The Obama Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) came under heavy criticism from West Virginia Democrats at the “Partnerships for Energy Development” meeting in Charleston, WV yesterday. The lead Democrat doing the criticizing was none other than WV Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, who expressed his strong support for coal and natural gas:
Anti-drilling group Clean Water Action is trying to get the federal EPA, who monitors and permits wastewater injection wells, to reconsider the permitting of two injection wells in Warren County, PA. They’re using a favorite tactic to do so: accusations and innuendo that the original review process was faulty.
Read More “Anti-Drillers Go After EPA on PA Injection Wells Approvals”
More than $6 million was embezzled from Falcon Drilling Co. over the past eight years by two of its employees. Falcon is a Marcellus Shale drilling contractor with 13 rigs headquartered in Indiana, PA.
On Monday, federal prosecutors charged a former controller at the company with conspiracy to embezzle. Previously, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) had been charged.
Read More “2 Employees Charged with Embezzling $6M from Falcon Drilling”
Maryland anti-drilling group CitizenShale is pressuring Maryland’s western senator, George Edwards, to support a moratorium on fracking in Maryland. CitizenShale is using head fakery by saying their request is that Edwards “not oppose” a new moratorium that will be introduced in January by anti-drillers from the Washington, D.C. suburbs (on the opposite side of the state).
The request from CitizenShale came at a pre-legislative meeting held at Garrett College (in Garrett County, one of two counties that have Marcellus Shale under them) where “residents” and those passing themselves off as residents gathered to talk about the upcoming Maryland legislative session that meets for just 90 days each year.
Read More “Anti-Drilling Group Attempts Head Fake with Maryland Senator”
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, Dec 11, 2012”
Contrary to what anti-drillers say, lack of drilling in New York does have serious consequences—the latest consequence being the bankruptcy of Norse Energy Corp. MDN has reported over the past several years on Norse, the “little energy company that could” (we had hoped) hang on until New York released new shale drilling rules. But New York’s moratorium has now stretched on nearly 4 1/2 years and frankly, there’s no end in sight.
In mid-November Norse issued a press release saying they would run out of money in December unless they could restructure their debt (see this MDN story). They only had $1.5 million cash on hand at the time. Then, a few weeks later, a judge ordered Norse to put $7.65 million into an escrow account to cover potential losses in a dispute (see this Norse press release). Apparently the escrow judgment pushed Norse over the financial cliff. They’ve now filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection:
Read More “Norse Energy Hurt by NY Fracking Delay Files for Bankruptcy”
Is Columbiana County, Ohio’s Utica Shale drilling cooling down? That’s what a recent article seems to indicate. There were only two new permits sought in the past month, both from Chesapeake Energy.
Here’s the lowdown on Columbiana’s drilling activity since 2010:
Read More “Utica Shale Drilling in Columbiana County, OH Slows”
Good old American ingenuity…Drillers are not waiting for processing plants to be completed or pipelines to come online in order to sell their natural gas liquids (NGLs) from the Marcellus and Utica Shale region. A few weeks ago, one million gallons of NGLs were loaded on a tanker barge originating at the port in Weirton, WV. The barge floated first down the Ohio River, and then the Mississippi River on its way to Houston, TX for processing.
Read More “Drillers Ship NGLs from Weirton, WV to Houston via Barge”
The Akron Beacon Journal ran an excellent round-up article on Sunday looking at the mammoth infrastructure investments (pipelines, processing facilities, etc.) being made in Ohio’s Utica and Marcellus Shale region—like in excess of $10 billion of investments already under way or planned for the near future.
Here’s a quick overview:
Read More “$10 Billion+ in Utica Shale Infrastructure Coming to Ohio”
The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) launched a new round of phone calls and a letter-writing campaign to encourage Gov. Andrew Cuomo to not delay any further the release of new fracking rules for New York. The JLCNY wants its members and supporters to call and print and mail a draft letter (embedded below).
MDN received the following notice on Saturday:
Read More “NY Landowner Group Ramps up Calls/Letter Campaign to Cuomo”
As the Ohio General Assembly comes to a close later this month (the end of their two-year term), Democrats have introduced a number of bills aimed at restricting the Utica and Marcellus Shale drilling industry in the state. Fortunately the Assembly is controlled by Republicans, so these bills will go nowhere. Still, it’s instructive to see what’s on Democrats’ hearts and minds, and possibly what the future holds if the political winds in Ohio change.
Here’s the list of bills recently introduced, and a summary of what they would do:
Read More “Ohio Legislature Sees Flurry of Shale Drilling Bills”
Wheeling Jesuit University and West Virginia University are teaming up to study water samples from the Ohio and Allegheny rivers for the presence of bromides to see if bromides are coming from shale drilling wastewater discharges into the rivers. Bromides themselves are not toxic, but in sufficient quantities bromides can lead to the formation of cancer-causing trihalomethanes.
The study is a precaution to ensure bromides, which are found naturally, are not coming from drilling activity (i.e. drilling wastewater discharges).
Read More “WVU & Jesuit Univ Testing Ohio & Allegheny Rivers for Bromides”
The Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department and West Virginia University are together collecting data in the greater Wheeling, West Virginia area to see if drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale has a detectable impact on local air quality.
Read More “WVU & Wheeling Health Dept Conduct Marcellus Air Quality Study”
Below are upcoming events for this week and next.
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: Mon, Dec 10, 2012”
The University of Texas (UT) is the latest institution of “higher learning” to succumb to political correctness—they have withdrawn (censored) a previously published study that concludes hydraulic fracturing does not pollute groundwater. Science has gone out the door at UT like it did at the University at Buffalo, over the same issue. Professors and researchers issue a report, based on scientific evidence, that anti-drillers perceive as favorable to fracking—and the rabid anti-drillers form up like a pack of wolves and hunt down and academically kill anyone connected to the research and resulting report. “You say fracking doesn’t contaminate water, that there’s no scientific proof that it does (going against our orthodoxy)? You’re dead meat—we’re coming for you.”
Thing is, the chief accuser, the alpha wolf who’s doing the hunting, is the Public Accountability Initiative (PAI). Who are they? An anti-fossil fuel organization funded in the background by ultra-leftist and financial markets manipulator George Soros (see this MDN story for background). Bloomberg and other mainstream media won’t touch that part of the story—the part that those doing the accusing are full of conflicts of interest themselves. That doesn’t fit the template narrative of their reporting.
Read More “University of Texas Goes Amish, Shuns its Own Fracking Study”