Don’t drain the lake

How's this for a winning strategy to create jobs and promote economic growth in Ohio? 

Risk dangerously low water levels and quality in Lake Erie — the shallowest of the Great Lakes — and its tributaries. Jeopardize the $10 billion a year in revenue, the 250,000 jobs, and the tourism, boating, fishing, and recreational industries that the lake contributes to the Ohio economy.

Aggravate pollution — including toxic algae blooms — in Lake Erie and the rivers and streams that feed it. Threaten the supply of drinking water for 3 million Ohioans. 

Shift costs for water and wastewater treatment from big businesses to smaller businesses and consumers. Defy the spirit, and probably the letter, of the Great Lakes Compact, an agreement by eight states, Congress, and Canada to protect the lakes from excessive withdrawals and manage them wisely for future generations.

Sound good? Want to sign up? Contact your nearest Republican state lawmaker.

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Injection well plans still have hurdles

If Bear Lake Properties successfully demonstrates the Venango formation is able to take sufficient volumes of waste, the company will be taking waste that Kimmich said is mostly salt water, but does contain chemicals associated with hydrofracking.

Since Gov. Tom Corbett asked many of Pennsylvania's waste water treatment plants to stop accepting Marcellus Shale waste, trucks have been transporting the fluid to Ohio which has approximately 170 injection wells throughout the state, according to the Associated Press.

Last June, Ohio tried to slow the increase of waste by raising the tax from five cents a barrel to 20 cents a barrel.

So far that has not worked out.

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Insiders Sound an Alarm Amid a Natural Gas Rush

From New York Times Drilling Down articles:

Natural gas companies have been placing enormous bets on the wells they are drilling, saying they will deliver big profits and provide a vast new source of energy for the United States.

But the gas may not be as easy and cheap to extract from shale formations deep underground as the companies are saying, according to hundreds of industry e-mails and internal documents and an analysis of data from thousands of wells.

In the e-mails, energy executives, industry lawyers, state geologists and market analysts voice skepticism about lofty forecasts and question whether companies are intentionally, and even illegally, overstating the productivity of their wells and the size of their reserves. Many of these e-mails also suggest a view that is in stark contrast to more bullish public comments made by the industry, in much the same way that insiders have raised doubts about previous financial bubbles.

“Money is pouring in” from investors even though shale gas is “inherently unprofitable,” an analyst from PNC Wealth Management, an investment company,  wrote to a contractor in a February e-mail. “Reminds you of dot-coms.”

“The word in the world of independents is that the shale plays are just giant Ponzi schemes and the economics just do not work,” an analyst from IHS Drilling Data, an energy research company,  wrote in an e-mail on Aug. 28, 2009.

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AMP’s Natural Gas Power Plant To Fire Up Next Year

Despite the abrupt end of a previous project that left communities on the hook for millions of dollars, the non-profit American Municipal Power says it's getting broad buy-in from members on its next endeavor. ideastream's Bill Rice reports the city of Cleveland signed on earlier this week.

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Company sues Morgantown over drilling ban

From West Virginia Public Broadcasting:

June 27, 2011 · Morgantown's new ban on Marcellus shale gas drilling within a mile of its borders is facing a court challenge. The ordinance applies only to unconventional horizontal gas wells and a practice known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Northeast Natural Energy sued the city last week in Monongalia County Circuit Court.

 It was joined in the lawsuit by Enrout Properties LLC, which owns the surface and mineral rights to a site outside the city where Northeast Natural Energy is sinking wells.

 Morgantown City Council adopted the ordinance after taking four hours of testimony at its meeting last Tuesday.

 The lawsuit claims the city overreached its authority and unlawfully took property rights.

 Morgantown Mayor Bill Byrne says the state should regulate Marcellus shale drilling.

 He says the city acted because the Legislature has failed to adopt any regulation.

Local Food Production and Natural Gas Drilling: Are they really compatible?

A compilation or articles, studies and websites that suggest that argiculture and industrilization due to natural gas drilling can not co-exist.

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Documents: Federal Officials Quietly Question Shale Gas

Over the past six months, The New York Times reviewed thousands of pages of documents related to shale gas, including hundreds of industry e-mails, internal agency documents and reports by analysts. A selection of these documents is included here; names and identifying information have been redacted to protect the confidentiality of sources, many of whom were not authorized by their employers to communicate with The Times.

In this e-mail chain from April 2011, United States Energy Information Administration officials express concerns about the economic realities of shale gas production. They describe irrational exuberance in the market, and they suggest that the land rush in shale plays, or formations, which was especially accelerated and costly in 2008, could be the downfall of some shale gas companies.

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