CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

The Pennsylvania Land Trust Association has reviewed environmental violations accrued by Marcellus Shale drillers working in Pennsylvania between January 2008 and June 25, 2010. The records were obtained via a Right to Know Request made to the Department of Environmental Protection.

DEP records show a total of 1,435 violations of state Oil and Gas Laws due to gas drilling or other earth disturbance activities related to natural gas extraction from the Marcellus Shale in this 2.5-year period.

The Association identified 952 violations as having or likely to have an impact on the environment. 483 were identified as likely being an administrative or safety violation and not likely to have the potential to negatively impact the environment.

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While the larger energy companies that formerly drilled for natural gas in the Trenton-Black River formation have abandoned those activities for the more favorable drilling rules in Pennsylvania, smaller companies are creeping back in to drill in the Southern Tier.

With names like Anschutz Exploration and Epsilon Energy USA and MegaEnergy Operating Inc., the drilling companies are not only continuing to explore the Trenton-Black River (TBR) formation, which lies at depths of 10,000 to 12,000 feet -- beneath the Marcellus and Utica shale -- they are also sinking their drill bits in the Oriskany sandstone formation.

Found just above the TBR, Oriskany sandstone was formed about 400 million years ago and runs roughly from West Virginia and into Pennsylvania and New York. Geologists estimate it holds about 11 billion cubic feet of gas.

While a good well in a sandstone formation like the Oriskany may produce between 500,000 and 1 million cubic feet of gas per day, a well in Marcellus Shale will likely produce 10 times that amount, geologists say.

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What does compulsory integration mean to you?

This is the bottom line on compulsory integration in New York: If you're a landowner with natural gas on your property, even if you don't sign a drilling lease a company might still be able to take that gas. But, it has to pay you for it.

Those situations and remedies are covered under the New York Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Law, in a section commonly referred to as compulsory integration.

What makes compulsory integration noteworthy and necessary is the horizontal drilling process associated with development of the Marcellus Shale. After companies bore underground about a mile to reach the Marcellus, they turn horizontally and, tentacle like, drill in any direction.

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The fight over the Senate offshore drilling “spill bill” shifted Wednesday from the Gulf of Mexico to the mountains of western Pennsylvania, as Republicans slammed the last-minute inclusion of language to regulate a controversial technique to extract onshore natural gas.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) added the language Tuesday requiring natural gas drillers to disclose the chemicals they pump into the ground as part of the hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, process.

Republicans are wary of the addition, which comes on Page 404 of the 409-page spill response bill that Reid wants the Senate to take up before the recess. The language is not in the bill the House will vote on by Friday.

GOP objections to any portion of the larger bill could stall Senate progress, since senior Democratic staff indicated that Reid will not allow amendments.

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Binghamton, NY (WBNG Binghamton) Iberdrola, the parent company of Energy East, which owns NYSEG, is pushing for increased electric and gas rates by about $7.21 per month.

Those changes could take effect as soon as September.

A top executive of Iberola, Kevin Walker, told WROC in Rochester, that he understands paying for heat and electricity is hard for some customers.

But Walker also believes raising the rates now will make energy more affordable down the road.

Residents in the Southern Tier can weigh in on the increases.

The Public Service Commission, which must approve the rate hike, will hold a public hearing on Monday, August 2 at the Broome County Public Library from 5 to 8 pm in the Decker Room.

On December 1st, 2009, The New York State Power Authority submitted a request for proposal to potentially build an industrial wind farm off the shores of Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, or both.

This proposal would see the construction of 40-166 450ft industrial wind turbines 2 miles off shore at depths not to exceed 150 feet, stretching through Parma, Greece, Rochester, Irondequoit and Webster with a possible power plant and storage facility location in Irondequoit Bay. There are several other potential projects targeting Niagara, Ontario, St Lawrence Counties, and the Town of Hamburg and Evans off Lake Erie.

The negative environmental aspects of these farms are too numerous to list here, but include:

An Experimental Project - never attempted in fresh water and all for 1% added to the power grid.

Winter ice storms could destroy turbine structures, crashing hundreds of tons of metal into the lake and spilling oil into our fresh water (~215 gallons/turbine with 40,000 gallons in electric service platforms.) Hardly clean energy! Will not reduce our reliance on foreign oil. Where does the used oil go? How are the oil changes done w/o leaks and spills? Who pays for it? Who supplies it? THESE ARE INDUSTRIAL TURBINES, NOT WINDMILLS!

Will negatively impact property values as the lake becomes devalued, esp. after turbines become disabled and rusted.

Noise pollution from turbines and fog horns will impact quality of life for humans and wildlife.

Flashing red lights all night on turbines will disrupt life far beyond the shoreline.

Recreational boating and the fishing industry will diminish as Coast Guard regulations prohibit boats from within at least 100ft.

Risk of boat collisions increase at night as depth perception is distorted on the water.

Serious impact on fish & Fowl, esp. to migratory birds crossing the lake. Lake Trout spawning grounds.

THESE TURBINES ARE PRIMARILY MANUFACTURED OVERSEAS, AND THAT IS WHERE YOUR TAX DOLLARS WILL GO! ANY LOCAL JOBS CREATED WOULD BE TEMPORARY. IS LAKE ONTARIO WORTH SACRIFICING FOR A SMALL AMOUNT OF INTERMITTENT ELECTRICITY FOR NYC RESIDENTS? THIS PROJECT IS ESTIMATED TO COST $1 BILLION! ASK YOUR LAWMAKERS WHERE THE MONEY WOULD GO!

Do YOUR Own Research

You may also visit the NYPA website to get more information on the project proposal. PLEASE NOTE, Their disclaimer is in bold:

The New York Power Authority(NYPA) "makes no guarantees concerning the accuracy or completeness of the information from technical studies made available by the Authority. Respondents are encouraged to verify the sources and methodologies employed in the technical studies made available by the Authority through independent means." www.nypa.gov

This time next summer odds are that hydro-fracking deep below the earth's crust and perhaps dangerously near Southern Tier aquifers will be a reality, one that many in the Southern Tier fear. A recent foray into Pennsylvania near Wellsboro gave me a glimpse of the drilling future of the Southern Tier and the Finger Lakes.

I didn't like what I saw or heard.

What hits the onlooker instantly is the noise, the smells and the never-ending stream of truck traffic that has transformed beautifully quaint Wellsboro into a miniaturized Times Square environment. Replace New York City's cars and cabs with dump trucks and tanker trucks, odors peculiar to large cities with the smell of diesel, tar, gas and drifting mini-clouds of dust, and you get a picture. The quaintness is still there but it is no longer memorable.

Drive south a few miles and take nearly any rural byway in the shadows of Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon, once pristine, now rutted with dusty, muddy byways, depending on the weather. Along the way you'll see dozens and dozens of roadside signs: No Stopping, Keep Driving, No Dumping, Do Not Discharge Waste Here, Keep Out and the occasional No Frack signs. You get the feeling that not everyone is happy with the drilling.

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The New York State Public Service Commission (Commission) seeks public comment on a Joint Proposal to set electric and natural gas delivery rates for New York State Electric & Gas Corporation (NYSEG) and Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation (NYSEG) for the period September 26, 2010, through December 31, 2013.

The Joint Proposal is the result of negotiations in which all parties to the NYSEG and RG&E rate cases were free to participate. The Joint Proposal is intended to resolve all outstanding issues in these cases. The Joint Proposal may be adopted, modified or rejected by the Commission.

Under the Joint Proposal, a typical NYSEG residential electric customer would see an average monthly bill increase in the first year of the rate plan of approximately $1.45 or 2.2 percent. For RG&E electric customers, it would be $3.70, or 5.0 percent. Residential gas heating customers would see monthly bills increase by an average of $6.53, or 6.2 percent in NYSEG's service territory and $3.51, or 3.8 percent in RG&E's service territory. For the first three years of the rate plan, the proposed increases for typical residential customers are shown in the following table:

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MADRID (Dow Jones)--Spanish renewable energy company Iberdrola Renovables SA (IBR.MC) Monday said grants it has received in the U.S. for renewable energy now amount to $867 million.

The latest grant paid to the company by the U.S. government totaled EUR170 million for investments in the Cayuga Ridge wind park in Illinois.

Iberdrola Renovables is a unit of Spanish utility Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC), and is the world's biggest wind-power generator.

Just when you thought the Marcellus Shale and hydraulic fracturing debate was leveling off, a Washington think tank has come up with 6 billion new reasons that are sure to push the debate to higher levels.

That's $6 billion, which represents the tax revenues for local, state and federal governments that would be generated over the next decade if the formation is fully developed in the states it runs under -- primarily West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York. In addition, the study predicts that 280,000 new jobs would be created across the three-state region that can be directly linked to developing the play.

This latest study, "The Economic Impacts of Marcellus Shale: Implications for New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia," was released last week by the American Petroleum Institute. It presents a dollar-and-cents look at the growing natural gas industry in each of the three states. It pays virtually no attention to the environmental issues that are fueling the debate in New York, but what would one expect from a group representing the energy industry?

However, the numbers they offer are eye-popping -- 280,000 new jobs, a $24 million total economic benefit to the three states through business-to-business spending, lease and royalty payments to landowners and wages paid.