PA Marcellus News Digest March 5, 2012
Articles
Fish and Boat needs more from impact fee, rep says
Kulsoon Khan
March 3
A new state law that allocates $1 million annually to the Fish and Boat Commission from the Marcellus Shale impact fee doesn't go far enough, according to a local state legislator.
Link: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/fish-and-boat-needs-more-from-impact-fee-rep-says-1.1280490#axzz1oHUd5Ahv
Workers Promised Career In Marcellus Shale Industry Terminated After 1 Month
60 Men Leave Families, Jobs Behind To Come To Pa. For New Opportunity
WTAE Pittsburgh
March 2
(includes video)
PITTSBURGH -- Sixty men from all over the United States are staying in a Moon Township hotel Friday night with one common bond: they came to Pennsylvania with the promise of a career in the Marcellus Shale gas drilling industry, only to have it crushed a month later.
Link: http://www.wtae.com/news/30596320/detail.html
Marcellus Shale activity seemingly affecting county-level dairy production
Montgomery News
March 2
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Natural-gas development appears to be associated with falling dairy production in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale region, but the exact reasons for the decline are unclear, according to researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.
Link: http://www.montgomerynews.com/articles/2012/03/02/montgomery_life/news/doc4f5104947e8ac418653284.txt?viewmode=default
Susquehanna County gas wells are most productive in Pa.
8 of state's 10 top wells just south of N.Y. state line
Press Connects
Steve Reilly
March 2
Only a few miles south of the state line, gas companies are tapping what may be the richest pocket of natural gas in the Northeast.
According to data released recently by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, eight of that state's 10 most-productive shale gas wells from July to December of 2011 were drilled in two townships in rural Susquehanna County.
Link: http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20120302/NEWS01/203020390/Susquehanna-County-leads-Pa-natural-gas-production?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE
Fight possible over Pennsylvania drilling rules on zoning
Tribune-Review
AP
March 4
HARRISBURG -- In the final weeks before the Legislature approved a sweeping Marcellus Shale law, Brian Coppola met with his area's lawmakers to warn against stripping municipalities of their zoning power to influence the location of drilling rigs, wastewater pits and compressor stations.
Link: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/state/s_784796.html
Industry gets cast in 'FrackNation,' the latest documentary on the drilling debate
Post-Gazette
Erich Schwartzel
March 4
The fracking fight is coming soon to a theater near you.
More than a dozen Pennsylvania communities that are home to natural gas drilling will get the big-screen treatment this summer in "FrackNation," a new movie attempting to serve as a counterargument to the 2010 "Gasland" feature that still fuels the anti-drilling fracktivist movement.
Link: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#label/Marcellus+Digest/135e2d6b76eb72ca
Penn State webinar to focus on protection of water supplies
Tribune-Review
March 4
Penn State will sponsor a Web-based seminar to examine municipalities' roles related to water use and protection in connection with Marcellus shale gas development in Pennsylvania.
Link: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/state/s_784759.html
DCNR Secretary: Elimination Of Keystone Funds Is Permanent
NorthcentralPA
Feb. 28
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Richard Allan told the House Appropriations Committee Tuesday the transfer of $38 million from the Keystone, Parks and Conservation Fund to the General Fund is not just a one-time transfer, but is proposed to be permanent.
Link: http://northcentralpa.com/feeditem/2012-02-28_dcnr-secretary-elimination-keystone-funds-permanent
Hydraulic Fracturing a Danger to Water, Food, Farmland
Damascus Citizens for Sustainability
Feb. 29
(Rimbey, Alberta, February 23, 2012) “Many farmers in my area who either have direct experience with the destructive nature of hydro-fracking technology on their water wells, or who have neighbours who have been affected have come to me with their concerns” says Jan Slomp, Rimbey area dairy farmer and Region 7 (Alberta) Coordinator for the National Farmers Union (NFU). “We are in the heart of Alberta’s oil and gas country where our ability to produce good, wholesome food is at risk of being compromised by the widespread, virtually unregulated use of this dangerous process.”
Link: http://www.damascuscitizensforsustainability.org/2012/02/hydraulic-fracturing-a-danger-to-water-food-farmland/
Gas exodus?
Sun-Gazette
David Thompson
March 4
Rumor has it that the natural gas industry, which has been ramping up activity the past three years, is pulling up stakes and moving en masse for greener pastures.
Link: http://www.sungazette.com/page/content.detail/id/575373/Gas-exodus-.html?nav=5011
John Hanger's Facts of The Day
Blog
March 2
Jeff Goodell, the author of "The Big Fracking Bubble: The Scam Behind the Gas Boom," should split his pay with the NYT gas reporter, because Goodell regurgitates all the NYT's greatest gas hits, including ones that the NYT Public Editor found to be misleading or false. Goodell even uses many of the NYT reporter's characters--Art Berman, Deborah Rogers, and Anthony Ingrafea--to voice his narrative.
Link: http://www.johnhanger.blogspot.com/2012/03/rolling-stone-magazine-sadly.html
Washington County expects to adopt drilling ordinance
Observer-Reporter
Barbara S. Miller
March 1
Although some have asked Washington County to take a stand and reject millions of dollars in Marcellus Shale drilling impact fees, the commissioners expect to adopt an ordinance today allowing both the county and its municipalities to reap revenue from the Marcellus Shale gas industry.
Link: http://www.observer-reporter.com/or/story11/03-01-2012-commish-2pass-impact-fee-
County commissioners in favor of Marcellus impact fee
Daily American
Bruce Siwy
Feb. 28
Somerset County Commissioners have already reached an informal consensus on enacting a Marcellus Shale impact fee.
Gov. Tom Corbett signed a law Feb. 14 that allows counties to tax natural gas extracted from deep shale formations for the first time. Individual counties have 60 days from that date to pass an ordinance imposing the fee.
Link: http://www.dailyamerican.com/news/somerset/da-ot-county-commissioners-in-favor-of-marcellus-impact-fee-20120228,0,951014.story
Counties likely to OK fees for Marcellus gas
Tribune-Democrat
Kathy Mellott
March 3
All or nearly all of the 40-plus Pennsylvania counties that sit atop Marcellus Shale natural gas likely will enact a per-well fee, according to the state Association of County Commissioners.
Link: http://tribune-democrat.com/local/x1511866332/Counties-likely-to-OK-fees-for-Marcellus-gas
North Branch Land Trust opens door to drilling beneath Howland Preserve
Times-Tribune
Elizabeth Skrapits
March 5
Land trust allows underground gas drilling Decision puts ethics in question
In a turnaround from its earlier stance, the North Branch Land Trust has opened the door to natural gas drilling beneath the Wyoming County property it pledged to conserve.
Link: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/north-branch-land-trust-opens-door-to-drilling-beneath-howland-preserve-1.1281164#axzz1oH1vRCRc
EPA heightens scrutiny of Pa.'s Marcellus Shale
Times Leader
AP
March 5
Tugging on rubber gloves, a laboratory worker kneels before a gushing spigot behind Kim Grosso's house and positions an empty bottle under the clear, cold stream. The process is repeated dozens of times as bottles are filled, marked and packed into coolers.
After extensive testing, Grosso and dozens of her neighbors will know this week what may be lurking in their well water as federal regulators investigate claims of contamination in the midst of one of the nation's most productive natural gas fields.
Link: http://www.timesleader.com/news/EPA_heightens_scrutiny_of_Pa__s_Marcellus_Shale_03-05-2012.html
EPA testing in Dimock, Pa., feeds drilling debate
Patriot-News
AP
March 5
DIMOCK, Pa. (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's testing of scores of water wells will give residents of a small northeastern Pennsylvania village a snapshot of the aquifer they rely on for drinking, cooking and bathing.
Link: http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf/story/epa-testing-in-dimock-pa-feeds-drilling/8932d4be239f44aabb11583bf3825064
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