This week there was a presentation at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on the impacts, or lack of impacts, on animals as a result of natural gas development. The event was hosted by the Wilkes University Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) , which has typically done a good job of maintaining a balanced, unbiased approach in their research on Marcellus Shale development in Pennsylvania. The speakers for this particular event, Dr. Robert Oswald and Dr.…

Rachael Colley attends surprising anti-gas event regarding Hancock Compressor Project:

The Town of Hancock, Delaware County, New York is the proposed location for a new compressor station on the Millennium Pipeline. Naturally, local anti-natural gas forces are opposed. What, after all, is there to which they’re not opposed? They held a meeting among themselves to organize against the compressor station last Saturday in Long Eddy, New York. They even brought in Matt Walker from the…

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy (PSE) released a ten point document criticizing the SGEIS. This is the first in a two part series examining that document which serves as an example of why environmental activists are having difficulty maintaining support in New York.

They say that necessity is the mother of all invention, watching the debate over natural gas development in New York it becomes apparent anti-natural gas…

Bryant LaTourette says it's alla bout the kids:

Remember, me? I started the Oxford Land Group. The Oxford coalition has since merged with the Central New York (CNY) Landowners Coalition. I am one of the original past founders of the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY). I helped put together the first rally (Pass Gas!), which was a great beginning. Together we stood in Albany on that cold rainy day. Every day since, many of us have been working at some capacity to help…

School ends, Summer begins and rural communities come alive with events. These events are a great way to experience something different and give back to the community at the same time. One thing these events have in common is that they bring together many community members, including the natural gas industry and others with a stake in the region. It might be said no company is an island and the natural gas industry provides a great illustration.

Joe Massaro recently had the pleasure…

Rachael Colley and Joe Massaro, EID Marcellus Field Directors, went to Binghamton, New York to conduct an interview with Broome County Executive Debra Preston. Preston keeps her office open to her constituents every Tuesday from 9 am to 11 am, so we were fortunate enough to get a chance to speak with her during her busy day! It’s refreshing to speak with someone who has taken the time to learn about something so important to the Southern Tier as natural gas development. Debra Preston not…

Two more prominent anti-shale activists turn out to be natural gas users!

This is the third in our There Ought To Be A Law series of posts.  We documented, in the first piece, the fact Tony Ingraffea, Mayor Matt Ryan and Josh Fox all used natural gas to heat their homes or offices.  …

Vic Furman wants his neighbor back and urges getting the natural gas facts:

"Together we stood, when snows fell so heavy, and then we would work together to remove that heavy white stuff. We then relaxed over hot chocolate, sometimes sharing a glass of ginger brandy. We were friends! Together, we faced the challenges of raising children, as our children became best friends who would skin their knees in the fields and fall from trees in the forest, we would wipe the abrasions clean,…

The sun also rises for Josh Fox, but not on command. Time to get a grip, Josh!

They say that 82.3 percent of statistics are made up on the spot. Watching the video released by Gasland star Josh Fox this week – cleverly titled “The Sky is Pink” — one wonders whether that figure might be in need of a slight upward adjustment.

Set aside the distracting, out-of-focus camerawork and characteristically creepy, overwrought narration, and the argument that Josh and his team attempt to…

Most of us have heard or, perhaps, used the term “loose cannon on the deck.” Meant to describe an individual prone to bounce around firing at will – a threat to friend and foe alike – it is also an apt term for some of our opponents from Luzerne County who seem determined to misrepresent what happened in Dimock and now what’s happening (actually, not happening) in Franklin Forks. Remember when you visited one of those historic forts as a child and they fired a cannon for you? It was only…

In Otsego County, it’s four years into the shale revolution already. Nationally we’re watching the reversal of dependence on foreign oil (and natural gas). Internationally, power relationships are shifting as historic (and unfriendly) producers are no longer in the drivers seat. Now, even Ireland has a shot at energy independence.

The anti’s concentrate on politics and silly gimmicks, assuming their scare tactics are permanently rooted in the public consciousness. That’s a bad…

The New York Times floated something of trial balloon from the Cuomo administration last week, publishing a piece suggesting the governor may soon release the details of a plan that would allow some of the state’s landowners the opportunity to finally produce their minerals, while leaving other folks out.

Needless to say, it got a lot of attention – with some supporters seeing it as evidence that New York may be finally ready to proceed with Marcellus development. Others, of course,…

We all remember the show Seinfeld, don’t we? When the show was proposed by the producers it was meant to be the show about nothing. I began working with EID – Marcellus back in August of last year. My first big project was to keep an eye on decisions being made by the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) and I even made the long drive to Trenton for an uneventful meeting. It turns out this assignment was a lot easier than I thought it would be, simply because nothing, absolutely nothing,…

Last week, the Women’s Energy Leadership Coalition, a new group formed to speak about the value of shale gas development to upstate New York quality of life, went to Albany to show strong support for natural gas exploration. Both men and women took the trip up to tell their representatives the people of upstate are ready for natural gas. It was an inspiring and productive day, jam packed with activities, and the opportunity to be heard by the individuals paid to represent these…

Recently, the River Reporter, a notoriously anti-natural gas publication but, I hasten to add, a newspaper that has always been fair to me, ran an editorial challenging our raising of the Park Foundation?s influence on the natural gas debate.   They laid out their case nicely, but missed the point completely when they said ?The Park Foundation Conspiracy, in the end, boils down to nothing more than the fact that the Park Foundation funds opponents of hydro-fracking, while EID supports…

Scott Cline says:

"Regular readers of this blog will recall I previously pointed out that anti-natural gas spokespeople masquerading as experts is a rampant problem. It was the same story last night as the Town of Pulteney, Steuben County, New York was poised to vote on a proposed moratorium on natural gas development (one based on the Park Foundation funded Slottje model). I have a summer cottage in the town on Keuka Lake and have been following this issue since it was first raised.…

It was MDN’s pleasure to attend a screening of the newly released Truthland movie this week at the Susquehanna Valley High School in Conklin, New York. Truthland is a short film, about 34 minutes in length, that takes as its mission the debunking of Josh Fox’s well-known movie Gasland.

The star of Truthland is a Pennsylvania woman by the name of Shelly. She and her husband Phil and their children live on a farm in northeastern Pennsylvania—land that’s been in Phil’s family for the…

Let’s say, hypothetically, that a deep-pocketed organization was financially underwriting the bulk of activities associated with a campaign to stop oil and gas development in America, including organizing and orchestrating research projects designed to attack 65 years of history, science and experience with respect to the safe use of hydraulic fracturing.

Now let’s stop pretending and recognize that everything we’ve described above is, in fact, happening, and the organization…

John Williams tells how he came to know the truth about the gas industry.

"My first experience with a natural gas company goes back to between 2005 and 2006. A landman approached me about signing a lease. I looked at what he was proposing, which, at first, sounded quite interesting. But, after reading over the lease, I decided it wasn’t for me. I was then again approached in 2007 with leasing at a higher price. This is when I thought it was time to do a little more research on what…

Like many who grew up in the Upper Delaware River valley, the mere mention of Gasland has grated on me like Roseanne Barr singing the national anthem. It’s not just the facts he got wrong or the truth he distorted. You expect that sort of thing from Josh Fox and it didn’t take long for Energy In Depth and several others to correct the record on the flaming Colorado faucet, Dunkard Creek and the rain rot present on some of the animals pictured. No, what was so offensive was the sheer…