New York Governor Vetoes Bill Curtailing Fracking. By Tom Zeller Jr., NYTimes, 12/11/10. “Gov. David A. Paterson of New York on Dec. 11 vetoed legislation intended to curtail natural gas development using the technique called hydraulic fracturing until a closer review of its effects can be undertaken. Instead, the governor issued an executive order instituting a moratorium that extends until July 1, 2011 -- beyond the date specified in the legislation -- and that more narrowly defines the types of drilling to be restricted. ‘This legislation, which was well intentioned, would have a serious impact on our state if signed into law,’ Mr. Paterson said in a prepared statement... “The legislation, which was passed by the New York State Assembly late last month before being sent to Mr. Paterson for his signature, would have placed a moratorium on issuing new permits for gas drilling that relies on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.”

Marcellus Shale Fight Takes New Turn in Pennsylvania with Pipeline Mandate. By Andrew Maykuth, PhillyInquirer, 9/30/10. "In a sharp rebuke of one of the state's biggest Marcellus Shale gas drillers, Pennsylvania regulators on Thursday ordered an $11.8 million pipeline built to deliver water to Dimock Township residences whose household wells are contaminated by natural gas. In response, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., the Texas driller whose wells the state blames for the pollution, denounced the decision as 'unfounded, irrational, and capricious' and accused DEP Secretary John Hanger of 'obvious political pandering.' The atmosphere in Susquehanna County, which borders New York state north of Scranton, has become so polarized that Cabot crews now travel with uniformed escorts after an enraged Dimock resident drew a handgun on an employee."

Japan to Start Drilling for Methane Hydrate. By Michael Fitzpatrick, Guardian, 9/27/10. "In a bid to shore up its precarious energy security Japan is to start commercial test drilling for controversial frozen methane gas along its coast next year. The gas is methane hydrate, a sherbet-like substance consisting of methane trapped in water ice -- sometimes called 'fire ice' or MH -- that is locked deep underwater or under permafrost by the cold and under pressure 23 times that of normal atmosphere… Surveys suggest Japan has enough methane hydrate for 100 years at the current rate of usage. Lying hundreds of meters below the sea and deeper still below sediments, fire ice is exceedingly difficult to extract. Japan is claiming successful tests using a method that gently depressurizes the frozen gas… Concerns had been raised that digging for frozen methane would destabilize the methane beds… Methane itself is a greenhouse gas which is 21 times as damaging as carbon dioxide and any leakage from wells could be an environmental problem… The US, China, Canada and South Korea are among other countries seeking to develop commercially viable extraction technology and each is now exploring the mining of methane hydrates from their own sea beds. 'Some commercial production of methane from methane hydrate could be achieved in the United States before 2025,' says a US government report on the subject."

The Frack (Counter) Attack. By Jason Mark, EarthIsland.org, August 17, 2010. "Throughout this steamy, restless summer, most greens were consumed with fighting one of two battles: Either struggling to hold BP accountable for its giant mess in the Gulf of Mexico, or else fighting to defend the ultimately doomed climate legislation in the US Senate. But in communities across the country, from the arid Rocky Mountain West to the dairy lands of New York and Pennsylvania, another environmental battle is rumbling: The efforts to halt, suspend, or, at the very least, learn more about the natural gas extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing. If you haven't yet seen the eco-indie flick Gasland, or read the fracking exposes in Earth Island Journal, The Nation, or The American Prospect, here's the deal: Hydraulic fracturing, better known as 'fracking,' uses millions of gallons of high pressured water, sand, and chemicals to break apart (or crack) bedrock and cause fissures that allow petroleum and natural gas to escape from underground reservoirs.

"According to ProPublica (which has a handy illustration here), the process is used in 9 out of 10 natural gas wells in the US. The method is so effective at extracting gas from deep within geologic formations like the Marcellus Shale (in New York and Pennsylvania) and the Barnett Shale (in Texas) that is has spurred a natural gas rush in the US and around the world. In Texas alone, more than 13,000 gas wells have been drilled in the last ten years, so many that there is something of a natural gas glut. Gas imports to the US are a fraction of what they once were. At the same time, as Journal editor Amy Westervelt reports at SolveClimate, fracking's ability to extract shale gas has upended energy markets around the world, especially in Europe, where countries are eager to break away from Russia's grip on the gas market. Groups like EarthWorks are organizing communities to demand a stop to gas drilling. Emotional videos, like this one [3:41 min], by New York based Clean Water Not Dirty Drilling are going viral, and deepening worries about fracking. The issue is so controversial that the EPA recently had to postpone fracking hearings at Binghamton University because they expected some 8,000 people to show up."

A Colossal Fracking Mess Along the Delaware Watershed. By Christopher Bateman, VanityFair, June 21, 2010. “Stretching some 400 miles, the Delaware is one of the cleanest free-flowing rivers in the United States, home to some of the best fly-fishing in the country. More than 15 million people, including residents of New York City and Philadelphia, get their water from its pristine watershed. To regard its unspoiled beauty on a spring morning, you might be led to believe that the river is safely off limits from the destructive effects of industrialization. Unfortunately, you’d be mistaken. The Delaware is now the most endangered river in the country, according to the conservation group American Rivers. That’s because large swaths of land -- private and public -- in the watershed have been leased to energy companies eager to drill for natural gas here using a controversial, poorly understood technique called hydraulic fracturing. ‘Fracking,’ as it’s colloquially known, involves injecting millions of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals, many of them toxic, into the earth at high pressures to break up rock formations and release natural gas trapped inside...

“The town of Dimock [PA], population 1,400, makes all too clear the dangers posed by hydraulic fracturing. You don’t need to drive around Dimock long to notice how the rolling hills and farmland of this Appalachian town are scarred by barren, square-shaped clearings, jagged, newly constructed roads with 18-wheelers driving up and down them, and colorful freight containers labeled ‘residual waste.’ Although there is a moratorium on drilling new wells for the time being, you can still see the occasional active drill site, manned by figures in hazmat suits and surrounded by klieg lights, trailers, and pits of toxic wastewater, the derricks towering over barns, horses, and cows in their shadows. The real shock that Dimock has undergone, however, is in the aquifer that residents rely on for their fresh water. Dimock is now known as the place where, over the past two years, people’s water started turning brown and making them sick, one woman’s water well spontaneously combusted, and horses and pets mysteriously began to lose their hair.”

The Rush is On for European Shale Gas. By Carola Hoyos, FT, March 8, 2010. "All across Europe big oil companies are scouring millions of acres of countryside and buying up rights to tap the natural gas trapped in prehistoric shale beds thousands of metres below its surface. The shale gas rush has made its way over from the US, where breakthroughs in technology have allowed companies to extract gas from reservoirs previously seen as untouchable. The newly accessible US shale deposits are so big that executives now believe the country has enough gas to last it for a century. This extra supply and the US's new found self-sufficiency has created a worldwide gas glut that has driven down prices. It is a remarkable turnround. Just three years ago, most US energy executives were working out how the US could import enough gas from places as far away as Nigeria, Russia and Qatar, while competing with the demands from China and other energy-hungry developing countries. Now the world's biggest, richest and most sophisticated energy companies believe that they may be able to repeat the American shale gas revolution in Europe, potentially undermining the power of Russia, the region's biggest gas supplier. For companies such as ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and BP, tapping Europe's shale gas deposits is a way to catch up with what they missed out on in the U.S.."

White House Budget Would Kill Tax Breaks for Oil, Gas and Coal Industries. By Ben Geman, The Hill, February 1, 2010. "The White House calls for the end of nearly $40 billion in tax beaks for oil, gas and coal companies in its budget proposal released on Monday. The tax effort is sure to prompt outcry from industry groups, which have long argued that ending the subsidies will stymie investments in domestic energy production. The fiscal year 2011 budget plan calls for repealing $38.8 billion worth of tax breaks for oil, natural gas and coal companies over a decade, according to the White House. President Barack Obama's first budget plan a year ago called for cutting $31.5 billion in oil and gas industry incentives, including a repeal of the industry's ability to claim a lucrative domestic manufacturing tax break. Congress did not act on the proposals, which are opposed by a mix of Republicans and Democrats representing oil and gas-producing states. The call for ending the tax breaks comes after the White House signaled concessions to the oil and nuclear lobbies -- and their Capitol Hill allies -- in an effort to advance a bipartisan climate and energy bill."

New York State Lawmakers Wrestle with Regulating Hydrofracking. By Delen Goldberg, Syracuse Post-Standard, January 17, 2010. "As New York wrestles with how to regulate natural gas drilling, state lawmakers from Central New York will soon have to decide an important question: Do they support high-volume hydraulic fracturing?... The state Department of Environmental Conservation is preparing to issue regulations that would allow hydrofracking throughout New York, including in the Skaneateles Lake watershed, which supplies drinking water to 400,000 Syracuse-area residents... Lawmakers can -- and already are -- drafting bills that would override those regulations. They also decide how much money DEC is given to monitor drilling and enforce regulations. Advocates on both sides of the issue are trying to influence the legislators. Environmental advocates have sent hundreds of letters to them about the potential risks of natural gas drilling. Oil and gas lobbyists are using education -- and campaign donations -- to persuade them that the risks from hydrofracking are minimal, but the economic benefits to the state will be huge."

Forget Wind. Pickens Turns Focus to Gas. By Clifford Krauss, NYTimes, January 14, 2010. "T. Boone Pickens spent much of the last two years, and $62 million of his fortune, on an advertising and public relations offensive in which he tried to persuade Americans to embrace his Pickens Plan. It called for a vast expansion of wind energy to displace natural gas, freeing the natural gas for use in vehicles, thus displacing foreign oil... now Mr. Pickens is turning up the volume, and changing his pitch with some extra alarm bells... His aides hope that a stronger message, focused on national security, will be effective after the attempted Christmas Day airliner bombing and other terrorist actions...

"In the old version of the plan, Mr. Pickens called on the country to build thousands of wind turbines from Texas to Canada and install transmission lines to deliver the new power to cities across the country. Now, he is playing down wind because he says it has become almost impossible to finance a wind project, largely because cheap gas has made wind power less competitive. His focus is now almost entirely on gas. He wants the president to convert the entire federal automobile fleet to natural gas. Then he wants Congress to give large tax credits to companies that use natural gas vehicles, and filling stations that install the necessary equipment. By Mr. Pickens's estimate, just fueling a small percentage of the country's trucks and buses with gas could displace as much as 8% of oil imports within seven years."

Exxon's Natural Gas Holdings Grow With $31 Billion Deal. By Jad Mouawad, NYTimes, December 14, 2009. "In the biggest energy deal in years, Exxon Mobil said Monday that it agreed to buy XTO Energy, a domestic producer of natural gas, in an all-stock deal valued at $31 billion to increase its holdings in unconventional resources in the United States. The deal includes the assumption of $10 billion in debt. The purchase allows Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, to expand in shale gas, an area that has seen tremendous growth in the last few years. It will give Exxon the equivalent of about 45 trillion cubic feet of natural gas throughout the United States. The acquisition extends Exxon's bet that fossil fuels will remain a critical part of the nation's energy supplies for decades to come. Natural gas is a cleaner-burning fuel than coal, with half the carbon dioxide emissions. For that reason, it is considered as a potential 'bridge fuel' on the lengthy path to a renewable, carbon-free economy. 'XTO is a leading U.S. unconventional natural gas producer, with an outstanding resource base, strong technical expertise and highly skilled employees,' Rex W. Tillerson, Exxon's chief executive, said in a statement... In recent years, energy companies have discovered large reserves of natural gas tightly trapped in shale rocks in Texas, Colorado, and Wisconsin, as well as in the Northeast. The discoveries have led to a gas drilling boom that has greatly expanded domestic resources, while also raising some environmental concerns. The term unconventional resources is applied to a broad category of fuels like shale gas, tar sands and other forms of oil and gas that require sophisticated technology to extract. Unlike traditional oil and gas supplies, which have been declining, reserves of unconventional resources are growing with new discoveries."

Dark Side of Natural Gas Boom. By Jad Mouawad and Clifford Krauss, NYTimes, December 14, 2009. "Across vast regions of the country, gas companies are using a technology called hydraulic fracturing to produce natural gas from previously untapped beds of shale. The push has been so successful that the country's potential gas reserves jumped by 35% in two years. The new supplies have driven down natural gas prices for consumers and might help the global environment by allowing more production of electricity from natural gas, which emits fewer global warming emissions than coal. What the drilling push will do to local environments is another matter. The drilling boom is raising concern in many parts of the country, and the reaction is creating political obstacles for the gas industry. Hazards like methane contamination of drinking water wells, long known in regions where gas production was common, are spreading to populous areas that have little history of coping with such risks, but happen to sit atop shale beds. And a more worrisome possibility has come to light. A string of incidents in places like Wyoming and Pennsylvania in recent years has pointed to a possible link between hydraulic fracturing and pollution of groundwater supplies. In the worst case, such pollution could damage crucial supplies of water used for drinking and agriculture."