MDN has previously written about how short line railroads in the Marcellus Shale region have seen a renaissance because of shale gas drilling. But the major rail lines, including the East’s largest railroad CSX, are also seeing a huge increase in shale gas shipping of fracking sand and equipment. And it’s happening just in time.
Read More “CSX, Other Railroads Get Boost from Shale Gas Shipments”
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, Feb 17, 2012”
Pennsylvania finally passed new Marcellus Shale drilling legislation last week, and Gov. Corbett signed the new legislation into law on Monday of this week (see this MDN story). One of the key provisions, and certainly one of the most contentious, is a provision to collect a new impact fee. But let’s be honest among friends, it’s really just a tax (see this MDN story for why we call it a tax). Regardless of what it’s called, the new fee/tax will raise an estimated $180 million in new revenue for state and local coffers this year alone. So where will all that money go?
Read More “2012 PA Impact Fee Revenue of $180M – Where Will it Go?”
Washington County is among six counties in Pennsylvania that stand to receive more than $10 million in impact fee revenue this year from the newly adopted Marcellus drilling legislation signed into law by Gov. Corbett on Monday.
Read More “Six PA Counties to Receive $10M+ from New Impact Fee in 2012”
Talisman Energy is the latest major driller to announce they are cutting back on drilling in the dry gas Marcellus to instead concentrate on drilling in wet gas areas.
Read More “Talisman Cutting Back in Marcellus from 10 Rigs to 3”
The executive director of the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Association, Rhonda Reda, predicts that oil and gas drilling rigs will increase 300% in the next five years, and those rigs will create new jobs to operate them:
Read More “OH Drilling Rigs Expected to Increase 300% in Next 5 Years”
Butler County, PA commissioners have already voted to adopt an ordinance to collect the newly created impact fee, just two days after the new law was enacted:
Read More “Butler County Adopts New PA Impact Fee Ordinance in 2 Days”
The Sierra Club continues to oppose clean-burning natural gas as a “dirty” fuel. Their latest attempt to force Americans to wean themselves from this nasty, dirty fuel is to oppose expansion of the Cove Point, Maryland liquefied natural gas export facility. Why? Because if cheap natural gas becomes even more popular than it is throughout the world, it will slow down adoption of the Sierra Club’s preferred energy sources, solar and wind.
Read More “Sierra Club Files Objection to Cove Point LNG Export Facility”
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: Thu, Feb 16, 2012”
Under pressure from low commodity prices for natural gas causing a cash deficit for drilling, Chesapeake Energy is looking to sell off some of its oil and gas fields in Texas, Mexico and Oklahoma so it can continue to concentrate on drilling in eastern Ohio’s Utica Shale and other “wet gas” areas of the country.
Read More “Chesapeake Selling Assets to Concentrate on OH/Wet Gas”
One of the possible locations for a new ethane cracker plant in West Virginia is a 1400-acre parcel of land owned by Bayer Corp. located on the border of Marshall and Wetzel counties. Ahead of an announcement on a cracker plant, Bayer has decided to move forward with leasing the New Martinsville plant for shale gas drilling to Gastar Exploration in a deal expected to net Bayer $30 million over 30 years.
Read More “Potential Cracker Plant Site in WV Leased for Drilling”
Looking for a way to participate in the Marcellus and Utica Shale economic boom? As an investor, or as a business owner or even as a job seeker, you might want to consider water. Yeah, water. Try these numbers on for size: In 2011, drillers paid somewhere between $1.3-$1.7 billion to dispose of fracking wastewater in the Marcellus Shale. In 10 years it’s estimated to be a $15-$22 billion market—just in the Marcellus Shale.
Read More “Start a Company or Get a Job in the Marcellus? Try Water”
The Town of Fremont, NY is heading toward a vote to ban hydraulic fracturing. Fremont is in Steuben County, and a ban would adversely affect the property rights of rural landowners in the township.
Although MDN has long pointed out the ideological underpinnings in the opposition of drilling for shale gas, here is yet another brief moment of honesty from an anti-drilling group about their true motivation:
Read More “Earthworks Admits Real Reason they Oppose Gas Drilling”
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, Feb 15, 2012”
No public ceremony for the signing of historic legislation to regulate Marcellus Shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania. Monday evening, Gov. Tom Corbett’s office announced he had privately signed the new legislation into law. A detailed summary of the legislation is embedded below.
Among the key provisions in the final bill: