Fortuna/Talisman announced that it is moving 15 jobs from its Big Flats office in the Southern Tier to the company’s new headquarters in Warrendale, PA. The move is a business decision in response to the current moratorium on drilling in New York State. Mark Scheuerman of Fortuna says that the jobs will likely return to New York once permitting and drilling begin in the state.

In our current economic climate New York cannot afford to be sending jobs out of state. New York State needs to approve the final drilling regulations that will provide for safe, clean development of the Marcellus Shale and create thousands of good skilled jobs.

To read more click here.

David Copley a petroleum geologist provides the following op-ed in in the Buffalo News.

“It’s impossible to overestimate the importance of natural gas production in the Marcellus Shale that underlies large parts of New York State and Pennsylvania.

Notwithstanding exaggerated fears of damage to ground water systems, the ramp-up in shale-gas production has been the best economic and environmental news in years. Thanks to the use of new drilling techniques combined with a decades-old process known as hydraulic fracturing, energy companies are now able to access deposits of shale gas that were considered out of reach a few years ago.

Until 2007, the story of natural gas production in the United States was one of decline. With gas supplies tight as a drum and domestic production unable to meet growing demand for the clean-burning fuel, plans were under way for dozens of liquefied natural gas terminals to handle imports from overseas.

Today domestic gas production is increasing, and shale gas accounts for 40 percent of the supply. Shale gas provides a significant boost for the economy, with thousands of new jobs, tax revenue for state and local governments, and income for property owners.”

To read the rest of the story click here.

Clean flowback water and new jobs are what is being produced in the AOP Clearwater water treatment plant that opened last November in Fairmont, West Virginia. They are using a distillation-crystallization process that cleans the brine from the flowback water and allows it to be used for further fracking jobs. The brine is then reused to treat winter roads. Trucks bring in full loads of frackwater, empty in 11 minutes then fill back up with clean water for another frack job in the same amount of time. Sixteen new jobs were created at this site. Regulators in West Virginia require producers to report the source, treatment and disposal of frack water and the plant is complying with the regulations.

One of the major arguments against drilling in New York is the issue of disposal of flowback water. The process is working in West Virginia and it would in New York as well. When the DEC finalizes the drilling regulations, I hope to see investment and development of similar water treatment facilities in New York State. Proven technology to treat flowback water is being utilized in West Virginia and the benefits are clean water, jobs and economic development. New York needs to embrace development of the Marcellus Shale and the many related business opportunities instead of continually erecting roadblocks to development.

Comptroller Wins Battle as SEC Rejects Cabot Bid to Block Shareholder Vote

In a press release issued Thursday March 4 2010:

“New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today said the $129.4 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund (Fund) will continue to press energy companies to disclose to their shareholders the environmental and regulatory risks associated with unconventional natural gas extraction including hydraulic fracturing.

“Natural gas stores locked in dense shale formations like the Marcellus Shale in New York are an important source of energy, but there are reasonable concerns about the environmental impact and potential liabilities inherent in its development,” DiNapoli said. “Investors need to have quality information so they may weigh the risks and rewards of the companies they invest in. The development of the Marcellus and other shale gas plays must be done the right way. As shareholders, we want these companies to assure us that they have a full and complete appreciation of the liability risk, and that they’re taking steps to mitigate those risks.”

DiNapoli, as trustee of the Fund, has filed resolutions with five companies – Chesapeake Energy Corp., XTO Energy Inc., Range Resources Corp., Hess Corp., and Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. The resolutions request company boards to summarize for shareholders: the environmental impact of their unconventional natural gas operations; potential policies for the company to adopt, above and beyond regulatory requirements, to reduce or eliminate hazards to air, water, and soil quality from operations including those from hydraulic fracturing; and, other information regarding the scale, likelihood, or impacts of potential material risks, short or long term, to the company’s finances or operations, due to environmental concerns regarding fracturing.

One of the companies, Cabot Gas & Oil, attempted to block the resolution from a shareholder vote. DiNapoli prevailed when the Securities and Exchange Commission in late January issued a letter disagreeing with Cabot that the company had legal grounds to keep the resolution off the shareholder ballot at its annual meeting this spring.”

This raises some very interesting questions. 1. Is this standard practice for the Comptroller? If the fund holds stock in Coca Cola, does he ask Coke to “summarize for shareholders” the health impact of the product? We all know it rots our teeth and makes us fat. 2. The Comptroller is not an environmental regulator. The DEC is best equipped to monitor and regulate energy companies. 3. If the Comptroller has such misgivings about these energy companies or any other stock in the pension fund he should sell the stock.

The energy companies that wish to do business in New York already apply best practices and operate with great care. Requiring them to meet additional requests seems redundant and unnecessary. I don’t know if other states make the same demands on energy companies doing business in their states but I would guess not. New York seems to go out of its way to make it as difficult as possible to do business in the state. We should be encouraging the energy companies to do business in New York under the DEC’s proposed comprehensive regulatory safeguards, not presenting them with another business obstacle.

The Sunday Washington Post ran an editorial highlighting the importance of natural gas in the climate debate.

“The resurgence of gas comes through the discovery of massive deposits in Appalachian shale [Marcellus Shale] formations and elsewhere — a reserve that offers the prospect of stable domestic supplies and relatively low prices. Since burning natural gas produces half the emissions of burning coal, switching the two fuels could put a significant dent in America’s carbon footprint.”

So far, despite rumors, the Administration has not backed a switch from coal-fired to natural gas-fired power plants.

Our national leaders need to embrace domestically produced natural gas and replace outdated and dirty coal-fired power plants with gas-fired plants. According to the Post piece, “existing gas-fired plants are running at only about 25 % capacity, in part because many are switched on only when demand spikes.” We know where the gas is and we have the technology to safely and responsibly harvest it. We have an infrastructure in place to deliver the gas to the marketplace. Existing gas-fired power plants, running at 25% capacity, have the present ability, without costly infrastructure investment, to support the nation’s drive for environmentally responsible energy independence. What we lack is the political will at both the national and state levels to make it happen.

Katie Klaber, the new President of the Marcellus Shale Coalition recently appeared on the Clean Skies News network to discuss the environmental issues of natural gas drilling. Ms. Klaber speaks about jobs, reuse and recycling of wastewater, water treatment, regulations in Pennsylvania and other issues related to drilling in the Marcellus. While Ms. Klaber’s discussion centers on drilling in Pennsylvania, it could just as easily be New York. It’s an informative and short piece (under 10 minutes), and worth watching.

To watch the video click here.

The Business Council of New York State supports this bill, which modifies provisions of the state finance law related to procurement lobbying, and extends the expiration date of these modifications to July 31, 2014.

In 2005, the Procurement Lobbying Law was enacted by the State Legislature with the goals of bringing reform, consistency and transparency to the government procurement lobbying process in New York State. Provisions of the law have been subsequently extended for various duration periods. The current provisions have a sunset expiration date of March 10, 2010.

To read the supporting bill memo click here.

With unemployment in the double digits in New York State there is a potential bright spot in the Marcellus Shale. As reported by Tom Wilber in pressconnects.com, Delta Engineering & Architects in Broome County has recently moved into a larger space and continues to grow partly as a result of Marcellus Shale development in New York and Pennsylvania.

“Growth related to the Marcellus industry in New York and Pennsylvania is the focal point of a new business initiative that specializes in civil and environmental engineering and construction services”, said Robert Harner, director of the division. Harner expects as many as 20 jobs will be added in the coming years related to Marcellus business.
Once the DEC regulations are finalized and permitting begins, thousands more jobs like these will be available. These are good, skilled jobs that will allow New Yorkers to remain here and provide a good future for their families. New York is facing a huge budget gap.

The Marcellus presents and enormous economic opportunity requiring no government program or subsidy. New York needs to move quickly on the regulations and demonstrate that the state wants to encourage job growth and opportunity for its citizens.

Last week it was reported on the Dow Jones Newswires by Ian Talley that the states are doing a good job of regulating hydraulic fracturing. Steve Heare, Director of EPA’s Drinking Water Protection Division, stated that “I have no information that states aren’t doing a good job already.” Heare also stated that despite claims by environmental organizations, he hadn’t seen any documented cases that the hydrofracking process was contaminating water supplies.

Legislation was introduced last year that would bring hydraulic fracturing regulation under EPA jurisdiction but according to Mr. Heare this is unnecessary. The states are best equipped to regulate fracking and have the track record to prove it. The New York DEC is currently working on final drilling regulations which will make the existing regulations even stronger. When the House Energy and Commerce Committee holds hearings on hydraulic fracturing as part of their investigation I hope that Mr. Heare is asked to provide testimony. Instead of inciting fear like many of the environmental groups opposed to drilling, Mr. Heare, as head of the EPA’s Drinking Water Protection Division, can provide credible, fact-based evidence that there is no link between hydraulic fracturing and drinking well contamination.

Over the past couple of years many landowner coalitions have been created in New York State so that landowners have a more attractive acreage for bidding and more power to control the process. One of the largest is the Central New York Landowners Coalition representing about 160,000 acres of land in central New York and the Southern Tier. Their leader is Richard Lasky. In this video clip, Richard talks about the landowners’ caution about entering into lease agreements and the economic benefits that development of the natural gas can provide. Many of the farmers and landowners are barely hanging on in this economy and Lasky believes that drilling can be done safely and the benefits will be enormous.

To see the video click here.