Media

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) violated federal law by using an array of social media platforms to promote its controversial Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, and conducted a campaign of “covert propaganda” over an 18-month period.

As further indication that the anti-hydraulic fracturing (fracking) fever is spreading in Colorado, a coalition of more than 40 organizations has called for Gov. John Hickenlooper to ask for a top state energy official’s resignation, and a U.S. congressman from the state has picked up the opposition fervor from his constituents and environmental groups.

Contrary to a media report, there is no time frame for when a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc will make a decision over whether to build a proposed “world scale” ethane cracker in western Pennsylvania, state and company officials told NGI’s Shale Daily.

A news media tour was held Saturday at the Mayflower, AR, oil spill area under the joint command of local, state and federal officials, as well as ExxonMobil representatives. The event was held to provide an update of the spill, which occurred March 29 when a portion of the ExxonMobil Pegasus Pipeline ruptured. Since then, the portion of the 850-mile oil pipeline that failed has been removed for analysis at an independent laboratory and a new section of pipeline installed, all under state and federal oversight. In ExxonMobil’s most recent daily report the company indicated that cleanup was coming to an end and remediation of the area should begin soon. Monitoring by the company and various agencies has indicated that there has been no contamination of water or air from the spilling of what is estimated to be 5,000 bbl of oil. Besides U.S. Environmental Protection Agency representatives, there have been representatives from the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office and local government on the scene since the cleanup began. Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel launched an investigation several days after the incident (see Shale Daily, April 3).

With increasing national news media and regulatory attention and despite ExxonMobil’s assurances that everything is under control at a plugged oil spill near Little Rock, AR, hardened opposition and skeptical stakeholders in the high-stakes business of finding markets for Western Canada’s heavy tar sands-based crude oil are raising red flags, as evidenced in California this week.

Two prominent Ohio Republicans — state House Speaker William Batchelder (R-Media) and Treasurer Josh Mandel — told supporters of the oil and natural gas industry that they oppose Gov. John Kasich’s proposal to levy new severance taxes on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and natural gas liquids (NGL).

Some fourth-graders in New York state agree that they don’t want unconventional drilling using hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in their state, but they didn’t arrive at that conclusion because of biased messages in the classroom, said Southwestern Energy CEO Steve Mueller. They just don’t know that “natural gas is a true national treasure.”

MSC also released a longer video on social media channels and is asking viewers to submit their questions about natural gas production and use. The video includes a series of clips from a variety of news programs detailing the economic benefits of developing the Marcellus Shale.

Taking cover from what the news media is describing as the “Frankenstorm,” which is what is expected to result when Hurricane Sandy veers onshore into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast and collides with a cold front from the West, trading exchanges announced their modified operating plans on Sunday.