The Pennsylvania Game Commission has just leased more land under its control for Marcellus Shale drilling:
It appears that the new New York State Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, is looking to make a national name for himself, and he’s found his issue: Marcellus Shale drilling.
Read More “NY Attorney General Threatens the Feds with a Lawsuit over Marcellus Drilling”
Crescent Township in Allegheny County, PA (in the Pittsburgh area), will now require all Marcellus Shale drilling companies to file for a permit before they can drill on any property in the Township.
Read More “Western PA Township Votes to Require Permits for Marcellus Shale Drilling”
There are 15 (of an original 27) municipal sewage treatment plants in Pennsylvania that still accept Marcellus Shale drilling wastewater. That is, until May 19 of this year.
An in-depth article that takes a look at fines for Marcellus Shale drillers in PA finds the following:
Read More “Most-Fined Marcellus Shale Drillers in PA”
More news coming in about the Utica Shale in Ohio:
Read More “Chesapeake, 14 Other Energy Companies Have Drilling Permits for Utica Shale in Ohio”
The crowd in the morning session, which MDN attended, numbered around 400 in the audience. The Evening Sun reports the crowd in the afternoon session was about 600 people. The meeting in the morning was orderly and uneventful. But it seems MDN missed the “fun” in the afternoon session:
An otherwise civil gathering of about 600 members of the Central New York Landowners Coalition at Unadilla Valley Central School Saturday turned ugly as protesters erected ‘no frak’ signs out in front of the school, took photos of cars and, later, defamed a coalition’s leader’s ‘Pass Responsible Gas Drilling’ banner located on the lawn of his Route 8 home.
CNYLC Steering Committee member Steve Gage said the perpetrators were taking photos of business decals on automobiles so people also opposed to drilling would know not to patronize those businesses. He said he called the police to his home to investigate his banner which had a swastika painted on it in red along with a racial slur.*
MDN has previously written about anti-drilling protestors who have broken the law by disrupting meetings and shutting down workplaces. To be fair, not all those who oppose drilling resort to these tactics—it’s a small minority. However, these incidents seem to be happening with more frequency.
Happy reading,
Jim Willis, Editor
*Norwich Evening Sun (Apr 11, 2011) – Protesters target gas landowners meeting (PDF format)
Three State Senators from New York City—Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan), Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach), and Tony Avella (D-Bayside)—have banded together and introduced four Marcellus Shale drilling bills in hopes one or more of them will become law. Their ultimate aim? To ban the practice of hydraulic fracturing in New York State on claims it will pollute New York City’s water supplies.
Steuben County Public Works Commissioner Vince Spagnoletti is planning for drilling to begin in New York State by drafting conditional road use agreements that drillers must sign before their trucks would be allowed on county roadways.
Supervisors from Kingston Township, PA (in Luzerne County) passed a new ordinance regulating oil and gas development in the Township (see embedded ordinance below). There is no current interest in drilling in the Township, but Supervisors said they wanted to be proactive and that there are some gas-related issues in the area, notably pipelines.
Read More “Kingston Township, PA Passes New Ordinance Regulating Marcellus Gas Drilling”
The Associated Press is transparently anti-drilling in its reporting. While everyone pretends the mighty AP is unbiased and “above the fray” and independent, it is not. So let’s just get that out on the table. MDN uses that preface for news from the AP that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is seriously understaffed when it comes to reviewing Marcellus Shale drilling permits.
IF the following is accurate, it is disturbing indeed and deserves immediate attention from Gov. Corbett. But bear in mind the news comes from the AP, so you never know…
An interesting “new” technology from Canadian company GASFRAC uses an alternative to water and sand in the hydraulic fracturing process:
University of Pittsburgh researcher Conrad “Dan” Volz is resigning in May as director of Pitt’s Center for Healthy Environments and Communities because of his “philosophical differences” with the university over the issue of Marcellus Shale drilling. Volz has been a visible and loud voice against drilling, and that does not sit well at Pitt.
Volz released a report on March 23, subsequently revised and reissued two days ago, critical of the Pennsylvania Brine Treatment plant near Black Lick, in Indiana County, PA. The plant treats and releases Marcellus Shale wastewater into the Blacklick Creek. In the report, Volz recommends the plant’s operations be halted.
Read More “PA Marcellus Wastewater Treatment Plant Threatens Lawsuit Against Pitt Researcher”
The Avonworth Municipal Authority in Allegheny County, PA recently signed a five-year drilling lease for the ACORD Municipal Park property controlled by the Authority (see the MDN story here). However, the deal was contingent on four of the five municipalities that oversee the 119-acre park in Kilbuck and Ohio Townships. Last night Emsworth council was the second municipality to vote against the measure and so the deal will not go forward.
Federal regulation (MDN would argue federal “interference”) in regulating natural gas drilling is an important issue. MDN maintains that the U.S. Constitution grants the states the right to govern what happens inside their own borders, and that the federal government has too often usurped and trampled those rights in the name of protecting the public. The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a prime example of a federal agency that frequently goes too far and oversteps its bounds. The EPA is an unelected group of people that create regulations with the force of law that are forced on states and businesses.
However, Congress seems to do what it wants to do, and agencies like the EPA are a reality we all must live with. So when Congress holds hearings and the star witness is the EPA and the topic is drilling in the Marcellus Shale and hydraulic fracturing, everyone, both for and against drilling, needs to pay attention.
Yesterday the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing titled “Natural Gas Drilling: Public Health and Environmental Impacts.” MDN believes there is much to learn in the opening statements by the Senators, and in the testimony from the witnesses who testified before the hearing.
Read More “U.S. Senate Holds Hearing on Natural Gas Drilling & Hydraulic Fracturing”
The first witness before the April 12 Senate hearing on natural gas drilling was Robert Perciasepe, Deputy Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA is currently conducting a multi-year study of the 60 year-old practice of hydraulic fracturing on the basis and claim that it may be harmful to water supplies, and since protection of the nation’s waterways has been assumed by the EPA, hydraulic fracturing (if found to be harmful) would come under the EPA’s jurisdiction and regulation. It is a back door way for the EPA to control natural gas drilling in this country.
The following is a small portion of Mr. Perciasepe’s statement before the hearing. MDN highlights it as an excellent summary of the main arguments that come from those who oppose drilling in the Marcellus Shale and other shale gas plays.
Read More “EPA Statement at Senate Hearing Outlines the Main Arguments Against Drilling”