The Vestal Gas Coalition recently held an essay contest on natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale, sponsored in part by EID Marcellus. The result was some very thoughtful examinations of the opportunities and needs surrounding natural gas development in our region.

The Vestal Gas Coalition decided to sponsor a scholarship for seniors at Vestal High School this year. Students were asked to submit an essay as on “How will natural gas development impact the Southern Tier and…

There was news all over the New York State natural gas front last week regarding natural gas development, most of it good news, some of it being speculation. Upstate New York could certainly use some good news given current economic conditions.

You could call last week a perfect storm of facts and speculation.

First, another pro-development advertising campaign rolled out across the state, targeting upstate major metropolitan areas, Albany and the Southern Tier. In newspapers…

The lawsuit filed by Lenape Resources against the Town of Avon and the DEC is a superb overview of New York State law regarding natural gas development and the reasons why the efforts of two former dollar store owners from Ithaca are unlikely to prevail in their cynical campaign to kill natural gas development in New York through local bans and moratoriums.

Last week’s press was full of stories from the Associated Press, Wall Street Journal and Washington Examiner, among others,…

New York State represents two different worlds when it comes to attitudes, incomes and needs. It’s hard to find a better illustration than the one offered by Yoko Ono’s fashion line as compared to the reality of life in Upstate New York, where natural gas development is essential.

Earlier this year, when Yoko Ono and her son Sean were launching a campaign to ban hydraulic fracturing in the State of New York, he penned a pastoral op/ed in New York Times. It reminisced about the times…

Simultaneously with a whole lot of political maneuvering apparently intended to confuse everyone, characteristic of New York State, the Cuomo Administration has released a set of revised regulations for natural gas development using high-volume hydraulic fracturing.  



The New York State Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) on hydraulic fracturing languishes but the Department of Environmental Conservation published, late last…

Natural gas advocate and Sullivan County, New York, landowner, Inge Grafe-Kieklak, delivers Ten Commandments for Governor Cuomo as he bobs and weaves his way through (or is it out of) the hydraulic fracturing issue.

I have been active in trying to bring natural gas development to our region of New York for five years now. Watching the machinations of New York State politics and Governor Andrew Cuomo regarding this issue has made me realize Upstate citizens are being used as pawns in…

A recent analysis by USA TODAY shows that development of the nation’s shale resources is reversing a decade’s long trend and shifting significant wealth toward rural areas of the country that certainly can use the boost.

From reviving local steel mills in blue collar communities to supporting family businesses, responsible shale development is transforming and reshaping our economy for the better. And according to an analysis by USA TODAY, oil and natural gas development is also…

New York DEC is now extending its original deadline in a bizarre on-off-on-off-on again natural gas regulation dance. Trying to understand where the Governor is at any given moment requires a Ouija board or some other tool of the occult arts. Jim Willis of Marcellus Drilling News had this to say about the whole thing this morning.

It’s official: The New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will file for a 90-day extension on the rulemaking process for hydraulic fracturing.…

Green completion may be a foreign term for some people when thinking about natural gas development, but it’s as real as could be and one more demonstration of how technology is always one step ahead of the natural gas opposition’s hype. Green completion is one more step in an development process that is cleaner by the day.

Green completions are now becoming standard in the natural gas industry, eliminating one of the latest objections of natural gas opponents who like to say the…

Natural gas opponents Bill Huston and Vera Scroggins reveal a contempt for job seekers and careers that lies at the heart of their natural gas opposition. It’s got little to do with the environment, except as a tool to achieve their broader goal of reshaping society.

We received two stunningly candid comments on this blog this week revealing what so much of the natural gas opposition is really about. The comments came back to back and and provide a window into the minds of two of the…

Cornell University was the site of a debate on hydraulic fracturing recently where two panels of advocates on either side discussed the basics of natural gas development. There were also some interesting sideline activities when one of the panelists called another an “industry” hack after being unable to defend his own report.

We took a trip to Ithaca last week so Tom could participate in a debate on hydraulic fracturing and the role of natural gas development with respect to global…

Bill Owen provides us a copy of a letter he recently sent to Governor Andrew Cuomo in response to the Governor’s Thanksgiving news release to those on his mailing list. There’s not much to be happy about in Upstate New York, says Owen, because Cuomo has abandoned his rural constituents.

Who am I? Nobody really, just a citizen tired of seeing the FUD (fear uncertainly and doubt) infect the political arena while jobs and hope flee New York. Like many of you, I have written many letters…

Recent comments by NY Governor Andrew Cuomo and actions by the State Department of Health in appointing “independent” professionals to review public health concerns in the SGEIS show the fix may be in for shale development in New York.

The past few weeks have left many in New York wondering if Gov. Andrew Cuomo actually wants to see responsible Marcellus development move forward in his state. Unfortunately, if the comments he made on Tuesday’s edition of the Fred Dicker show are any…

Tom Copley maintains WikiMarcellus, which provides an objective, educational perspective on Marcellus Shale natural gas development.  It is a resource to any serious student of what’s happening with this industry.  Here is an example of Tom’s most recent effort; a…

Speculative fears are used by agenda-driven groups to suggest something’s hidden and must be found about hydraulic fracturing, but the process and fluids are an open book, so complete and mundane as to be boring to anyone interested in the facts. The truth is this; items arguably the safest of all are the ones most likely to be proprietary.

Some people are never happy. When I first became interested in natural gas as a landowner some four years ago, there was considerable controversy…

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has now published several stories about Rep. Jesse White and his campaign against DEP, natural gas and Range Resources, this being the most recent. While these stories provide many insights into the nature of Jesse, none quite capture the essence of the controversy as well as this 2009 video of him extolling the virtues of natural gas and Range Resources before he failed to get that plane ride.…

Wendy Lynne Lee is as entertaining as it gets.  Joe Massaro recently had the opportunity to listen to her read a paper full of assertions about the natural gas industry.  Called ?The Good Ole? Boy Extraction Club: The Pseudo-Patriotic and Pervasively Patriarchal Culture of Hydraulic Fracturing (Why Breast Cancer Is the Canary in the Fracking Coal Mine? the paper is about what you?d expect from a piece so titled.



Susquehanna University recently allowed Professor…

Uni Blake provides a summary of what happened (and didn’t happen) at a recent conference on the health effects of shale gas development. She concludes that after 5 years of closely examining the negatives impacts of gas development, there has been NO significant and NO widespread health effects reported or recorded.

“If you want to understand what a science is, you should look in the first instance not at its theories or findings, and certainly not at what its apologists say about it;…

There are two posts up on our blog today regarding "green planning" opposition to natural gas development in Otsego and Tompkins Counties. One is by guest blogger Dave Parker and the other is by our Rachael Colley. You'll find these two posts raise serious issues regarding the legitimacy of the Tompkins County and Middlefield studies of natural gas impacts by a green planning firm. They include many of the same incorrect assertions.…

The Flowback is a propaganda piece developed with the help of a group named the Sustainable Markets Foundation, which is apparently run on behalf of trial lawyers with money provided by two very famous families. The facts about natural gas development contrast sharply with the fiction that constitute The Flowback.

We earlier provided some essential facts regarding who’s behind the publication of a penny saver insert and propaganda piece know as The Flowback – some very wealthy NIMBY…