The Daily Digger

A press release from Carroll Concerned Citizens: Carrollton, OH: In March, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) approved Rosebud Mining Company request to create a room-and-pillar coal mine of approximately 9,400 acres in Union and surrounding townships. At its November 5 meeting, Carroll Concerned Citizens will host a question and answer session with representatives of ODNR’s Division of Mineral Resources Management. ODNR will provide an overview of the permit, applicable mining regulations, ODNR oversight and inspection procedures, and the process citizens should use should they have a complaint about the mine or associated operations. Attendees are encouraged to also bring their questions.  The meeting will begin at 7pm and will be held at the Church of Christ – Christian Disciples, 353 Moody Ave. Carrollton, OH. The meeting is free and open to the public. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From Forbes: A fascinating little look at the economics of the oil market from BP in this paper here . It’s very much akin to the analysis I discussed here . The point being that fracking for tight oil has entirely changed the economics underlying the entire global oil market. And yes, it really is true that a change in technology like this can entirely change the economics of a global market. After all, Karl Marx really was right when he said that the technology of production determines social relations.  The two essential points of the argument are as follows. The first being that those worries over climate change mean that we’re most unlikely, in any reasonable period of time at least, to use all of those reserves and resources that we already know about. It doesn’t particularly matter what we believe about climate change itself for this to be so: we can all see the political moves that are going to limit usage. That then means that oil is not a resource that is going to ru...

by Nicole Jacobs, Energy in Depth In August, the  Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund  (CELDF) filed a  motion to intervene  on a lawsuit regarding an injection well in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, which had an odd component –  it attempted to intervene on   behalf of the ecosystem . This week a federal judge, Magistrate Judge Susan Baxter,  ruled  against CELDF’s ‘Community Bill of Rights’  stating , “Although defendant wishes it were not so, the development of oil and gas (which necessarily includes the management of waste materials generated at a well site) is a legitimate business activity and land use within Pennsylvania.” Baxter also  said , “There is no state authority expressly granting a municipal government or its people the authority to regulate the depositing of waste from oil and gas wells or to invalidate permits granted by the state or federal government.  Any provision enacted without underlying l...

From Public Herald (via the Erie Reader): Over two years later, our file team would finally have the complaint records for 17 of 40 shale gas counties from two regional offices. To this day, 31 months later, we’re still on DEP’s monthly file review calendar to collect the remaining complaint records for 23 counties.  Out of those 17 counties, our newsroom zoomed in on 200 complaint investigations from five key townships and found that the Department “grossly mishandled” a significant percentage of its water contamination cases between 2009 and 2012. We ended up referring to these mishandled cases as “cooked” — a term we felt best described the systemic failure we discovered within the Department.  Cooked cases were initially reported by Public Herald in the documentary Triple Divide, where DEP turned a blind eye to baseline testing. During the 2011 Atgas blowout investigation in Bradford County, Chesapeake Energy was allowed to dismiss their own pre-drill water test resu...

From Shale Play: Mayor Dale Bunting says Gulfport Energy will dismiss a lawsuit it filed against the village in March.  According to a joint statement Saturday, Gulfport and village leaders have agreed that the legal dispute is an obstacle to the resolution of their differences. Antero, which intervened as a party to the suit, agrees. As a result, Gulfport will drop the case and continue to work with Antero and Barnesville officials to come to a resolution.  "While the parties have not resolved their differences, they do agree that the lawsuit is an impediment to discussion of and resolution of those differences," the statement notes. "The parties agree that the pending litigation does not provide the best and most cost effective forum in which to address all present concerns of all parties.  "As a result, Gulfport will voluntarily dismiss its lawsuit at this time. Gulfport, the Village of Barnesville and Antero will continue to discuss all aspects of their ...

From the Akron Beacon Journal: Four Medina County residents have filed an appeal against a judge’s ruling granting the Nexus Pipeline access to properties.  The appeal with the state’s 9th District Court of Appeals was filed Tuesday.  Medina County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Collier had ruled on Oct. 6 that the Nexus Gas Transmission LLC had his approval to go on private property to survey for the $2 billion pipeline.  In his ruling on a lawsuit filed last July by the Texas-based company against 113 Medina County landowners, Collier said Ohio law gives the company the authority to survey for a pipeline, even if landowners do not approve. Click here to continue reading about this. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

EcoWatch:   Fracking Forces Schools to Practice Earthquake Drills for First Time Ever   -    "As the number of fracking -related earthquakes increase with alarming frequency and intensity across the Central U.S., more and more people in the area might be wondering something they haven’t had to before: “What do I do during an..." Akron Beacon Journal: Appalachian Basin Likely to Get Three or Four Ethane Crackers   -    "Ohio, western Pennsylvania and West Virginia are likely to see three or four ethane cracker plants built. That analysis came from Tom Gellrich of TopLine Analytics, a Philadelphia company that closely follows..." Bloomberg:   Cuffed for a Pipeline: The New Blitz by Keystone-Savvy Activists   -    "The battle to build natural gas pipelines in the post-Keystone XL world has moved from the hearing room into the streets. Developers are squaring off against activists like Nick Katkevich, who’s prepared to risk ja...