Although a final copy of the recommendations voted on by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission have not yet reached his desk, eager politicians are already introducing new legislation to assess impact fees on Marcellus Shale drilling.
Read More “PA Democrat First to Introduce New Legislation for Marcellus Shale Drilling Impact Fees”
In March of this year, newly elected Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett appointed a 30-member Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission with the aim of producing “a comprehensive, strategic proposal for the responsible and environmentally sound development of Marcellus Shale.” The panel wrapped up their work last Friday by voting on a list of recommendations, ultimately approving 96 of them. The final list will be issued in a report which goes to Gov. Corbett on July 22 and is not available at this time.
However, two prominent items from the approved list are being reported by media sources present at the meeting: a new impact fee and forced pooling.
The Pennsylvania Utility Commission (PUC) is reconsidering its decision to grant pipeline company Laser Northeast Gathering status as a public utility with the power of eminent domain (see MDN’s previous coverage of that decision here).
CONSOL Energy has just released an operational update which includes an update on its shale gas drilling operations in Pennsylvania and West Virginia:
According to a recent article in the Elmira Star-Gazette, drilling for shale gas in northeastern PA is more challenging than other areas of the state because of the geology in the area—a geology that lends itself to methane migration. The methane that migrates does not necessarily come from the Marcellus Shale layer itself, but is often trapped above the Marcellus in limestone and other rock layers.
Read More “Methane Migration in Gas Drilling More Common in Northeast PA”
The permitting process for some (many?) Marcellus Shale gas wells in Pennsylvania will take longer than it previously did because of a lawsuit brought by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation against the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The DEP has just settled the lawsuit agreeing to more stringent guidelines for granting drilling permits near “pristine” mountain streams.
If there is anything positive to come from the extreme delays in New York State with a moratorium on horizontal hydraulic fracturing used to drill for natural gas in place since 2009, it is that New York has been watching other states, particularly Pennsylvania, where drilling is going full tilt. Watching, and learning from the problems, mistakes and accidents that have occurred.
At yesterday’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) press conference announcing new draft regulations to allow drilling to (finally) begin in New York, the DEC released a 2-page sheet outlining the main lessons learned in their observation of drilling in PA. The document is embedded below.
Read More “What New York has Learned from Pennsylvania About Drilling in the Marcellus Shale”
Yet another hit piece by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (an editorial this time) plays up the “danger” that “the drilling industry” is not maintaining its trucking fleets. The evidence of this danger is not the number of serious accidents nor even a tear-jerker personal story of a mishap with a nasty drilling truck, but this:
Read More “The Top Reason for Ordering Marcellus Drilling-Related Truck Drivers Off the Road is…”
Further proof that the New York Times series of “PA water is radioactive because treated Marcellus drilling wastewater was released into waterways” scare articles was nothing more than hot air and fiction:
Read More “PA Public Drinking Water Not Radioactive After All”
Pittsburgh and other energy-related regions of the U.S. are bouncing back from the recession faster than other parts of the country. For Pittsburgh, it’s due in no small part to Marcellus Shale drilling. According to a new report just released, Pittsburgh’s employment numbers will pull even and surpass pre-recession levels by early 2012.
Millions of barrels of fracking fluid—wastewater often referred to as “brine” because of the heavy salts in it—are being imported from Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale drilling operations into Ohio, and it has some Ohioans concerned. Fracking fluid/wastewater/brine is what comes back out of the bore hole after sending water, sand and some chemicals down the hole during drilling.
Many larger drillers now recycle 100 percent of the wastewater for reuse in other drilling. For those who do not recycle it, it must be disposed—either by treating it at special facilities where it is then safe for release back into streams and rivers, or by storing it in underground wells, known as injection wells.
According to a new poll by Quinnipiac University, nearly two-thirds of PA voters want Marcellus Shale gas drilling to continue. Slightly more than two-thirds of PA voters also want a drilling (or extraction) tax on gas drilling.
Many Pennsylvania residents are in favor of shale gas drilling, but exporting the gas makes them mad.
Read More “PA Residents: Gas Drilling? Yes. Gas Exporting? No.”
ExxonMobil has just picked up another 317,000 acres of gas leases in the Marcellus Shale by purchasing two privately held Pennsylvania drilling companies for $1.69 billion. Since last year, ExxonMobil has become the largest producer of natural gas in the U.S.
Perhaps the real question should be: Did the anti-drilling crowd ever really have a head of steam to begin with? The mainstream media certainly wants you to think so. A relatively small group of people who oppose drilling in the Marcellus—indeed people who are demanding a total ban on gas drilling—seem to get a lot of press coverage, while a majority who support it get relatively little press coverage.
MDN’s observation and the reason for this post…
Former Pennsylvania DEP Secretary, John Hanger, spoke about the advantages and potential pitfalls of Marcellus Shale drilling at a meeting last night in Ligonier, PA:
Read More “Former PA DEP Secretary John Hanger: If You Say “No” to Gas, You Say “Yes” to Coal & Oil”