CSSD Bestows First Certification for Sustainable Drilling: Chevron
In March 2013, the Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD) burst onto the scene. It had been a closely guarded secret, the creation of a few hand-picked people from both industry and the environmental movement working together to see if there is any common ground on which both sides can agree that shale development would be safe, sustainable AND affordable. They worked hard for over a year and finally hammered out a set of 15 standards that if a driller (or midstream company or contractor) would meet, it would get a stamp of approval from both the industry and environmental groups as being a good goobie–a safe driller. We were somewhat skeptical from the start (see Important: Drillers & Enviros Form New Group, Launch Cert Program). However, the time for skepticism may be over. Today the CSSD announced they have certified their very first driller–one of their founding members–Chevron…
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Another new “study” and already the headlines are blaring. A research team led by Ohio State University and composed of researchers at Duke, Stanford, Dartmouth, and the University of Rochester have just published their findings that methane migrates from some shale wells into local water wells. It certainly doesn’t sound like earth-shattering news, but the headlines across the country range from “Bad fracking wells taint water, scientists find” (Sacramento Bee) to “Weak wells not fracking caused US gas leaks into water” (BBC). The media has picked up on this latest study and, depending on the view of the reporter, has spun it to either say fracking is the culprit, or fracking isn’t the culprit–and just about everything in between. Once again MDN will break it down for you and tell you what the study really says. And, we have a copy of the published findings (embedded below) so you can read it for yourself and make up your own mind…
“This is Dr. Frasier Crane. I’m listening.” Oops. Wrong channel. Click. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection will conduct a “listening session” to hear people address the mythical topic of climate change and the federal EPA’s draconian efforts to restrict things like carbon–the stuff you breathe out with every breath. The feds are forcing states to clamp down on so-called greenhouse gas emissions and have proposed a “Clean Power Greenhouse Gas Reduction Rule” to do just that. The PA DEP wants to hear from PA residents what they think about all of this nonsense so they can check off the appropriate boxes on their checklist. The “listening session” will be held on September 25 in Harrisburg…
Once again the Marcellus is in the middle of what appears to be a Democrat vs. Republican fight–this time over who will control prime riverfront port facility property in the Delaware River in Philadelphia. Here is our understanding of the situation: the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PRPA) is in talks to lease 200 acres at the Southport facility to Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES)–operator of the former Sunoco Inc. refinery in South Philadelphia–who would then turn around and find an operator for the terminal itself. PES wants to ship Marcellus Shale gas from the port facility location after piping it there from other parts of PA. But a bigtime Philly Democrat, John Brown Jr., president of Penn Warehousing and Distribution Inc. (a paper-import company) wants to lease the port facility for himself and the operations of his company. So Brown hired former State Senator Vincent J. Fumo (Democrat with a lot of influence) to pull strings and hose the deal developing between PRPA and PES…