Challenging

A group of independent producers have fired off a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar challenging and contesting recent claims by the Obama administration involving oil and natural gas production on public lands.

An environmental group is challenging how Pennsylvania combines air emissions from interconnected Marcellus Shale infrastructure for regulatory purposes.

The Sierra Club filed a formal objection at the Department of Energy (DOE), challenging the export of Marcellus Shale gas from Cove Point’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facilities in Maryland. The environmental group argued that LNG exports would raise natural gas and electricity prices nationwide and would expand the practice of hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Sierra Club called for the department to hold the first-ever full environmental impact statement assessing the effects of increased Marcellus Shale fracking. This is the third LNG export facility that the Sierra Club has opposed, with the other two being facilities in Coos Bay, OR, and Sabine Pass, LA. Sierra Club’s protest comes a week after the group attacked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s environmental review of the proposed Sabine Pass Liquefaction LLC facilities (see Daily GPI, Feb. 1).

Environmental groups have filed a complaint in federal court in Washington, DC, challenging a supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) that clears the way for the first oil and natural gas lease sale since the Macondo well blowout to be held in the western Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is challenging a Pennsylvania policy for measuring air emissions, including those from Marcellus Shale development.

Pennsylvania researchers have corrected a recent study that suggested increased bromide levels in private water wells after drilling or hydraulic fracturing occurred nearby.

The Utica Shale could be more profitable than the Marcellus, but it could also prove to be more challenging, a Consol Energy Inc. executive suggested at a conference in Pittsburgh last Thursday.

The Utica Shale could be more profitable than the Marcellus Shale, but it could also prove to be more challenging, a Consol Energy Inc. executive suggested at a conference in Pittsburgh on Thursday.

The Houston arm of Royal Dutch Shell plc and the University of Texas at Austin (UT) are teaming up to work on new and better ways to extract natural gas and oil from unconventional rock formations.