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    PA Religious Group Says Marcellus Gas Drilling is Immoral

    As predicted by MDN on Friday (see here), the Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light (PA-IPL) religious organization declared in their press conference of Sunday that “ethical drilling” of Marcellus Shale gas essentially equals “no drilling.” Like many other anti-drilling organizations, the PA-IPL is driven by ideology: they seek renewable energy nirvana. They have drunken deeply from the man-causes-global-warming mythology/religion. They view fossil fuels as immoral. MDN suspects however, that the leaders of the PA-IPL don’t peddle bicycles everywhere they want to go but instead use gas-powered vehicles. And no doubt they fly around on jets burning fossil fuels to spread their inanities. And heat their homes with nasty coal-generated electricity. Can anyone say “hypocrite”?

    Read More “PA Religious Group Says Marcellus Gas Drilling is Immoral”

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    Second Lawsuit Filed Against NY Town Challenges Drilling Ban

    One day after Anschutz Exploration announced it would file a lawsuit against Dryden, NY (Tompkins County) to overturn a local ban on gas drilling in that township (see MDN story here), another lawsuit against another township in New York State has been filed. This new case was filed by landowner and township resident Jennifer Huntington against the Township of Middlefield in Otsego County. This suit, like the one from Anschutz, says the township has passed what amounts to an illegal law targeting the oil and gas industry, an industry that is specifically regulated by the state according to New York State law. The township’s ban infringes Ms. Huntington’s private property rights as a landowner to allow gas drilling on her land. A copy of the lawsuit is embedded below.

    Read More “Second Lawsuit Filed Against NY Town Challenges Drilling Ban”

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    Wind Farm Project Canceled Due to Cheap Marcellus Gas

    Those who oppose natural gas drilling do so because it threatens their ideology that renewable energy should be the only available option. Renewable energy supporters don’t seem to care that it costs 3-5 times more (that’s 300-500 percent more) for electricity from renewable sources than from fossil fuel sources. Rather than celebrate our good fortune in finding a cheap, abundant source of something that pollutes far less than other sources—shale gas—they attack it and claim it’s just as bad as the dirtiest coal. It’s sad, really.

    Here’s yet another example of so-called renewables failing the economic test, an example sure to push some of the antis over the edge. It looks like the $1 billion Great Lakes offshore wind farm is yes, out of wind (bad pun intended). And the reason why it’s being canceled? Marcellus Shale gas—abundant, and cheap.

    Read More “Wind Farm Project Canceled Due to Cheap Marcellus Gas”

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    MDN Weekly Update – Sept 18, 2011: Municipal Bans on Gas Drilling

    Below are the results of last week’s poll on exporting shale gas to other countries. 

    Poll resultsShould the U.S. allow shale gas to be exported?

    Yes (54%, 119 Votes)
    No (39%, 86 Votes)
    Not sure (7%, 16 Votes)

    Total Voters: 221

    Should local municipalities have the power to ban gas drilling?

    New York, as many of you know, has not allowed horizontal hydraulic fracturing (drilling for Marcellus and Utica Shale gas) to be begin. The state is in the “final” steps of issuing new drilling regulations. The best guess is that drilling will start sometime next year, likely within the first 3-6 months of 2012. In anticipation that drilling will begin, some townships in New York have decided to preemptively ban drilling within their borders. Problem is, there’s a couple of sentences in New York State law dating back to the 1980s that specifically disallows local municipalities from doing just that when it comes to the oil and gas industry. That is, state law supersedes local municipal laws, and any local law passed to ban drilling is technically illegal.

    Local townships point out that they are allowed to restrict all other types of industrial business activity with zoning regulations, so oil and gas should be no different. Joe Martens, the new Commissioner of the NY Department of Environmental Conservation, the agency charged with regulating oil and gas drilling in the state, has the flippant attitude, “let the courts decide.” Now it seems they will.

    Word of a new lawsuit came this week in Tompkins County. In August, the town of Dryden, NY, a rural bedroom community for Ithaca, NY, passed a law banning hydraulic fracturing. Anschutz Exploration has said they’re going to challenge it in court to have it overturned (see MDN’s coverage here). Who knows how long it will take to resolve this? Anschutz hopes it will be a slam dunk, no-brainer. Dryden hopes the court will see it their way. No matter who wins round one, there’s sure to be an appeal and this may ultimately drag out for years. Taxpayers in local municipalities will foot the bill for the legal costs—something not planned-for in their already-stretched budgets.

    Pennsylvania allows more leeway with respect to local regulations. Municipalities can, in effect, ban drilling within their borders in PA.

    Several municipalities in West Virginia have tried to ban gas drilling, most famously Morgantown, and have found the drilling industry giving them the cold shoulder (i.e., they take their money and jobs elsewhere). Most have reversed their previous bans, and in the case of Morgantown, a judge overturned the ban.

    So MDN’s poll question this week wants to know what you think: Should local municipalities have the power to ban gas drilling? Register your vote along the right side of any page on the site.

    Below are the most recent “top 5” lists and the calendar of Marcellus related events for the next two weeks.

    Happy reading,
    Jim Willis, Editor

    Read More “MDN Weekly Update – Sept 18, 2011: Municipal Bans on Gas Drilling”

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    Morgantown, WV Update: Fracking to Begin Next Week

    It seems the opposition to two Marcellus Shale gas wells being drilled outside Morgantown’s borders is petering out. Press accounts talk of “a handful” of area residents protesting outside of the drill sites this week—meaning less than a dozen, perhaps a single family, who knows?

    Read More “Morgantown, WV Update: Fracking to Begin Next Week”

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    PA Religious Group to Lecture Industry on Ethical Drilling

    This should be interesting. On Sunday, the Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light (PA-IPL) religious organization will tell the drilling industry how they should do their business. Apparently there is something called “ethical drilling” that the good people of the PA-IPL will reveal. Notice, as MDN has repeatedly pointed out, that ideology (or philosophy, or in this case, faith) is the reason anti-drillers—and make no mistake, this group is anti-drilling—oppose shale gas drilling. They view it as a threat to the renewable energy nirvana they want to impose on everyone else. In the case of this organization, they attempt to transform the drilling argument into a moral one, meaning if you disagree with their viewpoint, you’re immoral. Nice try.

    Read More “PA Religious Group to Lecture Industry on Ethical Drilling”

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    EPA to Hold Hearings on Rules to Reduce Fracking Air Pollution

    Being “forced” by a lawsuit, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) drafted new rules and regulations for oil and gas drillers that use hydraulic fracturing. The new rules require drillers to use new or improved processes and equipment (at great expense) in an attempt to cut the level of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other air pollutants the EPA says are emitted during the completion of hydraulically fractured wells. MDN wrote an extensive article on this, complete with a copy of the 604-page list of rule changes (see here).

    The EPA is moving forward with several public hearings on the rule changes, the first of which will be in Pittsburgh on Sept. 27th.

    Read More “EPA to Hold Hearings on Rules to Reduce Fracking Air Pollution”

  • Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Friday, Sep 16, 2011

    MDN reads dozens of, sometimes over a hundred, stories each day. The value proposition for you, our beloved reader, is that we wade through it all so you don’t have to. We hope you come to depend on MDN as your one-stop place to quickly catch up on all of the important Marcellus and Utica Shale news each day.

    There are a number of stories that MDN reads that do not make the daily “cut” to be flagged and commented on and brought to you. Things that are interesting, but frankly don’t deserve the full MDN treatment. We usually just post a link to those stories on Twitter. However, many people don’t use Twitter or may not have time to check the story links we post on that service. Therefore, starting today, MDN will post a “best of the rest” with headlines and brief blurbs about stories that caught our eye but were not given the full MDN treatment.

    Let us know whether or not this service is of value to you.

    Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Friday, Sep 16, 2011”

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    Driller Sues NY Town to Challenge Local Drilling Ban

    judge's gavelAnschutz Exploration this week will file a lawsuit against the Town of Dryden (NY) to strike down the town’s recently passed ban on gas drilling. Dryden is a small township with two villages—Dryden and Freeville—located in Tompkins County, near Ithaca. Its land area is 94.2 square miles with some 13,500 people living there.

    In New York, the state reserves the right to regulate the oil and gas industry and, according to state law, local municipalities are restricted to regulating road use with respect to oil and gas drilling. Dryden’s measure banning drilling (passed in August) is, according to the drilling industry, illegal. This lawsuit will challenge it.

    Dryden officials argue that the state does not and cannot tell a municipality how it can regulate other industries, and the gas industry should be no different. It is a classical constitutional issue and both sides are watching this one closely.

    Read More “Driller Sues NY Town to Challenge Local Drilling Ban”

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    Susquehanna River Contaminated, but Not by Fracking Chemicals

    The mighty Susquehanna River is 464 miles long, running from upstate New York through Pennsylvania and into Maryland before emptying into the Chesapeake Bay. Much of the Susquehanna runs through prime Marcellus drilling country along the way.

    Last week, the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee dropped massive amounts of rain along the Susquehanna and its tributaries, causing some of the worst flooding ever for communities along the path of the river. Some activists who oppose Marcellus Shale gas drilling speculated that fracking chemicals have now found their way, via the floodwaters, into the Susquehanna River. But their concern is misplaced. Fracking chemicals have not fouled the river, but there’s plenty of other things as a result of TS Lee that have:

    Read More “Susquehanna River Contaminated, but Not by Fracking Chemicals”

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    South Butler School Signs Lease with Exxon Mobil Phillips

    The South Butler County School District (Butler County, PA) school board, after a year and a half of meetings and research, has voted to lease school district land for Marcellus Shale gas drilling. The lease is with Phillips Resources, recently bought by and now part of Exxon Mobil, and includes some interesting provisions, including an extra fee per well drilled, and an allowance for pooling, but not forced pooling.

    Read More “South Butler School Signs Lease with Exxon Mobil Phillips”

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    Dallas Twp, PA Approves Natural Gas Pipeline Near School

    On Wednesday, Dallas Township (Luzerne County), PA supervisors voted unanimously to approve an agreement with Chief Gathering to run a natural gas pipeline within a third of a mile of the Dallas district schools and through a local housing development. Some of the residents who attended the meeting strongly objected to the vote, accusing the supervisors of approving an agreement not available for review by residents and accusing Chief and other drilling industry companies of “monster arrogance.”

    Read More “Dallas Twp, PA Approves Natural Gas Pipeline Near School”

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    NY Landowners Face New Threat: Floodplain Boundaries

    floodplain boundariesAs many of you have heard via the national media, the Binghamton, NY (Broome County) area—where much of the drilling in New York State is likely to occur once drilling begins—was just hit with the worst flooding in its history, after the previous “worst ever” flooding occurred only five years ago, in 2006. This type of flooding is referred to as a “100-year flood” and it causes the government to re-draw floodplain maps to indicate where such areas are capable of extreme flooding.

    Landowners who live in the Greater Binghamton area and who want to lease their land for shale gas drilling will want to closely watch where the boundaries are drawn because the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which regulates shale drilling, is looking to put land inside those floodplains off limits to drilling.

    Read More “NY Landowners Face New Threat: Floodplain Boundaries”

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    Canadians Establish New “Guiding Principles” for Fracking

    Canadian natural gas producers recently announced new guiding principles (embedded below) for hydraulic fracturing that guide water management and improved water and fluids reporting practices for shale gas development in Canada. The principles were created by members of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) and apply to all CAPP natural gas producing members, large and small, operating in Canada.

    Read More “Canadians Establish New “Guiding Principles” for Fracking”