Meanwhile

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of Act 13, the state’s new omnibus Marcellus Shale law, on Oct. 17 in Pittsburgh.

The permitting of horizontal natural gas wells in Ohio has grown more than eight-fold in one year; Chesapeake Energy Corp. became a major player in the Utica Shale, and Carroll County became the play’s “ground zero,” according to data from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ (ODNR) Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management.

In an apparent bow to local opposition, a Texas company has withdrawn its proposal to build two injection wells for wastewater from oil and natural gas drilling in Mansfield, OH.

Three families in western Pennsylvania have filed a lawsuit against 17 defendants, including an operator for Range Resources Corp. and two independent water testing labs, alleging that a drilling and impoundment site caused health problems. The plaintiffs also accused Range and the labs of conspiring to hide evidence of drinking water contamination.

Several municipalities in the Southern Tier of New York have adopted nonbinding resolutions that take a stand that would allow high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking), a position that dovetails with an assertion by state officials that the drilling stimulation practice, if eventually approved by regulators, only would be permitted in communities that allowed it.

A series of legislative proposals that would allow hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and enact several other changes to North Carolina’s energy policies within two years have cleared an important hurdle and could come to a vote this summer.

Between now and the end of the year, the United States should drop 130, or 40%, of the rigs drilling in dry natural gas plays, according to Raymond James and Associates Inc. Meanwhile, Societe Generale said the lag that separates drilling cutbacks to actual production declines “will keep the market waiting for a true supply response.”

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed a bill Thursday that offers tax breaks to companies that build an ethane cracker in the state, then jetted off to Houston to meet with Royal Dutch Shell plc executives about their plans to possibly build such a facility in the Mountain State.

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin told legislators in his State of the State Address on Wednesday that he would intensify efforts to attract an ethane cracker to the state.