MDN friend Tom Shepstone (from Energy in Depth) has a viewpoint article in today’s Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin. Titled “Best hope for N.Y. economy is gas drilling,” Tom makes a strong case for Marcellus drilling in New York. Among the eye-opening facts he brings to light, Tom points out:
Read More “The Best Economic Hope for NY? Marcellus Gas Drilling”
A joint venture between MarkWest Energy and The Energy and Minerals Group (EMG), called MarkWest Utica EMG, has just signed a deal with Gulfport Energy to build new gathering pipelines for Utica wells in Harrison, Guernsey and Belmont counties (Ohio). The deal also includes MarkWest Utica processing the gas produced by Gulfport, including natural gas liquids, at its Harrison County processing complex.
Read More “New MarkWest Deal to Develop Infrastructure in OH Utica Shale”
Last December, about 480 gallons of diesel fuel leaked onto the ground at a well site in Patterson Run (Greene County), PA. EQT, the driller at the site, notified the state DEP and the National Response Center. The spill was quickly cleaned up, within 24 hours, and there were no environmental impacts following the spill. However, local officials are only just now learning about the spill, and that makes them upset.
Read More “Diesel Fuel Spill at Drilling Site in Green County, PA”
A regional economic development group made up of officials from Blair, Cambria, Somerset, Huntingdon, Fulton and Bedford counties in Pennsylvania is asking the state for a $700,000 grant to help them help businesses located in the southern Allegheny region identify new business opportunities in the shale gas drilling industry. The group hopes that their geography, strategically located between PA’s northeastern and southwestern Marcellus gas fields, will bring new business to the area, and along with that new business, more jobs.
Read More “PA Counties Band Together for Grant to Create Marcellus Jobs”
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, Mar 7, 2012”
Stop the presses. Jan Jarrett, long-time President and CEO of PennFuture, has resigned her position. PennFuture is Pennsylvania’s largest environmental lobbying organization, and also a largely anti-drilling organization. Her departure is sudden and unexpected after leading the organization for the past 13 years.
Why the sudden departure? Jeanne Clarke, spokesperson for PennFuture says that Jarrett plans to take a “breather” and focus on her grandchildren. However, her departure may be related to trouble that cropped up last December over how a state grant was spent by the organization:
Read More “Jarrett Out, Jugovic In as President & CEO of PennFuture”
MDN editor Jim Willis interviewed NY State Senator Tom Libous last Friday, March 2nd. Sen. Libous is a member of Gov. Cuomo’s Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel and an influential member of the NY Senate, holding the post of Deputy Majority Leader. We spoke about his recent remarks in the New York Times and whether or not his support for drilling has changed. We also spoke about the Advisory Panel’s work and where things go from here. It’s a short and informative interview, especially for New York’s landowners who are wondering whether, and when, drilling might begin in New York.
Jim interviewed Sen. Libous as special correspondent for Energy in Depth, so head on over to this page on the EID-M website and click to listen.
Chesapeake Energy and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) are joining forces to invest in buying royalty interests in shale drilling areas in the United States. KKR is a global investment firm with $59 billion in assets under management. Under the deal, Chesapeake will find the deals and contribute 10 percent of the money, and KKR will kick in the other 90 percent of the money. The initial commitment is to invest $250 million.
From the joint press release:
Read More “Chesapeake & KKR Form Partnership to Invest in Royalties”
Exactly one month ago MDN reported that Keystone Sanitary Landfill, a privately owned and operated municipal solid waste landfill located in Dunmore, PA (a Scranton suburb), had applied to increase the daily volume of shale cuttings (leftover rock waste from drilling) from 600 to 1,000 tons per day. They also requested from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) a change so they could receive the cuttings in an “unprocessed or unsolidified form” (see this MDN story).
Read More “Scranton Landfill Request for More Shale Cuttings Approved”
Last month’s passage of new Marcellus drilling regulations in Pennsylvania has some local municipalities grumbling that the state’s “Act 13” regulating oil and gas drilling and superseding local zoning ordinances takes away their ability to, yes, control drilling in their local municipalities. Which of course is what the law is designed to do!
Several municipalities, Cecil Township the latest, are making moves to band together and sue the state over the new law in an effort to overturn the Act 13 provision.
Read More “PA Towns Banding Together to Sue State Over New Drilling Law”
Although historically low natural gas prices are great for consumers, it’s not so great for some in the shale gas drilling industry. Because drillers are changing their focus away from drilling in the “dry gas” areas of the Marcellus Shale play and instead focusing on the “wet gas”—or liquids-rich—portion of the play, it causes a slow down for some businesses and leads to layoffs in certain industries, like title searching. Title searches of property deeds are a necessary part of acquiring leases for drilling.
A title search company in western PA has just laid off nearly half of their staff:
Read More “Dry Gas Drilling Slowdown Results in Layoffs in PA”
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, Mar 6, 2012”
This one is sure to disappoint landowners. In an Obamaesque move, conservative Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich is set to propose a new tax on Utica and Marcellus shale gas drilling in order to reduce Ohio state income taxes.
Read More “OH Gov. Kasich to Introduce New Tax on Shale Gas Drilling”
Finally some good news for New York landowners who want shale gas drilling to go forward in the state. Lately, it’s seemed as if New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was backing off his support for shale gas drilling. He elected to not even mention it in this year’s State of the State address, even though there was a section about it in his prepared remarks (see this MDN story). Then he made a comment about the status of the review process and making on determination on whether drilling will even be allowed (see this MDN story). And then a comment to a Syracuse newspaper editorial board about a decision coming “in a few months” on fracking (see this MDN story), the implied meaning was whether or not it would be allowed at all.
Add it all up and it certainly appeared that Gov. Cuomo was stepping back from his earlier support of drilling. But Andrew Cuomo is the consummate politician and perhaps that was all smokescreen. Last Friday, in a radio interview, he all but said fracking will go forward in the state, it’s just a matter of how and when it will happen, not if.
Read More “NY Gov. Cuomo Signals Fracking Issue is “How” and Not “If””
From time to time, the Associated Press will write a story about the gas drilling issue. Because a huge number of newspapers in the U.S. subscribe to the AP service, they run the story and overnight a single story, or various versions of the story, is run in hundreds of newspapers nationwide creating an echo chamber making it seem as if it’s new news. It’s happened again with another non-story about Dimock, PA. By now most MDN readers will know what Dimock is about—an attempt to create a link between hydraulic fracturing and chemical contamination of a water aquifer. If you need a background on the controversy, click here for MDN’s stories on Dimock.
The latest non-story story from the AP is an announcement that the EPA, that has been conducting water testing in the Dimock area, will release its first test results this week. That’s the sum total of the news in the story. But the AP story includes lots of background and fluff. One of the interesting backgrounder interviews is with a geologist from northeastern PA near Dimock:
Although Dimock, in Susquehanna County, PA seems to be known for water problems from unrelenting negative press, it should be known for another reason—it’s home to the state’s number one producing Marcellus Shale gas well, the King 2. In fact, Dimock and neighboring Springville Township host eight of the state’s 10 most productive shale gas wells, according to recent reports from the PA DEP.
Read More “Susquehanna County, PA Hosts 8 of Top 10 Shale Gas Wells”