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Welcome to MarcellusFacts.com

admin — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 19:01:17 +0000

Thank you for visiting MarcellusFacts.com – your source for information about the benefits of natural gas exploration of the Marcellus Shale. If you’re interested in learning more about the variety of issues related to the Marcellus Shale, please click here to read an informational report entitled, Homegrown Energy. Additionally, you’ll find a collection of Marcellus Shale media reports in the Media Coverage section.

Please visit this site often as we’ll continually post media coverage, informational event announcements and much more. Thank you.

Killing drilling with farcical ‘science’

admin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:09:19 +0000

By JON ENTINE

From today’s New York Post, January 24, 2012

The academic face of the anti-fracking movement — Cornell marine ecologist Robert Howarth — increasingly looks like he’s willing to turn science into farce.

Last spring, the once-obscure professor became the go-to expert for anti-fracking journalists and lawmakers when he published a report claiming shale gas pollutes more than coal. The New York Times featured his study in two uncritical articles in one week, he was interviewed on dozens of talk shows — and the media echo chamber did the rest: He was a star.

Since then, other scientists have almost universally challenged his findings — but now he’s doubled down.

Last week, Howarth released another scientifically questionable study, now warning that fracking could push the world over a tipping point, sending temperatures irreversibly higher — an inflammatory and demonstrably incorrect assertion.

Here’s the backstory. Shale gas is acknowledged as an ideal “bridge fuel” to a cleaner energy future. It’s become cost-attractive thanks to fracking: a proven extraction technique used for decades, technologically tweaked to mine shale gas — notably the Marcellus Formation beneath a large swath of New York.

Thanks to fracking, America is poised to transform itself from a fuel pauper, dependent upon the whims of Mideast madmen and Russian oligarchs, into an energy exporter.

But hard leftists have always opposed any energy other than wind or solar. That’s where Howarth and the anti-fracking Park Foundation come in.

In an interview, Howarth told me his goal was to make the anti-fracking movement mainstream and fashionable. He said he met with the Ithaca-based foundation two years ago, agreeing to produce a study challenging the conventional wisdom that shale gas is comparatively clean.

The polluting impact of shale gas revolves around one key issue: how much methane gas is released during extraction. Methane has more short-term global-warming impact than any other fossil fuel. Howarth emerged from academic nowhere when he claimed shale-gas wells leak like sieves, venting methane half the time, spewing 7 percent to 8 percent of reserves into the atmosphere.

“That’s absurd,” says Michael Levi, director of the Program on Energy Security and Climate Change at the Council of Foreign Relations. “Most methane gas is either ‘delivered to sales’ with no leakage, or it’s burnt off through flaring, which diminishes its greenhouse impact.”

Renowned geologist Lawrence Cathles, also at Cornell, who published a scathing deconstruction of Howarth’s paper this month, says that he “doesn’t document venting but what the industry calls ‘capture.’”

Almost every independent researcher — at the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Energy Department and numerous independent university teams — has slammed Howarth’s conclusions. At a minimum, the evidence suggests he either acted in bad faith or is ignorant of gas technology.

The core problem: Howarth uses Environmental Protection Agency estimates dating to 2007 — ancient data, given how quickly the technology is evolving.

Crucially, he fails to account for innovation. Gas lost through leakage is money lost, literally into thin air. For that reason, new wells are now “green completed” — meaning most leaking gas is captured and sold rather than vented.

Cathles notes the latest Devon study, now being verified by the EPA, documenting that shale gas is vented in only 5 percent of wells. The Energy Department estimates only 1 percent to 2 percent of methane is now lost during production.

Bottom line, almost all nonindustry-linked researchers believe Howarth exaggerates the impact of shale-gas leakage by 10 to 20 times. “His conclusions are more a politically charged articulation than a balanced scientific assessment,” Cathles says.

Howarth hired an aggressive PR firm, the Hastings Group, to promote his politicized viewpoint. Scientists aren’t buying it, but many journalists fall for the fear-mongering.

Howarth doesn’t have to convince anyone he’s right to devastate New York’s budding shale industry and put tens of thousands of jobs into question. He wins if he muddies the waters enough to give cautious Albany bureaucrats reason to stall.

Almost every news story now frames this issue as a standoff between equally valid scientific experts. In fact, it’s really a debate between science and ideology.

J on Entine is a senior research fellow at the Center for Health & Risk Communication at George Mason University/STATS.

Statement Regarding Governor Cuomo’s 2112-13 Executive Budget

admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:03:15 +0000

Attributable to Brad Gill, IOGA of NY executive director.

“While the governor’s proposed budget does not include revenue from natural gas permitting or extraction, we anticipate that his stated commitment to job creation and business development will soon acknowledge the role that future oil and natural gas development will play in achieving these goals.

Our members – many of whom are well-regarded scientists, geologists and engineers – will continue to support the state’s thorough analysis. Based on the timeline outlined by Commissioner Martens, we look forward to the state considering the impact of new revenues stemming from the exploration of New York’s natural gas reserves.”

Obama Discovers Natural Gas

admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:57:34 +0000

Another election-year transformation.

From the Jan. 17 Wall Street Journal

A re-election campaign is a terrible thing to waste, and this year’s race is already producing miraculous changes at the Obama White House: The latest example of a bear walking on its hind legs is the President’s new embrace of . . . natural gas from shale.

Last week the White House issued its latest report on jobs and it includes a section on “America’s Natural Resource Boom.” The report avers that a few years ago there were widespread “fears of a looming natural gas shortage,” but that “the discovery of new natural gas reserves, such as the Marcellus Shale, and the development of hydraulic fracturing techniques to extract natural gas from these reserves has led to rapidly growing domestic production and relatively low domestic prices for households and downstream industrial users.”

Please pass the smelling salts to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Lisa Jackson at the Environmental Protection Agency.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time the White House has favorably mentioned the Marcellus Shale, the natural gas reservoir below Pennsylvania, West Virginia and other Northeastern states. And now he’s taking credit for this soaring production.

As the White House report puts it: “Of the major fossil fuels, natural gas is the cleanest and least carbon‐intensive for electric power generation. By keeping domestic energy costs relatively low, this resource also supports energy intensive manufacturing in the United States. In fact, companies like Dow Chemical and Westlake Chemical have announced intentions to make major investments in new facilities over the next several years.”

And that’s not all: “In addition, firms that provide equipment for shale gas production have announced major investments in the U.S., including Vallourec’s $650 million plant for steel pipes in Ohio. An abundant local supply will translate into relatively low costs for the industries that use natural gas as an input. Expansion in these industries, including industrial chemicals and fertilizers, will boost investment and exports in the coming years, generating new jobs.”

We checked to see if someone slipped a press release from the Natural Gas Council into the White House report by mistake, but apparently not.

The report does add the obligatory disclaimer about hydraulic fracturing that “appropriate care must to be taken to ensure that America’s natural resources are extracted in a safe and environmentally responsible manner” with safeguards “to protect public health and safety.” But no one disagrees with that.

The catch is that this endorsement runs against every energy policy pursued by the Obama Administration for three years. The Institute for Energy Research reports that royalties from oil and gas drilling have fallen more than 90% since 2008 because of Interior Department permitting delays and rejections.

The EPA recently issued a flawed report on groundwater contamination that could shut down the fracking process the President is now touting as a jobs producer. EPA’s political goal is to grab power to supercede state drilling regulation. The industry regards new EPA authority as a real threat to its future.

Each year Mr. Obama has also supported a $40 billion tax hike on the oil and gas industry because, as he put it in 2009, the tax code “encourages overproduction of oil and gas” and “is detrimental to long-term energy security.” Even the Securities and Exchange Commission has imposed extensive new reporting requirements on oil and gas fracking companies.

It’s certainly smart politics for Mr. Obama to distance himself from the anti-fossil fuels obsessives, and no doubt his political advisers are hoping it helps this fall in the likes of Ohio and Pennsylvania. On the other hand, this could be a one-year wonder, and if he wins Mr. Obama might revert to form in 2013. A good test of his sincerity would be to replace Ms. Jackson and Mr. Salazar.

IOGA of NY: Business Loss Will Continue if Increased Natural Gas Development Remains Blocked in 2012

admin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:51:52 +0000

Businesses have suffered lost opportunity during the three-plus year review of the state’s drilling permit guidelines and regulations.

Albany – The Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York (IOGA of NY) today said that repeated delays and uncertainty associated with exploration of the state’s natural gas reserves have resulted in the loss and erosion of the state’s job base and the stability of many local businesses.

With the start of the legislative session, IOGA of NY and its members called on the Legislature, as well as the governor and state regulators, to reject all unreasonable requests to obstruct the tremendous opportunity that expanded natural gas exploration and development will bring to the state.

In yet another appeal to state leaders, several IOGA of NY members are describing the impact that the state’s nearly four-year moratorium has had on their businesses and employment base. For many members of the state’s long-standing and successful oil and natural gas industry, 2012 will be make-or-break year.

For example, since 2008, Alexander-based Lenape Resources, a small drilling and well-services company headquartered in Genesee County for the last 30 years, has lost employees to better opportunities in Pennsylvania and approximately $15 million in revenue and development capital. This income would have supported employees, service companies and would have had a positive economic ripple effect across Western New York and the Southern Tier.

“I understand the state’s need to be deliberate and to make all the necessary assurances regarding environmental protection,” said Lenape President John Holko, a director for the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York (IOGA of NY). “But we are seriously approaching the point where we will either force businesses from New York, prevent them from coming here at all, or over-regulate the industry to extinction. We’ve already seen it occurring – with my business and with many others.” Holko said his business partners may limit future investment in his New York projects. Survival may require moving his business from the state.

Similar sentiments are being expressed by IOGA of NY members as the state nears the fourth full year of an environmental review of high-volume hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. While Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio continue to tap the Marcellus Shale for its rich natural gas reserves, New York has continued to lose economic opportunity.

Norse Energy opened an office in Buffalo in 2008 with expectations to grow in Western New York. It hired an expert staff of 40, including surveyors, geologists, engineers, geophysicists, technicians, accountants, land agents, and even hydrologists to assure protection of water resources. They now have 11. Early last year, the company employed 26 people in Norwich; that staff has been reduced to 10.

“We had plans to double our staff and employ more than 100 people in Buffalo alone, and we expected our activity would help to create hundreds more indirect jobs,” said S. Dennis Holbrook, Norse’s chief legal officer. “Instead we have a skeleton crew. Not only were our plans unrealized, we are now going in reverse.”

Mesa Energy Holdings, Inc., has active natural gas wells in New York, but the expansion of operations and employment has stalled, primarily because of exaggerated environmental concerns, CEO Randy M. Griffin said.

“Unfortunately, misinformation about hydraulic fracturing and the ongoing moratorium on the issuance of drilling permits has continued to delay our development efforts and forced us to shift our focus to other states where evidence of community benefits are seen in the form of new schools, fire stations, recreational facilities and roads,” Griffin said. “As a public company, we cannot wait while these issues are debated, particularly when the debate is driven by interests that have almost no understanding of the science and technology involved in natural resource development. Other states where we operate have a better understanding of the broad benefits to the overall economy that natural resource development and a positive relationship with the industry can bring.”

While the DEC has indicated a spring release of the final SGEIS and new regulations, an overly restrictive regime will inhibit future business and natural gas development, many have warned the DEC.

Lion Energy Company, LLC, has invested more than $4 million in its Chautauqua County gas field in the past 14 years, with more than $700,000 paid in landowner royalties. If the company is allowed to further develop 11,000 acres of its leased land, it would generate more than $50 million in investment and royalty payments over the next 10 years, said Karl C. Kimmich, Lion Energy vice president. However, he added, “If the state’s regulations are implemented in their current form, we will likely abandon this gas field.”

Brad Gill, executive director of IOGA of NY, urged the DEC to complete its work in a timely fashion and for the governor and Legislature to accept the findings of the experts in the field who are charged with protecting the environment.

“Governor Cuomo and state regulators have indicated that science and fact will determine whether proven technologies are adequate to protect New York’s environment,” Gill said. “Our members support that position, but caution that such a determination must not take longer than the previously expressed timeframe.”

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