Here’s an “I told you so.” Last week, MDN covered the story of the arrest of Gasland filmmaker Josh Fox at a Congressional hearing (see this MDN story). That episode gave rise to MDN’s weekly update this past Sunday, and the current MDN poll which asks if Gasland is truth or fiction.
In Sunday’s weekly update, MDN wrote:
New drilling legislation, including an impact fee, has passed the Pennsylvania Senate and debate began last night in the PA House. Debate will continue today. Passage is expected this week, perhaps as early as today. As MDN pointed out yesterday, the mostly anti-drilling organization Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) gave the new legislation a lukewarm, half-hearted endorsement as “the best thing we can get right now” (see this MDN story).
However, the mostly anti-drilling Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), which works closely with the PEC, gave the legislation a more positive endorsement, calling it “a tremendous step forward.” From the CBF press release:
Read More “Green Groups Split on Support for New PA Drilling Law”
A new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers analyzing American energy mergers and transactions in 2011 worth more than $50 million found a dramatic increase in deals in the Utica Shale, and a dramatic decrease in deals in the Marcellus Shale.
Read More “Utica Shale Deals Increasing, Marcellus Deals Decreasing”
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican in his first term in office, delivered the annual State of the State address yesterday. He chose to do it from the auditorium of a high-performing elementary school in Steubenville. During the 90-minute speech he was briefly interrupted by several hecklers until state troopers removed them from the room. Who were the bad actors? You guessed it—anti-drillers.
Read More “OH Gov. Kasich Heckled by Anti-Drillers During Speech”
A group of landowners in Somerset County, PA (southwestern part of the state) has formed and is looking to lease a block of 11,300 acres of land for shale oil and gas drilling. The group is called the Casselman Valley Landowner Group and is conducting meetings to recruit new members.
Read More “Southwest PA Landowner Group Forms with 11,300 Acres”
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 8, 2012”
Are the political winds shifting in New York State among the politicians that have been staunch supporters of gas drilling? There’s perhaps no stronger supporter among elected politicians in Albany than Tom Libous, a powerful state senator from Binghamton. Sen. Libous is the deputy majority leader of the NYS Senate and a member of the DEC’s Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel (see this MDN story).
So when MDN spotted this quote by Sen. Libous in the New York Times in a story about how the review and approval process for fracking in the state is slowing down, it gives us great pause:
Read More “Is NYS State Senator Tom Libous Reversing Course on Drilling?”
Coshocton County in eastern Ohio requested Utica Shale lease offers for 436 acres of county-owned land no longer being used for any other purpose. There was only one offer put on the table, by Anadarko. Under the five-year lease offer, the county would receive a $1.3 million signing bonus ($3,000 per acre) and 17.5 percent in royalties.
Read More “Anadarko Offers $3K/Acre + 17.5% Royalties for Utica Lease”
According to press reports, XTO Energy—a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil—will drill its first Ohio Utica Shale well in Belmont County.
Read More “Exxon to Drill First Ohio Utica Shale Well in Belmont County”
One of the arguments often raised to support shale gas (and shale oil) drilling is that it will help America become energy independent. In a wide-ranging article on the topic, Bloomberg says that promise is being fulfilled—because of hydraulic fracturing. The article starts this way:
Read More “U.S. Energy Independence is Happening – Because of Fracking”
Early this year, Williams officially spun off it’s exploration and production operation into a new company called WPX Energy (see this MDN story). The new company inherited one of the top 10 drilling operations in the Marcellus and Utica Shales.
Yesterday, WPX announced their capital spending plans for 2012 and it’s no surprise, given similar announcements from other major drillers, that WPX is scaling back drilling in the Marcellus from seven rigs to three due to the low commodity price for natural gas. WPX is shifting capital resources to the Bakken Shale where they are drilling for oil and to those geographies rich with natural gas liquids (NGLs).
Read More “WPX Energy Cuts Back Marcellus Rigs, Focused on Oil & NGLs”
The mostly anti-drilling organization Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) issued an interesting statement yesterday, commenting on new Marcellus drilling legislation that will likely be passed and signed into law this week in PA. Here is the entire press release:
Read More “PEC’s Lukewarm Statement of Support for New PA Drilling Law”
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, Feb 7, 2012”
As part of the process to enact new drilling regulations in New York State, Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens appointed a Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel last July to make recommendations to the DEC on how to oversee, monitor and enforce new shale drilling regulations in the state (see this MDN story for background). An important part of the panel’s duty is to craft a new fee structure to generate state revenue from a potential gas-drilling boom. But the work of the panel has now ground to halt.
Pennsylvania legislators in both the PA House and Senate have debated for months on passage of new Marcellus drilling legislation. The main sticking point has been a local impact fee. Last week, Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican now in his second year in office, sent the Republican-controlled legislature a “hurry up and get it done” letter. Legislators were busy finalizing details over the weekend and a plan has now emerged. Likely to be voted on this week, the plan calls for the amount of the fee to vary depending on the rate of inflation and the commodity price of natural gas.
Read More “New Deal on Marcellus Shale Well Impact Fee in PA”
Binghamton, NY’s anti-drilling mayor, Matt Ryan, is hard at work on the city’s top priority. There’s the mundane “usual stuff” a mayor does. You know, trying to attract new business to the area, generate jobs, lower taxes, ensure the city attracts more welfare recipients…all of the things you would expect from a hard-working mayor like Matt. But then there’s the “top priority” really really important stuff that takes up the majority of this great man’s time. Like organizing anti-fracking concerts featuring singers you’ve never heard of. Yessiree, that’s good ole Matt hard at work, doing the people’s business:
Read More “Binghamton Mayor Ryan Working Hard on City’s Top Priority”