The oil industry has known about the Marcellus shale formation in New York State for close to 100 years but has never had the technology to extract the gas it contains until recently. The gas is located 5,000 to 10,000 feet below the surface and the amount of available gas depends on the thickness of the […]
Pennsylvania’s Gas Wells Booming-But So Are Spills
As more gas wells are drilled in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale, more cases of toxic spills are being reported. Earlier this month, Pennsylvania’s environmental officials fined Pennsylvania-based Atlas Resources after a series of violations at 13 wells, including spills of fracturing fluids and other contaminants onto the ground around the sites. And just last week the […]
New Gov. McDonnell Vows to Create Jobs
By Rich Griset and Brittany Daniels Capital News Service RICHMOND, Va. – On an unseasonably warm and sunny Saturday afternoon, Robert F. McDonnell was sworn in as Virginia’s 71st governor. Thousands descended upon Virginia’s capital to witness McDonnell, Lt. Governor William Bolling and Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli take their oaths of office. “I kept my […]
Natural Gas Drilling in America
It takes brute force to wrest natural gas from the earth. Millions of gallons of chemical-laden water mixed with sand — under enough pressure to peel paint from a car — are pumped into the ground, pulverizing a layer of rock that holds billions of small bubbles of gas. The chemicals transform the fluid into […]
New Yorkers Tell DEC: ‘No Way’ on Natural Drilling
It didn’t take long for a New York City public hearing on natural gas drilling to descend into near chaos. Just seconds after the first speaker took the microphone at the Department of Environmental Conservation’s hearing, a man in a suit and tie jumped onto the stage at Stuyvesant High School, where the meeting was […]
Chesepeake Energy Won’t Drill in NYC Watershed
For now, New York City’s water appears to be safe from drilling [1]. Responding to mounting concerns that chemicals from natural gas drilling could contaminate drinking water, Chesapeake Energy Corporation declared it will not drill in the city’s upstate watershed, the pristine water source [2] that supplies unfiltered water to 9 million downstate residents. “Our […]