Many scientists credit drop in carbon emissions to gas use

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Remains of possible explosives at Pa. drill sites

Associated Press in The Wall Street Journal  4/18/2013

PITTSBURGH — Police say they're investigating reports remains of small explosive devices were found at two natural gas drilling sites in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Shell Oil Co. spokeswoman Kelly OpDeWeegh said in an email Thursday the company contacted state police on April 12 after "charred debris" was found at an inactive drill site in Tioga County. Shell also informed authorities of a possibly similar finding on a different pad on March 21.

State police spokeswoman Maria Finn says there are no signs people or drilling operations were in any danger. She says the investigation into "possible components associated with small explosive devices" is ongoing.

Houston-based Shell says the FBI also is involved.

Gov scared frackless

By Fred Dicker in NY Post 4/22/13

Gov. Cuomo has come up with yet another excuse for delaying a decision on allowing fracking for natural gas in New York’s Southern Tier: He’s afraid the Legislature will stop him, The Post has learned.

At least that’s what Cuomo told a high-level meeting of state business leaders at the Executive Mansion just a few weeks ago, when he was pressed on why he wouldn’t green-light a process that even his own state Health Department said was safe and that his Environmental Conservation Department said will create tens of thousands of jobs in one of the poorest areas of the state.

“The governor was pressed on why he’s waited nearly 2 1/2 years and still hasn’t made a decision,’’ said one of the participants at the luncheon meeting, during which Cuomo hosted the leaders of the Business Council of New York State, the state’s largest business organization and one that endorsed him for governor in 2010.

“Cuomo said he was afraid of the Legislature, that if he gave the go-ahead to hydrofracking then the Legislature would pass a moratorium and try to ban it, and that they’d probably do it with enough votes to override his veto,’’ the source continued.

Reached for comment, Cuomo spokesman and Chief of Staff Josh Vlasto insisted that the source was wrong and that the governor had never told business leaders that he feared the Legislature would impose a moratorium or override a veto.

“Totally false,’’ Vlasto told The Post.

But Business Council President and CEO Heather Briccetti told The Post that Cuomo had, in fact, made the statement to...

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Pa. firm opens new plant to treat Marcellus Shale wastewater

By Associated Press, Published: April 18 in Washington Post

Aquatech International Corp., which is based in Canonsburg, says the new plant opened in Tioga County on Wednesday. That’s in northeast Pennsylvania near the New York border.

The company says the Tioga facility has a central treatment plant that uses a combination of technologies to treat drilling fluids, the highly salty brine that flows back from wells, and other oil and natural gas wastewaters.

Critics of gas drilling, or fracking, are concerned about the huge amounts of wastewater generated by a recent drilling boom.

Treated wastewater can be reused in other wells, thus reducing the amount of fresh water that drillers use to fracture, or stimulate, well production.

Anti-fracking equals pro-poverty for N.Y.

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Rethink liquified gas ban

By T. BOONE PICKENS AND GEORGE D. MAZIARZ, Commentary Published 5:27 pm, Tuesday, April 16, 2013 In Timesunion.com

These days, just mention the term "natural gas" and it immediately generates controversy in New York. If New Yorkers don't want the economic benefits of shale gas, that's up to them, but it is a shame not to take advantage of this important natural resource to create upstate jobs and promote cleaner air.

Lost and confused in all the heated debate on drilling for shale gas is that New York is on the cusp of missing the tremendous economic and environmental benefits of using a safe, reliable and inexpensive form of natural gas — liquefied natural gas in transportation.

Across the country, long haul trucks and other fleet vehicles are saving fuel costs and reducing dangerous greenhouse gas emissions by switching from engines that burn dirty, imported diesel to those that run on cleaner, domestic LNG.

To facilitate this transition, the private sector is stepping forward to build the infrastructure for a nationwide network of LNG refueling stations along major interstate trucking routes. This network will allow America's truckers and fleet operators to convert their vehicles to a cleaner and less expensive fuel, thereby reducing the cost of goods movement while improving air quality.

Unfortunately, while progress is being made across the country, there is one big gap on the map.

Today, an outdated law has made New York the only state in America that bans the use of LNG. A 1973 fire at an LNG facility in Staten Island led to the imposition of...

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Health survey in NEPA Marcellus area

In The River Reporter 4/18/13

NORTHEAST PA — Pennsylvania’s Northeast Regional Cancer Institute (NRCI) recently completed a Community Health Survey in the Marcellus Shale region of Northeast Pennsylvania. The project was funded by the PA Department of Public Welfare.

“A variety of issues related to ‘fracking’ used to produce natural gas have contributed to community concerns about potential adverse health outcomes. The data can be used as a reference point to compare the health of the community in the future should these concerns continue or grow,” said Dr. Samuel Lesko, principle investigator for the survey.

The survey documents the current health status of residents of nine counties, including Wayne County. A total of 458 individuals took part in the survey, answering questions about themselves, their medical history, where they have lived, drinking water sources and habits that are known to affect health.

“Although we gathered this data with the primary purpose of serving as a baseline for possible future investigations, it became apparent that risk factors for poor health such as tobacco use, lack of health insurance, and obesity are all common in the community. Putting potential concerns about Marcellus Shale drilling aside, this is not a community on track for better health,” said Dr. Lesko.

A sizable majority who took the survey indicated a willingness to participate in similar research in the future, which Bob Durkin, president of NRCI called a very positive sign. “The survey is a model for future studies that can continue...

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Letter: Trust scientists on hydrofracking

To the editor Published 5:59 pm, Saturday, April 13, 2013 Timesunion .com

Your editorial "Yes, a drilling moratorium," March 26, ignores 29 other states that safely allow drilling for natural gas.

Continually advocating for more study on gas development while not also indicating the scientific bar to be reached for acceptance now constitutes a practical means of obstruction that political opponents use against fossil fuel development in general.

The obstruction ignores the fact that New York relies heavily on natural gas to replace heating oil for its energy needs or that the state's top geologist spoke of the "gift" of natural gas because it reduces carbon dioxide emissions.

The state has an obligation to review the industries within its borders in a timely and complete fashion. With respect to natural gas, there has been a four-year and now an eight-month review without a road map to completion. Rather than collaborate and innovate with industry, as other states do with respect to natural gas development, New York appears to have chosen the opposite.

Use of natural gas will only increase as Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Energy Highway and the PlaNYC 2030 plans both call for increased reliance on natural gas.

The state would be prudent to trust its scientific regulators because, if it doesn't, why should the general public have confidence in state regulatory abilities? It is time for the...

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Farmers and foodies call for fracking ban

This is very typical of the false information spouted by the gas obstructionists. It claims nothing that can be proven or confirmed by even the best of reporters really doing a good job, and we are very short of them with regard to gas. For example there were no flowback ponds in Tioga Pa.  in 2010 check it out, by all means do not take my word for it.  What we can say with great confidence is that the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York, NEVER claimed that there was no risk in drilling for gas. Since inception we have stated that drilling waste water should be stored in metal containers with a closed loop system, not open ponds on the drill site. We have actively researched and supported containment and recycling of waste water for reuse in the hydrofracking processes. What has occurred is that there are no longer ponds containing waste water in Pennsylvania and New York never intended to allow their use, finding it unacceptable. If even a tenth of the time,energy and money was spent on solid scientific research and innovation instead of blind obstruction,  the USA contribution to global warming would be even more reduced than it has been. The JLCNY does not like to be misquoted or have its efforts misconstrued, by those blind and ignorant of the truth. The information on gas drilling is freely available nationwide, there have been no issues that have caused permanent affect on the land. We have said for years that the real conservationists in this argument are the farmers and landowners who depend on the land for their livelihood and recreation. The fact that the same people would receive just...

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Using Eminent Domain for Pipelines? That's Right of Way Done Wrong

New York is a no-fracking zone—and many landowners are even losing money on gas flowing from other states.

By CHRISTOPHER DENTON in The Wall Street Journal 4/12/2013

Elmira, N.Y.

Last month the New York State Assembly voted to create a legislative moratorium on high- volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, until 2015 to further assess health and environmental concerns. The Senate may follow suit. The current executive moratorium has been in place since 2008.

But outside of Albany, many farmers and landowners have welcomed the revenues that have  come with the drilling of the Trenton Black River formation and would likewise welcome drilling in the Marcellus and Utica formations, two of the largest natural-gas deposits in the nation, which have gone underdeveloped in the state since 2008. During this four-and-a-half-year wait, many farmers in rural New York have gone out of business, the oldest generation has begun to die off and the unemployment rate has hit near record highs.

In addition to being denied revenues from the oil and gas deposits beneath their feet, many New York farmers and landowners are also not being justly compensated for the pipelines running through their fields. Regardless of one's stance on high-volume fracking, private companies should not be able to use eminent domain to seize land-use rights for pipelines at one price—deemed fair by the courts—only to turn around and sell those rights at a substantial...

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