There was a public forum the other night in Hamilton, New York, Madison County featuring three anti-natural gas development speakers, Ron Bishop, Kelly Branigan, and Chip Northrup. As usual their presentations were aimed to make natural gas exploration seem like a terrible thing for an area, without factual evidence to support their horror stories. Dr. Bishop spoke on the chemistry of shale gas development. Branigan spoke very generally about natural gas development, which was a bit of a…

Betty Sutliff writes the following

On Tuesday, July 3rd, several members of NWPOA, along with some students from Lackawanna College accompanied by their instructor,  were granted the privilege of touring a working rig site in Dimock, Pennsylvania.   Rig tour attire included a hardhat, safety…

Energy insurance expert David Stein wrote this guest column only hours before Nationwide Insurance issued a new statement that backtracks on the company’s prior comments about hydraulic fracturing.  According to this statement, the company “has not changed our policies or guidelines, nor are we cancelling policies.”  The new statement closely tracks what David surmised to be the truth and may be found immediately following his remarks.



The AP broke some apparently groundbreaking…

New York state is nearing the end of its ridiculous four year moratorium on natural gas development. Four years of depriving its residents of access to their Marcellus gas, while painfully subjecting them to watching their neighbors just across the border enjoy the great benefits of harvesting theirs. It?s excellent news for just about everyone who isn?t a ?fractivist?. But as the situation becomes more dire for these anti-drilling extremists, so too are their actions.



The writing…

The shale gas plays occurring in Ohio and Pennsylvania have a few differences, the most obvious being the oil and wet gas rich Utica Shale versus the dry gas of the Marcellus.  Both also present potentially huge opportunities for economic development,…

With over 60 people in the audience the Women’s Energy Leadership Coalition held a meeting last night in Oneonta, New York, Otsego County. The meeting began with a social hour and buffet style dinner which helped people in attendance get to know each other and gave people time to carry on casual conversation. After dinner, Uni Blake made some opening remarks explaining what WELC is about and why it began.



The Women’s Energy Leadership Coalition was just an idea in the heads of six…

Our friend John Holko, President of Lenape Resources, has had enough.  The Town of Avon, which is home to many of his employees and landowners, and benefits tremendously from the taxes and free natural gas he provides, decided they could take all that for granted and still play games with the anti-energy contingent by fashioning a moratorium that would grandfather John’s existing operations.  Local officials naively believe that all John has to do is to keep pumping his existing wells, keep…

Journalism seems to have died in many quarters in recent years as some news outlets have taken to publishing opinion pieces as fact, made up details to fit preconceived narratives and thrown all regard for truth to the wind, regardless of consequences.  The rationalization for this behavior always seems to be along the lines of “I needed to tell the bigger truth as I saw it.”  This is, of course, nothing less than lying by another name.

Nevertheless, we see more and more supposed…

Brian Oram educates Susquehanna County folks on water quality and shale gas.  The last Franklin Citizens for Truth informational meeting included a host of speakers from WPX Energy, Williams, and others who came to educate members of the community about natural gas development and the infrastructure (e.g., pipelines) accompanying it. Every speaker was impressive and informative; however, the one who stuck out for me was Licensed Professional Geologist, Brian Oram. This meeting gave me…

Dealing with the anti- natural gas crowd reminds me of the game Wac-A-Mole.  They pop up to cry wolf about the latest misinformation spreading on the internet, and when the facts come out the little Josh Fox emulators drop back in the hole only to resurface with the latest battle cry or self-perceived ‘eureka’ moment.  With Dimock’s water deemed safe multiple times by the EPA, DEP, etc., the facts contradicting their other claims against natural gas, and all the great benefits realized…

The Town Board of the Town of Callicoon, New York, Sullivan County held a public hearing last week on their draft Town of Callicoon Comprehensive Plan.  We’ve seen a few comprehensive plans recently that were meant to do little more than lay the groundwork for zoning out natural gas development, leading to unintended consequences, but this draft plan, while it hardly gives a carte blanche approval of it, is actually open to natural gas exploration in Callicoon.  Unsurprisingly, the…

A few weeks back my wife called to say a helicopter had earlier landed in our neighbor’s backyard. This would have been unusual anywhere, of course — but especially so in a residential area of Honesdale. Being nosy neighbors, we crossed the street to find out what happened.

As it turns out, according to our neighbor, his unexpected drop-in guests were from Duke University, of all places — and were apparently in the area to do some “research” on natural gas. My neighbor, who is…

Sue Mickley says she gets annoyed when people say they don’t want their drinking water ruined by natural gas development even though there has never been a documented case of drinking water contamination due to hydraulic fracturing. Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator, in fact has said “In no case have we made a definitive determination that the fracking process has caused chemicals to enter groundwater.”

They also don’t seem to understand the aquifer is not one body of water underground,…

No one ever accused Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secreatary Mike Kancer of being a cuddly fuzz-ball, but he’s hardly someone you’d expect a Senior Attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), where they spend nearly $100 million annually fighting everybody, to run away from, either. Yet, the mere compilation by Krancer, of a set of compelling facts disputing an NRDC report, caused NRDC’s Kate Sindling, normally a firebrand given to all sorts of…

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…