Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Apr 29, 2013
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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John Hanger’s Proposals for PA Shale Drilling: Tax & Regulate
John Hanger is currently a lawyer in private practice in Harrisburg, but previously served as the Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection under then Democrat Gov. Ed Rendell, prior to the Republican Tom Corbett administration. Last year, John Hanger was the featured speaker for MDN’s very first webinar (watch it here: Webinar Replay: John Hanger on Gas Drilling and Energy Choices). John is also running for the Democrat nomination for PA governor, to run against Corbett. He’s a serious guy and although the list of Dems running in PA is long, he stands a good chance of being the nominee. When John talks about shale drilling in the state and what he would do if elected governor, you need to pay attention.John has just released a list of how he would do things differently to restore “public confidence” in the PA drilling industry, should he be elected the Keystone state’s governor this fall. Top of that list? Implement an expensive severance tax. Next in line? Heavy regulation. We’re not quite sure how taxes inspire so-called lost confidence—other than the sleazy aspect of buying off people who didn’t earn it (primarily politicians). As for regulation, air pollution seems to be at the top of his agenda. He also wants to ban drilling in all state parks. Here’s exactly what John says he’ll do if elected:
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Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Lenape Resources | Litigation | Livingston County | New York | Regulation
Lenape Appeals Ruling, Seeks to Overturn Frack Ban in Avon, NY
Lenape Resources Inc., a small independent oil and gas company located in western NY, and its president John Holko, have “guts.” The Town of Avon, NY (Livingston County) where Lenape has a good portion of its operations voted last year to ban fracking. The poorly written law violates existing New York State law which says towns can’t regulate oil and gas drilling. It also was so broadly written it affects conventional/vertical drilling as well as unconventional/horizontal drilling. Lenape has used vertical fracking in Avon for decades (for background, see Fracking Ban in NY Town Closes Conventional Wells Too). Lenape shut down operations in Avon and sued to have the ban overturned.
Unfortunately, in March an “acting” judge in a lower court decision (misleadingly and quirkily called “Supreme” Court in NY) supported Avon’s illegal law (see Third NY Town Wins Court Approval to Ban Fracking). Lenape has received overwhelming support from the oil and gas industry and landowners, so they’ve decided to appeal the lower court ruling to the next level up in an effort to resolve this mess for all drillers in NY:
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New Federal Effort to Regulate Shale Drilling via NETL & NIOSH
The feds are once again sniffing around shale gas drilling done in the individual states with an eye toward regulating it. This latest effort does not come from the EPA, which is on its own mission to regulate shale drilling via the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, nor does it come from the Dept. of Interior with onerous new rules for fracking on federal lands. This effort comes from the Dept. of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The two agencies have signed a “memorandum of understanding” (MOU) to “identify and monitor the potential impact of shale gas production on air quality and [mythical] greenhouse gas emissions.”
Sprinkle in important sounding phrases like “science-based,” “core competencies,” and “human health,” pull in an alphabet soup of other agencies like DOI and EPA, and voilà: A brand new way is born to regulate oil and gas drilling by the feds…
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JLCNY Provides Extensive Update on NY "Takings" Lawsuit
The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) recently issued an update on the status of their lawsuit against New York State for “takings,” the legal concept that New York has now entered the status of denying landowners the rightful use of their land with its ongoing moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, and so, under the U.S. Constitution, the state must reimburse them. The lawsuit update is embedded below. The short version? The JLCNY needs more money before it can file the lawsuit…
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State College, PA Mayor Wants City to Dump Fossil Fuel Investments
Long-time readers of MDN know that our theory of the real reason anti-drillers are against fracking and shale drilling is not because of concerns over water contamination and the list of other pretend excuses they spin, but because of their twisted views that all fossil fuels are somehow “evil.” However, that theory bears repeating from time to time for new readers, and to remind people of the fight we face against those who are unreasonable and militant in their opposition to clean-burning natural gas. The latest example comes from the wacky mayor of State College, PA, Elizabeth Goreham, who along with a few other small town mayors, is “urging” municipalities to “divest from fossil fuel companies.”
State College sits in the middle of abundant, cheap Marcellus Shale gas. Perhaps drillers and utility companies should just shut off the natural gas spigot to State College? Maybe they’d rather just burn coal or wood? Yeah, now that would be real environmentally friendly, wouldn’t it? Here’s the latest rant by the irrational and obtuse anti-drilling movement:
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Chemung County | Industrywide Issues | New York | Steuben County | Tompkins County
Weekend Anti-Gas Propaganda-fest Scheduled for Upstate NY Towns
An all-hands-on-deck anti-drilling propaganda-fest will be held this weekend in Bath, Spencer and Elmira (all in NY state). The so-called “Fracking vs. Human Health Forums” will feature lies and distortions carefully crafted to scare the general public. If you’re a landowner who lives in those areas, attend and make your voice heard to counter the untruths that will be presented.
The details on times and locations:
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Range Resources 1Q13 Update: Marcellus Provides "Impressive Results"
Range Resources, the first driller to sink a Marcellus Shale well in western PA in 2004, issued their first quarter financial and operational update yesterday. According to Range, the liquids-rich Marcellus in southwestern PA “continues to provide impressive results.” Range’s daily production hit new highs in 1Q13. Most of their Marcellus work is concentrated in the “super rich” area of SW PA where they brought 25 new wells online in the first quarter. However, Range also drilled 7 new wells in NE PA, in the “dry gas” zone of the Marcellus.
Here’s part of the Range update, including details on their Marcellus operations:
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD
Food & Water Watch Tells MD Gov "Not so Fast" on Fracking
The odious anti-drilling group Food & Water Watch (FWW) sent a letter yesterday to Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley expressing “serious concerns” that O’Malley’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission’s draft report, while issuing warnings about fracking, seems to be resigned that fracking in Maryland is “inevitable” and therefore should be regulated. That doesn’t sit well with far-out groups like FWW, Josh Fox and a small list of other anti-drillers.
The statement (and letter) issued by FWW:
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Have We Reached the Tipping Point for LNG Trucks?
Yesterday MDN brought you the announcement from UPS that they have just committed to adding an additional 700 new LNG tractor trailers to their current fleet of 112 LNG tractors (see UPS to Grow NG Fleet with Additional 700 LNG Tractor Trailers). An article by the New York Times assembles all of the strings that provides in evidence, to MDN, that we may well have just reached a “tipping point” where natural gas vehicles, at least for trucking fleets, and will now start to rapidly expand. What are those strings?…
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Apr 26, 2013
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Big News: PA Supreme Court Decides Shale Mineral Rights Case
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has just ruled on a case with huge consequences for the natural gas drilling industry in the state. We won’t keep you in suspense: the ruling is favorable to the drilling industry.In Butler v Powers, the Supreme Court justices took up the issue of whether or not natural gas rights should be part of the broader concept of “mineral rights” in PA. In most states when a deed or lease agreement is signed for mineral rights it includes natural gas as well, on the theory that the gas comes from a mineral—shale rock. But that has not been the case in PA. Going all the way back to a case in 1882, PA has had “the Dunham rule” which separates natural gas rights from the broader concept of mineral rights (for background on the Dunham rule, see the MDN article PA Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Critical O&G Case).
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FracFocus Responds to Flawed Harvard Study + MDN has a Question
Earlier this week Harvard Law School released a so-called study saying the independent FracFocus hydraulic fracturing chemical registry falls short and the federal government should step in to enforce reporting by drillers (see Harvard Law School Says FracFocus “Fails” as Compliance Tool).
The two organizations behind FracFocus, the Ground Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission have responded to the charges leveled by Harvard. FracFocus points out Harvard never even talked to them or asked to see the inner workings of the organization and how it operates—so how in the world can Harvard come to the conclusions they did? MDN knows: Lefty bias—how else? Who needs facts when your own anti-drilling opinions will do just fine? Here’s the detailed response from FracFocus utterly refutes and humiliates the “study” from Harvard:
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Cabot Keeps Rockin’ It in the Marcellus Shale
Yesterday, Cabot Oil & Gas issued financial results for the first quarter of 2013. Natural gas production for the company was up a whopping 50% over last year, and up 13% from last quarter! As MDN had previously noted, the company was the first to hit 1 billion cubic feet of production per day in the PA Marcellus Shale (see Who’s a Member of the Marcellus “1 Bcf/d” Club?).
Net income for the company was up over last year ($42.8M as opposed ti $18.3M last year in 1Q). According to company CEO Dan Dinges, the key to their success is the Marcellus. The Cabot statement from yesterday:
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY
NY Consulting Company Successfully Repels Smear-job by NYPIRG
An attempted smearing of the independent consulting company Ecology and Environment, Inc. by Gannett and anti-drilling groups like NYPIRG has not worked. In 2011 E & E authored a study for the state Dept. of Environmental Conservation on the economic benefits of shale drilling and fracking. Earlier this week the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York (IOGA of NY) sent a letter to Gov. Cuomo telling him his indecision is killing all drilling in the state (see IOGA of NY to Cuomo: Your Indecision is Killing ALL NY Drilling). One of the 200 signatories of the letter was E & E, which Gannett and NYPIRG trumpeted as proof the study was not impartial and that the entire set of draft regulations it’s a part of should be scrapped (see NYPIRG calls on Cuomo to rescind fracking review).
Not so fast, says E & E. They are not members of IOGA of NY and only paid membership dues for one of their employees so that person could monitor the meetings and publications of IOGA of NY, according to a letter they sent to the DEC (letter embedded below). What will anti-drillers use now to try and discredit the DEC’s work on new rules for fracking? Here’s the story on E & E and IOGA:
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EQT 1Q13 Report: It’s All Looking "Up" – Thanks to the Marcellus
EQT turned in a report on the first quarter of 2013 today and the numbers are excellent. Marcellus Shale production for the company rose 103% over the same period last year. Midstream volumes are up, revenue is up, profits are up. Hey, it’s all looking up for EQT!
EQT had 79.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas production in the Marcellus Shale for 1Q13–they’re closing in and will soon become the second member of the 1 Bcf/Day Club (Cabot is already in the club). Here’s the EQT report issued this morning:
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John Hanger is currently a lawyer in private practice in Harrisburg, but previously served as the Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection under then Democrat Gov. Ed Rendell, prior to the Republican Tom Corbett administration. Last year, John Hanger was the featured speaker for MDN’s very first webinar (watch it here: 
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has just ruled on a case with huge consequences for the natural gas drilling industry in the state. We won’t keep you in suspense: the ruling is favorable to the drilling industry.