Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Aug 29, 2012
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Albany Protesters Try to Convince Cuomo to Ban Fracking
Depending on which news source you read, yesterday’s anti-fracking protest rally and march in Albany, NY drew “hundreds” of protesters, “more than 1,000” or “about 1,200.” Any way you slice it, there were a lot of loud-mouthed people in Albany yesterday, trying to catch the attention of one person: Gov. Andrew Cuomo.A few “famous people” were there as well, which is what caught the attention of the media. People like actress Debra Winger (who lives in Sullivan County, NY) and author Bill McKibben (writes about climate change).
Josh Fox of Gasland fame was there too, although he doesn’t even rate a mention in the Albany Times Union story, and just a brief mention in the Gannett story. Guess Josh’s 15 minutes of fame is now about over.
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Rewrite of 1984 PA Oil and Gas Act Underway
Pennsylvania’s newly passed Act 13 was an important update to the state’s oil and natural gas drilling laws, but it didn’t do the whole job. Written into the Act 13 law itself is a requirement for the regulatory rewrite of the state’s 1984 Oil and Gas Act. That process has now begun.
Two weeks ago, the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a 23-page “concept paper” of proposed changes to the agency’s Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board (a copy is embedded below). It’s essentially a list identifying sections of the law with brief comments on changes (not intended to be the final language of a new law). The changes cover important issues like well location restrictions, water supply protection, predrilling surveys, application requirements, erosion and sedimentation controls, wastewater controls, standards for pit and tank containment and more.
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Pittsburgh Suburb Suspects Illegal Shale Wastewater Dumping
Authorities in Plum Borough, near Pittsburgh, PA, believe there has been illegal dumping of Marcellus brine (wastewater)—two times—into its municipal sewer treatment system. The following notice offering a $1,000 reward was published today:
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Fracking Coming to Wayne National Forest in SE OH
The path is now cleared for hydraulic fracturing and Utica shale gas drilling to begin in Wayne National Forest in southeast Ohio. The U.S. Forest Service, after holding off on a decision about fracking in the forest until a study was completed, has concluded that fracking is safe to do and has approved a plan to move forward with it.
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Is Chevron Interested in Buying Chesapeake Energy?
It’s idle speculation, but hey, we all love to idly speculate, right? An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal speculates that Chevron, with a heaping mound of cash—$21 mind-blowing billion to be exact, is in the hunt to buy a smaller company, or two.
Among the names speculated about is none other than Chesapeake Energy. Another is Hess.
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The Line that Divides NY’s Southern Tier: Both Land & People
An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer written by a staff writer who also maintains their “green blog” (i.e., someone who is opposed to shale gas drilling) has penned a fair representation of how the drilling and fracking issue has divided communities, and even families, in New York’s Southern Tier.
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83 University at Buffalo Profs Target Shale Institute
The witch hunt at the University at Buffalo (UB) continues. This time 83 UB faculty members have taken up their pitchforks and torches to aid in the hunt against the university’s new Shale Resources and Society Institute.Anti-drilling Bloomberg news is only too happy to lend a megaphone to the effort:
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Penn State Extension Announces New Webinar Series
The Penn State Extension Marcellus Education Team has just announced a new monthly shale webinar series, which begins on Thursday, Sept. 13 from 1:00-2:00 pm. The topic of the first session is a general overview of the Marcellus Shale with latest trends and updates. MDN has attended previous Penn State Extension webinars—they’re well worth your time.
Here’s the press release announcing the series along with the list of topics for future sessions:
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Energy in Depth Gives Josh Fox Advice for Gasland 2
Lee Fuller, executive director of Energy in Depth (EID), an industry-backed public relations firm, recently sent along some free advice to Josh Fox about his forthcoming ficpic Gasland 2. In the form of an open letter, Fuller provides a devastating rebuttal of the lies Fox aired in the original Gasland.
What lies? The lie about the water supply in Dimock, PA being contaminated by chemicals from fracking (it wasn’t, as proven by the EPA). The lie that areas where fracking exists have higher rates of breast cancer (they don’t, as proven by breast cancer organizations). The lie that fracking caused methane in a water well in Colorado, the famous flaming faucet (the methane in that well was not caused by fracking, admitted to by Fox himself). The list goes on.
We embed the full letter below for your edification and education. Well done Lee!
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Aug 28, 2012
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Gulfport’s “Alpha Dog” Utica Shale Well Upstages Chesapeake Well
There’s a new “alpha dog” of Utica Shale wells in Ohio that’s upstaging Chesapeake Energy’s Buell well. The Gulfport Energy Wagner 1-28H well in Harrison County is producing an enormous amount of natural gas—record-breaking in fact.Gulfport reports the Wagner well is “by far the strongest well” ever produced by Gulfport.
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One More Time: When Will NY Release New Fracking Regs?
The one question MDN editor Jim Willis gets asked most often is, “When will New York release rules to allow fracking?” We’ve addressed this question before and no doubt will again. But this time, we thought we would let someone else address it for a change. Here’s a roundup of who’s said what on the topic of “when NY” as offered by Steve Israel in the Middletown Times Herald-Record:
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Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County
Some Landowners Find Waiting Too Long to Lease Doesn’t Pay
Hopewell Township in Washington County, Pennsylvania is the state’s single most densely drilled township. Leases in Hopewell go back to the 2005, the dawn of the modern shale gas drilling age in PA, and the driller who holds almost all of the leases in Hopewell is Range Resources, the company that sank the very first Marcellus Shale well which happened to be in Mt. Pleasant Township, which borders Hopewell (drilled in 2004).
Most of the residents of Hopewell have a tie to the shale drilling industry—either as landowners with leases or with jobs working directly or indirectly with the drilling industry. But that doesn’t mean landowners in Hopewell are getting top dollar for leasing their property. Quite the contrary. This is a cautionary tale about waiting too long to lease in hopes of getting a better price…
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Energy Companies | Energy Services | Hilcorp Energy | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | NiSource | Ohio | Pipelines
Hilcorp & NiSource Approach OH Landowners About Pipeline
In July, Hilcorp Energy and NiSource announced a joint venture to combine their Utica shale acreage with Hilcorp doing the drilling. The jv also will build wet gas gathering pipelines in Ohio and Pennsylvania (see this MDN story). It looks like the pipeline part has begun. A Youngstown television station reported over the weekend that reps from Hilcorp and NiSource were going door to door in parts of Mahoning County asking landowners to sign waivers to allow the pipeline.
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OH Muskingum Watershed Votes to Lease Land, Allow Pipeline
MDN reported in early June that the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) board had caved to pressure from enviro-bullies and pulled back from selling water from its vast supply to Utica Shale drillers (see this MDN story).
The MWCD said at the time they would wait for the results of a study they commissioned with the U.S. Geological Survey to look at water sales from three of their reservoirs: Clendening, Atwood and Leesville (see this MDN story). The MWCD has not decided to sell more water (yet), but they did decide on Friday to lease some of their land for drilling. They also approved a right-of-way to extend a drilling pipeline. Both decisions have anti-drillers ticked off.
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Depending on which news source you read, yesterday’s anti-fracking protest rally and march in Albany, NY drew “hundreds” of protesters, “more than 1,000” or “about 1,200.” Any way you slice it, there were a lot of loud-mouthed people in Albany yesterday, trying to catch the attention of one person: Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The witch hunt at the University at Buffalo (UB) continues. This time 83 UB faculty members have taken up their pitchforks and torches to aid in the hunt against the university’s new Shale Resources and Society Institute.
There’s a new “alpha dog” of Utica Shale wells in Ohio that’s upstaging Chesapeake Energy’s Buell well. The Gulfport Energy Wagner 1-28H well in Harrison County is producing an enormous amount of natural gas—record-breaking in fact.