The man perhaps as responsible as anyone for turning the word Marcellus Shale into a household word along the Atlantic region of the United States will take the reigns of Range Resources as its CEO starting January 1 of next year.
Read More “Range Resources Names Early Marcellus Advocate as Next CEO”
It’s been a few weeks since the last “weekly” update. First, a recap of the previous poll I was running. Thank you to those who voted in that poll. Here are the results:When do you think Marcellus Shale drilling in New York State will begin?
2011 (19%, 58 Votes)
2012 (35%, 109 Votes)
2013 (16%, 51 Votes)
Never (30%, 94 votes)
Total Voters: 312
Here is the relatively good news about the poll (for those who support safe drilling anyway): Put another way, 70% of you think drilling in the Marcellus Shale will happen in New York, while only 30% think it will never happen. I think there’s wisdom in the crowd’s view.
Current Poll
After a lot of thought, earlier this week I posted an appeal and a poll which is still running. That appeal was for your feedback and asks the question, is MDN worth your support? (See MDN Needs Your Feedback to Continue Publishing.) In that post I said the following:
So I have a question for the 18,000 of you who visit this site each month: Is MDN worth a small subscription fee to you, to continue to the service? Please think carefully about it, and please be completely truthful. Perhaps the things I do on this site are “nice” and maybe “interesting” but not really vital or “necessary” for most people with an interest in the drilling issue. If that’s the case, I’m wasting my time and can find other things to do with it.
Here’s the deal, think carefully about the question I’m asking, and then please click on your answer in the poll (found on the right side of any page). The question: Would you be willing to pay $5 per month to continue reading MDN? Your answer is anonymous—I won’t know who you are. If enough people say yes, MDN will continue and I’ll ask you to subscribe using a credit card (or Paypal account) and it will be charged $5 per month with the option to cancel at any time. If there’s little response, or if the vast majority say no, time to fold the tent and move on.
The early results have been encouraging. Thanks to those who have already voted. I’m going to leave this poll open for one more week. The good news is that is I’m leaning toward continuing MDN and introducing a paid option. I’m working on the details now. In the meantime, please keep reading MDN, and if you haven’t already done so, please vote in the poll. Either answer is fine (yes it’s worth $5 a month, or no it isn’t)! I need honest and true feedback about the value of this service.
Below you’ll find the “top 5” lists and this week’s calendar listings.
Happy reading,
Jim Willis, Editor
The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is conduction a multi-year study of the natural gas extraction method called hydraulic fracturing. See MDN’s coverage of the initial announcement and draft release of the study plan here. Preliminary results of the study are due in 2012, but the final results are not due until 2014.
Yesterday, the EPA announced where it will conduct its case studies. Nearly half of the sites—three of the seven—are in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale region in Bradford, Susquehanna and Washington Counties. Below is the full press release from the EPA announcing the locations, followed by a table from the EPA website charting the key issues to be investigated and the potential outcomes for the retrospective case studies.
Morgantown, WV is about to get sued for banning hydraulic fracturing outside of its borders. As MDN previously reported (see here), the Morgantown City Council voted on June 21 to ban hydraulic fracturing within its borders and up to one mile outside of its borders. The decision has shut down an active operation for two wells being drilled by Northeast Natural Energy. WV has a law allowing cities to extend their reach up to a mile in order to carry out city functions. Many think City Council has overreached in this case.
Read More “Update on Morgantown, WV Ban on Fracking Outside its Borders: You’re About to Get Sued”
Ohio’s Attorney General, Mike DeWine, offers the following tips for landowners when they are presented with an offer to lease their land for oil and gas drilling. Although Mr. DeWine is addressing Ohioans, these common sense tips apply to anyone in any geography.
Read More “Ohio Attorney General Shares Landowner Tips for Leasing Your Land”
Yet another hit piece by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (an editorial this time) plays up the “danger” that “the drilling industry” is not maintaining its trucking fleets. The evidence of this danger is not the number of serious accidents nor even a tear-jerker personal story of a mishap with a nasty drilling truck, but this:
Read More “The Top Reason for Ordering Marcellus Drilling-Related Truck Drivers Off the Road is…”
After two years of work and numerous revisions, the supervisors of Mount Pleasant Township in Washington County, PA have finally passed an ordinance that controls oil and gas drilling in the township, although at this point it likely won’t make much of a difference according to Range Resources.
Ohio’s state parks and other government-owned land will soon be opened up for Marcellus and Utica Shale oil and gas drilling.
Read More “Ohio State Parks Opening Up for Marcellus & Utica Shale Drilling”
MDN received an email alert from the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) concerning legislation that is actively being considered Albany (see the letter below). The legislation in question is the bill A3245 (full text here) which passed the New York Assembly on Monday, and bill S3472 (full text here), the Senate counterpart. The legislation, if passed, would give local municipalities the right to use zoning laws to dictate where drilling can and cannot happen within their borders. This is a major change in how New York governs the drilling industry—both Marcellus Shale drilling which has not yet begun, and existing oil and gas drilling. The language of the bill states:
For landowners who are considering leasing their property for gas drilling, or for those who have already leased, you now have an important new resource to research the lease deals others have received: www.MarcellusUSA.com.
After a few months of heated debate, the Morgantown (WV) City Council has voted to prohibit Marcellus Shale drilling not only within their borders, but also up to a mile outside of their borders. How can they do that? There is a provision in West Virginia state code that allows cities to extend their authority up to a mile beyond their borders to carry out city functions. It is that state loophole that Morgantown has used to shut down two wells slated to be drilled.
An editorial in today’s New York Post, authored by Lawrence Mone, president of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, makes an impassioned plea to Gov. Andrew Cuomo to lift the moratorium on Marcellus Shale drilling. The Manhattan Institute recently released a study showing the economic benefits of lifting the moratorium (see MDN’s coverage here). In today’s editorial, Mone summarizes those economic benefits this way:
Read More “Former PA Gov. Ed Rendell to NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo: Lift the Moratorium on Drilling Now”
Further proof that the New York Times series of “PA water is radioactive because treated Marcellus drilling wastewater was released into waterways” scare articles was nothing more than hot air and fiction:
Read More “PA Public Drinking Water Not Radioactive After All”
Pittsburgh and other energy-related regions of the U.S. are bouncing back from the recession faster than other parts of the country. For Pittsburgh, it’s due in no small part to Marcellus Shale drilling. According to a new report just released, Pittsburgh’s employment numbers will pull even and surpass pre-recession levels by early 2012.
Patriot Water operates a Marcellus Shale wastewater treatment plant in Warren, Ohio—in the northeastern part of the state, not far from the border of PA. Patriot pre-treats drilling wastewater and then sends it to the Warren municipal sewage treatment plant where it is further processed and released to the Mahoning River. Patriot has invested $3 million and has hired 45 people to operate the plant.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) has told the Warren municipal sewage treatment plant their permit to accept Patriot’s treated wastewater will not be renewed when it expires in July 2012, even though there has not been a single “finding” or violation issued by the OEPA to Patriot.
Read More “Patriot Water Permit Renewal in Jeopardy in Northeastern Ohio”
Periodically someone will email me privately, or leave a comment on an article, and ask if the MDN website is sponsored by a drilling company or pro-drilling group of some kind. My answer, which is the truth, is always the same: No! I receive no compensation of any kind whatsoever, either in money or trade or services, for what I write on this site. Zippo. Nada.
There are those who don’t believe me. I’m not sure how I can convince you, but I am telling the truth. I think, if you read this site long enough, you’ll know that I always attempt tell the truth. I share my opinions, and from time to time I even own up to some mistakes.