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CLEVELAND — “Fri 5/24 @ 9PM
If you like rootsy music and despise fracking, you’ll want to stop by the Beachland Tavern for the benefit for environmental group Ohio Citizen Action, headlined by the Washington D.C.-based Highballers.
…The quintet is known as a exemplar of what’s come to be called ‘alternative country’ — a form of music that skips the pop drivel that passes for country today to honor the genre’s forefathers, while bringing in its modern influences from rock styles like punk and garage. They feature the male/female sparring vocals that make so many practitioners of the genre so appealing.
The group was cofounded in 2007 by guitarist/vocalist/ New Orleans native in Kendall Jackson, who moved to Cleveland in the early ’90s where he formed garage-rockers the Dirty Bottom Boys. Apparently he still cares about clean air and water in his former home state. The Lawton Brothers and Mole People are also on the bill.”
— Cool Cleveland
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 The drilling complaints map reflects the results of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection investigations at nearly 1,000 properties where water supply owners suspected oil and gas drilling activities polluted or diminished the flow of water to their wells between 2008 and fall 2012. SCRANTON, PA — “More than half of the records of contaminated water supplies confirmed by the state involved gas, loosened by drilling, seeping into drinking water aquifers. Faulty natural gas wells channeled methane into the water supplies for 90 properties, the letters show. Three of those cases were tied to old wells, one of which caused an explosion at a home after gas entered through a floor drain and accumulated in a basement.
Drilling-related road construction contaminated water at two homes, while construction for a large water-storage pond called an impoundment contaminated another. Pipeline construction twice polluted water supplies with sediment. Stray cement or rock waste displaced by drilling, called cuttings, contaminated seven water supplies.
The state has never implicated the underground gas extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in a contamination incident, but inspectors noted that brine contamination suggesting ‘an infiltration of frac water into the shallow ground water,’ damaged six fresh-water springs used for drinking water in northwestern Pennsylvania.”
— Laura Legere, Scranton Sunday Times
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— Associated Press
 Robert Douglas Lawler OKLAHOMA CITY, OK — “Chesapeake Energy Corp has hired Robert Douglas Lawler of rival Anadarko Petroleum Corp as chief executive, filling the post vacated by co-founder Aubrey McClendon, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Chesapeake and Anadarko could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside of regular U.S. business hours.
…Lawler, who is senior vice president of international and deep-water operations at Anadarko Petroleum, will join Chesapeake on June 17, the Wall Street Journal said.”
— Maria Ajit Thomas, Reuters
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COLUMBUS — “Here is what we know:
• While the Utica is beneath eastern and central parts of the state, its sweet spot is a much smaller area that includes Carroll, Harrison, Columbiana and Noble counties.
• Despite early hopes that the Utica would be rich with oil, its most abundant resources are natural gas and natural-gas liquids. Much of the oil is locked away in areas that are difficult to access with current technology.
• Central Ohio is unlikely to see an oil and gas boom. Devon Energy is already giving up on the Utica and is selling its assets there, having drilled the closest to the area with a well in Knox County and coming up virtually empty.”
— Dan Gearino, Columbus Dispatch
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 City of Cleveland administrators are not ready to pull the plug on controversial waste-to-energy technology. CLEVELAND — “Council members, who assumed last week that the proposition had met its end, expressed frustration and disappointment after hearing that the administration would not eliminate it from consideration.
‘The city’s own study demonstrates that the waste-to-energy plan is an economic lead balloon,’ said Councilman Jay Westbrook. ‘Call it for what it is, and stop tormenting tax-paying, conscientious residents.’
For several years, the city has flirted with the technology called gasification, which calls for burning pellets made from compressed trash to generate electricity for city-owned Cleveland Public Power.”
— Leila Atassi, Cleveland Plain Dealer
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— Leila Atassi, Cleveland Plain Dealer
NEW YORK, NY — “Oil output from the Utica shale in Ohio was less than expected last year, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said on Thursday, denting the Utica’s image as America’s next oil-producing frontier.
Despite initially being touted as a $500-billion bounty when drilling began in 2011, early evidence shows that the Utica may disappoint, holding mostly natural gas, a far less lucrative product already in abundance in the United States.
‘Oil production will be incidental to gas production in much of the Utica/Point Pleasant play,’ the DNR said, confirming some analysts’ concerns that it may not live up to the early hype.”
— Edward McAllister and Sabina Zawadski, Reuters
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CLEVELAND — What happened to the Ohio shale boom? Oil and gas companies have given different answers every few months.
1. It’s a Marcellus shale boom. No, wait, it’s a Utica shale boom.
At first, the Ohio shale boom was all about the Marcellus shale, not the Utica. For example, in October 2010, Chris Perry and Larry Wickstrom of the Ohio Geological Survey gave a presentation on Ohio’s shale prospects, called, “The Marcellus Shale Play: Geology, History, and Oil & Gas Potential in Ohio.” The State geologists saw a big future in the Ohio Marcellus formation:
“. . . due to large production increases, a play such as the Marcellus is reshaping our natural gas distribution networks and the way we ultimately may use natural gas.”
Perry and Wickstrom barely noticed the Utica shale.
Before long, everything was reversed and no one mentioned Marcellus shale. Why?
Because nothing was happening in the Marcellus. There are currently only six producing wells in Ohio Marcellus shale, only one of which is a Chesapeake Energy well.
As a sign of how thoroughly the Marcellus vanished, in its report on 2011 natural gas production the Ohio Department of Natural Resources included figures for Utica wells, but didn’t even bother to report on the Marcellus wells.
“No more than a year ago, expectations of shale development in Ohio focused largely on the Marcellus. However, it became clear in 2011 that Marcellus-related drilling is unlikely to happen very far west of the state’s borders with Pennsylvania and West Virginia.”
— “An Analysis of the Economic Potential for Shale Formations in Ohio,” February 29, 2012, study funded by the Shale Coalition, and conducted by Cleveland State University, Ohio State University, and Marietta College.
Meanwhile, the Utica Shale bandwagon started rolling. On July 29, 2011, Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon said, “The Utica should emerge as a key driver in the future growth of U.S. energy supplies.” Continue reading Shale boom? What happened?
 A drilling site in South Montrose, Pa. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) MONTROSE, PA — “I have heard the argument that ‘hydrofracking will help the poor residents.’ What I observed is that the poor citizens were the ones most greatly affected, as they have little financial ability to litigate, sell their home or move.
Montrose does not bear witness to a financial boom, nor do its statistics. Pre-drilling unemployment was 4.3 percent; in 2012, it increased to 7.9 percent. Local citizenry make up only about 10 percent of the gas company crews. Also, there are no fewer citizens on welfare and no fewer children receiving subsidized school lunches.
New York citizens should explore the real story. Hydrofracking is not an answer to our state budget; instead, it creates dismal choices, ravaged land and a lower quality of living for all of us.”
— Carol Egan, guest viewpoint, Press & Sun Bulletin
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CLEVELAND – Enough time has now elapsed to make a preliminary evaluation of oil and gas industry claims for the potential of the Ohio shale regions.
The blue line in the above chart shows the actual current number of producing wells in the Marcellus and Utica shale in Ohio, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
The chart also shows estimates from two industry-funded studies which have been used to promote the notion of an “Ohio shale boom.”
One set of estimates comes from a September, 2011 report done for the Ohio Oil and Gas Association by consultant Dr. Jack Kleinheinz. It estimates, for example, that in 2013 there would be 143 producing wells. This is 50% higher than the actual figure of 95.
Another set of estimates comes from a March 2, 2012 report paid for by the Ohio Shale Coalition, an oil and gas industry-funded group. The study was written by employees of Cleveland State University, Ohio State University and Marietta College. Only one year after the report was issued, the estimates, which the authors called “conservative,” are wildly wrong. For 2013, the study estimated 843 producing Ohio shale wells, more than eight times the actual figure of 95.
— Paul Ryder, Assistant Director, Ohio Citizen Action
 Data from Chesapeake Energy quarterly operational reports and presentations.
CLEVELAND – In September 2011, Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon declared that the Utica Shale was the “biggest thing economically to hit Ohio, since maybe the plow. . . .We know it’s big. How big is big? We don’t know and I can’t put volumes on it yet. [$500 billion?] I prefer to say half a trillion. It sounds bigger.”
As the above chart shows, Chesapeake Energy estimated it would be operating forty drilling rigs in the Utica Shale by the end of 2014. That prediction only lasted a few months. The number of rigs promptly stalled out at fourteen. This figure includes all rigs Chesapeake says it is operating in the Utica Shale in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia combined. The company does not provide rig counts broken down by state. The Utica Shale also lies underneath parts of five other states (Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, and New York), the Canadian province of Ontario, and two Great Lakes, Erie and Ontario.
— Paul Ryder, Assistant Director, Ohio Citizen Action
 A standard radiation monitor, photographed at the Yukon facility of Max Energy Services on Friday, April 26, 2013. The standard radiatiion monitor counts per second as trucks hauling waste into the facility drives through. PITTSBURGH, PA — “State regulators, industry supporters and some scientists say that treating shale waste properly eliminates big health risk. But there are critics who argue that bringing large quantities of even low-level radioactive particles to the surface can lead to a slow, incremental build up of particles that people breathe or eat throughout their lifetimes.
The state began requiring radiation monitors at landfills in 2002 because of medical waste. But oil and gas waste — which brings up naturally occurring radiation formerly locked a mile or so underground — has become an increasing concern.
The spike in radiation alarms roughly corresponds shale drilling activity. Radiation detectors went off 423 times in 2008 and 1,325 times in 2012, according to DEP data. Gas drillers punched 335 new shale wells in 2008 and 1,354 new shale wells in 2012.”
— Timothy Puko, Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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 This pipeline being built near Scio is one of 95 such projects in Carroll and Harrison counties, according to Public Utilities Commission of Ohio records. FRED SQUILLANTE | Dispatch SCIO — “The workers are carving a miles-long trench for natural-gas-liquid pipelines that will connect to a massive gas-processing plant under construction just across Rt. 151.’I told the fellas I’m going to wear a parachute the rest of my life, and when that (pipeline) goes, I’m going to pull the rip cord,’ said Mrs. Snyder, 87. ‘It’s too close.’ By June, the plant is expected to start taking the gases that shale wells produce and split them into propane, butane and ethane.
Explosions seem unlikely, but a series of pipeline spills has critics crying foul.
Officials of the oil and gas industry said the pipelines and the plant are safe and vital to their plans to develop Ohio’s Utica shale.
A lack of natural-gas processing, industry officials say, keeps shale wells from delivering to buyers and has slowed the pace of drilling and fracking.”
— Spencer Hunt, Columbus Dispatch
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 Environmentalists say Maumee Bay, near Toledo, would have been a better target for FirstEnergy conservation work. (Photo by rayb777 via Creative Commons) OREGON — “A Clean Water Act settlement related to that and two other small oil spills at FirstEnergy plants means that the company will pay a $125,000 fine and donate 200 acres of wetlands along Lake Erie in northeast Ohio to a land conservancy.
The land targeted is about 60 miles from two of the plants that had the oil spills, in Cleveland and Lorain. And it’s more than 150 miles from Bayshore.
Maumee Bay and western Lake Erie are considered among the Great Lakes’ most troubled spots, plagued by nutrient pollution, toxic algae blooms, low oxygen levels, invasive species and other issues. Since the waters are very shallow, they are also critically impacted by effects of climate change including warming, evaporation and pollution from runoff during heavy rains.
Local advocates hoped the EPA’s settlement with FirstEnergy could play a small part in addressing some of these problems and helping to make up for Bayshore’s share of the impacts. They are disappointed and frustrated that the settlement is instead benefiting a distant and ecologically separate part of the lake.”
— Kari Lydersen, Midwest Energy News
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LEXINGTON, KY — “Market forces, not the regulators reviled by McConnell, are what’s killing the coal industry in Eastern Kentucky. And the industry is not rebounding any time soon, say experts, because the region’s thin seams are too costly to mine and therefore can’t compete on price.
That a big chunk of people also hold out hope that a coal boom could be ignited in Central Appalachia, if only Congress reined in the Environmental Protection Agency, is not surprising. Human nature craves simplicity over wrestling with complex, scary questions about the future. So the 39 percent who said ‘no’ can be forgiven.
What’s becoming unforgiveable is the eagerness of politicians like McConnell and his co-sponsor, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and a slew of Kentucky Democrats to oversimplify and demagogue the challenges facing the coal-mining regions of Central Appalachia.”
— editorial, Lexington Herald-Leader
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COLUMBUS — “American Municipal Power and FirstEnergy are scrapping plans to build jointly a gas-fired power plant in northeastern Ohio because of increased financing costs.
The project in Eastlake, announced in November, was going to generate power during periods of peak demand, meaning it would operate only on the hottest days of the year.
…The financing issues arise from the sequester, a series of federal budget cuts that took effect in March. Among the cuts was the amount of the subsidy for Build America Bonds and other bonds that cities can use to help finance power-plant construction.”
— Dan Gearino, Columbus Dispatch
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Letters supporting the Fracking Emergency Medical Right to Know Act 7,672 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and made personal phone calls urging state legislators to support the Fracking Emergency Medical Right to Know Act as of May 14, 2013.
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