Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Apr 25, 2012
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Bumpy Road Continues for Chesapeake Energy
An update of the ongoing story about Chesapeake Energy and the disclosure that CEO Aubrey McClendon’s has borrowed over $1 billion to help cover drilling costs. Chesapeake’s stock has taken a hit, down 25 percent this month, heading for what may be its worst monthly performance since the global financial crisis in 2008 when the company’s stock ultimately slide 38 percent in a single month.Energy analysts are at best nervous about the current situation:
Read More “Bumpy Road Continues for Chesapeake Energy”
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PennFuture Releases “Plain Language Guide” to PA Act 13
Anti-drilling group PennFuture yesterday released their spin on Pennsylvania’s new Marcellus drilling law called Act 13. Calling it a “Plain Language Guide,” PennFuture takes aim at trying to dismantle the new law by first undermining people’s opinion of the law, and second by threatening to use their considerable $2 million per year war chest to throw at litigation against the new law. A summary of the main points in their new guide is embedded below. A full copy is available at their website by filling out a form (clever marketing to get your personal details for future fundraising appeals).
Here’s the PennFuture press release announcing the Plain Language Guide:
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Sierra Club Files Protest Against LNG Export Facility
Once upon a time, the Sierra Club supported natural gas as one of the best clean alternative forms of energy. But politics got in the way of common sense and now the Sierra Club trash talks natural gas a “dirty fossil fuel”. Such are the vagaries of the energy debate. The Sierra Club’s latest natural gas objection is to building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in Louisiana, a facility just approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The Sierra Club filed an official objection (embedded below) with the Department of Energy calling on them to extend their studies of fracking before allowing the facility to be built.
Read More “Sierra Club Files Protest Against LNG Export Facility”
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IOGA of NY Publishes New Marcellus Drilling Fact Sheet
The Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York (IOGA of NY) has just released a new fact sheet of quotes from various studies, organizations and prominent individuals in an ongoing attempt to “educate those who will listen and to correct many of the exaggerations and misconceptions about the business of energy development.” A copy of the fact sheet is embedded below.
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CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA
Shale Drilling Plays Key Role in Presidential Campaign
Thus far MDN has refrained from commenting on the presidential campaign. It will be no surprise to MDN readers that we think Obama has an abysmal record on energy, particularly when it comes to shale gas drilling. It seems the Romney campaign shares that view. The Obama administration’s energy record is a recurring theme of Mitt Romney on the campaign trail, as it was yesterday when he was in Pennsylvania at Consol Energy:
Read More “Shale Drilling Plays Key Role in Presidential Campaign”
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Apr 24, 2012
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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Will Fracking in NY Only be Done in Supportive Communities?
In an interesting development in the long fight to allow shale gas drilling in New York State, two key state senators are signaling a compromise may come in the form of, “if you want it, you can get it” with respect to fracking. That is, communities that support fracking will likely be the ones who will get it, at least at first, and maybe they will be the only ones to get it.Read More “Will Fracking in NY Only be Done in Supportive Communities?”
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Accidents | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County
Third Set of EPA Water Tests in Dimock, PA Come Back Clean
The latest (and third) round of water testing done by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of water wells around Dimock, PA shows (surprise!) no chemical contamination from hydraulic fracturing. All of the 16 water wells show no fracking fluids. One of the wells shows a high level of arsenic, a chemical not used by Cabot Oil & Gas during hydraulic fracturing. Arsenic is a naturally occurring chemical.
Here’s the statement by the EPA upon releasing the latest round of testing last Friday:
Read More “Third Set of EPA Water Tests in Dimock, PA Come Back Clean”
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Binghamton Fracking Ban Heading to Court
Last December, at the eleventh hour shortly before Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan knew he would lose his all-Democrat city council and hence an opportunity to stick it to the drilling industry, Ryan forced through a vote on a measure to ban fracking within the city limits for a period of two years (see this MDN story). There’s just one problem with the ban as enacted—it isn’t legal, at least according to attorneys Robert Wedlake and Kenneth Kamlet, who have sent a letter to the city demanding they either follow the law or they’re going to court.
Read More “Binghamton Fracking Ban Heading to Court”
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Judge Tells PA Drillers They Can’t Join Act 13 Lawsuit
At the end of March, seven Pennsylvania municipalities along with the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and a handful of individuals filed a lawsuit against the state of Pennsylvania over a newly enacted Marcellus drilling law called Act 13 (see this MDN story). The lawsuit specifically targets a measure in the new law that supersedes local zoning of oil and gas drilling with state-mandated rules. The Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association, the Marcellus Shale Coalition and some state lawmakers filed to join the lawsuit on the side of the state, to help defend the new legislation (see this MDN story).
On Friday, the judge in the case denied the application to join the lawsuit:
Read More “Judge Tells PA Drillers They Can’t Join Act 13 Lawsuit”
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Apr 23, 2012
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
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NY Update: New Rules Won’t Be Done Before Fall
Is it any surprise that eager beaver, go-get-em NY Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens now says that his department’s review of comments on proposed new fracking rules won’t be done before end of summer, “perhaps”? No, not a surprise at all. This is typical Martens delay tactic behavior.Martens, speaking in Albany on Thursday, told business leaders of this arbitrary new delay. Can anyone say “productivity challenged”?
Read More “NY Update: New Rules Won’t Be Done Before Fall”
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Anadarko Utica Shale Update: Strong Initial Results
Anadarko provided an update on its Utica Shale drilling program yesterday, saying that although it’s still very early, the “strong initial results are encouraging.” To date Anadarko has drilled and is producing from three wells in the Utica Shale. Anadarko has 390,000 leased acres in the Utica, most of it in eastern Ohio. In addition to the update, they included a map showing where they have leased acreage, where the three wells are they have drilled, and where they plan to concentrate their drilling activity (map embedded below).
From the Anadarko press release:
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Timeline for New York Drilling Ban Court Case
Tom West, an attorney handling a combined appeal of two New York cases where local judges upheld drilling bans passed by local townships, laid out a timeline for when the combined case will be heard and decided at an Albany conference yesterday. The two original cases are from Dryden, in Tompkins County, and Middlefield, in Otsego County.
Read More “Timeline for New York Drilling Ban Court Case”
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PA Medical Society Admits Act 13 Won’t “Gag” Doctors
Yet another straw man argument from anti-drillers has been knocked down in Pennsylvania. Anti-drillers were trying to fabricate a tale that under Pennsylvania’s new drilling law, Act 13, doctors and health care workers would be “gagged” and prevented from talking about the chemicals used in fracking with their patients should those patients somehow be exposed to said chemicals. It’s been a running headline for over a month.
On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Medical Society said the matter had been cleared up:
Read More “PA Medical Society Admits Act 13 Won’t “Gag” Doctors”
An update of the ongoing story about Chesapeake Energy and the disclosure that CEO Aubrey McClendon’s has borrowed over $1 billion to help cover drilling costs. Chesapeake’s stock has taken a hit, down 25 percent this month, heading for what may be its worst monthly performance since the global financial crisis in 2008 when the company’s stock ultimately slide 38 percent in a single month.
In an interesting development in the long fight to allow shale gas drilling in New York State, two key state senators are signaling a compromise may come in the form of, “if you want it, you can get it” with respect to fracking. That is, communities that support fracking will likely be the ones who will get it, at least at first, and maybe they will be the only ones to get it.
Is it any surprise that eager beaver, go-get-em NY Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens now says that his department’s review of comments on proposed new fracking rules won’t be done before end of summer, “perhaps”? No, not a surprise at all. This is typical Martens delay tactic behavior.