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The Environmental Working Group (EWG) this week sued New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration to obtain documents that would show how the state has drafted its plan to permit high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and horizontal drilling for unconventional natural gas.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said Thursday it will publish a draft version of new guidelines intended to expedite the drilling permit application process. DEP will accept public comments on its proposals until Oct. 1.

Dry natural gas drilling is coming to a standstill, but BP plc is “looking to see if it might expand” in the liquids-rich Utica Shale after securing a leasehold earlier this year, CEO Bob Dudley said Tuesday.

An executive order (EO) issued by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett on Tuesday requires the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to immediately start looking for ways to speed up the permit process for applications to drill.

In an attempt to leverage the state’s two biggest industries, North Dakota is considering construction of a world-scale, $1.5 billion nitrogen fertilizer plant. The plant could make use of some of the state’s natural gas now being flared in the face of low prices to fuel the facility, while the North Dakota Corn Growers Association (CGA) would use the plant to make anhydrous ammonia.

A decision by Range Resources Corp. to sell its Barnett Shale portfolio last year to devote more resources to the Marcellus Shale appears to have paid off handsomely, with unconventional output jumping 42% in 2Q2012 from the year-ago period. Natural gas, which makes up 80% of the producer’s total output, rose 48%.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) has remanded permit applications for two wastewater disposal wells in Pennsylvania back to the agency’s Region 3 office in Philadelphia, on suspicion that inadequate testing of nearby drinking water wells was performed.

Patriot Water Treatment LLC of Warren, OH, is back in business after the Ohio Environmental Review Appeals Commission (ERAC) on Tuesday ruled that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) had overstepped its regulatory authority when it pulled the private operator’s permit to deliver natural gas drilling wastewater to the City of Warren for treatment.

Harkening back to an abandoned, high profile, public/private sector coal gasification project in his state, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead at a press conference on Friday indicated he wants to rekindle similar like coal gasification projects in the state, drawing on advancements now in commercial operation in China.