Bradford Drilling Sues Partner Norse Energy for No Drilling
Norse Energy Corp, the U.S. subsidiary of the Norwegian energy company, owns leases for 180,000 net acres in New York State, 130,000 of those acres being in the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays. Norse bet the farm on New York allowing shale gas drilling long before now, and they lost (NY is still months, if not years away from allowing shale gas drilling). Norse has put their New York acreage on the auction block, looking for another company to buy it.
In the meantime, one of Norse’s drilling partners is suing them for lack of drilling according to their agreement. That agreement had nothing to do with shale gas, but instead was drilling in the Herkimer formation, a limestone-type layer in central New York. Norse seems to indicate they may restart Herkimer drilling at some point. From the Norse press release:
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MDN wanted to see what your attitudes are about government’s role in promoting (or not) renewable energy sources. A even split between those who think government should have no role, and those who believe the government should promote, but not require, use of renewable sources. This poll was one of the least voted on in recent months, meaning either the issue just doesn’t stir up much interest among MDN readers, or (more likely) the poll question could have been written better! Let’s see if we might improve this week’s poll question. 
On Thursday, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released draft findings of its investigation into groundwater contamination in the small town of Pavillion, Wyoming (a copy of the EPA draft report is embedded below). The EPA says that water in the town contains chemicals consistent with chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. Fracking has been used in a number of nearby gas wells. Needless to say, major media outlets like the AP, and anti-drilling environmentalists, are breathlessly calling this the “smoking gun” and declaring that fracking really does cause groundwater contamination after all (ban it now!). Not so fast…
In the ongoing press event that is Dimock, PA, yesterday Gasland creator Josh Fox and actor Mark Rufalo, among others, gathered in Dimock to keep up the pressure and to continue to demagogue what has really happened in Dimock. See MDN’s 
It is no surprise that those who rabidly oppose shale gas drilling in general, and hydraulic fracturing in particular, do so for one primary reason: it threatens renewable energy. In fact, MDN would go so far as to say hydraulic fracturing has single-handedly destroyed the renewable energy movement, and the greenies have brought out the long knives in response.
A new email from the federal Environmental Protection Agency says the water wells for 19 affected families in Dimock, PA have tested fine and do not pose a threat to those families. Yet, some of those families are still grabbing headlines by playing the victim, claiming their water is undrinkable. Who to believe?