February 24th, 2012

“Judge Rumsey’s decision in the Town of Dryden case regarding the Town’s legal right to use zoning to prohibit hydrofracking is a reaffirmation of a municipality’s power to regulate land use within its boundaries. This constitutionally-granted power of local governments recognizes that land use decisions affecting residents of a specific municipality should be left to the elected officials of that municipality, and not have land use regulations forced upon them by bureaucrats who do not live in the community. With Judge Rumsey’s well-researched and logical ruling, we are hopeful that the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation’s yet-to-be-finalized natural gas drilling regulations will respect the land use decisions made by individual local municipal governments.”

The court decision was influential with the Common Council, now yielding a veto-proof majority of 10 votes for the fracking ban bill. Councilman Jim Sano, who abstained last year over concerns about the then-ongoing Dryden lawsuit, announced his support of the ban.

“Given this recent court decision, my reservations of the City of Albany banning hydrofracking have been removed. I abstained from the original vote and stated at that time I was fearful that the City potentially would have to pay damages if the decision in this court case was favorable for the plaintiffs. I further said, my decision on the matter could not be final until this court case was resolved, the case has been resolved, the ban was upheld, therefore any reservations I had in regards to this legislation have been satisfied.”

With news that the DEC is rushing through more than 61,000 public comments on fracking, Albany is one of many municipalities renewing efforts to ban fracking following the Judge Rumsey’s decision. On Wednesday, Feb. 22, Governor Cuomo said that it was up to the courts if municipalities have the right to ban fracking. “I believe it’s up to the courts,” Cuomo said. “And if the courts say they have that right, they have the right.”

Councilmembers Anton Konev and Leah Golby also spoke at today’s press conference in support of the Albany fracking ban. Councilman Konev stated, “The Courts reaffirmed what I have been saying all along—we have a responsibility to protect health and welfare of citizens within our city and not give up that power to the state in hopes for the best and now court has ruled that localities indeed could ban hydrofracking within their boundaries. This is a major victory and I am glad to hear that now it looks like we have veto-proof majority in the Council supporting this ban.”

The Albany fracking ban re-introduction follows an announcement earlier this week by El Paso Corp—owner of the country’s largest natural gas pipeline system—of their intent to build a new 36-inch diameter natural gas pipeline from northeast Pennsylvania to Albany. The proposed pipeline would open the land along and near it to fracking, including the Utica Shale that lies underneath and surrounding Albany.

Dozens of Albany residents and business owners were at the press conference to call on the rest of the Common Council and Mayor Jennings to act on the will and best interests of Albany residents and to support the Albany fracking ban. Last year, an unprecedented number of residents and more than 70 local businesses called on the city of Albany to ban fracking.

John Armstrong, an organizer with Frack Action, said, “We applaud Councilman Calsolaro’s leadership, Councilman Jim Sano and the rest of the Common Council in supporting the Albany fracking ban. We hope that Albany passes the legislation switfly and joins most other major cities including Buffalo and Syracuse in banning fracking to protect its residents. The gas industry has set in motion plans to build the infrastructure that would open Albany and the surrounding area for drilling in the Utica Shale, threatening Albany residents with water contamination, catastrophic air pollution and disasters like we see every week in Pennsylvania.”

Daniel Morrissey, an organizer with Capital District Against Fracking, stated, “Capital District Against Fracking implores Mayor Jennings to stand up to the gas industry alongside an overwhelming majority of the Albany Common Council as they revisit legislation to zone fracking and related industrial processes out of Albany.”

County Legislator Higgins also spoke at the press conference and warned of the dangers of fracking, as well as to push his legislation for a ban on fracking in Albany county. Legislator Higgins said, “Hydrofracking is an unproven and environmentally unsound practice. The county has no business being in the fracking business and hopefully soon we will take action to ensure it never will be when my county ban is passed.”

Replicated only for posterity. All credit goes to Ecowatch.org and Frackaction.com. Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Original article found @http://ecowatch.org/2012/albany-common-council-reintroduces-fracking-ban-bill-with-veto-proof-majority/

The drilling goes on day and night at a new Marcellus Shale well in Daisytown, Washington County, and Brian Smith told Channel 4 Action News investigator Jim Parsons that he has no complaints — except one.

“As far as drilling and the noise and the lights in the window? No,” he said. “But when it affected the value of my home? Absolutely.”

The Smiths live across the street from the new gas well. They applied for a new mortgage on their $230,000 home and hobby farm, and Quicken Loans congratulated them on their conditional approval.

“They said all the paperwork will be done by the end of the week and we’ll be able to close,” Brian Smith said. “Somewhere in there, they called us and said, ‘Your loan got denied.’ ”

In an email, Quicken Loans told the Smiths, “Unfortunately, we are unable to move forward with this loan. It is located across the street from a gas drilling site.” Two other national lenders also turned down Brian Smith’s application.

Quicken Loans emailed the following statement to Channel 4 Action News: “While Quicken Loans makes every effort to help its clients reach their homeownership goals, like every lender, we are ultimately bound by very specific underwriting guidelines. In some cases conditions exist, such as gas wells and other structures in nearby lots, that can significantly degrade a property’s value. In these cases, we are unable to extend financing due to the unknown future marketability of the property.”

Clean Water Action said that in other parts of the country, when shale gas drilling has arrived, mortgages at nearby properties sometimes get denied. This is the first case they’ve heard in Pennsylvania.

“The banks aren’t stupid,” said Myron Arnowitt, director of Clean Water Action in Pennsylvania. “They’re going to look at that and be more cautious in terms of what they are willing to mortgage.”

“If I can’t refinance, could somebody get a loan to purchase my house? And that would be my concern. That’s definitely a worry,” Brian Smith said.

Replicated only for posterity. All credit goes to WTAE.com. Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Original article found @http://www.wtae.com/news/local/investigations/Couple-denied-mortgage-because-of-gas-drilling/-/12023024/12865512/-/item/0/-/yhxyvpz/-/index.html

Concerned investors are encouraged to contact Newman Ferrara partner Jeffrey M. Norton at (212) 619-5400 or jnorton@nfllp.com to discuss this investigation, their rights, or potential remedies.

On April 18, Reuters reported that the Company’s CEO, Aubrey McClendon, borrowed as much as $1.1 billion against his personal ownership stakes in wells owned by the Chesapeake. According to the report, McClendon used proceeds “to fund [his] operating costs for an unusual corporate perk that offers him a chance to invest in a 2.5 percent interest in every well the company drills.” The loan raises questions as whether McClendon’s personal financial deals may compromise his fiduciary duty to Chesapeake’s shareholders. Remarkably, the Company had not previously disclosed the loans to shareholders. On April 19, 2012, The Wall Street Journal reported that Chesapeake’s general counsel had confirmed that the Company’s board of directors was aware of the existence of transactions. Analysts have called for the ouster of both the board and McClendon.

Newman Ferrara maintains a multifaceted practice based in New York City with attorneys specializing in complex commercial and multi-party litigation with an emphasis on securities, ERISA, consumer fraud, products liability, civil rights and real estate. For more information, please visit the firm website at www.nfllp.com .

SOURCE: Newman Ferrara LLP

Newman Ferrara LLP Attorneys: Jeffrey M. Norton, 212-619-5400 jnorton@nfllp.com http://www.nfllp.com

Replicated only for posterity. All credit goes to Newman Ferrara LLP, Business Wire, and MarketWatch.com. Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Original article found @http://www.marketwatch.com/story/newman-ferrara-llp-investigates-chesapeake-energy-corp-for-possible-breaches-of-fiduciary-duty-2012-04-25

The Glenrock Bird reported that large amounts of gas were coming out of the ground on Tuesday night but it wasn’t immediately clear what happened.

The owner of the well, Chesapeake Energy, said there was a “well control incident” but hasn’t released any details yet.

A Converse County sheriff’s dispatcher said residents of a subdivision were told about the problem Tuesday and given the option to stay or evacuate.

KCWY-TV reports that over 50 of the nearly 400 residents left their homes. Residents told the station that the sound of escaping gas could be heard six miles away.

Chesapeake Energy says no workers were injured and that it was working to bring the well under control.

(Please visit original posting for slideshow)

By AP

Replicated only for posterity. All credit goes to AP and Fuelfix.com. Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Original article found @http://fuelfix.com/blog/2012/04/25/chesapeake-gas-well-failure-prompts-evacuation-near-douglas/#2653-4

The U.S. Army veteran contends the practice called mandatory pooling violates his constitutional rights, his Catholic faith — which calls for safeguarding the environment — and what his country stands for.

“We do not defend the United States of America so the government can strip me of my rights to my land,” said Hashbarger, who expects his land in Bloomingdale will soon be pooled as such deals engulf neighboring properties. “I’m furious over the whole thing.”

Mandatory pooling gives drillers the ability to overcome a landowner’s objections to drilling on his property if enough neighbors have agreed to the well drilling. The resisting landowner is paid for the oil or gas taken.

Laws allowing mandatory pooling began springing up across the nation in the 1960s in response to what was seen as wasteful over-drilling.

Such laws are drawing new criticism as hydraulically fractured wells reach more heavily populated areas, and public attention rises over oil and gas drilling in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations that lie under Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and other northeastern states.

Natural gas drillers are swarming eastern Ohio — where Hashbarger lives — as new horizontal drilling technology has allowed access to previously unavailable oil and gas deposits in the shale. Ohio is among states that have been revisiting their drilling laws in order to capitalize on the investment and job creation potential.

Laws on mandatory pooling were intended to assure that profits from drilling were shared among both willing and unwilling property owners, said John Keller, a Columbus lawyer who represents Ohio drillers in their pooling requests.

The arrangement prevents neighbors from allowing drillers to suck resources from under another’s land without compensation, while allowing interested landowners to exercise their mineral rights.

He said they were dubbed “conservation statutes” that would discourage several neighbors from each drilling wells extending down into the same deposit “like several straws going into the same Coke bottle.” That was seen as both blighting the landscape and shrinking profits for everyone involved by reducing the underground pressure that dictates how much oil or gas is produced.

“People were spending more money and getting less as a result,” Keller said.

After Marcellus Shale exploration took off in 2008 and 2009, natural gas industry lobbyists in Pennsylvania put pooling at the top of their priorities list, but no legislation has been introduced. Gov. Tom Corbett, who is viewed as an industry ally, has said he opposes it, calling it tantamount to “private eminent domain.” Pennsylvania has an unused and outdated pooling law that applies to a different gas formation below the Marcellus Shale.

Louie Chodkiewicz of Broadview Heights, a Cleveland suburb, unsuccessfully fought a mandatory pooling request from 2007 to 2008. He said the royalty checks he now receives don’t make up for the negatives from the well that sits 175 feet off his property. He did not disclose his royalty agreement.

He said the well has marred the air in his neighborhood, the view and quiet enjoyment of his property. He’s now saddled with a ruling that he said appears to make him legally responsible for spills and other damage.

Chodkiewicz said he felt he didn’t have a chance before the state board that considers mandatory pooling requests, the Technical Advisory Council, because it is dominated by energy industry executives.

“They put their well in and got their way, and they are taking my minerals against my wishes without any signature, like eminent domain,” he said. “They’re nothing but a bunch of buddies. It’s the fox watching the henhouse down there.”

Records obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request show the eight-member council has sided with the oil and gas industry in 43 of 56 recommendations since 2009, in cases where private landowners opposed drilling under their land.

Five more requests were put on hold, and four others were resolved. The council recommended denying just three industry requests for mandatory pooling, the data show. One request was rejected before it was heard.

Six of the council’s eight members represent oil and gas producers; one represents landowners’ royalty interests; and one represents the public. All are appointed by the governor.

The council’s recommendations can be accepted or rejected by the chief of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ mineral resources division. The department says the division chief has agreed with the council all but twice since 2009.

Property owners have a right to appeal the chief’s decisions to the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission.

Commission executive director Linda Osterman said the panel has heard six mandatory pooling appeals since 2009. Three were ultimately withdrawn, one was thrown out, and one is pending. The only case decided by the commission in that period affirmed the chief’s decision in favor of pooling.

Doug Gonzalez, chairman of the Technical Advisory Council and an executive at Canton-based GonzOil Inc., said the group’s pro-industry stances don’t indicate a bias by the council.

He said most cases the board reviews have a high percentage of neighbors already on board. Sample maps from recent cases showed anywhere from 70 percent to 95 percent of neighbors in favor of drilling before the Technical Advisory Council agreed to the pooling of holdout properties.

“Should one person with 5 percent of the land prevent the other 95 percent from going forward?” he asked. “Generally in our country the majority rules.”

But Chodkiewicz said he’s seen where landowners have been told their neighbors have already agreed to drilling leases when that wasn’t the case. Such reports of deceptive lease tactics have prompted Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine to offer an educational website about oil-and-gas leasing for landowners.

Gonzalez said land is most often pooled when a landowner is opposed to the drilling, can’t be found or just wants to be left alone.

Hashbarger said he’s among those who just want to be left alone.

“I’m not interested in signing a gas lease, and I don’t like the idea that the state has a law that can include me in that kind of agreement,” he said.

By JULIE CARR SMYTH

Associated Press writer Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pa., contributed to this report.

Replicated only for posterity. All credit goes to Julie Carr Smyth and AP. Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Original article found @http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=AP&date=20120422&id=15013714

“We paid for tests because we can’t depend on the city or the fracking industry,” said Colleyville resident Kim Davis. “The tests confirmed our worst fears, while Colleyville ignored their own tests to let fracking continue. Apparently the city represents Titan and the gas industry instead of local residents,” she said.

Colleyville City ordinances expressly prohibit the release of any gases: “No person shall allow, cause or permit gases to be vented into the atmosphere or to be burned by open flame.”

The community-funded test results, which detected twenty-six chemicals, also showed carbon disulfide, a neurotoxin at twice the state level for short-term exposure. Benzene, a known carcinogen, and Naphthalene, a suspected carcinogen, were both over state long-term exposure levels by more than 9 times and more than 7 times, respectively. Carbonyl sulfide, dimethyl disulfide and Pyridine were all detected above safe limits for long-term exposure.

Gordon Aalund, an MD with toxicology training who lives in Southlake and practices emergency medicine said, “Exceeding long and short term exposure limits to these toxics places us all at increased and unneeded risk. When your government fails to protect you and the company cannot be trusted, private citizens are forced to act.”

The Colleyville results indirectly confirm the suspicions of Arlington-area residents about air pollution from ongoing Chesapeake Energy fracking and flowback operations in their neighborhood since December 2011. Residents who experienced health impacts were told by Chesapeake that flowback emissions were only “steam.” When challenged to substantiate its claims with public testing, the company failed to respond.

“It’s great that concerned citizens in the Colleyville-area have the wherewithal to pay for their own testing when government fails to do its job. But I live in southeast Arlington, where our community doesn’t have the resources to do government’s job for it,” said Arlington resident Chuck Harper. “Why isn’t TCEQ doing these tests? If the watchdog isn’t watching, who do we turn to for protection?”

“It’s state and local failures like these that make plain the need to close fracking loopholes in federal environmental laws,” said Earthworks’ Oil & Gas Accountability Project Organizer Sharon Wilson. “When TCEQ can’t be bothered to protect their own citizens, when cities ignore their own laws, when companies lie to communities left, right and center, there’s nowhere else to turn.”

For more information, click here.

Replicated only for posterity. All credit goes to Earthworksaction.org and Ecowatch.org. Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Original article found @http://ecowatch.org/2012/resident-funded-testing-confirms-worst-fears-for-fracking-and-flowback-emissions/

From the Canadian National Farmers Union, “Hydraulic fracturing a danger to water, food, farmland: NFU calls for moratorium.” The National Farmers Union is first large, national agricultural organization to make a clear statement that fracking for gas represents a threat to food safety, agriculture, and farmer health. The NFU represents thousands of family farms across Canada.

The National Farms Union’s press release is worth reading in full. Here are some excerpts:

“We are in the heart of Alberta’s oil and gas country where our ability to produce good, wholesome food is at risk of being compromised by the widespread, virtually unregulated use of this dangerous process.”

“Farmers across Canada largely depend on ground water aquifers for both domestic use and livestock production. The quality of ground water is critical to raising high quality food. Unfortunately in the experience of too many Alberta farmers and ranchers hydraulic fracturing has been associated with water well contamination and damage. That is why our organization is calling for a moratorium on this technique until these problems can be addressed.”

Meanwhile, in rural upstate NY, farming towns are banning hydrofracking with local laws. Last week, before passing a ban in the Town of Jerusalem in the Finger Lakes region the town supervisor Daryl Jones made a statement including

“Most important to me was the research and analysis that presented facts that fracking as it is currently done is not safe. It is not safe for the waters we drink. It is not safe for the crops we grow and the produce we eat. It is not safe for the livestock we raise. And it is not safe for the waters of Keuka Lake in which our children and grandchildren swim, fish and play.”

Jerusalem and surrounding towns have strong agricultural economies, including dairies, grain producers, and some of the largest organic farms in the northeast.  Several of these towns are poised to ban gas drilling.

Also last week, Dryden, another agricultural town on nearby Lake Cayuga, won a court casethat challenged its ban on gas drilling, supporting the power of NY towns to ban fracking.

By kenjaffe

Replicated only for posterity. All credit goes to kenjaffe, slopefarms.com. Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Original article found @http://www.slopefarms.com/2012/02/24/national-organizations-of-farmers-and-local-farming-communities-act-against-hydrofracking-citing-risk-to-food-and-agriculture/

According to the study led by USGS geophysicist William Ellsworth, the spike in earthquakes since 2001 near oil and gas extraction operations is “almost certainly man-made.” The research team cites underground injection of drilling wastewater as a possible cause.

“With gasoline prices at $4 a gallon, there’s pressure to rush ahead with drilling, but the USGS report is another piece of evidence that shows we have to proceed carefully,” said Dusty Horwitt, Senior Counsel and chief natural resources analyst at Environmental Working Group. “We can’t afford multi-million-dollar water pollution cleanups or earthquakes that could pose risks to homes and health.”

The USGS study, published by the Seismological Society of America, will be presented at the group’s meeting April 17-19 in San Diego.

The authors shared their findings with EnergyWire’s Mike Soraghan in an article published March 29. Soraghan wrote:

“The study found that the frequency of earthquakes started rising in 2001 across a broad swath of the country between Alabama and Montana. In 2009, there were 50 earthquakes greater than magnitude-3.0, the abstract states, then 87 quakes in 2010. The 134 earthquakes in the zone last year is a sixfold increase over 20th century levels.

The USGS authors said they do not know why oil and gas activity might cause an increase in earthquakes but a possible explanation is the increase in the number of wells drilled over the past decade and the increase in fluid used in the hydraulic fracturing of each well. The combination of factors is likely creating far larger amounts of wastewater that companies often inject into underground disposal wells. Scientists have linked these disposal wells to earthquakes since as early as the 1960s. The injections can induce seismicity by changing pressure and adding lubrication along faults.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that between 1991 and 2000, oil and gas companies drilled 245,000 wells in the U.S. compared to 405,000 wells between 2001 and 2010 – a 65 percent increase.¹ As an example of how much more fracking fluid is used, New York state’s review of oil and natural gas drilling regulations in 1988 assumed that companies would use between 20,000 and 80,000 gallons of fluid for hydraulic fracturing per well.² The state’s 2011 review of regulations for natural gas drilling in shale formations assumed that companies would use 2.4 million to 7.8 million gallons of fluid per well – a 100-fold increase.³

According to Anthony Ingraffea, a professor of engineering at Cornell University who has conducted research on hydraulic fracturing, the increase in both the number of wells drilled and the amount of hydraulic fracturing fluid used per well has been driven by a shift of drilling into so-called unconventional formations such as shale in which gas and oil are distributed over very large volumes of rock, which need stimulation by fracking. Companies have increasingly tapped these formations because they have depleted most of the conventional formations in which gas and oil are contained in a relatively concentrated pool. In these conventional formations, companies can simply perforate the pool with their drill bit and drain a significant quantity of oil or gas. In unconventional formations, however, energy companies must drill more wells because the energy deposits are widely dispersed. Drillers must also use significantly more fracturing fluid to create larger fractures that can access a broader area of oil or gas.

“The rate of drilling and the volume of fluid used have increased tremendously,” said Ingraffea.

The Environmental Protection Agency regulates underground waste disposal wells under its underground injection control program. The agency often delegates primary enforcement authority to the states. According to an article written by Soraghan and published in the March 15, 2012 edition of EnergyWire, an EPA task force is preparing recommendations for “managing or minimizing” earthquakes caused by underground injection wells. “The group appears to have receded from its initial goal of finding ways to ‘avoid’ earthquakes caused by injection,” Soraghan reported. An EPA presentation included in the article showed that the EPA sets specific standards for avoiding earthquakes for some types of injection wells but in the case of oil and gas wastewater injection wells, such measures are up to the agency’s discretion.⁴

The USGS report is likely to be of particular interest in California where earthquakes are a part of life largely as a result of the 810-mile long San Andreas Fault. An EWG investigation recently discovered that companies are engaged in hydraulic fracturing, mostly for oil, in a number of counties throughout California, including several directly above the fault line. It is unclear how the companies are disposing of their wastewater.

¹ U.S. Dept. of Energy, Energy Information Administration, U.S. Crude Oil, Natural Gas and Dry Exploratory and Development Wells Drilled, Annual. Accessed online Mar. 30, 2010 athttp://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=E_ERTW0_XWC0_NUS_C&f=A.
² New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement on the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program, Volume 1, Jan. 1988, at 9-26.
³ New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Revised Draft, Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement on the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program Well Permit Issuance for Horizontal Drilling and High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing to Develop the Marcellus Shale and other Low-Permeability Reservoirs, Sept. 7, 2011, at ES-8. Accessed online Mar. 30, 2012 athttp://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/75370.html.
⁴ Mike Soraghan, EPA Looking for Ways to ‘Manage or Minimize’ Injection Earthquakes,” Energy Wire Mar. 15, 2012. Accessed online Mar. 30, 2012 at http://www.eenews.net/public/energywire/2012/03/15/2.

By Dusty Horwitt and Alex Formuzis, April 2012.

Replicated only for posterity. All credit goes to Dusty Horwitt, Alex Formuzis, and ewg.org. Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Original article found @http://www.ewg.org/analysis/usgs-recent-earthquakes-almost-certainly-manmade?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ewg_naturalresources+%28EWG%3A+Natural+Resources%29