Marcellus Drilling News

Housing | Industrywide Issues | Statewide WV | Taxation | West Virginia

Hotel Tax Loophole in WV Benefits Drillers, Ending Soon?
September 11, 2012September 11, 2012

A tax loophole in West Virginia on hotels and motels, designed to benefit politicians, has had an unintended consequence: It’s now benefiting the Marcellus Shale drilling industry.

In 1975 the West Virginia legislature passed a law allowing local municipalities the option of charging up to a 3% tax on hotel and motel rooms. In 2005, they raised it to 6%. However, the politicians included an exemption: No tax on hotel and motel stays of over 30 days.

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Sep 11, 2012
September 11, 2012September 11, 2012

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, Sep 11, 2012”
Accidents | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Fracking Opponents Craig & Julie Sautner Sell, Leave Dimock
September 10, 2012September 28, 2012

Dimock Proud, a group of homeowners in and around Dimock, PA who have banded together to defend their town’s reputation against mainstream media news attacks painting the area as a contaminated wasteland, report that two residents who have been among the most vocal critics against drilling and against Cabot Oil & Gas, Craig and Julie Sautner, have settled their lawsuit with Cabot and have left town.

This is an email MDN received from Dimock Proud on Saturday:

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Health Impacts | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

More Details Leak on Secret DEC Meeting with Enviro Groups
September 10, 2012September 10, 2012

Anti-drilling book author and former Gannett reporter Tom Wilbur, who blogs about Marcellus Shale drilling here, still has his sources in Albany. And those sources tell him that Gov. Cuomo remains undecided about releasing new drilling rules for New York (called the SGEIS). They also told him more details about the recent secret meeting held by the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and virulently anti-drilling groups, a meeting where more delays were discussed, favorably, as it turns out:

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Pennsylvania | Potter County

Why has Potter County, PA Not Seen More Marcellus Drilling?
September 10, 2012September 10, 2012

The Potter County, PA Natural Gas Resource Center has just released the new issue of their bi-monthly newsletter for September/October covering natural gas drilling in and around Potter County. The new issue (embedded below) deals with the question: Where is the long-promised shale drilling boom in Potter County, and why is it taking so long to arrive?

This issue of the newsletter includes a guest column by John Hanger, former Sec. of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (and MDN’s first webinar guest, see here). The issue also sports this map from the DEP, which helps explain where Marcellus and non-Marcellus drilling is happening in PA:

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Berks County | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County | Wyoming County (PA)

Hitchhiking Poet Chronicles Life in the Marcellus Shale
September 10, 2012September 10, 2012

We don’t know why we find this story fascinating, but we do. The Berks County (Philly suburbs) Poet Laureate, Craig Czury, has been hanging out in Susquehanna and Wyoming counties lately—hitchhiking. Czury sticks his thumb out, repeatedly, and hitchhikes between Montrose, PA (in Susquehanna County), and Tunkhannock (in Wyoming County), going back and forth along State Route 29. Why? To listen to people’s stories about Marcellus Shale gas drilling.

Czury is working on a series of poems to document his conversations with the people he rides with. He finds that people who pick up a hitchhiker will often open up and talk freely.

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Accidents | Bradford County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

AP Says PA DEP Sec. Krancer Wrong about Methane in Leroy Twp
September 10, 2012September 10, 2012

The Associated Press, true to form, continues to take pot shots at hydraulic fracturing whenever it can. In reporting on methane leakage from drilling in Leroy Township, Pennsylvania (see this MDN story for background), the AP breathlessly reports “the problem still isn’t fixed even though PA DEP Sec. Michael Krancer says it’s fixed, so there!” Not in those exact words, but that’s the sum total of their latest drive-by article on fracking in PA.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Trucking

Short Line Railroads to the Midstream Rescue?
September 10, 2012September 10, 2012

One of the recurring stories MDN loves to cover is that of the renaissance of short line railroads, making a comeback because of shale gas drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shale. Drillers need equipment and sand—lots of sand—hauled on a regular basis, and short line railroads play a key part in that equation.

But hauling equipment and sand may not be the complete picture. Short lines and national rail lines are now eyeing a role in hauling natural gas and oil in the absence of pipelines.

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CNX Resources | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

CONSOL Exec Says Utica Pipelines are Critical Need
September 10, 2012September 10, 2012

Harry Schurr, general manager of Utica operations for CONSOL Energy’s CNX Gas, puts pipelines at the top of his wish list for what he needs in the Utica Shale. Schurr made the following comments a day after the NEXUS Gas Transmission was announced last week:

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CNX Resources | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Mahoning County | Ohio

CNX/CONSOL to Drill Second Well in Mahoning County, OH
September 10, 2012September 10, 2012

CNX Gas, the wholly-owned subsidiary of CONSOL Energy, was just granted a second permit to drill a horizontal well in Mahoning County, Ohio:

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Energy Services | Fayette County | Greene County (PA) | Heckmann | Pennsylvania | Washington County | Westmoreland County

Heckmann Corp Buys Appalachian Water Services
September 10, 2012September 10, 2012

Last week Heckmann Corporation, an environmental services company, announced they were merging with Power Fuels, another enviro services company and moving corporate HQ from Pittsburgh to Scottsdale, AZ (see this MDN story). Heckmann is on a tare—today they’ve announced they bought Appalachian Water Services in Fayette County, PA. Heckmann says the purchase is an important part of their strategy for shale wastewater treatment in the southern Marcellus Shale area.

From the Heckmann press release:

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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA to Release Impact Fee Collection Numbers Today
September 10, 2012September 10, 2012

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) will release numbers today detailing which drillers have paid what amount in “impact fees” (PA’s version of a severance tax) for 2011. The newly enacted Act 13 drilling law in PA, passed in the spring of this year, calls for an impact fee on each new well drilled, beginning with wells drilled in 2011.

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Date Established for PA Supreme Court Case on Act 13
September 10, 2012September 10, 2012

We now have a specific date and location for when and where oral arguments will be heard in the court case challenging zoning provisions in the newly passed Act 13 drilling law in Pennsylvania:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

Anti-Drillers Push New Moratorium in Maryland Legislature
September 10, 2012September 10, 2012

Maryland, the only state that’s even more dysfunctional when it comes to drilling in the Marcellus Shale than New York, continues its dysfunction. A committed opponent of drilling in the state, Maryland Del. Heather R. Mizeur (Democrat, from the D.C. suburbs), plans to introduce legislation preventing drilling until studies are conducted first. You may recall Maryland concocted a plan to tax existing leases in an attempt to raise $2 million to study fracking, but that measure died in this year’s 90-day session (see this MDN story).

It seems the Maryland is so broke they can’t even raise $2 million for fracking studies mandated by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley (Democrat). Del. Mizeur is afraid drillers will run down the clock on the existing moratorium (which expires in 2014) and then begin drilling, so she’s going to push hard for a new moratorium during the next session in 2013.

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Best of the Rest

Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Sep 10, 2012
September 10, 2012September 10, 2012

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, Sep 10, 2012”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

22 NY Town Supervisors to Gov. Cuomo: Drill Here, Drill Now
September 7, 2012September 7, 2012

On Wednesday, a group of 22 State of New York town supervisors, mostly from the Southern Tier area of New York, sent a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo strongly encouraging him to release the Dept. of Environmental Conservation’s new drilling rules (called the SGEIS) now. A copy of the letter is embedded below. One of the signatories is Town of Binghamton Supervisor Tim Whitesell, current president of the New York State Association of Towns.

The supervisors’ message to Cuomo: enough with the delay. Further delays only encourage “disruptive acts” by anti-drillers and serve no purpose. Near the end of the letter, in bold, is this paragraph:

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