Top Marcellus Shale Attorney Michael Joy Heads West
BakerHostetler, one of the country’s top energy law firms, has lured MDN friend Michael Joy away from the Marcellus/Utica region to the sunnier mile-high climes of Denver, Colorado. Michael is an attorney with a long and distinguished resume. He also has a Ph.D. in geology. Michael once taught oil and gas law in the only program that teaches it in New York State (University at Buffalo). He later joined the Reed Smith law firm in Pittsburgh, practicing oil and gas law with the firm. Now he’s heading west, to help BakerHostetler with clients interested in expanding into the Marcellus/Utica. Our first memory of Michael was hearing him present at a Binghamton landowners meeting back in March 2011 (see Sizable Crowd Gathers in Binghamton to Hear Hear Expert Panel Discuss Marcellus Drilling’s Potential Impact on New York). We’ll never forget, at that meeting he answered the question, “If NY opens the door to drilling now, would anyone bother to show up and drill?” (see Audience Q&A About Marcellus Shale Drilling at Recent Landowner Meeting in Binghamton, NY). We wish Michael the very best in his new move. Here’s more about that move and Michael’s distinguished background…
Read More “Top Marcellus Shale Attorney Michael Joy Heads West”
MDN has done some more digging on Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s choice to run the all-important (for Marcellus Shale drilling) Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), John Quigley. As it turns out, we didn’t have to dig very far. Quigley himself writes a blog site called “John Quigley’s A Green Thing blog.” The name about says it all. We went looking through his previous statements and found more that concerns us about his impending stewardship of the greatest economic miracle to hit PA in more than 100 years. One of the things Quigley repeatedly lobbies for is a rapid transition from water-based fracking to waterless fracking, something that isn’t remotely possible in the next 10 years…
In 2010, activities of the anti-drilling group Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition, Inc. (GDAC) of Luzerne County, PA (Wilkes-Barre area) caught the attention of the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR) Foundation, a company contracted by Pennsylvania’s Department of Homeland Security to monitor potential threats in the Keystone State. The ITRR Foundation put GDAC’s name on a list of organizations to keep an eye on–a so-called “terrorist watch list”–which lists potential threats against “critical infrastructure” in the state. The list with GDAC’s name was circulated to law enforcement agencies and to the drilling industry as well. When word of their inclusion on the list leaked, GDAC huffed and puffed and sued. Lo these 4+ years later, it appears they’ve won that lawsuit and the right to be permanently kept off the list…