Recent Fracking News
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 11:09AM Ohio Governor John Kasich is a big supporter of natural gas drilling, but that doesn’t mean he wants Pennsylvania’s fracking waste. As this Bloomberg News article reports, the Buckeye State took in 369 million gallons of used fracking fluid last year.
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 9:43AM Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 7:59AM Yesterday in the Senate and today in the House, the Pennsylvania legislature voted in favor of HB1950, a compromise gas development bill that was hammered out behind closed doors under the heavy hand of Governor Tom Corbett. Under the guise of providing “impact fees” to municipalities where gas operations occur, the legislature effectively supported a takeover of municipalities by the State and the gas industry by gutting established and effective local planning and zoning rights.
Through provisions contained in the bill, municipalities will no longer be able to play a central, critical role in protecting the health, safety, and welfare of residents and determining which uses of land are most beneficial.
The bill requires that all types of oil and gas operations (except for natural gas processing plants)—unlike any other commercial or industrial business—be allowed in all zoning districts, even in residential neighborhoods and near schools, parks, hospitals, and sensitive natural and cultural resource protection areas. As a result, people could be forced to live only 300 feet away from a gas well, open frack waste pit, or pipeline, despite growing evidence that such development causes pollution, damages health, and lowers property values.
The bill also mandates a one-size-fits-all ordinance that supersedes all existing ordinances and prevents municipalities from adopting any zoning provisions that are stricter than the weak, mandated standards.
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 7:57AM By JULIE CARR SMYTH
Associated Press
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Ohio's top law enforcer is seeking tougher environmental sanctions on polluters in the oil and gas industry and full disclosure of the chemicals used in the drilling technique called fracking.
In an Associated Press interview Wednesday, Attorney General Mike DeWine further called for his office or another state agency to be empowered to help landowners with complaints about lease agreements for drilling.
He said a recent legal review by his staff revealed "Ohio's laws simply are not adequate" in the three areas.
DeWine said civil penalties in the state should be raised from a maximum of $20,000 for the duration of a violation to $10,000 a day. That would bring fines in line with states such as Pennsylvania, Colorado and Texas.
He says other states also require chemicals be disclosed.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 2:17PM Ohio should have an amendment to our state constitution (similar to the one Wisconsin is using on Governor Scott Walker) that would allow us to remove an elected official. The principle underlying the recall of public officers has been defined as an effective speedy remedy to remove an official who is not giving satisfaction to the public and whom the electors do not want to remain in office, regardless of whether he is discharging his full duty to the best of his ability and as his conscience dictates.”
Read more: http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/sen-kathleen-vinehout-wisconsin-s-recall-law-exists-to-assure/article_d292ea6c-1e5f-5042-b2da-fd55c97eeb2a.html#ixzz1kDOdH2So
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 2:14PM Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine thinks Ohio’s natural-gas and oil drilling laws are “not adequate” compared with other states.
“I think Gov. [John] Kasich has made the point very correctly that fracking can be very good for our economy,” DeWine told The Vindicator on Tuesday. “We want to encourage growth and jobs, but at the same time, we have to assure the public that the protections are in place.”
DeWine said through investigation and research, he has come to three conclusions regarding Ohio’s laws: The state is not stringent enough on penalizing violations, the attorney general’s office has no jurisdiction to help landowners who may have been swindled by landmen, and there is a need for stronger chemical disclosure regulations.
“If there is a problem later on health officials and first responders need to have an understanding what is in there,” he said. “It just makes common sense.”
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 12:43PM “I think we have a big problem.”
Deborah Rogers, a member of the advisory committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, recalled saying that in a May 2010 conversation with a senior economist at the Reserve, Mine K. Yucel. “We need to take a close look at this right away,” she added.
A former stockbroker with Merrill Lynch, Ms. Rogers said she started studying well data from shale companies in October 2009 after attending a speech by the chief executive of Chesapeake, Aubrey K. McClendon. The math was not adding up, Ms. Rogers said. Her research showed that wells were petering out faster than expected.
