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Greg Sovas

The Fracking Rashomon Effect: Why New York Banned but California and Maryland Didn’t

January 22, 2015
The Fracking Rashomon Effect: Why New York Banned but California and Maryland Didn't

Have read several accounts of how “we” banned fracking in New York, how “you (fractavists)” banned fracking and at least one thinly veiled “How I” banned fracking, plus the usual assortment of why Cuomo banned fracking from the main stream media, some of whom have gotten this about half right. The net result is a kind of Rashomon Effect - different observers see the same scene but report it quite differently, in some cases ignoring some of the other players entirely. You are entitled to your own perception of what happened, but you’re not entitled to your own facts. Have written a brief history of the New York ban movement myself, and have been agnostic as to who or what was more effective - since there were indeed a lot players involved and […]

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A Brief History of the New York State Frack Ban Movement

December 21, 2014
A Brief History of the New York State Frack Ban Movement

Or what the frack really happened ? The science - including the political science and the geoscience - decided. Why New York Did Not Get The Fracking It Did Not Deserve “Success has many parents, failure is an orphan.” We can summarize why fracking was prohibited in New York with a simple construct - the cost/ benefit ratio - what the environmental risks and economic costs would be to the state and it citizens versus the benefits of shale gas industrialization. Initially, this ratio appeared to tilt very much in favor of fracking - at least in the popular press and in the corridors of power - because the gas industry had grossly overstated the benefits of shale gas development while categorically denying the risks and collateral damage associated with it. […]

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Grisanti to Head DEC as Cuomo Greenlights Fracking New York ?

November 22, 2014
Grisanti to Head DEC as Cuomo Greenlights Fracking New York ?

UPDATE 11/24 GRISANTI OUT AS DEC COMMISSIONER “Environmental groups got nervous this week when they heard rumblings that the governor would tap soon-to-be-former Sen. Mark Grisanti to replace Joe Martens as head of the DEC. Martens, who had a considerable environmental background before joining the administration, has been with the governor since 2011. Grisanti is the outgoing Senate Environmental Conservation Committee chairman and is seen as especially close with the Cuomo administration. During the campaign, Cuomo publicly praised the GOP senator – the last remaining Republican senator of the four who voted “yes” on same-sex marriage in 2011. The governor stopped short of endorsing Grisanti outright, but didn’t back his Democratic foe, Senator-elect Marc Panepinto, either. But several sources on Monday didn’t just dismiss the idea, but slammed the door […]

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State to Frack Babies: Frack Off

March 29, 2014
State to Frack Babies: Frack Off

The State of New York has responded to a landowner’s suit by telling them - in no uncertain legal terms - to take a fracking hike. The landowners claim that the state is taking too long to conduct its environmental and health review of fracking, but they are at a complete loss as to say how long such a study should take. They claim they have waited too long to drill a shale gas well on their property - when none of them has ever had a valid well permit application in the queue at the DEC. It’s ironic that they are calling for the state to update its regulations, when the gas industry has opposed any update in the state’s environmental regulations for decades. When it came to time to […]

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Frackers Giving Away Frack Goo !

February 13, 2014
Frackers Giving Away Frack Goo !

To any town or county that wants to coat their roads with a 100 year supply of fracking flowback. Then the locals can figure out how to get the stuff off their cars, trucks, trees, grass, streams, their kids. For the next 1,500 years or so. Think of all the money your town or county will save on de-icing ! Act fast, only a few trillion gallons left. . . . Or your town and county can tell the frackers to take their fracking filth somewhere else, Like some New York towns and counties are already doing. Is your town or county coating your roads with a secret blend of radium 226, strontium 90, arsenic, barium, and diesel fuel ? If your town or county elected officials have not taken steps to protect you […]

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Williams : Fracking Bozos of the Marcellus

February 12, 2014
Williams : Fracking Bozos of the Marcellus

Every oil and gas play has its pioneers - generally the wildcatters that discover the field - and its bozos, the me-too johnny-come-latelys that define where the field ends. The Marcellus has a large cast of bozos in New York - Norse Energy, Gastem, various fracking riffraff. Pennsylvania has its own share of bozos - Hess, Newfield, and Williams Exploration - who is single handedly defining that the NE Pa. Marcellus has plateaued if not peaked. These are the fracking gasholes that want to buy up ROW in New York state to build the Constitution Pipeline to supply a field that they can’t find any fracking gas in. If these gasholes show up at your place looking to buy right of way and threatening you with condemnation, tell them Come and fracking try […]

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And then the frackers explode . . .

February 11, 2014
And then the frackers explode . . .

Forgot to mention that as part of the “fracking health” study. Shale Gas Frack Fires are too hot for local firefighters to do anything about it. As firefighters discovered at a recent shale gas well explosion in Pennsylvania that killed one worker and injured another while they were hooking it up to a gathering system. If the shale gas well is near a school, house, daycare center or tanker train full of Canadian Tar Balls, best run. Fast. Welcome to Fracking Hell pilgrim. The proposed setback of a well pad from a house in New York is 500 feet. Look at the photo and tell me what part of 500′ is close enough for your house. In Dallas, it’s 1,500 feet. The proposed set back of everything else - a compressor, tank battery, de-gasser or a […]

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Fracking Reparations Publicity Stunt

February 8, 2014
Fracking Reparations Publicity Stunt

The Disjointed Landowners are scraping together funds to pay some Shale Shyster to file a Fracking Reparations Publicity Stunt against the State of New York. One that is bankrolled by the Koch Brothers. A publicity stunt that, in the case of most landowners, is over something that is just not there : profitable shale gas under their land. On behalf of the few landowners that actually have any shale gas potential. And the gas industry. And the Shale Shysters. The plain fact is that unless Chesapeake or Exxon have leased the land and filed for a HVHF well permit application on it, there’s probably no shale gas worth fooling with there. Threatening to sue the agency that issues drilling permits might be a bit counterproductive if you have a drilling permit application in the queue. They […]

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No Additional Gas, No Constitution Pipeline ?

February 7, 2014
No Additional Gas, No Constitution Pipeline ?

Pretty simple equation. Adding pipeline capacity is predicated on increasing or sustained production, not decreasing production. If there is not sufficient surplus gas to justify a new pipeline, there is not much justification to build another pipeline. Likewise, if there is sufficient existing right of way (ROW) - alongside a railroad line, existing gas transmission line, highway or utility line, there is not much justification to acquire additional right of way for a new line. But let’s focus on the gas supply issue first - early indications are that the NE Pennsylvania gas fields may have already hit a plateau in production. See the chart below showing a net decrease in overall production (the red line) See the article here: Has the NE Pa. Marcellus peaked ? If so, then there is […]

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Gas Industry Demands DEC Finish Regs. That Were Kept Unfinished At Industry’s Behest

February 5, 2014
Gas Industry Demands DEC Finish Regs. That Were Kept Unfinished At Industry's Behest

For forty (40) fracking years. The Koch Brothers’s Fracking Front Group, the (Rocky) “Mountain States Legal Foundation” is not just bankrolling the Fracking Reparations Publicity Stunt against the State of New York, they are writing the threatening demand letters - from Lakewood, Colorado. Catch is they are about 40 years late to be complaining about the DEC’s failure to update it regulations. Since that’s how long the industry has been lobbying New York to keep those regulations from being updated and promulgated. If this strikes you as more than a bit ironic, you’d be right. The Koch Brothers are now demanding the DEC finish the SGEIS, when the gas industry has successfully worked with the Division of Mineral Resources to keep the updates unfinished since 1972. As Brian Brock has explained, with […]

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