Drilling permit for Helis Oil approved for fracking proposal in St. Tammany Parish

Drilling permit for Helis Oil approved for fracking proposal in St. Tammany Parish, La., officials say - @wdsu Dec 11 - IN ORDER TO ENSURE THAT WE HAVE TIME TO ENTER ALL NEW ISSUE INFORMATION, DALCOMP ASKS THAT FIRMS CALL US AT 212-404-8107 OR USE OUR FAX 212-404-8153 TO INFORM US UPCOMING ISSUES. WE WILL ADD ANY INFORMATION WE RECEIVE BY 2 P.M., EDT, ON THURSDAY AFTERNOON. PLEASE BE SURE TO INCLUDE THE ENTIRE MANAGEMENT GROUP. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS SERVICE, PLEASE CALL DALCOMP AT 212-404-8107 . ISSUE/SENIOR MANAGER SALE (IN 000) MDY/S&P/FTCH -------------------- ---- --------- ----------------- DORMITORY AUTHORITY OF THE STATE WEEK OF 464,000 Aa1/AAA/ OF NEW YORK STATE PERSONAL INCOME 12/15 TAX REVENUE BONDS TAX EXEMPT MGR: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, New York REMARK: ROP: 12/15 ------ ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. —A drilling permit has been approved for Helis Oil & Gas Co. for a proposed fracking operation in St. Tammany Parish. Day of Sale: 12/18 ATASCADERO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT WEEK OF 33,500 Aa3// SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY CALIFORNIA 12/15 GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS SERIES B MGR: Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, New York ST. TAMMANY PUBLIC TRUST FINANCING WEEK OF 33,315 NR/NR/ AUTHORITY REVENUE AND REFUNDING 12/15 REVENUE BONDS, SERIES 2014 (CHRISTWOOD PROJECT) MGR: Ziegler, Chicago ====== COMPETITIVE MUNICIPAL SALE CALENDAR TEXT-Fitch on St. Tammany Parish Hospital Service District 1, La. Wed, Nov 21 10:51 AM EST Nov 21 - Fitch Ratings has published a report on St. Tammany Parish Hospital Service District No. 1, LA. The report is available at 'www.fitchratings.com'. Additional information is available at 'www.fitchratings.com'. Applicable Criteria and Related Research: St. Tammany Parish Hospital Service District No.1, Louisiana Tue, Aug 20 08:25 AM EDT *=BANK QUALIFIED RATING BIDDING MDY/S&P/FITCH ($MIL) ISSUER DEADLINE (EST) AA 20.00 St Tammany Par SD #12, LA, GO 12:30 PM The approval was posted to the state Department of Natural Resources' website Friday afternoon. PDF: Drilling approval According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the process of hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking) begins with mixing large amounts of water with chemical additives. The mixture is injected into a well to create cracks in the ground that allow oil or gas to escape through the well to be collected at the surface. Water for use in fracking can be take from underground aquifers or lakes, ponds and streams. After the process, it is often disposed underground, treated and returned to "surface water bodies" or recycled for use in future fracking operations. Fracking has drawn sharp criticism on the Northshore. Abita Springs pulled out of the St. Tammany West Chamber of Commerce in November. The town's mayor is at odds with the chamber over what he called the chamber's apparent support of hydraulic fracturing. "This is unfortunate news," said Abita Springs Mayor Greg Lemons upon hearing word of the approval. "There are at least 3 lawsuits against it on zoning laws. Its unfortunate that (the Department of Natural Resources) has made that decision." Lemons said in a previous interview with WDSU that it's not one well that is the issue. "It's the subsequent multiple wells that will be after, that will shake this whole lifestyle of this parish which will ultimately affect business," Lemons said in November. Stay with WDSU.com for more information as it develops.

Exxon CEO: Don't frack in my backyard

Exxon Mobil shareholders have been greeted with a new existential threat – from the oil giant’s own chief executive. Rex Tillerson handed powerful ammunition to opponents of hydraulic fracturing by seeking to block a water tower to supply drillers near his opulent Texas home. Buying $31 billion shale explorer XTO was the big bet of his tenure. Exxon may now struggle to convince the public to accept fracking’s side effects. As yet there is no compelling evidence that fracking contaminates local water supplies, so long as wells are drilled competently. It is harder to deny that the drilling technique can be disruptive. It generates huge amounts of extra traffic, as trucks bring fluids to well sites. Fracking is also a voracious consumer of water. A 160-foot water tower planned near Tillerson’s 83-acre ranch would certainly be an eyesore. Having invested millions of dollars in the property, Exxon’s chief is understandably irked. Shareholders, however, arguably have a right to expect Tillerson to suck up the disappointment instead of engaging in Nimby-ism (the practice of objecting to something that will affect one or take place in one's locality). As America’s largest fracker, Exxon is engaged in a relentless campaign to show that the technique is a net benefit to local communities. That has been easier in sparsely populated parts of Texas but an uphill battle in more crowded and energy-rich parts of Pennsylvania or New York. Exxon contends that it works hard to limit the ecological impact of its shale wells, recycling water and transporting it through pipelines where possible rather than trucks. The positive effects from such efforts can be easily negated by public relations gaffes. Any subtleties in Tillerson’s case – including the fact there is already fracking being carried out around his land – will surely be lost. What will stick in the public mind is the image of an energy boss unwilling to tolerate intrusions into his bucolic retreat 1. Of or characteristic of the countryside or its people; rustic. See Synonyms at rural. 2. Of or characteristic of shepherds or flocks; pastoral. n. 1. A pastoral poem. 2. A farmer or shepherd; a rustic. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That plays into the hands of those who want to keep large swaths of energy off bounds. With total remuneration of $40 million in 2012 and huge incentives tied to Exxon stock, Tillerson can afford to take a hit if the value of his Texas ranch falls. The damage to his, and the company’s, reputation from any hint of hypocrisy will be harder to repair. Rex Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, has joined a lawsuit intended to block the construction of a water tower that would supply hydraulic fracturing operations near his Texas home. The suit says the tower would create “a noise nuisance and traffic hazards” in part because it is connected to fracking – a drilling technique that enables oil and gas to be extracted from rock. A lawyer representing the group said that Tillerson’s main concern was that the value of his house would be harmed. ============= Exxon CEO: Don't frack in my backyard Published time: February 22, 2014 02:36 Get short URL Exxon Mobil CEO and Chairman Rex Tillerson.(Reuters / Kevin Lamarque ) Earthquake, Ecology, Energy, Fracking, Gas, Health, Law, USA The CEO of ExxonMobil – the top producer of natural gas in the US – has joined a lawsuit that challenges the construction of a water tower connected to hydraulic fracturing operations near his Texas home, given that it may reduce the property value. CEO Rex Tillerson and other plaintiffs claim the hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – project will cause unwanted noise and traffic associated with trucking water from the 160-foot tower to the drilling site, The Wall Street Journal reported. The tower will provide water “to oil and gas explorers for fracing [sic] shale formations leading to traffic with heavy trucks on FM 407, creating a noise nuisance and traffic hazards,” according to the lawsuit. The water tower is owned by Cross Timbers Water Supply Corporation. Tillerson’s lawyer claims the noise, traffic, and actual fracking does not bother the ExxonMobil CEO, stating that it is the possible depreciation of his $5 million property in Bartonville, Texas that he is worried about. Fracking is the controversial process of injecting water, sand, and various chemicals into layers of rock, in hopes of releasing oil and gas deep underground. Fracking in a single well can take millions of gallons of freshwater. Tillerson himself has excoriated fracking regulations amid the practice’s boom across the country. “This type of dysfunctional regulation is holding back the American economic recovery, growth, and global competitiveness,” he said in 2012, Reuters reported. In another 2012 interview - with the Council on Foreign Relations - Tillerson said that natural gas production today has been revamped with new technologies, “so the risks are very manageable.” Yet fracking’s popularity with energy behemoths like ExxonMobil is finding resistance across the US based on more than property values and noise complaints. Fracking is exhausting water supplies in areas of the country that are suffering from chronic shortages, including Texas. The practice has also been linked to an upsurge of earthquakes in many areas of the nation. A recent study showed that the fetus of pregnant woman living within a 10-mile range of a fracking well is in much greater danger of congenital heart defects (CHD) and neural tube defects (NTD). Another recent study found that chemicals used in fracking are suspected of being endocrine disruptors, which “could raise the risk of reproductive, metabolic, neurological and other diseases, especially in children who are exposed to” the materials. On Thursday, a letter signed by over 1,000 doctors and health professionals was sent by Environment America to President Barack Obama, highlighting many other damaging health and environmental effects associated with fracking. The group’s concerns about fracking included drinking water contamination, carcinogenic air pollution, acute and chronic health effects, and greenhouse gas emissions. “Given this toll of damage, the prudent and precautionary response would be to stop fracking,” the letter reads. “Instead, the oil and gas industry is seeking to expand fracking at a frenzied pace, even into areas that provide drinking water for millions of Americans.” Those living within a half-mile of a fracking site “had a higher excess lifetime risk of developing cancer than people living farther away,” the letter says. For its part, ExxonMobil told The Wall Street Journal that it “has no involvement” in Tillerson’s lawsuit. As ThinkProgress points out, there is reason to believe that Exxon’s oil and gas development projects have compromised human health and the environment, much less hurt property values. One recent example is the company’s spill of up to 7,000 barrels of tar sands oil in a neighborhood of Mayflower, Arkansas nearly one year ago. Locals are still suffering from dizziness, headaches, and nausea – prompting many to move away if their homes aren’t already severely damaged. “I have friends who still live here. They don’t have a place to go. They have small children...and they’re all sick,” one Mayflower resident told RT recently. ExxonMobil pays Tillerson $40.3 million a year.

Analysis: At margins of shale oil boom, a tempered euphoria

Analysis: At margins of shale oil boom, a tempered euphoria Mon, May 20 00:09 AM EDT By Kristen Hays and Jonathan Leff HOUSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - For the past three years, the boom in the U.S. shale oil industry has outstripped all expectations. Production surged far faster than any forecasts; drillers raced to secure space in new pipelines to get their crude to market. Now, at the periphery, that may be changing - at least for a while. News from two of the country's less developed shale plays in Colorado and Ohio last week offer a reality check for the wave of euphoria that has washed across the industry. The stumbles mark a break from the past few years, when nearly every new project was an overnight success and output grew and grew. On Thursday, Ohio, home to the Utica shale, finally released annual data on 2012 production that showed the state pumped less than 700,000 barrels of oil from its shale wells -- barely enough to fill a small oil tanker. North Dakota's Bakken shale pumps more than that every day. Even state officials said it the result was "lower than initially estimated." The day before, NuStar Energy LP had said it would shelve a plan to reverse a pair of underused refined products pipelines to ship crude from Colorado's Niobrara shale oil play to Texas. It failed, twice, to garner enough commitments from potential customers to justify investing in the conversion. Neither development was a surprise to industry experts, and both were likely affected by extenuating circumstances. A growing preference for rail shipments likely dimmed interest in long-term commitments to use NuStar's pipeline. Ohio's shale may yet offer up large volumes of liquid gas and condensate, if drillers can find new ways to coax it out. Yet taken together they offered a sign that the flush of enthusiasm and rush of investment that piled into shale fields from one coast to the other has hit a curve. While the basic technologies of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling was enough to coax an unexpected gusher of oil from shale rock in many regions, these more challenging seams may require incremental innovation to unlock. "This is all about technology," said Sandy Fielden, an analyst at RBN Energy in Austin, Texas. "The bottom line is that this stuff is down there, it's just figuring out the sweet spot of where to get it and the right conditions to get it out." For now, few are questioning the notion that the booming Bakken and Eagle Ford and Permian Basin in Texas will keep growing, driving domestic oil production beyond its highest in two decades and shrinking America's reliance on imports. But the breakneck pace of the past three years was unlikely to last forever. "The companies have established their acreage positions, they have established sweet spots, but there are still a number of really enormous challenges in understanding how to most efficient and effective ways to maximize production in the long run," Pete Stark, senior research director at IHS. "We're in the start of the second inning in a nine-inning ball game as far as know-how." LIVING UP TO HOPES Niobrara and Utica are not the first shale plays to disappoint investors. Michigan's Collingswood enjoyed a mini-boom for a few months in 2010; California's huge Monterey shale has thwarted drillers for years. Yet the scale of the let-down is remarkable. Just two years ago, Chesapeake Energy's former CEO Aubrey McClendon put the Utica on the map, proclaiming it could hold a $500-billion bounty and that it would be the "biggest thing to hit Ohio since the plow". Oil companies including Total spent billions of dollars buying drilling rights. State geologists estimated that it could hold between 1.3 billion and 5.5 billion barrels of oil reserves, a vast sum. "The Utica has failed so far to live up to its hype," said Ed Morse, managing director of commodity research at Citigroup. According to Reuters calculations, the average oil production per well per days the well was active, was 80 barrels per day - about one-tenth what it is in North Dakota. Jonathan Garrett at Wood Mackenzie in Houston says the Utica may yet prove to be a successful natural gas development, with close proximity to the East Coast demand center. But with natural gas trading at a low $4 per million British thermal units for the foreseeable future, that is not the outcome drillers had hoped for a few years ago. RAILS TRUMP PUMPS In Colorado, where oil production has risen by less than 100,000 bpd since serious development began on the Niobrara several years ago, NuStar's biggest problem was likely competition -- from other pipelines and railways. SemGroup Corp is building a 527-mile (848-km) crude pipeline to move oil from Colorado to the U.S. crude futures hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, by the first half of 2014, and already has twice expanded its capacity. Plains All American Pipeline LP is expanding and building new rail capacity in Colorado to haul oil out by train later this year. Those projects combined will be able to move 230,000 bpd, on top of 30,000 to 40,000 bpd of Niobrara crude that already goes to Suncor Energy's 93,000 bpd refinery in Commerce City, Colorado. "We're at a point now where we're going to see some of these lower-quality projects weeded out," said Bradley Olsen, director of midstream research at Tudor Pickering Holt & Co in Houston. That surpasses current output in the play's so-called sweet spots - the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) and Powder River Basin (PRB) - which reached 170,000 bpd as of January this year, according to energy consultancy Bentek. The consultancy projects output to rise to 235,000 bpd by the end of 2013. The option to ship crude by rail is attractive to oil producers who are uncertain how long their wells may keep pumping out crude. Rail terminals are less expensive to build, can start up faster and do not require long-term contracts sought to justify the cost of building or converting pipelines. Refiners also like being able to pick up the cheapest oil at the moment from one of dozens of rail terminals rather than be tied to a certain type of crude for five or 10 years. "It could come from Niobrara. It could come from Bakken. It could come from West Texas. And that's one of the nice things about rail systems -- there's flexibility to move those cars around to market to provide the greatest opportunities," Alon Energy USA Chief Executive Paul Eisman said this month. (Reporting by Kristen Hays; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

UPDATE 4-Schlumberger sees hit from fracking price pressures

Mon, Mar 26 15:23 PM EDT

* N.America liquids basins start seeing price pressure in Q1

* Schlumberger shares down 1.2 pct, Baker Hughes off 1.6 pct

* Market leader Halliburton rises, seen as better placed

By Braden Reddall

NEW ORLEANS, March 26 (Reuters) - Schlumberger Ltd, the world's largest oilfield services company, said profits would be hurt by downward pricing pressure for hydraulic fracturing services, which had now reached North American liquids-producing basins as well.

Chief Executive Paal Kibsgaard said that on top of the price squeeze, already widely seen in natural gas areas due to weak gas prices, the shift of pressure pumping equipment to liquids-rich basins was reducing utilization while also adding to costs.

"Together these factors will have an impact on our results both in North America, and overall, in this and in the coming quarters,"

Kibsgaard said in a speech to kick off the Howard Weil Energy Conference in New Orleans on Monday.

The use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, around the many U.S. shale basins has boosted natural gas production while stemming (To make headway against: )a decades-long trend of falling U.S. oil production.

"There is some slackening of demand in the gas plays and there has been migration to liquids plays. So there's more supply coming online and it is normal that pricing would come down," said David Vaucher, an analyst with IHS-Cambridge Energy Research Associates in Houston.
Vaucher highlighted the challenge of getting all those materials to so many wells. "Looking at just pressure pumping is a little myopic," he said. "There is upward pressure for all other things that are still required for fracking jobs."


But other supplies remain scarce in general, from rigs to frack crews, water, sand and synthetic proppants used to keep cracks in shale rock open to get the hydrocarbons out.



HALLIBURTON UP

Shares of Schlumberger, which makes most of its money outside North America, fell 1.2 percent to $72.28, while rival Baker Hughes Inc dropped 1.6 percent to $43.03.

Baker Hughes gave a profit warning last week, in addition to a warning in January, about the impact of disruptions from its fracking crew relocations and supply shortages.

But shares of Halliburton, the market leader in North American pressure pumping, rose 0.8 percent on Monday.

"We believe (Halliburton) has a much better developed supply-chain network, and while not immune to near-term frictions, will likely post much better margins than its peers in North America," Sterne Agee Analyst Stephen Gengaro wrote on Monday as he cut profit estimates for Baker Hughes.

Nabors Industries Ltd, the No. 6 in North American pressure pumping, sees an increasingly competitive market in 2012 and a U.S. land rig count "flat to slightly down" in the second half of 2012. But the company said that with 72 percent of its 2012 operating income under contract, the downside was limited.

Nabors also spelled out plans to sell its helicopter business and well service rigs in Canada, some of its offshore rigs, as well as its oil and gas properties. Dahlman Rose's James Crandell expects those sales to raise about $1 billion.

Outside North America, Schlumberger saw steady growth from deepwater activity and exploration, as well as key land markets.

"The medium-term outlook for the oil and gas industry remains positive, driven by the narrow cushion of spare oil capacity and the growing demand for natural gas," Kibsgaard said in his first presentation to the conference after taking over as CEO from Andrew Gould last August.

Barclays believes international growth could offset the near-term weakness in North America. "We think this softness is largely due to transitory issues and some pricing pressure in pressure pumping," analysts at the bank wrote on Monday.

Bernard Duroc-Danner, an economics Ph.D. who runs oilfield services company Weatherford International Ltd , said the pressure pumping market may get even tougher as a result of building decisions made three months ago in response to what were then healthy margins.

"Beyond the 'gas very bad, oil very very good' phenomenon, pressure pumping has dynamics of its own insofar as there is a quite sizeable amount of capacity just waiting to come on the market," Duroc-Danner told the conference.

The industry has attempted to rein in this expansion. Superior Energy Services Inc, for one, cut its pressure pumping capacity growth plan this year by about one-quarter.

This follows the huge ramp-up in the past few years. Dan Pickering, of Tudor, Pickering, Holt, sees available hydraulic horsepower by year-end at 19 million horsepower, or 2-1/2 times more than in 2009. A typical frack job uses up about 50,000 hp. === Jul. 22, 2012 6:44 PM ET Experts: Some fracking critics use bad science By KEVIN BEGOS, Associated Press AIM Share FILE - In this file photo from Nov. 3, 2010, documentary filmmaker Josh Fox speaks at a rally of protestors against Marcellus Shale drilling and hydraulic fracturing in Pittsburgh. Researchers say the claim that fracking has been linked to increased cancer rates in Texas is simply wrong. Fox, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker who uses the claim in a new film, declined to acknowledge the error when told of researchers who say he's doing a disservice to people with cancer by misrepresenting health data. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File) More News Video APNewsBreak: EPA reviews part of power plant rule Jul. 20, 20125:32 PM ET Judge slaps mining company with $2 million penalty Jul. 20, 20123:44 PM ET NM fuel spill threatens Albuquerque water supply Jul. 20, 20126:31 AM ET US insurer won't cover gas drill fracking exposure Jul. 12, 201210:12 PM ET Electric rates not falling along with fuel costs Jul. 11, 20122:54 PM ET PITTSBURGH (AP) — In the debate over natural gas drilling, the companies are often the ones accused of twisting the facts. But scientists say opponents sometimes mislead the public, too. Critics of fracking often raise alarms about groundwater pollution, air pollution, and cancer risks, and there are still many uncertainties. But some of the claims have little — or nothing— to back them. For example, reports that breast cancer rates rose in a region with heavy gas drilling are false, researchers told The Associated Press. Fears that natural radioactivity in drilling waste could contaminate drinking water aren't being confirmed by monitoring, either. And concerns about air pollution from the industry often don't acknowledge that natural gas is a far cleaner burning fuel than coal. "The debate is becoming very emotional. And basically not using science" on either side, said Avner Vengosh, a Duke University professor studying groundwater contamination who has been praised and criticized by both sides. Shale gas drilling has attracted national attention because advances in technology have unlocked billions of dollars of gas reserves, leading to a boom in production, jobs, and profits, as well as concerns about pollution and public health. Shale is a gas-rich rock formation thousands of feet underground, and the gas is freed through a process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in which large volumes of water, plus sand and chemicals, are injected to break the rock apart. The Marcellus Shale covers large parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and West Virginia, while the Barnett Shale is in north Texas. Many other shale deposits have been discovered. One of the clearest examples of a misleading claim comes from north Texas, where gas drilling began in the Barnett Shale about 10 years ago. Opponents of fracking say breast cancer rates have spiked exactly where intensive drilling is taking place — and nowhere else in the state. The claim is used in a letter that was sent to New York's Gov. Andrew Cuomo by environmental groups and by Josh Fox, the Oscar-nominated director of "Gasland," a film that criticizes the industry. Fox, who lives in Brooklyn, has a new short film called "The Sky is Pink." But researchers haven't seen a spike in breast cancer rates in the area, said Simon Craddock Lee, a professor of medical anthropology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. David Risser, an epidemiologist with the Texas Cancer Registry, said in an email that researchers checked state health data and found no evidence of an increase in the counties where the spike supposedly occurred. And Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a major cancer advocacy group based in Dallas, said it sees no evidence of a spike, either. "We don't," said Chandini Portteus, Komen's vice president of research, adding that they sympathize with people's fears and concerns, but "what we do know is a little bit, and what we don't know is a lot" about breast cancer and the environment. Yet Fox tells viewers in an ominous voice that "In Texas, as throughout the United States, cancer rates fell — except in one place— in the Barnett Shale." Lee called the claims of an increase "a classic case of the ecological fallacy" because they falsely suggest that breast cancer is linked to just one factor. In fact, diet, lifestyle and access to health care also play key roles. Fox responded to questions by citing a press release from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that doesn't support his claim, and a newspaper story that Risser said is "not based on a careful statistical analysis of the data." When Fox was told that Texas cancer researchers said rates didn't increase, he replied in an email that the claim of unusually high breast cancer rates was "widely reported" and said there is "more than enough evidence to warrant much deeper study." Another instance where fears haven't been confirmed by science is the concern that radioactivity in drilling fluids could threaten drinking water supplies. Critics of fracking note the deep underground water that comes up along with gas has high levels of natural radioactivity. Since much of that water, called flowback, was once being discharged into municipal sewage treatment plants and then rivers in Pennsylvania, there was concern about public water supplies. But in western Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority did extensive tests and didn't find a problem in area rivers. State environmental officials said monitoring at public water supply intakes across the state showed non-detectable levels of radiation, and the two cases that showed anything were at background levels. Concerns about the potential problem also led to regulatory changes. An analysis by The Associated Press of data from Pennsylvania found that of the 10.1 million barrels of shale wastewater generated in the last half of 2011, about 97 percent was either recycled, sent to deep-injection wells, or sent to a treatment plant that doesn't discharge into waterways. Critics of fracking also repeat claims of extreme air pollution threats, even as evidence mounts that the natural gas boom is in some ways contributing to cleaner air. Marcellus air pollution "will cause a massive public health crisis," claims a section of the Marcellus Shale Protest website. Yet data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show that the shale gas boom is helping to turn many large power plants away from coal, which emits far more pollution. And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency passed new rules to force drillers to limit releases of methane from wells and pumping stations. Some environmental groups now say that natural gas is having a positive effect on air quality. Earlier this year, the group PennFuture said gas is a much cleaner burning fuel, and it called gas-fired power plants "orders of magnitude cleaner" than coal plants. Marcellus Shale Protest said in response to a question about its claims that "any possible benefit in electric generation must be weighed against the direct harm from the industrial processes of gas extraction." One expert said there's an actual psychological process at work that sometimes blinds people to science, on the fracking debate and many others. "You can literally put facts in front of people, and they will just ignore them," said Mark Lubell, the director of the Center for Environmental Policy and Behavior at the University of California, Davis. Lubell said the situation, which happens on both sides of a debate, is called "motivated reasoning." Rational people insist on believing things that aren't true, in part because of feedback from other people who share their views, he said. Vengosh noted the problem of spinning science isn't new, or limited to one side in the gas drilling controversy. For example, industry supporters have claimed that drilling never pollutes water wells, when state regulators have confirmed cases where it has. He says the key point is that science is slow, and research into gas drilling's many possible effects are in the early stages, and much more work remains to be done. "Everyone takes what they want to see," Vengosh said, adding that he hopes that the fracking debate will become more civilized as scientists obtain more hard data. Associated Press ============

Pennsylvania natgas well has blowout during fracking

20 Apr 2011 20:38

Source: reuters // Reuters


* Pennsylvania natgas well blows out during fracking( slang term for hydraulic fracturing.)

* Local residents have been evacuated

NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - A natural gas well was spilling thousands of gallons of fracking fluid water in Pennsyvlania on Wednesday after a blowout during the process of fracturing the bedrock, state and local regulators said.

The well, operated by Chesapeake Energy CHK.N, suffered a blowout during the process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the state environmental regulators said. .

The well began spewing water at 11.45 p.m. on Tuesday and local residents have been evacuated from Leroy Township, Bradford County, the company said in a statement. No one was hurt, it said.

"An equipment failure occurred during well-completion activities, allowing the release of completion fluids," the statement said.

Hydraulic fracturing is a technique used to release natural gas trapped in shale rock by blasting it with a mix of water, sand and chemicals. Environmentalists and some neighbors of wells have complained that the process can pollute water supplies.

Local authorities have expressed concern about the environmental impact of the spilling fluid, said Francis Roupp, deputy director of Bradford County emergency management agency. (Reporting by Janet McGurty, Edward McAllister and Kristina Cooke; Editing by David Gregorio)