Marcellus Shale Press Coverage

Dickinson, NY (WBNG Binghamton) People against hydrofracking head to a school campus to get their voices heard.
On Friday morning, New York Residents Against Gas Drilling (NYRAD) were loud about their message on the Broome BOCES campus.

They say they wanted Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo and State Senator Tom Libous to hear them as the leaders drove on their way to a breakfast at BOCES.

Anti-fracking advocates were hoping that getting up early would help them catch the attention of two elected officials.

Concerned citizens about hydrofracking gathered Friday morning outside Glenwood BOCES to request that Assembly Woman Donna Lupardo and Senator Tom Libous sign a pledge for the DEC not to lift its current defacto moratorium on hydrofracking until all 17 of their concerns have been met.

JOHNSON CITY -- Area experts on natural gas drilling agree: New York's swath of the Marcellus Shale isn't likely to be tapped in 2012.

Panelists on both sides of the issue discussed the future of natural gas drilling in the Southern Tier at a roundtable discussion hosted by Press & Sun-Bulletin on Thursday at the Gannett Central N.Y. Production Facility.

I'm beginning to wonder if high-volume hydraulic fracturing, the method of extracting natural gas from tight shale formations underground, will ever be allowed in New York.

I don't say that because opponents have successfully lobbied against it. I say that after looking at the enormity of the task now facing New York's Department of Environmental Conservation.

ALBANY — Opponents of natural gas hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, said Thursday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has fired a shot across the bow of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

"For some of the regulatory programs like if you were dumping gas drilling wastewater into a local municipal treatment plant, EPA is the principal authority," said Walter Hang, President of Toxics Targeting.

And Hang says the EPA has submitted almost twice as many comments as it did for the first SGEIS draft in 2009.

"The main concerns were failure to come up with a way to deal with this incredibly toxic wastewater, failure to protect drinking water, failure to protect radiologic hazards for both the worker and environment."

Ithaca -- For anti-hydraulic fracturing activists like Ithaca environmentalist Walter Hang, Tuesday was D-Day.

On the last day to submit comments on the state Department of Environmental Conservation's draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, those who oppose the use of the natural gas drilling method in New York gathered at rallies in major cities across the state.

Wednesday marked the deadline for public comment on the state's environmental impact statement about fracking.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is readying comments for the state.

The EPA expects to release those comments before midnight Wednesday.

The agency delivered comments on a previous draft of the impact statement back in 2009.

Fracking opponents hope the EPA echoes their concerns.

In downtown Binghamton Tuesday morning, a group opposed to fracking set up shop on the sidewalk near the Holiday Inn Arena.