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…

Yesterday’s Vote4Energy rally in New York was amazing! Shortly after we set up our booth, it started to downpour with rain we knew was desperately needed, but made us wonder if anyone was going to come to the event.  We learned quickly you should never doubt the landowners of New York because they certainly didn’t let the rain stop them.  Even as the rain poured down, we had people huddling under our tent to ask questions and discuss…

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…

Four things to know about the latest Duke paper on brine in northeast Pennsylvania

One of the most under-reported aspects of the widely reported methane paper issued by Duke Univ. researchers in May 2011 was the fact that, try as they might, the authors could find no evidence of fluids from the fracturing process in, near or anywhere close to shallow sources of drinking water underground.

Of…

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…

Utica Shale Housing Group, LLC and BridgeStreet Corporate Housing team up to provide full service housing in the Utica and Marcellus Shale plays. Visit www.uticashalehousing.com for information on housing options.

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…

4th July 2012

 Hope your all…

Today we celebrate the most important day in our nation’s history, our Independence Day, when the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the day that changed us from colonists to Americans and proud citizens of the United States. Today, 236 years later, Pennsylvania is still at the forefront of the fight for our freedoms,…

My favorite part of the Fourth of July festivities is definitely the fireworks extravaganzas. Growing up, my family would go down to Wegman’s parking lot for the annual “Set the Night to Music” display in Williamsport, and to this day when I hear the song “Proud to Be An American,” I get excited thinking of the grand finale.

What I never thought about while I was “oohing” and “awing” was how they make such amazing, vibrant colors-at least not until the other day when someone sent me…

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,…

This past Saturday was the 3rd Annual Northern Tier Marcellus Business Expo at Alparon Park in Troy, Pennsylvania. As in years past, the event was a great opportunity for many local businesses to promote themselves and local residents to…