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”
For years, the Keystone Sanitary Landfill, a privately owned and operated municipal solid waste landfill located in Dunmore, PA (a Scranton suburb) has accepted already-processed cuttings, or rock waste, from Marcellus Shale drillers. The landfill filed a permit application in December with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) that would allow it to accept unprocessed cuttings—cuttings in a non-solid form—and mix it with a lime-based material to solidify it. The process of mixing it is called milling.
The landfill uses milled cuttings as a soil replacement to cover the landfill at the end of each day.
Read More “Scranton Landfill Applies for Permit to Mill Marcellus Cuttings”
Unfortunately, it looks like Virginia is joining Maryland in hanging out the “do not drill here” sign for Marcellus Shale gas drillers.
Read More “Virginia Community Tells Carrizo to Go Drill Somewhere Else”
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: Mon, Feb 6, 2012”
Last week’s MDN poll asked whether or not you believe that President Obama is now genuinely a supporter of hydraulic fracturing and shale gas drilling. Seems there are quite a few skeptics in the MDN audience. Here are the results:
Concerning President Obama’s statements supporting fracking & shale gas drilling, is he:
Genuine/Now in Favor (20%, 53 Votes)
Fake/Election Year Stunt (70%, 187 Votes)
I’m Not Sure (10%, 26 Votes)
Total Voters: 266
This Week’s Poll: Is Gasland a truthful documentary, or propaganda?
This past week, the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on Science, Space and Technology held a hearing on hydraulic fracturing. Specifically, the Republicans on the committee wanted to challenge the out-of-control Obama Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and their attempt, via questionable research, to tie fracking to chemical contamination of well water in Pavillion, Wyoming.
There was plenty of press on hand to cover the hearing. Josh Fox, the filmmaker who created the “documentary” Gasland was there too. No doubt Josh needs some new footage for Gasland Deux. But it seems Josh didn’t have the proper press credentials, so the camera crew working for him, which was properly credentialed, was not allowed to film the proceedings. And Mr. Fox, refusing to leave, was arrested and escorted from the room (see this MDN story). Democrats were “outraged” and tried to pass a resolution letting him stay, and when that didn’t work, pass a resolution suspending the hearing for an entire week to allow Mr. Fox time to do what he should have done in the first place, get the proper credentials.
After the side show with Josh Fox was over, the Republicans got down to business and questioned EPA Regional Administrator James Martin who did some serious backpedalling on the topic of fracking (see this MDN story).
Josh Fox’s arrest may seem like so much hullabaloo, but his arrest is headline-worthy because of his documentary, Gasland. Wait, what? You haven’t watched it? Perhaps now is a good time! I’ve watched it, and I have to say, for all my criticism of Josh Fox, he is a talented filmmaker. The film is very slick, very polished. I won’t run a full critique here and now—I’ll do that in the future. What I would like to know for this week’s poll is whether or not you’ve actually watched the film, and if you have, what do you think? Do you consider it to be mostly trustworthy and accurate, or hogwash? Register your vote in this week’s poll along the right side of any page.
Below are the most recent “top 5” lists and the calendar of Marcellus-related events for the next two weeks.
Go Giants!
Jim Willis, Editor
P.S. Watch for more details on the new MDN permits report this week.
Read More “MDN Weekly Update – Feb 5, 2012: Josh Fox – Truth-teller or Propagandist?”
West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio are all in the hunt to land an ethane cracker plant in their respective states (see the long list of MDN stories on a potential cracker plant in the Marcellus/Utica Shale region). According to WV Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette, Shell and another unnamed company are now in talks with private property owners. That is, the deals are now being negotiated, and it’s a waiting game to see the outcome.
All three states have offered huge tax incentives to land the plant. Shell originally set January for an announcement, but changed it a few weeks ago to be February.
Read More “Waiting Game: Cracker Plants Talk to Property Owners”
Yesterday, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and others provided more details about MarkWest’s Tuesday announcement that they will build two new natural gas liquids (NGL) processing plants and a new fractionation plant in Ohio’s Utica Shale (see MDN’s story on the original announcement here).
Read More “More on MarkWest’s New Investment in Ohio’s Utica Shale”
Seneca Resources, the exploration and production division of National Fuel Gas Company, just reported their first quarter earnings for 2012. As part of the report, we get the following operational update which shows a 91.5 percent increase in production in Seneca’s Marcellus Shale wells.
Read More “Seneca Resources Marcellus Well Output up 91.5% in Q1 2012”
One of the interesting but often-overlooked stories of the rapid growth of Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling is the revival of short line railroads. As drillers enter an area, equipment and materials need to be shipped to that area. Sand, especially, is used in large quantities, and short lines are the most economical way of getting sand to an active drilling area.
One of the short line railroads to came roaring back to life not so long ago is the Wellsboro and Corning Railroad (WCOR), running from Wellsboro in northeastern PA to just across the border connecting to Corning, NY.
Read More “RailAmerica Buys Wellsboro & Corning Short Line Railroad”
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: Fri, Feb 3, 2012”