner group announced they will sign a lease with eCorp to allow drilling on 135,000 acres in New York using a proprietary technology by Canadian company GASFRAC (see this MDN story). The waterless technology uses liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), a gel-like substance that replaces water in fracking. Perhaps most importantly, by using LPG fracking, eCorp can move ahead with permitting and drilling now (in New York!), ahead of the release of new fracking regulations that have been stalled in a four-year review process.

MDN predicted that with almost all stated reasons to oppose water-based fracking now removed, anti-drillers would invent new reasons to oppose LPG fracking. MDN’s prediction has already come true. An article printed in the “news” section of the Albany Times Union, which clearly is an opinion piece, says this:

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Anadarko | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Otsego County | Regulation | Statewide NY | Tompkins County

Dryden & Middlefield NY Drilling Bans Officially Appealed
March 30, 2012March 30, 2012

An update on the two New York lawsuits recently decided in lower courts that upheld local municipal bans on hydraulic fracturing and gas drilling:

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New York | Statewide NY

Preservation League New York’s Newest Anti-Drilling Group
March 30, 2012March 30, 2012

Surprise! There’s a new anti-drilling organization in New York State (where new anti-drilling organizations pop up like flies). You can now add the Preservation League of New York State to the list of those who want to strip away property rights from individuals in order to enforce their worldview on others. From the New York Times Green blog:

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

NY Universities to Buy Cheap PA Marcellus Shale Gas
March 29, 2012March 29, 2012

Oh the irony of it. New York State wants cheap natural gas—and in fact the state wants shale gas—but they won’t allow drilling. That doesn’t stop state officials from recognizing a good deal when they see it. So New York has struck a deal to buy shale gas from Pennsylvania for five NY state universities. Why? Because it’s cheap!

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New York | Statewide NY

NY Anti-Fracking Groups Join Forces
March 27, 2012March 27, 2012

Sensing that Gov. Andrew Cuomo may be close to moving forward with issuing permits for shale gas drilling, anti-drilling groups are joining forces in New York State to form a coalition called New Yorkers Against Fracking. Movie star Mark Ruffalo, who plays Bruce Banner (the Hulk) in the upcoming movie The Avengers, is on board with the effort. (Those who support drilling may want to consider bypassing The Avengers to send a message to Mr. Ruffalo and Hollywood.)

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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pipelines | Spectra Energy | Statewide NY

New NatGas Pipeline to NYC Receives FERC Endorsement
March 19, 2012March 19, 2012

A proposed natural gas pipeline extension that would run from Staten Island through Bayonne, NJ, and Jersey City to the West Village in Manhattan has received the endorsement of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commisssion (FERC), the agency that has final say in the $850 million project.

The project has faced opposition from groups in both NY and NJ. A final decision will be made in a vote by the five-member commission.

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Energy Companies | New York | Norse Energy | Statewide NY

Norse Energy Sells Off Another Piece of the Company
March 15, 2012March 15, 2012

Norwegian driller Norse Energy’s U.S. subsidiary, with significant acreage in upstate New York, continues to sell off bits and pieces of its New York operation. Norse’s strategy has been to stay alive long enough for New York to adopt new drilling regulations and lift the de facto moratorium on Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling in the state. Norse’s latest sale is to a former Norse CEO.

From the Norse press release:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

NY Democrat Assembly Tries New Tactic to Derail Fracking
March 13, 2012March 13, 2012

In a measure backed by the anti-drilling Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the New York State Assembly has set aside $100,000 to conduct an “independent” health impact study of hydraulic fracturing in its budget for next fiscal year. The measure was proposed by NY State Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton (Democrat from Ithaca, NY). Lifton is part of an anti-drilling cabal of the NRDC, Park Foundation and others who are desperately trying to prevent hydraulic fracturing from happening in New York State. Chief tactic number one? Slow it down by delays and studies until they can eventually kill it.

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

Home Rule Didn’t Work in PA, So Why Would it in NY?
March 13, 2012March 13, 2012

The headline of this post is the point of a press release issued earlier this week by the Dryden Safe Energy Coalition (DSEC), a group based near Ithaca, NY that seeks to remove the hype and emotion from the debate over hydraulic fracturing and shale gas drilling and instead provide science and facts. The DSEC issued a press release (below) which makes the point that Pennsylvania has had a lot more experience with shale gas drilling than New York and has found that a “patchwork quilt of local regulations” on the municipal level did not work, so PA replaced home rule with statewide regulations.

The DSEC says: “If local home rule does not work in Pennsylvania, it is clear it will not be workable in New York.” (Listen up, NY Republican State Senator James Seward.)

From the DSEC press release:

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