Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin Pair of Drive-by Anti-Drilling Articles
Yet another pair of drive-by articles on shale drilling appeared in the Sunday edition of the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin. First, a front page story built on a false premise–that the recent sham report by the politically ambitious (and anti-drilling) Auditor General of Pennsylvania issued three weeks ago contains “lessons to be learned” for New York. Pennsylvania’s anti-drilling Democrat Auditor General Eugene DePasquale took office promising to conduct an anal exam of the Dept. of Environmental Protection. Apparently he couldn’t find good dirt on the agency from 2012 onward, so he went back in time using the wayback machine to dig up old news and try to construct a report that says the PA DEP has big problems (see Anti-Drilling PA Auditor General Criticizes DEP in “Report”). That sham report, written by a man who’s seeking to make a name for himself so he can run for governor of PA in the future (and someone who heavily promoted wind farms, the energy source that “lost” to shale gas), is used as the basis for an article by a Gannett reporter to further the meme that shale drilling in NY is too risky and should not happen…
Read More “Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin Pair of Drive-by Anti-Drilling Articles”
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) ran an article in their Today in Energy online publication yesterday stating the Marcellus Shale region produced, for the first time ever, more than 15 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day (Bcf/d) in July. The Marcellus, located in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, now accounts for a staggering 40% all U.S. shale gas production. Compare that to just four short years ago, in 2010, when the Marcellus produced 2 Bcf/d. The Marcellus is, without a doubt, the most productive shale play for natural gas in the world…
Washington & Jefferson College, located in Washington, PA (Pittsburgh suburb) has a Center for Energy Policy & Management–which makes sense since Washington County, PA sits in the middle of the wet gas Marcellus drilling zone. W&J recently teamed up with the Washington, DC-based Environmental Law Institute (ELI) to study the “boom and bust” cycle that communities face with resource extraction like the Marcellus Shale. The thought was to produce a document–in this case a series of documents–that can guide local and state politicians as they plan for the future. How can, and even *can* a community avoid a “bust” after a huge boom? That’s what the documents aim to answer. The only problem is, the ELI seems to tilt anti-drilling, and the entire study was funded by Mamma Teresa Heinz-Kerry and her Heinz Endowments–a strongly anti-drilling organization. So you know where this is headed…
Two “independent” administrative law judges for the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission have dealt what could be a major blow to Sunoco Logistics’ request to have the Mariner East NGL (natural gas liquids) pipeline declared a public utility. The two judges–David Salapa and Elizabeth Barnes–handed down a decision yesterday that denies Sunoco’s request to have 18 pump and 17 value stations (in 31 locations) that would need to be built along the 300+ mile pipeline exempt from local zoning ordinances. If the pipeline is considered a public utility it would be exempt from local ordinances. Without that exemption, Sunoco Logistics faces a nearly impossible task of trying to gain permission to build the necessary new stations. Below is a copy of the decision, and MDN’s background on this important pipeline project, along with a “where do we go from here” analysis…
Yesterday MDN wrote a summary and interpretation of an article appearing in the Harrisburg Patriot-News about the recent court decision known as EQT Production v. Opatkiewicz, et al (see 