Want a good paying, hands-on job in the Marcellus or Utica Shale? Try welding. The Career and Technology Education Centers (C-TEC) in Licking County, OH recently launched a new 10-month-long structural and pipe welding fabrication course. Students who are willing to work hard will get an average $45/hour after they graduate…
Read More “Pipe Welders Needed – Ohio’s C-TEC Will Train Them”
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: Fri, Sep 27, 2013”
A quick note to tell you that this is one of those rare days when MDN will not feature the normal daily news update. Editor Jim Willis spent a very long (but productive!) day attending the Shale Insight event in Philadelphia. More news from the event tomorrow. We’ll leave you with a teaser: Jim was fortunate to get an exclusive interview with the newly nominated (and currently Acting) Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection, Chris Abruzzo. To our knowledge, we were the only news/blog organization to be granted an interview with the Secretary yesterday at the event (he was only there for an hour or so).
Jim asked Secretary Abruzzo about PA Attorney General Kane’s prosecution of XTO Energy on criminal charges for an accidental spill three years ago. He also asked the Secretary about his biggest challenge so far in his new role, about the ongoing 18-month air quality study the department is currently conducting, and about John Hanger’s comments in the spring that Abruzzo’s appointment was “bizarre and irresponsible.” We asked it all! We’ll have the interview for you in Friday’s batch of stories. Stay tuned.
Until then, Jim will eat a yummy Philly cheesesteak for you. 🙂
MDN editor Jim Willis is in Philadelphia for the next few days attending the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s Shale Insight event. Jim is taking copious notes, as he does when visiting such events–so you’ll get to read about it in the coming days. Yesterday (Tuesday) was the “pre-conference” day. Of special interest was the Technology Showcase where established and up-and-coming companies shared their technologies for treating water, dealing with silica dust and a variety of other applications. If you’re “into shale,” it was fascinating.
Rather than recount it all for you right now, we’ll share a good story (very fair and balanced, surprisingly) written by the Philadelphia Inquirer who had a reporter on hand. The write-up does a good job of recounting the Technology Showcase, and in forecasting the coming protest from anti-drillers. One thing we can tell you–security is really, really tight at the Philadelphia Convention Center. They clearly believe there’s going to be a sizable crowd of antis parading out front…
Read More “Shale Insight Philadelphia: Day One (Tuesday)”
Was former Gulfport CEO Mike Liddell, who stepped down in June, a tad too cozy with an investment company that does business with Gulfport? Gulfport, you may know, is a major Utica Shale driller. A Reuters story takes aim at Liddell, questioning his relationship with investment firm Wexford Capital which has given Liddell “millions of dollars in equity interests at no cost in more than a dozen firms that have done business with Gulfport.” Gulfport says nothing improper was done and all necessary disclosures have been made to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Will this story “have legs” and continue to reverberate in the media? It sure has all the hallmarks of the same kind of treatment the media gave former Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon…
Read More “Former Gulfport CEO Gets Millions from Wexford Capital – Improper?”
The toilet continues to flush at the odious (and misnamed) Food & Water Watch and (oops!)…out comes another, uh, well you get the idea. The latest rubbish to emanate from Food & Water Watch (FWW) is a so-called report that says where there’s fracking there’s an increase in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Uh, FWW? Maybe you were reading the wrong report? The “f” word in the report you were reading lacked a consonant and had a different vowel. We know–it’s an easy mistake to make.
This is what came out when the toilet flushed at FWW HQ yesterday:
Read More “Food & Water Watch has Sex on the Mind, Says Fracking Leads to STDs!”
Editor’s Correction: We slipped up! The original version of this story contained a headline and introduction (below) that said PennFuture was the organization that issued the report. It was not. It was PennEnvironment. Our sincere apologies to PennFuture.
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In a pathetic attempt to give political cover to their anti-drilling collaborators in the PA legislature, yesterday anti-drilling group PennFuture PennEnvironment issued a so-called report that demands that Pennsylvania turn the lights out on fracking for shale gas–at least for now and the foreseeable future–until…we don’t know, just until. Until they say so.
Last week MDN told you about PA Democrats who decided to leap over the cliff hoping a net (of public support) would appear by introducing legislation to ban fracking in the state (see PA Dems Go Over the Cliff – Introduce Statewide Frack Ban Bill). Thunk. No net appeared and the Dems now face annihilation at the next election. So PennFuture PennEnvironment is attempting to throw out a lifeline with a ginned up “report” that supports a loony frack ban…
Read More “PennEnvironment Supports PA Dem Frack Ban Bill, Gins Up Report”
More new pipeline capacity for Marcellus and Utica Shale gas may be on the way for northeast drillers. TransCanada announced two open seasons (times when drillers can contract pipeline capacity) for the ANR Pipeline System.
By using mostly existing pipelines with a few modifications, TransCanada hopes to pipe northeast shale gas to both the Midwest and Gulf Coast…
Read More “TransCanada: Open Season to Pipe Marcellus/Utica Gas West & South”
Forced pooling is once again being considered by West Virginia legislators. In the past few years forced pooling (which is sometimes called “lease pooling” or “lease integration” or any of several other terms) has been a non-starter in WV. Each time it comes up for consideration it goes nowhere–no votes, no nothing. So when a committee of WV legislators ask for a briefing on the topic–it’s noteworthy. It’s also very likely to come up again in the 2014 general session…
Read More “WV Legislators Hear Presentation on Forced Pooling from SORO”
A bunch of once-famous singers took to the stage this past weekend in Saratoga Springs, NY to lend Willie Nelson some help with his annual Farm Aid concert. Willie & friends were there to raise money for farmers and to bash fracking–the very thing that would raise more money for poor farmers than all of Willie’s concerts added together since he began doing them in the last century.
Among the has-beens who took to the stage was 94 year-old Pete Seeger–or a very passable taxidermist’s version of him. Pete had to get his licks in by bastardizing Woodie Guthrie’s song, “This Land is Your Land”…
Read More “Willie Nelson & Friends are No Friends to Farmers”
Congratulations to HalenHardy, a company that makes a mobile air shower to quickly remove silica dust from workers’ uniforms. HalenHardy is the recipient (yesterday) of the Ben Franklin’s Shale Gas Innovation & Commercialization Center’ first annual Shale Gas Environmental, Health, & Safety Award. MDN editor Jim Willis was in the audience at the Shale Insight conference to witness the award.
Jim later spotted and congratulated co-founder and CEO Donnie Beaver as he sat on the exhibit hall floor up to his neck in booth paraphernalia. The company is building a fully operational demo unit for the exhibition hall available starting Wednesday. (Jim plans to take a turn.) The official announcement from the Ben Franklin Center:
Read More “HalenHardy Wins Ben Franklin EHS Award for Silica Air Shower”
TerrAqua Resource Management wants to build a new frack wastewater recycling/treatment plant in Smith Township, Washington County, PA (see Hearing on Proposed TerrAqua Wastewater Recycling Facility in PA). A public hearing was held Monday night, which moves TerrAqua one step closer to gaining permission.
However, the Smith Township public hearing was not without its bumps for TerrAqua…
Read More “TerrAqua a Half Step Closer to New Frack Wastewater Facility”
As MDN noted on Monday, California now has new fracking regulations signed into law by none other than Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown (see CA Gov. Jerry Brown Signs Bill into Law to Allow Fracking).
The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) also noticed the CA vote and points out the irony of Hollywood actors who preen in New York State who claim that so far they’ve defeated fracking here, but who apparently couldn’t keep fracking from happening in their own state…
Read More “JLCNY Asks Why Actors Couldn’t Keep Fracking Out of CA”
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: Wed, Sep 25, 2013”
Chesapeake Energy recently settled a lawsuit with Pennsylvania landowners in which they agree to pay (a pitifully small) $7.5 million to landowners after shorting them on royalty payments (see Chesapeake Settles PA Royalty Lawsuit for Pittance: $7.5M). The National Association of Royalty Owners Pennsylvania chapter is telling landowners to pay “very close attention” to the settlement letter when it comes.
The settlement letter may have much broader implications than just getting a check for a few bucks from Chesapeake. It may set the rules for how your future royalties will be calculated…
Read More “Lawyers Say Don’t Ignore Chesapeake’s PA Lawsuit Settlement Letter”
Converting Marcellus and Utica Shale natural gas into liquids like solvents, lubricants and waxes–even diesel fuel–is starting to catch on. MDN previously told you about a “gas-to-liquids” (GTL) plant planned for the Altoona, PA area that will convert natural gas to diesel fuel (see Altoona Area Getting $200M Marcellus Gas-to-Liquids Plant). A chemical manufacturer in western PA is pursuing a GTL plant to create their own “feedstock”–raw chemical materials they need to produce other specialty chemicals (see Chemical Manufacturer to Build Gas-to-Liquids Plant in PA).
Now, word of the first GTL plant we’ve heard of planned in Ohio. The Ohio plant, if built, will also produce specialty chemicals…
Read More “Utica Shale Gas-to-Liquids Plant Planned for Ashtabula, OH”