A federal court weighed in on a contentious debate over air emissions from Pennsylvania’s oil and gas sector this week. In Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future v. Ultra Resources Inc., Pennsylvania’s Middle District Court ruled against the environmental group, more commonly known as PennFuture, and in favor of the gas company. But in the 31-page decision, U.S. [...]
Two years ago, we told you about a Tioga County farm where heifers gave birth to dead calves after coming in contact with wastewater from natural gas drilling that had leaked onto the cow pasture. In May 2010, the herd was quarantined by the state Department of Agriculture. The following spring, eight of the 11 [...]
In an exit interview with the Financial Times, outgoing Royal Dutch Shell CEO Peter Voser says the company has yet to profit from its $24 billion investment into “unconventional” shale oil and gas in the U.S. Voser’s comments come just a little more than a week after Shell announced it would be selling its stake in [...]
Earlier this week, we told you about efforts to use polluted water from abandoned mines to frack natural gas wells. Some energy companies say they’d be happy to use mine drainage rather than fresh water but they want to be sure that they won’t also get stuck with liability for cleaning up the mine water [...]
In the Susquehanna River Basin, just one well can use an average of 4.4 million gallons of water during a frack job, which can last several days to a week. The majority of that water comes from Pennsylvania’s rivers and streams. Meanwhile, more than 4,000 miles of streams polluted by abandoned coalmine drainage flow through Pennsylvania’s forests, [...]
About half a dozen anti-drilling activists locked down to a paper mache pig on Sunday, blocking the entrance to a well site operated by Shell. Maggie Henry, an organic pig farmer whose farm is next door to the Marcellus Shale drill site, says she’s worried how the operation may impact her livestock and organic certification. [...]
In February 1932, the United States was in the midst of the Great Depression. Franklin Roosevelt was plotting a run for the White House. And in Union Township, Tioga County, the Morris Run Coal company had just finished drilling a gas well on a farm owned by Mr. W.J. Butters. The Butters well was 5,385 feet [...]
Note: Chesapeake Energy’s production data has not been included in the Department of Environmental Protection’s report yet. The company says it submitted the information to the state by Wednesday night’s deadline, and blames a “technical issue” for the snag. Once Chesapeake’s information is included, Bradford County’s totals will certainly go up . We’ll update this [...]
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show highlighted ongoing methane migration problems in Bradford and Tioga County last night, airing StateImpact Pennsylvania’s video documenting flammable gas puddles in Leroy Township. The segment also featured an interview with StateImpact Texas’ Terrence Henry, who has been doing a lot of solid reporting on how deep injection wells are causing earthquakes. [...]
Back in February, WPSU’s Emily Reddy reported on a new phenomenon in places where shale drilling has boosted the local economy — homelessness. The influx of out-of-state drillers in need of places to stay has put pressure on the low-income housing stock in heavily drilled areas of the state. The good news is a hotel [...]
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