Where there’s drilling in rural areas with heavy trucks traveling the roadways, there will be road damage. The two go together, unfortunately. From Cameron (Marshall County), West Virginia:
MDN has previously covered the economic benefits of drilling and its impact on local lodging—hotels, motels and even apartment rentals. More evidence of that below, plus a new website to help workers visiting PA find lodging.
It was an exciting week for MDN. We launched our first special report on Monday, Will There Be Marcellus Shale Drilling Near Me? Drilling Permits for Marcellus Shale Gas Wells from January 2010 to February 2011 (see here). In order to download the free report, users are asked to first fill out a brief survey. Over 300 of you have done just that—a huge thank you! The results of the survey have been very interesting—especially the response to the last question which asks how we can make the site better for you. A number of people have left recommendations and suggestions—very good advice that we take to heart. So in the near future you’ll see some refinements here and there. And a big thank you for the encouragement and compliments you’ve left in your comments. Everyone likes an at-a-boy (or -girl) once in a while.
Among the comments received, from someone who downloaded and used the special report, is that “it sure would be nice if you gave the contact details for the drilling companies in the report.” We had thought of doing just that, but elected to wait and provide that information in a companion report due out soon. Only so many hours in a day! So keep watch on MDN for a guide listing details for each drilling company. In the meantime, you can always visit their websites. Most of them are listed on our Links page under the category “Energy Companies & Drillers”: //marcellusdrilling.com/links/.
Below you’ll find the “top 5” and calendar listings.
Happy reading,
Jim Willis, Editor
If you do nothing more than read or listen to the headlines in PA, you’d swear the peasants are coming with pitchforks for newly elected Gov. Tom Corbett because the budget he’s proposing (finally) balances the budget in PA—without raising taxes. After years of gimmicks and patches, and especially after two years of Obama’s stimulus money which has been squandered and is now gone (our children and grandchildren will thank us for that one—they’re the ones who will have to pay it back), states all over the country must now deal with serious deficits, including PA. Corbett was elected in part to do just that.
After issuing his budget last week, it’s been a non-stop scream fest from the media announcing how much residents hate the budget. The media narrative has been that Corbett “wants to slash spending on education but won’t levy a tax on Marcellus drilling.” In their efforts to support the narrative, newspapers and television outlets in PA commissioned a poll by Franklin & Marshall College, and they frequently quote bits and pieces from that poll to support their stated conclusions. The problem is, when you read the polling data for yourself, it doesn’t quite fit the narrative painted by the media.
Forthwith are the actual questions asked, and the full responses. This is not the complete survey which also includes demographic questions. You can download the full survey below and read it for yourself.
MDN offers its observations after each survey question—you can draw your own conclusions.
(Warning: Although this post includes details about Marcellus shale drilling, it also includes coverage of the broader issue of the PA budget and the recent poll conducted about the budget. Some of this material may appear to be “off topic” but in MDN’s opinion it provides the proper context to understand the issue of drilling and taxation.)
Read More “The Truth About How Pennsylvanians Feel About Gov. Tom Corbett and His Budget”
After a year-long investigation by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office, a waste hauler in southwest PA has been charged with illegal dumping of untreated fracking wastewater.
Read More “Southwest PA Waste Hauler Indicted for Illegally Dumping Marcellus Drilling Wastewater”
The city of Lewisburg (Greenbrier County), WV, population 3,624 has banned “any further drilling” in the city limits with respect to the Marcellus Shale.
Read More “Small Town in West Virginia Bans Marcellus Drilling Inside City Limits”
In a letter to the editor of the Times Observer (Warren, PA), letter writer Dave White makes a plea for common sense and balance in the discussion of drilling in the Marcellus. In particular, he makes a few statements of interest about the volume of water resources used, and disposed of, in the drilling process in PA:
My goal here is to bring a realistic picture of the real magnitude of fracturing water… First Energy tells us the reservoir 800 feet up on Jakes Rocks Road holds 2 billion gallons of water. How much is 2 billion gallons of water? In one large pond in Warren County lies enough water to frac almost all of the Marcellus wells drilled to date in Pennsylvania. First Energy probably pumps a billion gallons of water up there every night. And they drop it back down every day. In forty years I’ve never noticed a ripple on the Allegheny "recreational" river.
The next item to bring into reality, 2.8 million barrels of treated frac water being released into eight rivers. How much is that? When the river is flowing as it is today, 2.8 million barrels goes under the Hickory Street Bridge every 13 minutes. The Allegheny River share of eight rivers would pass under the bridge in 1.6 minutes. Keep in mind this is all the treated fracture water to date.(1)
It seems everywhere high volume hydraulic fracturing (for either gas or oil) happens in a big way, the economy of that region surges. Recently we told you about the Bakken Oil fields of North Dakota (see here) which has led to the lowest unemployment rates of any state the country. The latest example of the benefits of “fracking” is Pittsburgh, which has resurged precisely because of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale:
Read More “Pittsburgh Economy Surged in 2010 Due Mostly to Marcellus Shale Drilling”
MDN is not sure how much sway the editorial pages of local newspapers hold when it comes to policy-making in state government (we suspect not much). But it is noteworthy that the Register-Herald (Beckley, West Virginia) is urging a moratorium on any new Marcellus Shale drilling in the state until the legislature can reconvene in special session and pass laws addressing concerns over Marcellus drilling in the state.
The WV legislature recently ended their regular session without passing new regulations for Marcellus drilling, which prompted acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin to instruct the state DEP to regulate drilling on their own (see here). The Register-Herald doesn’t like that idea and wants to see the legislature take another crack at passing new laws:
Read More “Will Marcellus Shale Drilling Come to a “Grinding Halt” in West Virginia?”
The budget battle in Pennsylvania has heated up. One of the biggest controversies has to do with PA’s lack of a severance tax on gas drilling in the state. Gov. Tom Corbett’s recently unveiled budget does not include a severance tax, which has been the focus of many who oppose the newly elected administration. Corbett’s Revenue Secretary-designate Dan Meuser had sharp exchanges at a budget hearing Monday on the proposed new budget, and offered the administration’s rationale on why a severance tax is not needed in PA:
Supervisors of Dallas Township (Luzerne County), PA are tentatively planning to present a natural gas drilling ordinance at their April 5th meeting according to Township Solicitor Thomas Brennan.
EXCO Resources has withdrawn an offer made to the borough of Ford City, PA to lease borough-owned land for Marcellus Shale drilling:
Read More “EXCO Resources Withdraws Offer to Lease Land for Marcellus Drilling in Ford City, PA”
Jesse White, Pennsylvania State Representative for the 46th Legislative District, which includes portions of Beaver, Washington and Allegheny Counties, has formed a new Marcellus Municipal Co-op for local PA governments to band together as they tackle the tough issues of local zoning ordinances and laws to deal with a very active drilling industry within their borders. The purpose is to share information so each local government does not have to “re-invent the wheel.” The knowledge and hard work from one municipality with regard to Marcellus drilling issues can be shared with other municipalities.
Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey has re-introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate that would strip away states’ rights, including his home state of Pennsylvania, to manage and protect their own land and natural resources, and instead concentrate that power at the federal level under the Environmental Protection Agency. He calls the legislation “The FRAC Act”—Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals. The bill, if passed (which seems unlikely in the current Congress), would place the practice of high volume hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) under the provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
A legal case that affects Pennsylvania landowners with signed leases to allow Marcellus drilling on their land has just been decided in landowners’ favor in a PA court. But it’s complicated to explain (we’ll do our best).
Read More “PA Court Case Finds in Favor of Landowners, Against Drillers in Lease Extension Case”
As MDN noted yesterday, the West Virginia legislature ended its regular session without passing any new regulations governing drilling in the Marcellus Shale, even though most agree there are important issues that need to be addressed in the state as the young but rapidly developing Marcellus drilling industry continues to expand. Now there is word that acting Governor Earl Ray Tomblin (appointed to fill the position of now-Senator Joe Manchin), will go ahead and regulate the industry on his own, without the legislature’s help.
Read More “West Virginia Gov. Tomblin Says He Will Regulate Marcellus Shale Drilling on His Own”