Marcellus Drilling News

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio | Regulation

Fourth Time the Charm for Youngstown Frack Ban Measure?
August 5, 2014August 5, 2014

You’ve got to hand it to those anti-drillers in Youngstown. When anti-fracking insanity takes hold–it goes deep. Anti-drillers have successfully gotten enough signatures to put a ballot measure before voters three times now. The measure would enact a ban on fracking in Youngstown. Not that anyone actually wants to drill in the City of Youngstown. However, passing such a ban would a) force some employers to relocate out of town (not an empty threat, they’ve said it many times), and b) send a signal loud and clear that Youngstown wants to drop out of the flourishing Utica Shale bonanza taking place in the state. Makes no difference to the fracking insane that they will royally screw the city with such a ban–they’ve just collected enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot a fourth time…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Will PA’s Marcellus Miracle be Snuffed Out by a Severance Tax?
August 5, 2014August 5, 2014

Every now again you need to step back and consider the big picture when it comes to the miracle of fracking and horizontal drilling. Pennsylvania has seen an economic revolution from the Marcellus Shale industry. That revolution is in danger of being snuffed out by Democrats like gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf who, if elected, promises to implement a Marcellus-killing severance tax. And no, this is not wild speculation. If you look at recent history, such a scenario is supported by the evidence. David Spigelmyer, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, penned an op-ed piece that ran in the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday to “set the record straight” on just what the Marcellus industry has meant in PA and what a severance tax would do to the industry in that state should it be implemented…
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Industrywide Issues | Regulation

US Dept of Transportation Proposes New Rules for Shale Oil Trains
August 5, 2014August 5, 2014

MDN entered the debate over whether or not the movement of shale oil trains, specifically from the Bakken Shale of North Dakota, should be revealed to the public or not, based on security concerns (see New York Caves to Anti-Drillers Again: Discloses Oil Train Movements). Our interest is based on the fact that such oil trains, loaded with Bakken light crude (which contains some NGLs or natural gas liquids like propane and ethane) move through the Utica/Marcellus region–through Ohio and New York on their way to the Port of Albany. Last week we brought you an interesting viewpoint/opinion from someone else (see Revisiting the Bakken Crude Shipment Through NY Debate). The Dept. of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has issued a draft set of new rules (see the official 65-page document below)…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Transco | Williams

Pipeline will Violate “Virgin” Land, Cross “Prized Farmland” (Gag)
August 5, 2014August 5, 2014

Did you know that if you build a natural gas pipeline through an area where previously there wasn’t a pipeline, it’s the equivalent to violating a virgin? And if the ground happens to be farm fields, the gas flowing through the pipeline would be “coursing” through that line (almost recklessly) and that farm fields are magically converted to be “most prized farmland”? Those are the pejorative adjectives and metaphors used by a liberal reporter for the Harrisburg Patriot-News as he introduces an article on the proposed Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project that extends the Transco pipeline and reverses the flow of natural gas to bring Marcellus Shale gas from PA to markets in the northeast and south…
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Uncategorized

Winners’ Yearbooks for Oil & Gas Awards Spring Events
August 5, 2014August 5, 2014

MDN editor Jim Willis was privileged to participate as a moderator for two panel sessions at the 2013 Northeast Oil & Gas Awards event, held in March 2014 in Pittsburgh (see Oil & Gas Awards – List of Winners, Bang-up Time!). In May we brought you full recordings for each session at the conference (see Oil & Gas Awards “Northeast Conference for Excellence” Now on MDN). Jim liked it so much, he’ll fly to Dallas in October to moderate a few more panel sessions at the Southwest version of the Oil and Gas Awards (sign up to attend here). But let’s take another look back at the spring. Our friends at the O&G Awards held three events this past spring to recognize the best of the best, and they’ve just released Winner’s Yearbooks for each event: Gulf Coast, Northeast & Rocky Mountain regions. Have a look (below) to see if you spot a picture of yourself or a friend/colleague!…
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Allegheny County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation

PA Congressman Rips EPA over “War on Coal” at Pittsburgh Hearing
August 5, 2014August 5, 2014

Pennsylvania Congressman Tim Murphy delivered a sterling statement at a field hearing held by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Pittsburgh last Friday. The EPA is doing a road show to take comments on their new, very restrictive regulations that are part of so-called climate change regulations (how stupid is it that we say the climate changes–of course it does!). Murphy’s comments address the Obama EPA’s war on coal. That what he calls it, that’s what everyone (but Obama and the EPA) calls it. We bring you his testimony before the EPA because (a) it takes aim at an out-of-control EPA, an issue near and dear to our hearts for lo these many years, and (b) because the EPA won’t stop with coal. They’re coming for natural gas next, after they’ve eliminated coal from the picture. You can bank on it…
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About MDN | Health Impacts | Industrywide Issues | MDN Resources | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

MDN Editor Jim Willis Appears on Scranton Talk Radio
August 5, 2014August 5, 2014

From MDN editor Jim Willis: I don’t do it often, but every now and again I’m contacted to appear on a radio talk show to discuss Marcellus Shale drilling and related issues. Last week I was contacted by David Madeira who hosts a daily morning talk show in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area on 94.3 FM “The Talker”. Dave is a great guy and a great host. He truly makes it easy! Dave wanted the low down on the story that was started way back in June by a liberal PBS reporter who is quoting two former PA State Health Department employees who claim they were muzzled from talking to residents claiming to have suffered health impacts from nearby shale drilling. I wrote up the story of how the media has conducted a smear campaign against the health department (see PA’s Sec of Health Fires Back at Reckless Accusations Against Dept). On the call, I walk David through how a story like this is manufactured and recycled through “mainstream” liberal media. Give it a listen!
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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Aug 5, 2014
August 5, 2014August 5, 2014

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Aug 5, 2014”
Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Monroe County | Ohio | Sand/Proppant | Trucking | Wastewater

New Ormet Aluminum Plant Owner Shops Barge Facility to Shalers
August 4, 2014August 4, 2014

Three weeks ago MDN highlighted news from NGI’s Shale Daily that Magnum Hunter Resources had purchased the mineral rights for two former Ormet properties in Ohio and West Virginia (see Magnum Hunter Buys Ormet Property in OH/WV, More Wells Coming?). Ormet, you may recall, had a big aluminum plant in Hannibal (Monroe County), OH that sits on the Ohio River (complete with a big barge facility) that was bankrupted because they couldn’t get Ohio to lower the electricity bills long enough for them to convert their own coal-burning electric generation plant into using natural gas mined from under the property (see Final Chapter of Ormet Plant Closing – Utica Could have Saved It). It was a big fail on the part of Gov. John “foreigner hunter” Kasich’s administration and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO). Magnum now owns the mineral rights, and Niagara Worldwide LLC now owns the real estate and plant itself in OH. Niagara issued a press release today advertising that they’re looking to re-open the Hannibal site for business. The announcement has a big tie-in with the shale drilling industry…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Economic Impact | Industrialization | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA | Washington County

New Heinz-Funded “Study” on Marcellus Boom/Bust in SWPA
August 4, 2014August 4, 2014

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…
Read More “New Heinz-Funded “Study” on Marcellus Boom/Bust in SWPA”
Bradford County | Energy Companies | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Southwestern Energy | Susquehanna County

Southwestern 2Q14: Marcellus Output Doubles, Investment Lowered
August 4, 2014August 4, 2014

Southwestern Energy released its second quarter 2014 financial and operating results last week. Among the big news is that Southwestern nearly doubled output in the Marcellus region from 34 billion cubic feet in 2Q13 to 61 Bcf for 2Q14–approximately 668 million cubic feet per day. Likewise Southwestern’s midstream division saw a 27% increase in revenue for 2Q14 over the year before. Noticeably, the company gathered 417 million cubic feet per day of natural gas from 61 miles of company-owned gathering lines in the Marcellus Shale. Unhappily, the company has revised down its project investment for drilling in the Marcellus from $760 million to $700 million in 2014. It appears the company will spend that (plus money from other scaled back plays) to invest in a new venture in the Niobrara basin in Colorado and Wyoming…
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Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NiSource | Pipelines

NiSource 2Q14: Progress on Marcellus/Utica Midstream Projects
August 4, 2014August 4, 2014

NiSource, a major gas & electric utility company operating in the northeast and southwest (and parent of Columbia Gas and Columbia Pipeline), is in the midst of investing 3/4 of a billion dollars investment in five Marcellus and Utica Shale projects (see NiSource: 5 Marcellus/Utica Projects, $744M Investment). Last week NiSource issued second quarter 2014 results, including an update on some of those projects. Here’s relevant portions of the update touching on the Marcellus/Utica:
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Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia | Wetzel County

Wetzel County Tries to Derail New Rules for WV Drill Cuttings
August 4, 2014August 4, 2014

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) is expected to file revisions this week to 33CSR1, the Solid Waste Management Rule, that deal with landfill acceptance of drill cuttings. Until now the state has been operating under “emergency rules” put in place earlier this year. The WVDEP is expected to make those emergency rules permanent as part of of 33CSR1. This issue has been hotly debated in WV since last year when anti-drillers attempted to make a big deal of it (see WV Anti-Drillers Continue to Harp on Drill Cuttings in Landfills). The state legislature, in a special session, passed a bill earlier this year to allow the WVDEP to adopt the emergency rules until final rules are enacted after a process of public hearings (see WV Drill Cuttings in Landfill Bill Passes in Record Time). At the final public hearing in Charleston last week, the Wetzel County Solid Waste Authority submitted two studies they funded on this issue that they say raises troubling questions about the proposed “final” rules…
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Accidents | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PPG Uses Auditor General “Report” to Slam Shale Industry – Again
August 4, 2014August 4, 2014

The increasingly anti-drilling Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PPG) continues to recycle a DOA crap report issued by the anti-drilling Pennsylvania Auditor General–who took office promising to give the drilling industry a black eye and further his own aspirations to one day be governor (see Anti-Drilling PA Auditor General Criticizes DEP in “Report”). As MDN pointed out, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale produced a report that uses data a) now more than two years old, and b) largely looks at the state Dept. of Environmental Protection as it was under Gov. Ed “Fast Eddie” Rendell (when John Hanger was Secretary of the DEP). Those little facts seem to escape the PPG who have just generated yet another anti-drilling article that supposedly finds drillers didn’t discover or report their own spills half the time (at least through the end of 2012)…
Read More “PPG Uses Auditor General “Report” to Slam Shale Industry – Again”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

Maryland Gov. O’Malley Spins Delay on Shale Drilling as Positive
August 4, 2014August 5, 2014

Outgoing Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (Democrat), perhaps the worst governor vis–à–vis leadership that Maryland has had in the past two generations, attended a 6-Dem governor “discussion” at the liberal Aspen Institute in Colorado on Saturday (no doubt on Maryland taxpayers’ dime). The discussion was nominally to yak about education, a topic Dems think they own (unfortunately our kids are getting dumber year after year). Because one of the Dem governors present was John Hickenlooper, governor of Colorado (someone who supports shale drilling), the conversation inevitably turned to the topic of fracking. O’Malley made this hilarious statement:
Read More “Maryland Gov. O’Malley Spins Delay on Shale Drilling as Positive”
Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Taxation

IMF Book Says Counties Should Tax Fossil Fuels Higher
August 4, 2014August 4, 2014

The International Monetary Fund, a liberal quasi-governmental organization released a new book yesterday in which they say countries like the United States don’t tax energy, particularly fossil fuels, enough. For the first time ever the IMF lays out what it says is the appropriate level of taxation on coal, natural gas, diesel fuel and gasoline for 156 countries. Of course global warming nuttery plays a major role in their calculations–got to reduce that darned carbon dioxide, ya know (the stuff you breathe out with every breath). IMF chief Christine Lagarde made up some cockamamie excuse why the IMF is concerned about so-called environmental damage instead of sticking to monetary policy. At a gala event last week in Washington, DC, Lagarde, who arrived from Europe on a fossil fuel jetliner and was chauffeured to the event in a fossil fuel powered limousine, said countries shouldn’t wait for everyone to agree. Just start taxing the #$@! out of their citizens now–to force them to give up those evil, nasty fossil fuels. Oh, and don’t forget to chip in a few billion to the IMF along the way…
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