Free Republic

WASHINGTON, DC, Sept. 10 -- The US Environmental Protection Agency asked nine service companies to voluntarily supply information about chemicals in their hydraulic fracturing fluids for its study of the completion process’s possible effects on subsurface drinking water. It asked the companies to provide the information within 30 days and to report within 7 days whether they will be able to comply. EPA undertook its study in response to a 2009 congressional directive and has held public hearings, the final two of which are scheduled for Sept. 13 and 15 in Binghamton, NY. In its request, it also asked BJ...

Kathryn Klaber, the executive director of Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group, said, "Our understanding, based on previews of the film, is that it’s loaded with misleading claims and untruths, and completely fails to recognize the well-known fact that hydraulic fracturing has been used in this state for a half-century, and according to state and federal regulators, has never once been found to adversely impact the public’s underground drinking water supplies."

A company drilling in the Marcellus Shale region in southwest Pennsylvania has been fined $97,350 for allowing "fracking" wastewater to overflow a pit and contaminate a watershed in Hopewell Township, Washington County. The state Department of Environmental Protection said that Atlas Resources L.L.C., a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlas Energy Inc., based in Moon Township, Allegheny County, corrected the problem once it was discovered. The wastewater was a by-product of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," during which millions of gallons of high-pressure water, sand, and chemicals are injected into a well to shatter the shale to release trapped natural gas. In...

Pittsburgh City Council this morning passed a resolution demanding the state impose a one-year moratorium on Marcellus Shale drilling while it considers tighter regulations for the drilling industry. State Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, has introduced a bill that would require a moratorium on new drilling. Under his bill, existing drilling operations would be allowed to continue. Though no drilling is occurring in the city now, drilling company representatives have been negotiating for access to properties in Lawrenceville.

PITTSBURGH—Around suppertime on June 3 in Clearfield County, a geyser of natural gas and sludge began shooting out of a well called Punxsutawney Hunting Club 36. The toxic stew of gas, salt water, mud and chemicals went 75 feet into the air for 16 hours. Some of this mess seeped into a stream northeast of Pittsburgh. Four days later, as authorities were cleaning up the debris in Pennsylvania, an explosion burned seven workers at a gas well on the site of an abandoned coal mine outside of Moundsville, W.Va., just southwest of Pittsburgh. The back-to-back emergencies were like a five-alarm...

Agriculture officials have quarantined 28 beef cattle on a Pennsylvania farm after wastewater from a nearby gas well leaked into a field and came in contact with the animals. The state Department of Agriculture said the action was its first livestock quarantine related to pollution from natural gas drilling. Although the quarantine was ordered in May, it was announced Thursday. A mere taste of what's to come from natural-gas fracking in the Marcellus Shale, folks. With fracking, or hydraulic fracturing of rock formations to extract natural gas, we're setting ourselves up for an environmental disaster of epic proportions -- and...

Energy: A new study shows that our reluctance to develop domestic energy will cost the beleaguered U.S. economy trillions in opportunity costs, reduce our gross domestic product and increase our trade deficit. From trying to stimulate jobs in nonexistent ZIP codes at great expense to worshiping the false gods of climate change, our biggest deficit these days may be in the area of common sense. A new study shows that many of our wounds are self-inflicted as we forgo the wealth and jobs to be found in our waters and under our feet. The study by Science Applications International Corp....

Energy Policy: New York's governor wants to tap into a shale formation that can supply the entire U.S. with natural gas for 65 years. Will NIMBY environmentalists let him stimulate New York's and America's energy economy? Last week, David Patterson released a draft report of his Energy Planning Board that does something Democrats are loath to do: It proposes developing a domestic energy resource — the huge amounts of natural gas trapped in the Marcellus Shale formation. New York produces 5% of its natural gas in-state and imports more than 95% from the Gulf Coast and Canada. The Marcellus Shale...

The rush to tie up drilling rights in Marcellus shale is ramping up just west of the Interstate 81 corridor, as companies compete to sign leases. The black sedimentary rock runs from western New York south into West Virginia. It has been promoted as one of the most promising natural gas sources in the United States. Piping the gas through the hills and mountains of Appalachia, however, will not be easy. New technologies that include horizontal drilling and pumping in water to fracture the rock, have been found to release more gas and make recoveries in shale more economical. Rising...

Energy Policy: New York's governor wants to tap into a shale formation that can supply the entire U.S. with natural gas for 65 years. Will NIMBY environmentalists let him stimulate New York's and America's energy economy?Last week, David Patterson released a draft report of his Energy Planning Board that does something Democrats are loath to do: It proposes developing a domestic energy resource — the huge amounts of natural gas trapped in the Marcellus Shale formation. New York produces 5% of its natural gas in-state and imports more than 95% from the Gulf Coast and Canada. The Marcellus Shale stretches...

The Marcellus Shale play is the latest huge thing in natural gas, considered by some to be a "super giant" gas field. Read more here http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/246893563.shtml The edge of the Marcellus Shale in Northeast PA and NY is about 100 miles from NYC, which means the gas needs only a very short trip by pipeline to the major metropolitan centers. Natural gas is the cleanest of the fossil fuels and also is a source for hydrogen for hydrogen powered vehicles. So here are a bunch of "concerned citizens" planning to oppose it with all their might. "The Damascus group has...

On Thursday's broadcast of the Marketplace radio program, Marcellus Andrews "commented" on Don Imus' racial slurs against the Rutgers' women's basketball team. If American Public Media (APM) was to broadcast a rational condemnation of racism, that would be understandable; but for APM to disseminate a racist rant by Andrews is unconscionable. You know for a fact that APM would never allow a Caucasian-American tirade threatening African-Americans with (at least economic) violence, and stereotyping all Black people as racists. Nonetheless, APM permitted African-American racism to be spewed during the prime-time news hour. Here is Andrews' "commentary," annotated by yours-truly: MARCELLUS ANDREWS:...