Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Monday, Sep 19, 2011
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: Monday, Sep 19, 2011”
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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.
Should 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, EditorRead More “MDN Weekly Update – Sept 18, 2011: Municipal Bans on Gas Drilling”
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Penn Environment Lies About Flooded Drilling Rig
If you’re against drilling and desperate to make your case, why tell the truth when a lie will conveniently do? That is, of course, until the lie is exposed.Read More “Penn Environment Lies About Flooded Drilling Rig”
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Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Monongalia County | Northeast Natural Energy | Regulation | West Virginia
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”
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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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Anschutz Exploration | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Tompkins County
Driller Sues NY Town to Challenge Local Drilling Ban
Anschutz 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
As 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”
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Bradford County | Energy Services | Fayette County | Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pentex Pipeline | Peregrine Keystone Gas Pipeline | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Washington County
Two More Gathering Pipelines Seek PA Public Utility Status
Even though Laser Northeast Gathering has withdrawn its application to become a public utility with the power of eminent domain as MDN reported yesterday, two other pipeline companies with applications before the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission continue to move forward. Peregrine Keystone Gas Pipeline plans to construct a gathering line in Greene, Fayette and Washington counties in western PA, and Pentex Pipeline plans a gathering pipeline in Bradford County in northeast PA.
Read More “Two More Gathering Pipelines Seek PA Public Utility Status”
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U.S. Will Export Marcellus Natural Gas to Canada by 2020
The TransCanada Canadian Mainline is an 8,762 mile natural gas pipeline that spans Canada from the Alberta/Saskatchewan border east to the Québec/Vermont border, along the way connecting with other natural gas pipelines in Canada and the U.S. With respect to the U.S., the gas today flows one way: from Canada to the U.S. But NGI Shale Daily reports that by 2020, the gas will be flowing the other way.
Read More “U.S. Will Export Marcellus Natural Gas to Canada by 2020”
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Debunking the Myth that Fracking Causes Water Contamination
In the ongoing heated debate over hydraulic fracturing, can we all at least agree that chemical contamination does not come from the mostly water and sand (with a little bit of chemical additive) that is pumped a mile or more below the earth’s surface? The general public hears from the media echo chamber that “fracking threatens water supplies” and assumes that somehow, in some way, chemicals will rise up from a mile below the ground and contaminate water wells and aquifers near the surface. It just doesn’t happen—it’s a physical impossibility. Here’s an excellent analogy recently printed in Popular Mechanics to put it in perspective:Read More “Debunking the Myth that Fracking Causes Water Contamination”
Should the U.S. allow shale gas to be exported?
If you’re against drilling and desperate to make your case, why tell the truth when a lie will conveniently do? That is, of course, until the lie is exposed.
Anschutz 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.
As 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.
In the ongoing heated debate over hydraulic fracturing, can we all at least agree that chemical contamination does not come from the mostly water and sand (with a little bit of chemical additive) that is pumped a mile or more below the earth’s surface? The general public hears from the media echo chamber that “fracking threatens water supplies” and assumes that somehow, in some way, chemicals will rise up from a mile below the ground and contaminate water wells and aquifers near the surface. It just doesn’t happen—it’s a physical impossibility. Here’s an excellent analogy recently printed in Popular Mechanics to put it in perspective: