Lobbyists for the oil and gas industry are descending on Albany today, to try to convince the legislature that natural gas drilling in general, and hydrofracking specifically, is safe. Nick Reisman reports at State of Politics:
The lobbying organization, which is very much in favor of drilling for natural gas through the controversial extraction method, says they will discuss the “energy and economic future” of the state.
Jon Campbell at Gannett reports that more than 50 industry folks will be part of the lobbying force.
The Innovation Trail's Marie Cusick will be reporting from the Capitol - watch this space for a post from her later today.
Water treatment
Bill Toland at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that gas drillers are frequently turning to GPS technology to help prevent unscrupulous operators from dumping water used in hydrofracking in rivers:
A single driller might subcontract its water delivery and wastewater hauling work to four, five, even a half-dozen hauling companies. Each of those trucking crews might be operating several trucks, and each of those drivers might make several trips a day. And each trip requires haulers to sign in, sign out, submit a bill-of-lading, read a meter and otherwise track their own whereabouts. Companies must also report how much water they are withdrawing from a creek by pipeline -- especially in sensitive areas such as the Delaware and Chesapeake basins -- or how much fracking waste they are delivering to a disposal facility. "Paperwork is error-prone. It's slow ... it's an administrative mess," [Brian J.] Bagby [an executive with tracking system maker H20 Resources] said. "We can do it in an hour -- paperwork that used to take 40 hours."
Meanwhile, a water treatment plant in Warren, Ohio turned back five trucks filled with fracking water, saying they didn't meet the plant's requirements for treatment. George Nelson reports at Business Journal Daily that the Warren plant was built to capitalize on the need to treat water from Pennsylvania drilling operations:
To date, the facility has treated nearly 4.4 million gallons of water, Faloba reported Patriot [a water treatment company] was founded "on the vision of Ohioans creating jobs for Ohioans and having a sustainable base for development of jobs in Ohio," remarked Andrew Blocksom, Patriot's president. The Warren plant has 10 workers -- and is in the process of hiring one or two more -- plus five office employees. Warren is located "right in the middle of the gas play that's here" in the Marcellus and Utica deposit regions and provided a "great employment base" to hire from, Blocksom said. He also credited city officials and the Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp., which owns Warren Commerce Park, and its executive director, Don French. "This just worked perfect for us," Blocksom said.
Chesapeake blowout
Chesapeake Energy still hasn't resumed drilling in Pennsylvania, following a self-imposed moratorium after a well blowout. Edward McAllister reports for Reuters that when drilling will pick back up again hasn't been determined yet either.
Opinion
In a commentary at the Press & Sun-Bulletin, Broome County legislator Marchie Diffendorf expresses her frustration with the lengthy regulatory process that the state is conducting to determine whether or not to greenlight hydrofracking:
While it seems to take an eternity to produce the updated report on the environmental effects, it takes only a moment to summarize the economic and national security impact that results from hydraulic fracturing. During a time when the local economy is struggling and New Yorkers continue to face dead-ends with job searches, allowing hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale will generate more than $365 million in state and local tax revenue by 2020 and create 27,000 jobs for New Yorkers.
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