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SGEIS

Chesapeake Sues New York !

March 9, 2014
Chesapeake Sues New York !

Chesapeake Instigates Legal Action Against New York Department of Environmental Conservation Reuters April 1, 2014 Albany Chesapeake Energy of Oklahoma, announced today through its lobbyist The Law Firm of Tom West, that it had found a surrogate plaintiff, Norse Energy, to file suit against the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), Commissioner Joe Martens, Governor Cuomo and Dr. Nirav Shah of the Department of Health. As The Law Firm of Tom West spokesperson Tom West explained, “Norse Energy has graciously offered to stand-in for my client in this matter.” When pressed why Chesapeake had found a company in bankruptcy to press the matter, Mr. West responded, “My client believes that a bankrupt Norwegian wildcatter more fairly represents the state of fracking in New York.” By their plaintiffs you will know […]

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How to Frack a Landowner

June 30, 2013
How to Frack a Landowner

After their well has been poisoned. It all starts with the landmen and the fine print in the lease. There are basically two kinds of ownerships in an oil or gas well - a working interest owner, who is liable for the costs of the well, and an overriding royalty interest owner, or simply royalty owner - who, in theory, is not. Note the use of the terms “in theory” here. Keep that in mind for later. The operator can crook the working interest owners. Or the royalty owners. And crook them they will. Every fracking time. http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2013/06/27/senate-panel-examines-complaints-of-underpaid-gas-royalties/ In general, a passive mineral rights owner - who may or may not own the surface rights (the land), will retain a royalty interest in the well, a “carried interest” in that they […]

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New York Shale Well Leaks. Surprise.

May 15, 2013
New York Shale Well Leaks. Surprise.

A shale gas well leaking into a groundwater is a dog-bites-man story in Pennsylvania. It’s no longer news, unless it happens to a Famous Fracker, like Shelly DePue’s bubbling annulus. Or a Fracking Media Outlet, like Forbes, admits it happens. Then it’s news. Or when it happens in New York. Particularly when the DEC tried to cover it up: http://marcelluseffect.blogspot.com/2013/05/wetterling-well-short-lived-leaky.html “The Wetterling well was drilled to 4745 feet, not as deep as some of the wells around the area (some go deep into the Trenton Black River formation around 10,000 or so feet below the surface). There was no horizontal drilling, no hydrofracking. And yet it still sprung a gas leak. Methane leaks are not unusual for shale gas wells in Pennsylvania. In fact, citizen reporter Vera Scroggins recently compiled a stack of “Letters of […]

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Alpha ShilloScience

April 26, 2013
Alpha ShilloScience

If you’re in the business of getting government contracts to promote fracking for the shale charlatans inside the DEC, it’s now increasingly trendy to pretend that you are not a fracking shill. Even if you are. Preferably after you’ve already gotten the contract to be a shale shill. The Times Union tries to sort out the fracks from the fabrications . . . http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Fracking-list-generates-more-heat-4465060.php#ixzz2RZztaf6S The latest IOGA member to renounce its IOGA membership is Alpha Geosciences: Also backing away Thursday from IOGA was Alpha Geoscience, based in Clifton Park, which said individual employees, but not the company, held IOGA memberships. “It was not accurate to list Alpha Geoscience as a corporate member of IOGA NY in your April 22 letter, and please be advised that you are not authorized to […]

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Missed the Fracking Boat = Dodged a Fracking Bullet

March 7, 2013

Contact the Independent Democratic Conference members and tell them you want a vote on the health study bill in the Senate. Get it out of committee. New Yorkers deserve as much. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Independent-Democratic-Conference-NY-Senate/186564838038472 There’s no fracking rush in NYS. The fracking lobbyist have evidently convinced some Senators that the state has indeed “missed the boat on shale gas.” In fact that has been the lobbyist refrain for some time, to wit: “For business owners, the opportunity is not here in New York,” said Jim Smith of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York, with uncharacteristic candor. It is indeed gone. In fact, for most of Upstate it never was even here. The gas that is. The train has for sure left the station. The gravy boat has embarked. This bird has […]

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It’s a Fracking Revolving Door

February 22, 2013
It’s a Fracking Revolving Door

The Public Accountability Initiative issued a report entitled “Fracking and the Revolving Door in Pennsylvania”. It’s a must read for every voter in Pennsylvania. Strike that – it’s a must read for every person in the world. The report reveals the revolving door from government to the fracking corporations. The Public Accountability Initiative followed up with “The Pennsylvania “Environmental” Council | By Rob Galbraith | Feb 21, 2013” and reveals more connections to the Natural Gas Industry by the very people we expect to be protecting our environment. Heads up New York – if it’s happening in Pennsylvania, it will happen in New York. Are you reading this Ohio, North Carolina, California, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Idaho, Colorado, Texas, and Massachusetts? Do you know who in your legislatures, state house, and […]

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FOILed Again: How the DEC Covered Up the 1997 Drilling Regulations

January 31, 2013
FOILed Again: How the DEC Covered Up the 1997 Drilling Regulations

How Brian Brock tracked down the DEC’s proposed regulations - that were “lost” by the Department of Mineral Resources for 15 years. Geologist Brian Brock’s has written his account of how he FOIL’d the DEC to get copies of the 1997 proposed fracking regulations, the drafts that were based on the 1992 GEIS, which infamously were never reduced to rules and regulations. The saga of Mr. Brock’s efforts to get those drafts is an indictment on the Division of Mineral Resources (DMN) efforts to prevent the rules and regulations from taking effect, and subsequently, prevent them from being discovered during the dSGEIS review. http://www.scribd.com/doc/123184737/DEC-s-Fracking-Cover-Up Read Mr. Brock’s full account here. From this record, you can make the case that DMN did their best to try and keep the 1997 […]

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“Let the courts decide” Why Cuomo Will Punt on Fracking

January 30, 2013

My guess is that the DEC will in fact publish a notice on February 13th that it intends to shovel the SGEIS out the door, ready or not. The reason is simple: they have hired attorneys to prepare for litigation, so rather than make the effort to “let the science” decide, take input from local officials, or hold a public hearing - as required by law - they are going to simply push the mess out as-is and let the courts decide. They will continue to hunker down, play Rope-A-Dope, and start the clock on litigation. Let the courts decide. Which gives the Governor the perfect alibi. “My hands are tied.” Just they way he wants them. He can then be philosophical on fracking as he woos big donors for 2016: “The judge made […]

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DEC: “We lost the proposed fracking regulations when we moved.”

January 23, 2013

Shown below is an excerpt of a copy of a transcript of a January 2012 interview with Greg Sovas, who was the head of the Division of Minerals Resources, now headed by Brad Field at the DEC. In which Sovas makes a feeble attempt to explain how the the DEC “lost” the proposed fracking rules and regulations from 1997; which of course, never became rules and regulations, as Brian Brock has explained. http://www.scribd.com/doc/121346040/New-York-DEC-s-Fracking-Regulatory-Cover-Up The catch is that the DEC did not actually lose the proposed regulations. They said they did, and Sovas made up a story about how they got lost. But the DEC had them, heavily redacted, and produced them as part of a FOIL request in October 2012 - after 4 years of review, after the DEC received almost 300,000 […]

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The DEC’s Big Fracking Cover Up

January 19, 2013

In making a mess of the proposed fracking regulations, the DEC is at least being consistent - they have been suppressing responsible environmental regulations for almost 40 years, as geologist Brian Brock details in his comments on the proposed new regulations - and they have been trying to cover up the evidence for at least 20 years. http://www.scribd.com/doc/121346040/New-York-DEC-s-Fracking-Regulatory-Cover-Up As Mr. Brock notes in his comments on the proposed regulations, the DEC went through the motions of updating the original 1972 oil and gas drilling regulations on 1992, but nothing came of it. The Department of Mineral Resources, (DMR) then run by Greg Sovas, simply ignored recommendations to update the regulations, then tried to hide the proposed revisions : “Current regulations for the Division of Mineral Resources (DMN), Title 6 of New […]

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