Michigan-based DTE Energy yesterday announced they will spend $250 million to build a new 37 mile long shale gas pipeline in Northeast PA and the Southern Tier of NY. Construction is expected to be complete by the middle of 2012.
MDN reported yesterday that Gregory Sovas recently addressed local government leaders in Upstate NY to brief them on the fact that local governments cannot enact laws—zoning or otherwise—that would prohibit hydraulic fracturing or drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shale. The legal principle is that local government laws cannot supersede the state law when it comes to regulating oil and gas drilling. Mr. Sovas should know—he’s the author of the language that became the law.
MDN received a number comments on that article (see here) stating the legality of local zoning ordinances regulating oil and gas drilling is far from over. The commenters claim that New York’s law in this regard is not yet settled.
Read More “NY Local Governments and Zoning Bans for Hydraulic Fracturing – Part 2”
New Jersey Democrats in the state legislature are turning up the heat on Republican Gov. Chris Christie to sign a bill recently passed by both houses that would institute an outright ban on hydraulic fracturing. The NJ Senate passed the bill by a vote of 33-1, and the NJ Assembly vote was 58-11. So far, Christie has not commented on the legislation and has not indicated which way he leans.
If signed into law, NJ would have the dubious honor of being the first state to ban hydraulic fracturing, a mostly moot point as there is very little shale beneath the state worth fracking for natural gas—just a tiny portion in the northwest corner.
Will he or won’t he sign it? We may have an indication of a compromise in the works.
Read More “Compromise Coming in NJ Ban on Hydraulic Fracturing?”
In West Virginia, mineral rights are more complex than in other states because those rights in many (perhaps most) cases were separated from the land above it long ago due to coal mining. It is a situation that sometimes pits the rights of the surface owners of the land against the rights of those who own the mineral rights below the land. Mineral rights owners have a right to access the surface in order to extract the coal, oil or gas beneath.
But in the case of horizontal hydraulic fracturing, do mineral rights owners have the right to to set up a multi-acre well pad on the surface to extract natural gas from neighboring properties? An interesting legal question that is being played out in Marion County, WV now.
Read More “WV Marcellus Legal Battle over Well Pads: Surface Rights Owners v. Mineral Rights Owners”
One of the favorite arguments used as a smokescreen by those opposed to Marcellus drilling is the classic class warfare argument. But it takes a lot of mental gymnastics to make it work in this case as the people who are supposedly the “fat cats” and the “lucky few winners of life’s lottery” are typically family farmers who have been scraping by for generations, just trying to hold on to the land they love. The fact that some of them “get rich” from gas drilling just doesn’t sit right with the elite city-dwellers. Kind of invokes images of the Beverly Hillbillies.
MDN has heard this “haves and have nots” class warfare argument in presentations from people like Cornell Professor Tony Ingraffea. It’s a disgusting, offensive and frankly bigoted argument, but there you go. It’s one of the favorites from anti-drillers.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette takes a new run at dressing up this pig of an argument with yet more lipstick:
Read More “Everyone Wins – Not Just Landowners – When Marcellus Drilling Happens in a Community”
As MDN has pointed out before, much of the opposition to drilling in the Marcellus (and now Utica) Shale is motivated by a philosophical worldview by the environmental left—a worldview that opposes natural gas simply because it’s a carbon-based fuel. The latest example is an “environmental bill of rights” being pushed in State College, PA:
Local governments in New York State that pass zoning ordinances to restrict or prohibit hydraulic fracturing and drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica Shales may find their actions overturned in short order.
Read More “NY Local Governments Not Allowed to Ban Marcellus Drilling by State Law”
Just how long does it take for West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to approve a new Marcellus shale gas drilling permit?
Read More “How Long Does it Take to Approve a Marcellus Shale Drilling Permit in WV?”
I’ve run the same poll for the past two weeks and am encouraged by the results. The question was:
Would you be willing to pay $5 per month (with the option to stop at any time) to continue reading MDN articles?
No (56%, 142 Votes)
Yes (44%, 113 Votes)
Total Voters: 255
So will Marcellus Drilling News continue? Yes! Will I immediately starting charging $5 per month to read it? Not just yet. I’m still working out what I believe is the best way forward. I’ve heard privately via emails and phone calls from quite a few readers who have encouraged me to continue the service with some great ideas on how to do it and earn a little bit to offset the costs. MDN likely will continue on as a blend of free and paid. Stay tuned—I’ll make an announcement soon.
Current Poll
It’s been a big week here in New York State (where MDN is written). The word has come down from Albany that drilling in the Marcellus Shale will finally begin. When? Still anyone’s guess, but as MDN has predicated before, I believe the first horizontally hydraulically fractured Marcellus well will not be sunk until 2012. The DEC Commissioner, Joe Martens, said the same thing in a recent media comment.
We still have a few months of public comments on the new draft rules which are due to be released to the public on July 8. Hopefully no more theatrical public meetings will be staged before a final version of the new drilling rules are issued. Early indications are that the new rules, while strict, will not be too onerous to prevent drillers from coming to the state. So, good news for landowners!
This week’s poll asks the question, “Did NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo make the right decision in allowing Marcellus Shale drilling to begin?” The poll can be found on 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 few weeks.
Wishing you a happy Fourth of July,
Jim Willis, Editor
The New York Department of Environmental Conservation did not release the full 900+ page draft drilling regulations document yesterday (July 1) as planned. They supposedly did release it to Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his review with the announcement that the full report would be made available to the public in one week, on July 8. However, the DEC did release a 27-page executive summary (embedded below). The executive summary is just that—a high level description of what is contained in the 900+ page document.
On page 5 of the Executive Summary we get this interesting statement:
Read More “NY DEC Releases Executive Summary Portion of New Drilling Regs”
Yesterday, New York State Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), Joe Martens, held a press conference to announce the release of new gas drilling regulations for New York, and what will be (eventually) the end of the moratorium for shale gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, as well as other shale gas reserves including the Utica Shale.
Below is a link to the 41-minute press conference so you can watch it for yourself, along with an embedded copy of the slides used by Martens as he spoke.
Read More “Watch NY DEC Press Conference Announcing Release of Draft SGEIS Drilling Regs”
If there is anything positive to come from the extreme delays in New York State with a moratorium on horizontal hydraulic fracturing used to drill for natural gas in place since 2009, it is that New York has been watching other states, particularly Pennsylvania, where drilling is going full tilt. Watching, and learning from the problems, mistakes and accidents that have occurred.
At yesterday’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) press conference announcing new draft regulations to allow drilling to (finally) begin in New York, the DEC released a 2-page sheet outlining the main lessons learned in their observation of drilling in PA. The document is embedded below.
Read More “What New York has Learned from Pennsylvania About Drilling in the Marcellus Shale”
At yesterday’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) press conference, DEC Commissioner Joe Martens announced the formation of a Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel. The new panel’s job will be:
Read More “NY DEC Commissioner Appoints Members to New Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel”
A month ago, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told Joe Martens, Cuomo’s new Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), to release the years-in-the-making new regulations for drilling in the Marcellus Shale in New York State by July 1. Today is July 1 and the 900+ page drilling regulations document—known as the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, or SGEIS—is supposedly being released to Cuomo only, with a public release of the document set for July 8, one week from today. Which means the SGEIS is being released next week and not today.
However, Joe Martens and the DEC issued a press release yesterday (see full release embedded below) outlining the major changes and provisions that will be in the SGEIS when it’s finally released to the public. The fact that the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing will be lifted under the plan has environmental extremists in a fit. The fact that the new SGEIS will ban fracking in 15 percent of the state’s Marcellus Shale region will not sit well with landowners in those areas. So there’s something for everyone to not like. However, on the whole, it seems as if the new rules will get the job done and landowners will be thrilled that drilling will finally begin in New York State.
Read More “New York’s DEC Releases Summary of New Drilling Regulations, But Not the Actual Document”
Now that it’s clear that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo intends to lift the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing and allow drilling in the Marcellus Shale to proceed, groups that oppose drilling are expressing their disappointment in a very public way. Some of the more extreme elements are even threatening civil disobedience.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich yesterday signed into law a new measure that allows oil and gas drilling in state parks.
Read More “Ohio Gov. Kasich Signs Law Opening State Parks to Oil and Gas Drilling”