Winery Owners Call On Cuomo For Protection From Fracking | Business
August 16, 2013
Winery Owners Call On Cuomo For Protection From Fracking | Business.
Gas Drilling Awareness for Cortland County
January 8, 2013
Pa. oil company buys Finger Lakes gas leases | Press & Sun-Bulletin | pressconnects.com.
http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013301070076&nclick_check=1
http://www.scribd.com/doc/95762186/Minard-Run-Oil-Company-Finger-Lakes-Development-Plan
June 4, 2012
In March, Minard Run from Bradford PA purchased from CHK, over 400
wells in Cayuga county and Onondaga county including wells near
Skaneateles Lake, just outside the 4000′ setback from the watershed
and many wells in Cayuga County near Cayuga Lake.
Included in their purchase is one of the three NY injection disposal
wells near the head of Cayuga Lake.
They intend to apply for permits to develop more Queenston wells, and
eventually go for the Utica. they hold over fifteen thousand
Marcellus leasehold acres in Bradford county. minardrunoil.com
http://www.scribd.com/doc/95762186/Minard-Run-Oil-Company-Finger-Lakes-Development-Plan
Thanks to Bill Hecht for the head’s up on this.
June 1, 2012
The Minard Run Oil Company, based in Bradford, Pennsylvania, claims to be the oldest family-owned and -operated independent oil producer in the United States. Founded in 1875 by Pennsylvania Senator Lewis Emery, Jr., the company today is run by four of his great-grandchildren and one of his great-great-grandchildren.
In mid-March, Minard purchased 415 natural gas wells in the Finger Lakes from Chesapeake Energy, the nation’s second-largest producer of natural gas—at least for now. Chesapeake, formed in 1989, enjoys none of Minard’s stability: The company has been beleaguered by criticism of its corporate governance, the shenanigans of CEO Aubrey MacLendon (thoroughly documented by Jeff Goodell in Rolling Stone), and a business plan that has left it severely short of cash—perhaps $10 billion short this year alone. The company’s stock price has fallen 50 percent in the last year. How bad is the company’s management? This week, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who heads that state’s pension fund, recommended that Chesapeake’s stockholders refuse to renew the terms of two incumbent board members, saying it was a “necessary first step toward reconstituting a board that is currently entrenched and unaccountable to shareholders.” Corporate raider Carl Icahn, who is circling around the company, has indicated that he thinks the company’s problems are largely the result of poor management at the top.
The sale of Chesapeake’s New York assets to Minard is no doubt part of an effort to meet the cash shortfall. Minard’s new real estate interests, meantime, have augmented the company’s interest in the future of gas well drilling in New York State, especially the future of horizontal, deep-well, hydraulic fracturing, which is the subject of a state review.
Which may help to explain why, in the first week in May, James J. Macfarlane, Minard’s vice president for exploration, acquisitions, and operations, met with Republican State Senator Mark Grisanti in Buffalo’s Donovan State Office Building. Also in the meeting were Brad Gill, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association on New York, or IOGA; Stephen W. Rhoads, manager of state government relations, Appalachia Region, for Shell Energy; and Daniel M. Krainin, an attorney in the New York office of the law firm Beveridge & Diamond, which specializes in environmental and land use law. Macfarlane and Rhoads are both board members of IOGA.
Grisanti, who is chair of the Senate’s Environmental Conservation Committee, has been in a crucible of pressure from both industry-funded proponents of horizontal fracking and environmental activists opposed to the practice. So far, he has declined to take a public position on whether the state ought to permit fracking, preferring to wait until the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation completes its review of the permitting and regulatory scheme it released last year.
COMMENT:
June 9, 2011
July 21-July 22, 2011 Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY
2011 Finger Lakes Environment and Development Conference:
Proactive Approaches to Managing Impacts of Marcellus Shale Development
Hosted by Hobart and William Smith CollegesAbout the Conference
This 2-day conference will provide education, information resources, and practical knowledge regarding potential costs and benefits of shale gas development in NY, for the purpose of facilitating informed decision-making by individuals, non-profit organizations, municipalities, health professionals, planners and their counsel. Registration Fee includes meals, on campus parking and printed conference materials.
Keynote Speaker: John H. Quigley
Principal of John H. Quigley LLC, Strategic Advisor to Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture), and former Acting Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural ResourcesAdditional Speakers:
James Dunne Ph.D., Director of Property Tax Research, NYS Department of Taxation and Finance
Rachel Treichler, J.D.
Christopher Denton, J.D.
Richard Lippes, J.D. – Legal Advisor, Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter
Meghan Thoreau – Planner, Southern Tier Central Regional Planning and Development Board
Erica Levine Powers, Esq. (J.D., LL.M. Taxation); Adjunct Faculty, Planning Law and Environmental Law at University at Albany
Stuart Gruskin, J.D., former Executive Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental ConservationAgenda Items:
Thursday, July 21
Introduction to Hydraulic Fracturing and Regulatory Background in NY State
-Implications of state and local tax structure for maximizing benefits of Marcellus Shale developmentEconomic Impacts of Unconventional Shale Gas Development
-Implications of state and local tax structure for maximizing benefits of Marcellus Shale developmentHealth Impacts of Hydrofracking
Shale Gas Development and Municipal/Regional Planning
-Protecting roads and Watersheds using home rule
-Municipal planning and preventing negative impacts of shale gas developmentA Best Practices Approach to Managing Shale Gas Development
Friday, July 22
Proactive steps for landowners and their counselPrimer on the revised Draft Supplementary Generic EIS/or what the EIS doesn’t regulate
Avoiding common pitfalls of the oil and gas lease
Local approaches to protecting watersheds, parks, and municipal interests
Discussion about response to DGEIS
-Protection of water sources (surface and ground)
-Protection of air quality
-Accident/spill reporting, response, and liabilityProfessional Credits
Conference coordinators are in the process of applying for approval for CLE credits for attorneys and CM credits for planners. Contact Sarah Meyer at smeyer@hws.edu to indicate interest and to obtain the status of credit availability and cost.Overnight Accommodations
Limited campus housing is available to participants and can be added ($30 per person) to your registration fee at check out. Alternative overnight accommodations in Geneva, NY include the Hampton Inn, Ramada Inn, Belhurst Castle, Geneva On The Lake, Microtel Inn and Suites, Days Inn, and others.Event Sponsors
Finger Lakes Institute
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Finger Lakes-Lake Ontario Watershed Protection Alliance