A story about two new compressed natural gas (CNG) filling stations planned for Adams and York counties in Pennsylvania gives us a glimpse at the beginning of something big—a massive conversion away from gasoline and to CNG vehicles.
It looks like a severance tax hike for drillers in Ohio won’t happen this year. Yesterday, the Ohio House passed a “sweeping package of spending and policy initiatives” from Ohio Gov. John Kasich. The one thing not among the package? Kasich’s proposal to hike the severance tax for Utica Shale oil and gas drillers.
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, Apr 26, 2012”
Does fracking cause earthquakes? A newly released report from England reportedly confirms a link between hydraulic fracturing of a shale gas well and earthquake activity. And this is not an injection well, but a standard, hydraulically fractured natural gas well. A copy of the report is embedded below. MDN will walk you through the background, what really happened—and why it happened. This is “the rest of the story” you won’t get anywhere else.
Read More “Report from England Links Fracking to Earthquakes”
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) recently released an updated map showing their best guess as to where the best prospects are for Utica Shale drilling in the state (a copy of the map is embedded below). And boy oh boy, is that map creating a buzz! Some residents are excited that their property may now become highly desirable to be leased for drilling, and other residents are discouraged that their properties, once thought desirable, may be less so now.
Utica Shale drilling is coming in June to Trumbull County, Ohio. CNX Gas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CONSOL Energy, just received a permit to drill its first well in the county.
Read More “Trumbull County, OH to Get First Utica Shale Well in June”
The Jamestown, NY Post-Journal is currently running a poll of its readership with the question: Would you support hydrofracking in New York state? MDN voted (in the affirmative of course), and here were the results as of this morning:
Read More “Jamestown Post-Journal Poll on Fracking Support in NY”
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, Apr 25, 2012”
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:
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:
Read More “PennFuture Releases “Plain Language Guide” to PA Act 13”
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”
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.
Read More “IOGA of NY Publishes New Marcellus Drilling Fact Sheet”
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”
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, Apr 24, 2012”
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?”
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”