Recently , I talked to our land man for about an hour-I was a little surprised that he had that much time to talk. My mother is still living and is the real owner until she passes it on to my brother, sister and to myself. With her will and the language in the oil/gas lease this will happen with-out probate which is how we want it. This original agreement was made on April 16TH 1897 . Since then the oil/gas laws have changed and our contract with HG ENERGY LLC has improved since they…

New Jersey is making out like a bandit on natural gas, achieving consumer savings equal to a 22% state income tax cut – savings that dwarf the gains to oil and gas companies and landowners.

Who benefits most by fracking? If you listened to the natural gas opposition or “fractivists” you’d have to conclude it’s those greedy landowners and even greedier oil and gas companies but that’s not the case. No, the greatest beneficiaries of fracking technology are urban consumers of natural…

Washington County, Pennsylvania resident Janice Gibbs tells how her State Representative, Jesse White, has frustrated natural gas development and energy independence in her home community.

My name is Janice Gibbs I live in Cecil Township, Washington County , Pennsylvania. There are five generations of my family who have resided in Cecil Township. They have been farmers and landowners; people who love the land and all its beauty . I like to think of myself as…

The DRBC is an incompetent agency. That much is clear from the way it has handled FOIA requests from NWPOA, the latest example being its attempt to prove it gives no special consideration to the Delaware Riverkeeper by employing evidence documenting that it does.

A player on the Detroit Red Wings’ hockey team accidentally swiped the puck into the Red Wings’ own net during the first game of a 1996 playoff series with the Colorado Avalanche, scoring what is known as an “own goal.” The…

What has the DRBC been doing for the last two years? Well, it’s been studying fractivist literature, including a collection of materials from an individual who learned about fracking at a church pot-luck.  Simply outrageous!

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) scheduled a vote on its proposed regulations governing natural gas drilling for September 21, 2011, cancelled and rescheduled twice and then ran for the hills never to be heard from again.  The…

Andrew Cuomo has finally noticed no one, including him, has paid any real attention to the needs of upstate New York, but his actions and lack of actions tells us nothing has really changed.

Governor Cuomo declares he is finally going to focus on improving the upstate economy, saying, “There has been no upstate focus…downstate dominates the legislature, because that’s where the people are.” We know, Governor; we’re the wan tail attached to that Great Dane, New York City. Whenever they…

Dimock is the sacred myth fractivists just won’t let go, as a recent story from the failing, and always politically correct (perhaps there is a connection), Los Angeles Times demonstrates, with the Scranton Times piling on for good effect (yes, that Times, the conflicted one whose owners are in the water testing business).

It appears the Los Angeles Times needs to bump up their circulation numbers, so this past Sunday they trotted out the “Dimock” story once again (perhaps inspired by…

New York City and Philadelphia concerns about what fracking might mean for their water supplies simply don’t hold water and reflect a more basic desire – they want the land, all of it, for their own enjoyment.

The blogs and newspapers are ablaze with residents of metropolitan areas claiming the need to “protect” their drinking water from the possibility of fracking in the Delaware River Basin. New York City and Philadelphia “stakeholders” have become quite vocal in resource issues…

New York State waits for natural gas development to return to the state where it all started, as if the Empire State was really Who-ville at Christmas. Christmas will come, of course, but meanwhile the Keystone State has Christmas in July.

Last week New Yorkers commemorated the fifth anniversary of the de facto moratorium that has prohibited high volume hydraulic fracturing activity from advancing our state’s economy. Just a couple days later, the executive director of the Marcellus…

Josh Fox and friends assume they own the land and are at war to claim it from upstate landowners they view as nothing more than annoying squatters. Their aims are all too clear from recent quotes and lawsuits against farm interests.

The war on property rights started five years ago for many of us when the radical environmental organizations listed below came after our mineral rights with respect to natural gas. I distinctly remember discussions at that time with others who were…

Shale gas activists are predictable true believers, the sort who are always around regardless of the issue, and we should never be discouraged at what sometimes appear to be victories on their side. They are losing the war.

Now and then, the opposition to shale gas development momentarily appears to gain some traction here and there. This invariably worries some on our side who become dispirited as they see irrational, fact-deprived opponents seemingly win a few battles.…

Two recent shale gas events, one at Balcombe, in the UK, and another at Dimock, in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, provide great lessons on the rise and fall of anti-fracking causes, which prosper on fear and fade away with revelation of the facts.

Let’s compare the Great Gas Gala in Balcombe with the Cabot Annual Gas Picnic in Susquehanna Pennslyvania

As Upstream put it about Balcombe:

The company is said to be bemused at why a ‘Great Gas Gala’ protest is being staged…

Shawn Bennett of Energy In Depth:

"In a recent article from Mother Jones about wastewater disposal in Ohio, the writer (Thomas Stackpole) unfortunately focused more on hysteria than the facts.  As just one example, the author asserted that Ohio has looser regulations than our neighbors, a statement that is simply is not true.  In fact, Ohio has some of the most…

Why, when natural gas development has a nearly 200 year history in the U.S., and hydraulic fracturing has been taking place for over half a century without polluting a groundwater supply, are our DRBC officials holding my county and New York’s governor holding his entire state hostage and not allowing landowners to develop their resources?

Fredonia, New York, is where it all started – in 1820, no less.

Yet, you would think by the reaction of some folks in New York and the Upper…

UPDATE (5:05 pm ET, 7/23/2013): Ohio State University is again announcing big news concerning research on Ohio’s shale development.  Just four months after announcing a research partnership with West Virginia University, Ohio’s largest public university has announced an interest in studying a working shale well on university land.

OSU owns mineral rights to 780 acres around their…

Andrew Cuomo, locked in some Albany office, is talking in the mirror to himself about how to build a legacy and what to do about fracking, but music fans might say “just give natural gas a chance.”



As Congress debates immigration reform among other things, Andrew Cuomo, a proud descendent of Italian immigrants, continues the endless debate with himself over the politics of allowing high volume hydrofracturing into his state. The debates over immigration and…

Andrew Cuomo is getting a reputation among New Yorkers for being an indecisive foot-dragging governor – imagine that – for his political maneuvering to avoid a decision on fracking in the state.

Marcellus Drilling News (MDN) subscriber and friend Ken Kamlet, an attorney with one of Binghamton’s premier law firms, Hinman, Howard & Kattell (HHK), recently wrote an article for the HHK legal blog that takes a close look at public polling in New York State on the issue of shale…

The fracking fables surrounding natural gas development, like Aesop’s, seem to hang around a while and every now and then it’s important to go back and remind ourselves of the facts, which absent repeating, will get lost in all the storytelling.

There seems to be no end to fables regarding fracking and natural gas development. They persist in the minds of true believers who want to suppose there is a windmill out there to tilt at. Their psyches require enemies to fight and so they…

I am new to this sight but it seems informative. Thanks in advance for any replies.

I have heard that many land owners are now selling water to drilling/frac companies. I was wondering if anyone on here has done that and what it entails. Any insight is greatly appreciated. Thank you again for your responses.

Much of the following material regarding Josh Fox’s Gasland fairy tale world has appeared previously on an earlier version of NaturalGasNOW.org and on the Energy In Depth – Marcellus website but is updated here as a refresher course for those following Gasland Part II.

Josh Fox is, once again making the rounds to promote Gasland Part II and receiving praise from all the usual suspects; the NIMBY’s who want nothing near themselves, the elitists who move to the area to substitute their…