Four State Governors Sign Deal to Promote CNG Vehicles
Four state governors, one Democrat and three Republicans, are teaming up to push the concept of CNG (compressed natural gas) powered vehicles. Among them is Gov. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, a Marcellus Shale state.
The governors will start replacing vehicles in their state-owned fleets in an attempt to generate more interest in filling stations. It’s very much a chicken and egg situation: You need filling stations in order to power the vehicles, but you need vehicles that will use the filling stations to make them economically viable. The governors hope that by leading the way they will encourage others to follow.
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The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) yesterday released a final version of new shale gas drilling regulations (copy embedded below). A vote will be taken on Nov. 21st to adopt the new regulations. So far, no Marcellus Shale gas wells have been drilled in the areas covered by the jurisdiction of the DRBC which includes large portions of Pennsylvania and New York, in addition to Delaware and New Jersey. Of those states, only PA has allowed gas drilling to date. The DRBC is a quasi-governmental body charged with protecting the environmental “health” of the Delaware River and its tributaries.
The Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York (IOGA NY), after studying the new draft drilling rules issued by the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) wrote a letter to DEC Commissioner Joe Martens and Gov. Andrew Cuomo on September 2 stating that the new rules, as written, are not acceptable if the state wants there to be any shale gas drilling. A copy of the 15-page letter with attachments (31 pages total) was obtained by Gannett News and can be downloaded below.
State officials in West Virginia are angry with Chesapeake Energy over the announcement that Chesapeake has signed a deal to ship ethane out of the Marcellus region via pipeline to the Gulf Coast for processing. A quick petrochemical lesson: Some of what comes out of the ground when drilling for natural gas is the chemical compound ethane—especially found in “wet gas” areas of the Marcellus like West Virginia. Ethane can be processed into ethylene, which is the raw material used to make plastics.