Judge halts zoning limits in Pa. gas drilling law

Pressconnects.com
April 11, 2012

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- A state judge is ordering a temporary halt to portions of Pennsylvania's new Marcellus Shale law that limit the power of municipalities to regulate the booming natural gas exploration industry.

Commonwealth Court Senior Judge Keith Quigley issued a 120-day injunction Wednesday after hearing arguments earlier in the day.

The eight-week-old law's local-zoning provisions were scheduled to take effect Saturday.

A group that includes seven municipalities sought the injunction in the short-term to give them time to argue their lawsuit that the law unconstitutionally takes away local powers that protect them from potential harm.

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Land of the greed and the home of the knaves

NYTIMES
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: February 7, 2012

Pennsylvania Senate Passes Compromise Bill on Gas Drilling

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Senate passed legislation on Tuesday that would impose a tax on the shale gas industry in exchange for removing many of the barriers to development, a compromise that critics said left municipalities with little control over the use of their own land.

The bill passed the state Senate 31 to 19, after an hour of bitter debate. It had been the subject of controversy for months and was pushed by Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican. It faces a vote in the House later Tuesday, where it is expected to pass.

State and local lawmakers in Pennsylvania have been trying to agree on how to regulate the development of the Marcellus Shale, a giant gas deposit under a large swath of Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio. In Pennsylvania, the industry is booming, and those who support the bill say it is high time to streamline government’s approach to it.

Supporters said the bill raised environmental standards by instituting how far the industry has to be from occupied buildings. It also imposes a fee that will rise and fall with the price of natural gas, and which State Senator Joe Scarnati, a Republican who supported the bill, said would bring in over $1 billion in badly needed revenue over the next five years.

“We walked a fine balance,” Mr. Scarnati said. “We have landed in a good spot.”

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The only good spot you could land on, is the moon. The set-backs are ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.  The stance of all governments should be; Health over Wealth, NOT Wealth over Health. Period. We think that all Senators who voted to approve these minimal setbacks should first have a well pad drilled on their property 300' from their children's bedroom window.  We find it appalling that the Senate would 'compromise' the health of the citizens.

Wake up America and take back your Constitutional Rights to clean air, clean water and a clean healthy environment.  Many countries all around the globe are practicing this, why can't we? Simple, it's the American Oligarchy that tells us what kind of energy we must eat and at what cost. This is not the land of the free, but rather the land of the greed and the home of the knaves.

Ball Calls for Moratorium on Hydrofracking

thedailypeekskill.com
by Bob Dumas (email)12/23/11

Senator Ball gives his hydrofracking presentation

to the SRO crowd at Lewisboro Library Wednesday

night, which included disturbing images from Pennsylvania.

LEWISBORO, N.Y. – State Senator Greg Ball (R, C – Patterson) called for a statewide one-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) during a presentation he gave on the controversial subject at the Lewisboro Library Wednesday night.

More than 70 people from the north county area packed the library to hear Ball speak on hydrofracking - the process of extracting natural gas from gas shale deposits, something that many say is detrimental to the environment.






Ball said a moratorium is needed because Governor Cuomo is not expected to allocate any funds to regulate fracking and gas drilling in next year’s executive budget proposal.


“Without the funding to properly regulate and without the manpower to properly oversee this industry, we must put the brakes on fracking,” Ball told the crowd.


“It's our fundamental responsibility to learn from the mistakes of other states like Pennsylvania and avoid the devastating effects of hydraulic fracturing here in New York. Without the funding and manpower in place to protect the well-being of our environment and our citizens, a moratorium is necessary so we can get the proper resources and regulations in place.”

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Coffee Hour: Managing Marcellus: a Panel Discussion - is it fracked?

Coffee Hour: Managing Marcellus: Not If, But How

Time: November 11, 2011 - 3:30pm - 5:00pm

Place: Refreshments in 319 Walker at 3:30 p.m., Discussion in 112 Walker at 4:00
URL: HERE

This week's Department of Geography Coffee Hour will be a panel on "Managing Marcellus" with a variety of perspectives from professionals on all sides of the issues. The panelists are:

• Jim Richenderfer, director of technical programs, for the Susquehanna River BasinCommission (SRBC)

• Bruce Snyder, Range Resources (company that employs man who called for Counter Insurgency Operations on the public and called them 'Insurgents.' Post can be found HERE

• Kathy Brasier, associate professor of rural sociology, Penn State

• Discussion Facilitator: James R. Grace, Goddard Chair in the School of Forest Resources, Penn State.

Dr. Grace sets the context for the panel:

"The development of natural gas contained within the geologic formation called Marcellus shale will likely prove to be one of the most significant events in Pennsylvania history. The actions associated with this phenomenon will impact our citizens and communities economically, ecologically, socially, and politically.

"At this point in time, the discussion should not be focused on whether we should have Marcellus gas development within Pennsylvania—that horse is out of the barn. The more pertinent questions revolve around how we can manage the gas development activities in a manner which preserves our environmental quality of life and deals with our social needs while providing economic benefits to our citizens and bolsters our supply of clean energy.

"The panel assembled contains three professionals, working in the Marcellus arena. They will give their views from the industry, social, and environmental/water, perspectives on the challenges and issues involved with Marcellus gas development. Hopefully a vigorous question and discussion period will follow."

Coffee Hour is also webcast live. The URL will be posted on the event web site. For questions, please contact Angela Rogers, geography@psu.edu

 source: PENNSTATE

...........................................................

 QUESTIONS TO ASK THE PANEL

The people need to be present at this meeting. There are a thousand questions one could ask. Some of them are below.

Q: Does the oil and gas industry test for radioactive materials in produced water? If so, how and what is done with radioactive produced water?

Q: One claims that the industry cannot stop its operations, 'Why shouldn't the industry wait until the EPA has finalized its report on whether hydraulic fracturing has the probability of causing adverse environmental and human health impacts?

Q: If the oil and gas industry is free of causing adverse impacts, why do they need full exemptions from the very laws that protect humans and the environment such as; The Clean Water Act, The Safe Drinking Water Act, the Superfund Act, The Clean Air Act et cetera?

Q: Natural Gas is a fossil fuel, how can one assert its clean? Why not invest in healthy energy solutions?

Q: Of the tens of thousands of reported toxic water spills, groundwater contaminations, aquifer contaminations, adverse human health impacts, why do we accept this as Americans at a negative cost benefit to the environment and humans?

Q: Of all of the reported groundwater contaminations, has the industry cleaned them and if so, how?

Q: when drilling and using the process called fracking, how much Naturally Occuring Radioactive Materials (NORM) are accumulated and are their tests to determine the type and amounts of radioactive materials? What are the hazards?

Q: What kind of radioactive tracers are used and what is their half-life?

Q: What can you tell me about Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and would you want a VOC combustor flare by your house so that the invisible emissions waft into your child's bedroom?

QUESTION FOR RANGE RESOURCES: Do you approve of the counter insurgency tactics your colleague, Matt Pitzarella has stated, and was recently recorded and reported on by CNBC that he wants to use on the 'insurgency' (the concerned people)? What does insurgency mean to you?

Drilling on Campus: Marcellus Shale boom puts colleges at crossroads

First of two parts

Sunday, November 06, 2011

By Bill Schackner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Mike Morgan is a superintendent for Mashuda Corp.,

the company building the well pad next to Bethany College's

campus in Bethany, W.Va. Elisabeth Ponsot/Post-Gazette

Now a junior, Jenna Kemmerle knows her way around California University of Pennsylvania's campus, the shortcuts to its red-brick classroom buildings, the walkways approaching Old Main.

But this she didn't know: Land where she and hundreds of CalU students live and play is part of the Marcellus Shale drilling boom.






Ten months ago, The Student Association Inc., an organization affiliated with the university, approved a lease for subsurface drilling on land it owns that includes tennis courts, baseball and soccer fields and an apartment complex where 768 students, including Ms. Kemmerle, live.

The deal may be the first Marcellus Shale lease affecting a state-owned university in Pennsylvania, and it shows how drilling is starting to alter the financial landscape at colleges struggling to maintain their missions in a bad economy.

It also illustrates how a drilling lease can remain under the radar. Even the school's president, Angelo Armenti Jr., said he did not know a deal had been struck. The lease, approved in a closed meeting, was never announced on campus.

Ms. Kemmerle, 22, of Dover, Del., is neither fan nor foe of hydraulic fracturing -- or fracking -- the process used to extract natural gas from rock. But she was surprised to learn from a reporter that a group better known for managing student activity fees had approved fracking deep below what CalU describes as part of its South campus.

"I do live up here," said the education major as she stood outside her Vulcan Village housing complex. "I'm surprised they didn't send out an email or anything to let us know."


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16,800 gallons of drilling water spills in Washington County

Monday, October 31, 2011

By Janice Crompton

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 

 

About 16,800 gallons of recycled water from a Range Resources natural gas well impoundment in Washington County spilled this morning after a subcontractor accidentally struck a water line being used to transport the fluid.

Range spokesman Matt Pitzarella said the line was ruptured this morning at about 9:20 near a gas well site along Farrar School Road in Hopewell. The line was not in use at the time, Mr. Pitzarella said, but still contained some of the water, which had been treated and recycled for use in hydraulic fracturing operations.

Mr. Pitzarella said the spill was immediately ...


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Philadelphia City Council unanimously passes resolution to sue DRBC, demand impact studies, forbid fracking for now

October 13, 2011
by Iris Marie Bloom
Protectingourwaters.wordpress.com
(215) 840-6489
protectingourwaters@gmail.com


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Philadelphia: At noon today, all seventeen members of Philadelphia’s City Council voted in favor of a resolution which joins the City of Philadelphia as a Friend of the Court, together with lawsuits already filed by the Attorney General of the State of New York, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, and other parties, in suing the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC). Philadelphia is joining these lawsuits to require, according to the resolution passed today, “that no drilling of Marcellus Shale take place until a full environmental analysis is completed.”

“Today was a great day for democracy, science and human health in Philadelphia,” said abe [Mr. Alex Allen], Associate Director of Protecting Our Waters, after the vote. ”Our representatives in City Council chose to unanimously look out for the interests of the people while resisting the persistent lobbying of the industry.”

The resolution was sponsored by Councilman Curtis Jones and Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, and co-sponsored by Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez. Physician Walter Tsou, Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, Denise Dennis, whose historic land is impacted by shale gas drilling; and two activists testified in favor. About 30 supporters inside City Hall held up signs affirming, “Protect Our Water,” and “Don’t Drill the Delaware.” Councilman O’Neill, the only councilperson not present for the vote, had cast his “aye” vote before leaving the chambers. Councilman Jones’ office is now exploring next steps with regard to the suit, which must be filed by the Law Office of the City of Philadelphia.

Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, who testified at Council today, was delighted with the vote.

”Shale gas drilling is a public health disaster in the making,” he warned.

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Senator Ball Demands Governor Tour Pennsylvania; See Firsthand the Devastating Effects of Hydraulic Fracturing

Brewster, N.Y. – (10/12/11) – Senator Greg Ball (R, C – Patterson) is holding a news conference next week where he will demand Governor Andrew Cuomo immediately tour Pennsylvania to see firsthand the devastation hydraulic fracturing can have on communities. The Senator is imploring the Governor to take steps to protect New Yorkers from the potentially devastating effects of hydraulic fracturing.

The news conference comes on the heels of the Governor’s refusal to further extend the public comment period on hydrofracking. Senator Ball hopes to rally the public, the legislature and the Governor to support a key piece of legislation he created that will set tough, new standards for safe hydrofracking in New York.

The Property Owner’s Bill of Rights (S5879) includes the following measures:

• Mandatory water and soil testing by an official governmental third-party for presence of chemicals used during the fracturing process prior to drilling.
• All fracking companies must agree to sign a Presumption of Causation Agreement with the State of New York.
• Mandatory full reimbursement to property owners by negligent gas companies for 150% of the real estate’s market value of property, based on estimates prior to drilling, and 100% of the cost for full remediation of soil and water. The company will also be accountable for full reimbursement of the land owner’s legal fees.
• Mandatory full remediation of soil and water, and free medical monitoring for life. All settlements are not to be taxed.
• Allow local governments to enact... Continue

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Hurry Please - Sign the Petition to Stop Fracking in National Forests!

Stop Fracking in National Forests

By William Morris (Contact)

To be delivered to: The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate and President Barack Obama

We urge you to do everything in your power to stop oil and natural gas drilling in our National Forests.

A federal appeals court ruled this week that oil and gas companies can begin drilling in the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania. The ruling says that the government only controls the surface rights in the national forest, not the mineral rights under the surface.

This could open up drilling in ALL National Forests.

This means they start drilling immediately unless we act now.

There are two ways we can stop this:

1) The Obama Justice Department must appeal this ruling and ask for an injunction to halt drilling; and
2) Congress must pass legislation to stop drilling in all National Forests.

 It only takes a second for Oil & Gas to destroy our 'Protected NAtional Forests' and it only takes a second to sign the petition against their destruction.

SIGN PETITION HERE


Thank you!

WTFrack.org

'Fracking' future - I want my life back!

(Source: The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio)By Spencer Hunt, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
Sept. 25--CARROLLTON, Ohio --Natural-gas drilling and coal mining are nothing new in Carroll County


The eastern Ohio area is dotted with old wells and abandoned mines.

But the humongous drilling rig in a farm field east of Carrollton represents something new, something that promises to change Ohio forever.

A crew working for Chesapeake Energy drilled down more than a mile in late May before the drill bit turned 90 degrees. It then chewed a 4,000-foot-long horizontal shaft through a dense layer of flaky black rock that geologists call Utica shale.

If all goes as planned, a set of high-pressure pumps will replace the rig and eventually shoot millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals down the well.

The premise is that the mixture will shatter the shale and send trapped natural gas, oil, propane and butane streaming to the surface.

This process is called hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," and that makes this 175-foot-tall rig more than just an expensive drill.

It's also a lightning rod.

Supporters of shale drilling, including Gov. John Kasich, see the beginning of an expanding oil-and-gas industry that could create thousands of Ohio jobs, all focused on producing a cheap, " clean" energy supply that could last for generations.

"If the discovery of Utica shale and this natural gas can lift people and lift families and provide jobs, that in and of itself is worth it," Kasich said. "We have to manage it right. "

But critics say this type of drilling is an environmental nightmare that can poison the soil, water and air.

They say the chemicals used in fracturing, and the heavy metals in wastewater, are a threat to groundwater and streams.

And they point to spills, contaminated drinking-water wells and tales of sickened landowners in Pennsylvania, where shale drilling began in 2005, as evidence of what could happen in Ohio.

"Time will tell if this will be a boom or a bust, but we need to make sure our air, land and water don't crater out getting there," said Jack Shaner, a lobbyist for the Ohio Environmental Council.


Trade secrets

State geologists say that if energy companies can extract just 5 percent of the resources in the Utica shale, they would recover 15.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 5.5 billion barrels of butane, propane and crude oil.

That's enough natural gas to fuel Ohio's needs for 21 years.

"It's such a game-changer," said Larry Wickstrom, director of the Ohio Geological Survey.

Since late 2009, 18 wells have been drilled or are being drilled into the Utica shale in Ohio. Eight wells have been drilled into the Marcellus shale, another gas-bearing rock layer that stretches from Ohio to New York.

How much gas and oil the wells produce won't be publicly available until March 31, when companies must file reports with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

"We've applied for 10 permits for Utica wells," said Ron Whitmire, spokesman for Houston-based EnerVest. "What happens next will depend on what those 10 wells show."

The state has issued permits to eight companies for a total of 52 vertical test wells and horizontal wells in the Utica shale that have yet to be drilled.


Safety questions

In Pennsylvania, more than 3,800 gas wells have been drilled into the Marcellus shale since 2005. The wells produced 79 billion cubic feet of gas in 2009, enough to supply the state of Montana for a year.

A July report by economists at Penn State University estimates that shale-gas drilling and production were worth $11.2 billion to the state economy last year.

The report also says the industry helped support 140,000 jobs, with the biggest effects in construction, mining and retail. Pennsylvania officials say the drilling boom has been great for the economy.

"There's an awful lot of opportunities for growth that we're seeing and that we're trying to seize upon," said Patrick Henderson, Gov. Tom Corbett's energy adviser.

An industry report released last week predicted that growth in Ohio's oil and natural-gas production could lead to 200,000 new jobs and $14 billion in investments in the next four years.

Such estimates have been the subject of intense debate, with critics saying they are grossly exaggerated.

But drilling in Pennsylvania has produced a number of environmental problems, violations, fines and complaints as well.

One problem is "brine," the water that comes back up with the natural gas. It is tainted with salt, hazardous metals and chemicals used to fracture the shale.

Fracking has been used for decades to help crack sandstone and other oil- and gas-bearing rock. But horizontal wells use considerably more fluid. In a week, an energy company injects an average of 5 million gallons of water, sand and chemicals into a single well. About 15 percent of the water initially comes back up, and the wells continue to discharge smaller amounts for years.

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The family's champion barrel horse and prized boxer both died in 2010. She said the horse died after losing more than 100 pounds, and tests showed that the boxer had been poisoned by ethylene glycol.

NYDOT: Fracking Expansion Could Cost State and Local Gov'ts As Much as $378 Million

greenlivingguy
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 11:07PM

The natural gas industry has embraced hydraulic fracturing, or fracking as it has come to be known in the parlance of our times, and its advocates are actively engaged in positioning it as the silver bullet that will solve virtually all of our nation’s energy woes.

But to say that there are legitimate concerns about the practice and its potential effects on the environment would be an understatement.

To date, most of those concerns have centered around the potential for water contamination in areas where hydraulic fracturing is widely practiced. Indeed, a recent report from researchers at Duke University linked hydraulic fracturing to increased methane content in well water.

But the potential fallout from fracking operations doesn’t end at the water table.

An assessment of the potential impact that natural gas development will have on the communities located within the Marcellus Shale play states that the affect will be nothing less than, “ominous.”

'The potential transportation impacts are ominous. Assuming current gas drilling technology and a lower level of development than will be experienced in Pennsylvania the Marcellus region will see a peak year increase of up to 1.5-million heavy truck trips, and induced development may increase peak hour trips by 36,000 trips/hour. While this new traffic will be distributed around the Marcellus region this Discussion Paper suggests that it will be necessary to reconstruct hundreds of miles of roads and scores of bridges and undertake safety and operational improvements in many areas.'



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Marcellus Shale Estimates Slashed by 80 Percent

Maybe natural gas isn't as bountiful as some like to think.

The United States Geological Survey this week issued a report stating that the Marcellus Shale formation contains 84 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, but technically recoverable natural gas and 3.4 billion barrels of technically recoverable natural gas liquids.

That's well up from the 2 trillion cubic feet estimate issued by the USGS in 2002 for the geological formation that straddles Pennsylvania and New York. The increase is due to advances in hydraulic fracking. However, it is far lower than the estimate of 410 trillion cubic feet that the Energy Information Administration has been recently using. As a result, the EIA said it would reduce its estimates by over 80 percent to match the USGS forecast.

The report will likely give natural gas skeptics ammunition in the debate over the role that gas can and should play in the energy strategy of the U.S. Proponents portray gas as the fuel of the future. Hydraulic fracking has opened up a large number of new fields and caused the price to plummet from $7 for a million BTUs to just over $4.

An MIT report issued earlier this year noted that the U.S. will likely become a net importer of gas by 2030.


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