Daniel Yergin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and member of President Obama’s energy subcommittee examining shale gas, says the debate about whether or not to drill for shale gas is already over and decided—shall gas drilling is here to stay.
Read More “Obama Advisor Says Shale Gas Drilling is Here to Stay”
There was a public hearing held in Pittsburgh yesterday on new air pollution rules from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that will affect gas drillers across the country. And it appears there’s some common ground between the drilling industry and environmental groups.
Read More “First EPA Hearing on New Air Pollution Regulations for Gas Drilling”
Hey, it’s another week, so that must mean it’s time for another New York opinion poll. We can’t seem to let a week go by without taking the temperature of the Empire State on the issue of hydraulic fracturing. This poll is an ongoing monthly poll done by Siena College. The actual questions and percentage responses are embedded below.
Read More “Siena College Poll: NYers Still Closely Divided on Fracking”
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: Wednesday, Sep 28, 2011”
MDN recently reported about two lawsuits filed (so far) in New York State that will set precedent in the state on the issue of whether or not local municipalities (i.e. townships) can ban gas drilling altogether within their borders.
One of those lawsuits, filed against the Town of Middlefield in Otsego County, was filed by landowner Jennifer Huntington (see the MDN story here). Her lawsuit says the town’s ban violates state law which stipulates only the state can regulate oil and gas drilling. The key word there is “regulate.”
Read More “Middlefield, NY Lawsuit: The Town’s Counterargument”
John Pinkerton will step down as CEO of Range Resources by the end of this year. Having been in the industry for two decades, and with nothing to lose, he minces no words and spoke bluntly at a recent conference about the need for energy companies to fully disclose all of the chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing. He said there are no secrets and everyone uses pretty much the same fracking recipes:
Read More “Range CEO Says Everyone Should Disclose Fracking Chemicals”
CONSOL is on a roll, continuing to sell some of its Marcellus Shale assets to other energy companies and in the process, raising more than $4 billion in cash in just the past few weeks. The latest sale has been to Antero Resources.
Read More “CONSOL Sells Marcellus Leases to Antero for $193M”
When drilling finally starts in New York State, one of the immediate benefits to the state will be jobs. And not all of those jobs will be in the drilling industry. Some of them will be for the agency that oversees drilling in New York, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
The latest word is that the DEC is looking to hire an addition 142 workers starting next year, many of them in New York’s Southern Tier area where drilling will happen first.
Read More “New Drilling-Related Jobs Coming to NY Next Year”
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: Tuesday, Sep 27, 2011”
Every time MDN writes about our observation that those who oppose drilling do so from an ideology, we get pushback from the man-made global warming true believers. If you want to believe that man causes global warming, be my guest. But don’t expect me to “go green” so you can feel good about yourself. I don’t believe it—not a word of it. It’s not been proven by any kind of science that stands up to scrutiny. It’s all ethereal theories and conjecture—not real, testable, measurable, objective and verifiable science.
Read More “More Calls to Stop Fracking Because “The Sky is Falling””
MDN has written about the economic miracle (and you can call it nothing less than a miracle) in North Dakota—all due to oil and a technology called horizontal hydraulic fracturing (read MDN’s previous story here). The miracle continues and is chronicled on none other than National Public Radio, America’s far-left voice.
Try this on for size: The town of Williston, ND (gotta love a town with the name Willis in it!) used to have a total population of 12,000 people before hydraulic fracturing started to be used to get at the oil in the Bakken formation beneath them. In the past four years, Williston added between 12,000-20,000 new jobs! You read that right, the town more than doubled in size. And, they have 2,000 to 3,000 job openings right now!! Their mayor says Williston just “skipped the recession entirely.” That’s the power of hydraulic fracturing—an economic miracle than you can’t deny.
Read More “Fracking Produces Undeniable Economic Miracle in ND”
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 26, 2011”
Below are the results of last week’s poll on whether or not local governments should be able to ban drilling.
Should local municipalities have the power to ban gas drilling?
No (70%, 190 Votes)
Yes (26%, 72 Votes)
Not sure (4%, 10 Votes)
Total Voters: 272
Should vandalism at drilling sites be considered an act of terrorism?
This past week MDN reported on a case of “vandalism” at a drilling site in Indiana County, PA (see MDN story here). There were some comments on that story taking MDN to task for not waiting to find out who the perpetrator is. MDN says it doesn’t take a genius to figure out it’s an anti-driller gone amok. Someone who’s finally gone over the edge. Could it be a simple case of vandalism? Perhaps. But not very likely in MDN’s opinion.
So MDN wades into controversial waters once again, this week by asking the question: If people who are opposed to drilling perpetrate crimes against drillers by damaging equipment, should that be considered an act of domestic terrorism? MDN thinks it’s a fair question and an issue we should address.
Agree? Disagree? Click on your answer along the right-hand side of any page, and feel free to leave a comment on this post with your opinion.
Below are the most recent “top 5” lists and the calendar of Marcellus related events for the next two weeks.
Happy reading,
Jim Willis, Editor
Read More “MDN Weekly Update – Sept 25, 2011: Vandalism at Drilling Sites”
A rather generic story put out by Reuters yesterday refers to Exxon Mobil’s interest in acquiring acreage in the Utica Shale in Ohio as a new source of oil drilling. Details are sparse about Exxon’s plans, but it points out the white-hot interest there is in Ohio’s Utica Shale since Chesapeake announced in July they have struck oil, as well as natural gas and gas liquids, in Eastern Ohio (see this MDN story). Looks like Exxon considers Eastern Ohio to now be “one of the biggest sources of crude oil in the United States.”
Read More “Exxon Acquiring Acreage in OH Utica Shale for Oil Drilling”
How sad and tragic when someone opposed to drilling comes unhinged and turns to violence, as just happened in Indiana County, PA:
Read More “Drilling Operation in Indiana County, PA Vandalized”
In a country with a proud tradition of free speech and open dissent, there is a line that can be crossed. That line is called libel and slander, and it’s always been a gray area, most often determined by the courts. We have a new case for the courts to decide related to the Marcellus drilling industry in Luzerne County, PA.
But this is not solely a case of slander. The people accused of slandering pipeline company Chief Gathering first filed a lawsuit themselves in an attempt to use the courts to stop the pipeline. So Chief is fighting back with their own lawsuit seeking to a) have the original lawsuit filed against the pipeline overturned, and b) seeking damages for the (according to Chief) slanderous remarks of the people and their attorney. Chief says their reputation in the community has been wrongly damaged.
Read More “Chief Gathering Counter-Sues 3 Families in Luzerne County, PA”