DEC Will Reset Regulatory Timeline, Requiring New Public Hearings « Solid Shale
September 29, 2012
DEC Will Reset Regulatory Timeline, Requiring New Public Hearings « Solid Shale.
Range Resources –
September 27, 2012
Range Resources – Investor Relations – Press Release.
Range Anchors Mariner East Project and Announces New Ethane Sales Contract
FORT WORTH, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sep. 26, 2012– RANGE RESOURCES CORPORATION (NYSE: RRC) today announced that one of its subsidiaries has signed a 15-year agreement with Sunoco Logistics Partners, L.P. (NYSE: SXL) to become the anchor shipper on the Mariner East Project subject to final approval by FERC. The Mariner East Project is a pipeline, processing and export project that will interconnect the natural gas liquids resources in southwest Pennsylvania to Sunoco’s existing infrastructure and international port at its Marcus Hook facility near Philadelphia.
Health Impact Assessment
September 26, 2012
On Martens’ Press Release on DEC ‘studying the health Impacts – the call from medical professionals has rightly been for a Health Impact Assessment.
What Martens has said is that the DEC will study the health impacts. NOT THE SAME THING.
Scan these sites on HIAs and be able to speak to the difference. What Martens has proposed, a closed review of whatever data it is they have gathered, is NOT acceptable.
Mary Menapace RN
Skaneateles
From The World Health Organization
http://www.who.int/hia/about/why/en/index.html
http://www.who.int/hia/about/why/en/index.html
Why use HIA?
Values
HIA is based on four values that link the HIA to the policy environment in which it is being undertaken.
Values
HIA is based on four values that link the HIA to the policy environment in which it is being undertaken.
Democracy – allowing people to participate in the development and implementation of policies, programmes or projects that may impact on their lives.
Equity – HIA assesses the distribution of impacts from a proposal on the whole population, with a particular reference to how the proposal will affect vulnerable people (in terms of age, gender, ethnic background and socio-economic status).
Sustainable development – that both short and long term impacts are considered, along with the obvious, and less obvious impacts.
Ethical use of evidence – the best available quantitative and qualitative evidence must be identified and used in the assessment. A wide variety of evidence should be collected using the best possible methods.
Equity – HIA assesses the distribution of impacts from a proposal on the whole population, with a particular reference to how the proposal will affect vulnerable people (in terms of age, gender, ethnic background and socio-economic status).
Sustainable development – that both short and long term impacts are considered, along with the obvious, and less obvious impacts.
Ethical use of evidence – the best available quantitative and qualitative evidence must be identified and used in the assessment. A wide variety of evidence should be collected using the best possible methods.
From CDC site: lots of info on this site and links –
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/hia.
For instance, this on respiratory health as example of HIA assessments:
Respiratory Health & Air Pollution
Transportation-related pollutants are one of the largest contributors to unhealthy air quality. Exposure to traffic emissions has been linked to many adverse health effects including: Exacerbation of asthma symptoms, diminished lung function, adverse birth outcomes, and childhood cancer.
Common transportation-related air pollutants include carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter. Ozone, formed when nitrogen dioxide and sunlight react, is also a common pollutant. Particulate matter and ozone are known respiratory irritants that can aggravate asthma either by themselves or when combined with other environmental factors. Recent health studies also suggest that particulate matter is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
Motor vehicles contribute to more than 50% of air pollution in urban areas. The design of communities and transportation systems impacts how often automobiles are used, how many automobile trips are taken, and how long those trips are. Reducing automobile trips by increasing mass transit use, carpooling, walking, and bicycling can help reduce air pollution, especially in urban areas.
Several years ago, researchers took advantage of a natural experiment to learn about the impact on pediatric asthma of decreased traffic levels and improved air quality. During the 1996 Summer Olympics Games in Atlanta, when peak morning traffic decreased 23% and peak ozone levels decreased 28%, emergency visits for asthma events in children decreased 42%. At the same time, children’s emergency room visits for causes other than asthma did not change. These results suggest that efforts to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality can also help improve the respiratory health of a community.
Perceptions of Natural Gas Development and High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing: A Survey of Residents of Hamilton and Lebanon, New York
September 26, 2012
Perceptions of Natural Gas Development and
High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing: A
Survey of Residents of Hamilton and
Lebanon, New York
http://upstate.colgate.edu/home.aspx
Colgate University
Upstate Institute
Mary Spetsieris, ‘13
Rita Van Kirk, ‘13
William Schlitzer, ‘12
in cooperation with
Madison County Citizens for Safe Energy
Sept. 2012
Comment:
There is a methodological limitation:
The data are almost certainly from a fairly non-representative sample and thus must be interpreted with care.
The non-representativeness is suggested clearly by the data in Table 1: it is unlikely that the population as a whole is 57% female with 47% having graduate education.
I was concerned that the researchers did not even mention this limitation in their interpretation.
It did appear to me that several of the results seemed consistent with other surveys about gas drilling in upstate – this tends to strengthen the apparent result patterns the researchers report.
Finally it is totally beyond me why the researchers did not report as background some of the many recent surveys about gassing in upstate (Cornell, Quinnipiac, etc.).
Best,
Stan Scobie, Binghamton, NY, 607-669-4683
Southern Tier communities at the crossroads By Matt Richmond, WSKG | Innovation Trail
September 25, 2012
Southern Tier communities at the crossroads | Innovation Trail.
Southern Tier communities at the crossroads
Breaking all the Rules: Oil & Gas Enforcement
September 25, 2012
EARTHWORKS | Oil & Gas Enforcement.
Oil & Gas Enforcement
States are failing to enforce oil & gas rules
Thanks to federal loopholes unique to the oil and gas industry, state government is the primary regulator of oil and gas development.
So the public is entitled to know, are states doing a good job overseeing the oil & gas development industry?
Breaking All the Rules: The Crisis in Oil & Gas Regulatory Enforcement, demonstrates that states across the country are failing to enforce their own oil and gas development regulations.
The one-year, in-depth research project examined enforcement data and practices in Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio, New York, New Mexico and Colorado and includes interviews with ex-industry and state agency employees.
The research produced the national reports, and six state reports focusing on the pertinent state agencies:
- The full report (125 pages with appendices), and the executive summary (13 pages).
- Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission
- New Mexico Oil and Gas Conservation Division
- New York Department of Environmental Conservation
- Ohio Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management
- Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
- Texas Railroad Commission
In addition to these publications, supporting data from the research can be found in the For More Information links below.
A Citizen’s Response to Your Forbes Opinion Piece –
September 24, 2012
[NYGCG] A Citizen’s Response to Your Forbes Opinion Piece –
Dear President Skorton and Vice President Altschuler:
I would like to respond to your September 24th opinion piece in Forbes magazine, http://www.forbes.com/sites/collegeprose/2012/09/24/fracking-a-role-for-universities/ for I am a concerned citizen with many family members living in the Finger Lakes region which I have been blessed to call home. As you are also residents of this region, I think you would agree that the rare natural beauty of the lakes – especially now with the lovely fall foliage and the smaller but still-wonderful apple harvest — is an inheritance requiring diligent stewardship and care, even more so at a time when climate change is altering the most hardy of ecosystems.
Cornell, as upstate New York State’s sole land-grant university, has a unique and special responsibility to engage its students and also the public, through extension and outreach, on issues that affect all of us, such as the prospect of unconventional gas drilling and development. I like Michael Whalen’s apt summary of that responsibility: “Cornell’s motto of being ‘an institution where any person can find instruction in any study’ is an elegant restatement of that land-grant mission – the proposition that a land-grant university should be expansive, endlessly adaptable and always relevant to the needs of society.”
I would like to address hydrofracking in the context of local and global energy needs, and ask you to more deeply explore how Cornell can best demonstrate its ability to be “endlessly adaptable and always relevant to needs of society.” In a spirit of respect for your opinion that hydrofracking can be done safely with good partnerships among academic, industry and government, I would like to address some of your statements, in order, with an appreciation of the complexities and realities you are faced with as academic leaders.
1) You stated: “Supporters [of fracking], including the American Petroleum Institute, assert that shale gas is a ‘game changer’ for U.S. energy independence, a boon to economically depressed communities, a source of new jobs, and a cleaner ‘bridge fuel’ that can transition us from coal to renewable energy sources.” Last week John Hofmeister, the founder and CEO of Citizens for Affordable Energy and a former president of Shell Oil Company was quoted by the Yale Daily News saying “natural gas is not a bridge but rather ‘a highway to the future.’” When a former president of Shell makes a case for the long-term prominence of shale gas, the public needs to be informed of the implications of this shift , which extends well beyond the “bridge-to-renewables” viewpoint that was, until recently, espoused by the industry.
2) You say: “We also believe that good public policy must be evidence-based.” Indeed, New York State has numerous physicians, academics, environmentalists, economists, students, and other concerned citizens who are in full agreement here.
3) You further state: “Despite the voluminous reports that have been generated about fracking, there is still a great deal that we do not know. At Cornell, for example, researchers have reached opposite conclusions on whether natural gas from fracking would be better or worse for climate change than burning coal.” It is unfortunate that many landowners in New York State did not have the benefit of such evidence-based information before they committed to signing shale-gas leases they did not wholly understand.
4) You state: “So Cornell’s Ithaca campus, which is located on the edge of the vast Marcellus Shale deposit, has placed a moratorium on fracking on our own land until we have better information about it.” It would follow, then, that Cornell Cooperative Extension ought to have advised and should continue to advise landowners, similarly, to refrain from signing gas leases.
5) You state: “…the [ U.S. Secretary of Energy Advisory Board’s Shale Gas Production] subcommittee, proposed that the responsibility for data collection and monitoring fall to federal, state and local governments and to industry itself—inviting public perceptions that lobbyists will influence policies and that the foxes are guarding the henhouse.” It also should be noted that the Chairman of that subcomittee, Dr. John Deutch, is a director at Cheneire Energy, which in itself perhaps may contribute to a public perception that “the foxes are guarding the henhouse.”
6) You state: “We believe that universities can bring a reputation for independence to these investigations. And many universities are already collaborating with government and industry to promote economic development and the public good.” It ought to be mentioned here that in the particular case of hydraulic fracturing studies, several universities have recently come under fire for industry funding and/or collaboration. It would seem that Cornell can avoid such criticisms by encouraging the University’s talent to lead the way forward to truly sustainable technologies, free of industry-funded “encouragement” to advance one technology over another.
7) You state: “Last month in a Washington Post column New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies, and George P. Mitchell, philanthropist and hydrofracking pioneer, offered their foundations’ support to ‘organizations that seek to work with states and industries to develop common-sense regulations that will protect the environment—and ensure that the [fracking] industry can thrive.’ We urge other foundations—and government officials—to enlist universities in the development of evidence-based public policy and safer fracking operations.” The Environmental Defense Fund is accepting $6 million from Mr. Bloomberg, and is committed to the “safer” fracking ideal. However, most environmental groups, like National Sierra Club and NRDC, have very recently become much more critical of fracking, in policy reversals which, in at least one instance, followed directly after severing financial ties to natural-gas interests.
8) You say: “The questions before us are not only whether to frack, but how, where and with what safeguards in place.” Indeed, in New York State, there still remains the question of “whether” to frack: “Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said he will decide whether to allow high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking,’ only after the DEC review that began in 2008 is completed.” (Associated Press)
9) You say: “With natural gas supplies plentiful for now and prices relatively low, we have time to make sound decisions about our shale gas resources.” I would only hope that these sound decisions are made to help people, not multi-national corporations that are working hard to deregulate the industry, defang the EPA, and cynically campaign against entrepreneurial rivals working on renewables.
10) You say: “In creative partnership with government and industry, universities can help make sure we get it right.” Why not say “In creative partnership with government and industry, universities can help make sure we can more quickly move beyond fossil fuels”?
In the spirit of your editorial, I, too, would like to encourage further dialogue and am happy to forward any response that you prepare.
Sincerely,
Lisa Wright
Shale Gas – The Bridge to Global Warming?
September 24, 2012
12_mar_apr.pdf (application/pdf Object).
Shale Gas – The Bridge to Global Warming?
GDACC 
