Dr. Terry Engelder, geologist and professor at Penn State University, is one of two men who first calculated and publicized the enormous potential Read More “Prof Terry Engelder: Marcellus Rock Star”
Unlike the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) refuses to be pushed around by mouthy anti-drillers. Read More “SRBC Tells Anti-Drillers “We’ll Stay in Our Lane” on Water Study”
Seismic testing is coming very soon “across Fayette County [PA]” by a company hired by Chevron as they prepare to drill. Read More “Chevron to Drill in Fayette County, PA – Seismic Testing First”
Sometimes the government has trouble filing paperwork for itself on time–we all know how that feels! Last year the state of Pennsylvania passed some of the most Read More “Some PA Towns Fail to File Impact Fee Paperwork with State”
Are you a landowner with an old, abandoned railroad bed running across your property? You might want to check your deed very closely, especially if you’ve signed a gas lease for “your” property.
What you thought was your property may not be your property when it comes to large sums of lease and royalty payments, as some landowners in Susquehanna County, PA are learning the hard way…
Read More “Landowners: Watch Out for Old RR Easements – You May Owe Them $”
The schizophrenic behavior of Cecil, PA town supervisors… Earlier this week Cecil town supervisors voted to have a closed door meeting with Range Resources to assess the “relationship” between the company and the town (see When We Get Behind Closed Doors…Range Resources & Cecil Twp). It looked to MDN like perhaps, just perhaps, the supervisors were making an attempt to patch things up. Range has them in court, after all.
But maybe not. We now learn that at the same meeting, the same supervisors want to shut down a local Range water impoundment:
Read More “Cecil, PA Supervisors Want Better Relations with Range, but…”
Findlay Township (Allegheny County, PA, west of Pittsburgh) approved its first three Marcellus Shale wells at a meeting last night. Supervisors voted unanimously (3-0) to let Range Resources to drill on Clinton-Frankfort Road…
Read More “Findlay Twp, PA Approves First 3 Marcellus Wells, Range to Drill”
For the second year running, the Ben Franklin Technology Partners’ Shale Gas Innovation & Commercialization Center selects three winners from a field of 12 entrants to award a $25,000 prize in its Shale Gas Innovation Contest–a contest that recognizes startups and small businesses and gives them visibility and encouragement for their efforts.
MDN previously highlighted this year’s entrants, particularly because we’re acquainted with one of them (see REV LNG, 11 Others Finalists in Shale Gas Innovation Contest for the entire list of this year’s entrants). We won’t keep you waiting any longer. The envelope please! This year’s three winners are…
Read More “Envelope Please: Winners of Shale Gas Innovation Contest are…”
Sometimes anti-drillers become unhinged and behave very badly. Case in point: Susquehanna County’s most famous anti-driller Vera Scroggins, who used her potty mouth on FrackNation filmmaker Phelim McAleer in January when Phelim tagged along to ask Yoko Ono and Susan Sarandon about fracking when they came to Susquehanna County (in a Mercedes bus) to promote Artists Against Fracking. Scroggins didn’t like McAleer posing tough questions to the goddesses she worships, so she made it her mission to use every foul word and anti-Irish, prejudiced comment she could think of to insult McAleer, making a video of it and posting it on Youtube (see “The Final Ploy of the Desperate” Natural Gas Opponents).
You can appreciate that the normally patient folks of rural Susquehanna County grow tired of Vera’s antics. At a recent county commissioners meeting, a Susquehanna County official had had enough of Vera’s tiresome antics and actually called her “stupid” before the assembled audience. Cool! Wish we had been there to video it and put it on Youtube. Here is what prompted the outburst:
Read More “PA County Official Calls Local Anti-Driller “Stupid” at Meeting”
There’s certainly no love lost between Range Resources and the supervisors of Cecil Township in Washington County, PA. Range has repeatedly requested the supervisors consider granting a conditional use permit to drill a new well, the supervisors say Range has not provided “full information” on the application, and the whole matter eventually ended up in court–before a judge whose wife is anti-drilling (see Court Fight: Range Resources v Robinson, PA Twp).
But what’s this…are Cecil officials finally willing to call a truce? The supervisors voted on Monday night to schedule a private “behind closed doors” meeting with Range to “discuss their relationship.” Sounds more like marriage counseling than governing to us, but hey, if getting behind closed doors is what it takes…
Read More “When We Get Behind Closed Doors…Range Resources & Cecil Twp”
Even though New York State is an economic and jobs-creating disaster area with no prospect of shale drilling to lift it from the economic basement any time soon, some New York-based companies are still profiting from the shale boom–that is the shale boom happening across the border in Pennsylvania. One such company is R3 Fusion, Inc. in Troy, NY. R3 makes technology that recycles fracking wastewater for reuse, and they’ve just sold an installation of their technology to Hydro Recovery in Blossburg, PA.
The R3 announcement:
Read More “NY Company Sells Frack Wastewater Technology to PA Site”
The Altoona (PA) Water Authority is hoping to sell water for Marcellus Shale drilling to Chevron for drilling they have planned in the Coupon, PA area. There is no agreement yet, but the signs are there: Chevron is in talks with the City of Altoona to arrange a highway maintenance agreement…
Read More “Altoona, PA Plans to Sell Water to Chevron for Fracking”
The main architect of Pennsylvania’s Act 13 legislation that was passed last year was Republican state Senator Joe Scarnati. Act 13 was PA’s most sweeping revision of oil and natural gas drilling in decades, providing for (among other things) the collection of an “impact fee” (or tax) that resulted in $204 million in revenue in 2012.
Scarnati is back with a proposal for more legislation that will impact the Marcellus Shale–this time, he wants to create an advisory panel to investigate public health issues related to Marcellus drilling…
Read More “PA Senator Proposes Panel to Study Health Impacts from Drilling”
The New York-based Manhattan Institute, a non-profit think tank with a mission “to develop and disseminate new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility,” released a new report yesterday titled, “The Economic Effects of Hydrofracturing on Local Economies: A Comparison of New York and Pennsylvania” (full copy embedded below). The report finds that if New York lifted its moratorium on fracking, it would mean billions of dollars in income for upstate New Yorkers and for the state as a whole.
MI researchers closely examined counties in Pennsylvania and found a) those counties with shale wells did better economically, b) the more wells, the better they did, c) counties with shale wells experienced double-digit rises in per capita income, and d) perhaps most surprisingly, PA counties with no shale wells or fracking saw per capita incomes rise an average 8%! Across the board, fracking has benefited PA enormously and this report proves it. The authors also say NY is screwing itself (our words) if it continues to ban fracking…
Read More “Manhattan Institute Study: Lifting NY Frack Ban Would Mean Billions”
Once upon a time a little fish not much bigger than a paperclip, called a snail darter, was considered “endangered” and the prospect of disturbing its “habitat” delayed the erection of a major dam. That was in the 1970s. Today? Today we have the endangered Allegheny woodrat–otherwise known as a packrat. Please…try not to laugh! Although the Allegheny woodrat is not on the federal endangered species list, it is on the PA “threatened and protected” list–and therein lies the connection to Marcellus drilling…
Read More “Marcellus Driller Asked to Replace PA Woodrat Habitat”
The Chesapeake Energy fire sale of assets continues. On Friday, EQT Corp. announced they’re picking up 99,000 acres of leases and 10 horizontal wells in the Marcellus Shale from Chessy in southwestern PA for $113 million. Of that number, $60 million is the price for the acreage (and $53 million for the 10 operating wells). If you run the math, that’s $606 per acre ($60M/99K)–i.e. fire sale price.
Below is the EQT announcement (first), and analysis of the deal by Seeking Alpha blogger and energy analyst Richard Zeits (second):
Read More “Chesapeake Fire Sale Continues – EQT Picks up 99K Acres in SW PA”