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Featured Headlines
| Subcommittee Democrats Stress the Need to Ensure the Safety of Hydraulic Fracturing |
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4/27/2013 - utilityproducts.com |
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| Today, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology's Subcommittees on Energy and Environment held a joint hearing entitled, "Review of Federal Hydraulic Fracturing Activities." Testifying before the Subcommittees were representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey (DOI/USGS), and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The stated purpose of this hearing was to review agencies' hydraulic fracturing related research efforts, with a primary focus on examining progress under President Obama's Executive Order 13605 and the associated interagency Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). However, the Majority spent most of their time attacking the EPA. The Executive Order is part of the President's "All of the Above" approach to energy development. It established an interagency working group to support safe and responsible development of domestic natural gas resources. |
| House Dems, Environmentalists Seek to Block Drilling in Loyalsock State Forest |
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| State House Democrats and environmental advocates are asking the Corbett administration to block natural gas drilling in a state forest that straddles three counties in the thick of Marcellus Shale country. Anadarko Petroleum owns subsurface rights to tens of thousands of acres of the Loyalsock State Forest, but it could only access the shale below by way of scattered chunks of land that also happen to be ecologically sensitive. Now, some lawmakers want Anadarko's request for an agreement that would allow drilling in the forest to be turned down. |
| Obama 'Energy Security Trust' Pushes Green Research And Natural Gas Development |
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3/15/2013 - huffingtonpost.com |
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| President Barack Obama toured the Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago on Friday and announced his plans for an "Energy Security Trust" to further clean energy research and development in the U.S. The trust, which will be funded by federal royalties from offshore oil and gas drilling and not add to the budget deficit, will provide for $2 billion in research over the next 10 years. According to the White House, it will advance research into technologies like electric vehicle batteries, biofuels and hydrogen fuel cells. Obama's Energy Security Trust proposal comes as his administration is reportedly looking to delay expected regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants. The Washington Post reported Friday, "several individuals briefed on the matter" indicated the proposal may be revised, signaling a delay in the long-awaited rules. |
| NY Assembly Votes to Extend Fracking Moratorium Until 2015 |
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3/14/2013 - energy.aol.com |
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| The NY State Assembly voted to enact legislation that would extend the moratorium on high volume hydraulic fracturing until 2015, aiming to facilitate additional health and environmental impact assessments. On March 6, 2013, the New York State Assembly passed a bill to further suspend issuance of permits for high volume hydraulic fracturing until May 15, 2015. The bill passed with a vote of 95-40 and marks the Assembly's third moratorium, following similar measures in 2010 and 2011. The industry currently awaits the release of DEC's Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) and a subsequent ruling for permit issuance. |
| Fracking Moratorium in New York Gets Extended |
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3/11/2013 - triplepundit.com |
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| The New York State Assembly last week approved a two-year moratorium on the process. Actually, the action extended a de facto fracking ban that has been in place since 2008. The moratorium, if approved by the State Senate and signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, will extend to 2015. It's a blow to the oil and gas industry's plans to begin fracking operations in the New York portion of the Marcellus Shale basin. |
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Recent News
| Gas industry group crashes NY senators' Pennsylvania tour [VIDEO] |
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4/29/2013 - lohudblogs.com |
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| Sens. David Carlucci, Cecilia Tkaczyk and Bill Perkins all traveled to northeastern Pennsylvania on Friday for a tour organized by an anti-fracking group. And when they got there, a staffer for a gas-industry-funded group decided to tail along. Energy in Depth, an advocacy group funded by an assortment of oil-and-gas companies and trade groups, took an assortment of videos of the trip and posted their own take on it today. They show some relatively tense confrontations between the trip organizers, the Energy in Depth staffer and a spokesman for WPX, a gas company with wells in the area; At one point, the WPX spokesman refers to trip organizers Vera Scroggins and Craig Stevens as "professional activists," to which Perkins objected and Scroggins correctly pointed out that the Energy in Depth staffer was being paid by the industry group. |
| EPA methane report further divides fracking camps |
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| The Environmental Protection Agency has dramatically lowered its estimate of how much of a potent heat-trapping gas leaks during natural gas production, in a shift with major implications for a debate that has divided environmentalists: Does the recent boom in fracking help or hurt the fight against climate change? The new EPA data is "kind of an earthquake" in the debate over drilling, said Michael Shellenberger, the president of the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental group based in Oakland, Calif. "This is great news for anybody concerned about the climate and strong proof that existing technologies can be deployed to reduce methane leaks." The scope of the EPA's revision was vast. In a mid-April report on greenhouse emissions, the agency now says that tighter pollution controls instituted by the industry resulted in an average annual decrease of 41.6 million metric tons of methane emissions from 1990 through 2010, or more than 850 million metric tons overall. That's about a 20 percent reduction from previous estimates. The agency converts the methane emissions into their equivalent in carbon dioxide, following standard scientific practice. |
| Farmer waits for answers |
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4/27/2013 - chieftain.com |
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| For most of two days, Brett Corsentino sat quietly listening to theoretical discussions about the relationship of oil and gas drilling to water. For him, however, there is a much more direct and personal link. Toward the end of the Arkansas River Basin Water Forum, he spoke up about how he believes gas drilling has brought tainted water from under the ground and to the surface, where it ruined his land. He also feels he has hit a brick wall trying to get the state to make things right. |
| Eminent domain plays a key role in U.S. pipeline projects |
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4/27/2013 - post-gazette.com |
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| The pipelines are coming, and with them, the potential for eminent domain lawsuits that leave property owners over a barrel. This month Columbia Gas Transmission filed two federal eminent domain lawsuits, demanding access to land in Allegheny, Indiana, Washington and Westmoreland counties for pipeline reconstruction or other infrastructure work. Uncommon until recently, such complaints could be a sign of things to come as gas companies upgrade and expand pipelines statewide. Texas Eastern Transmission, for instance, is seeking approval for $520 million in pipeline expansions and improvements to carry gas from Pennsylvania's Marcellus to New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Mississippi and Louisiana. |
| Report warns of depletion due to fracking |
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4/26/2013 - jamestownsun.com |
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| A scathing report issued Thursday by the Western Organization of Resource Councils says water used in the process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is reaching a crisis point in Western states. The regional network of organizations' 37-page report, titled "Gone for Good," warns of continued diminished water supplies in areas that have been hit hard by drought in recent years. The report also states that the data currently available and processes used to track energy industry water used for fracking are not sufficient, and that the "current level of water use for oil and gas production simply cannot be sustained." |
| Fracking Truck Sets Off Radiation Alarm At Landfill |
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| A truck carrying drill cuttings from a hydraulic fracturing pad in the Marcellus Shale was rejected by a Pennsylvania landfill Friday after it set off a radiation alarm, according to published reports. The truck was emitting gamma radiation from radium 226 at almost ten times the level permitted at the landfill. The MAX Environmental Technologies truck was first quarantined at the landfill, which is operated by MAX, and then sent back to the fracking pad--Rice Energy's Thunder II pad in Greene County--to be redirected to a site that can accept higher levels of radiation. The cuttings in the truck were found to emit 96 microrem per hour of radiation, and the landfill is required to reject materials that emit more than 10 microrem. |
| When will New York officials finally decide on hydraulic fracturing? |
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4/21/2013 - pressconnects.com |
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| When state Health Commissioner Nirav Shah announced in early March that his much-anticipated review of shale gas drilling would be finished in "the next few weeks," Stephen Herz was skeptical. He had reason to be. Herz and everyone following the debate on hydraulic fracturing had heard it from Shah before. Twice, in fact -- once in January and again in February. At various times since 2008, New York regulators have taken their best guess at when the state would make a decision on whether to allow large-scale fracking, the much-debated technique used to unlock gas from the Marcellus Shale. |
| Artists Against Fracking will register as lobbyists, if necessary |
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| Artists Against Fracking said neither the group nor supporters Yoko Ono or Sean Lennon have been told to register as lobbyists in their campaign against gas drilling in New York, but will if necessary to continue their work. A good-government advocate and two lobbying experts said the state should review whether Artists Against Fracking and its supporter-celebrities should be registered as lobbyists. The group and nearly 200 entertainers connected with it aren't currently registered lobbyists, a search by The Associated Press of the database of the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics shows. |
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