Posts Tagged ‘Pa.’

By Jennifer Micale

Elmira Gazette

March 12, 2010

A 31-year-old worker died Thursday after he fell 20 feet off a natural gas rig in Towanda Township, according to Pennsylvania State Police.

At around 5:30 p.m., Greg Allen Henry, of Athens, Tennessee, was working on a Nomac Drilling site off Plank Road, two miles from Towanda, Pa.

He was attempting to dislodge a handrail while the drilling unit was being moved to another hole on the drilling pad, police said. The handrail gave way and Henry fell 20 feet, suffering a severe head injury. He was pronounced dead at the scene by Bradford County Coroner Thomas Carman. An autopsy will be conducted at a later date, police said.

Visit the original article here

ALBANY, N.Y.

Marcellus Shale gets upgraded sevenfold

A geologist says the Marcellus Shale region of the Appalachians could yield seven times as much natural gas as he earlier estimated, meaning it could meet the entire nation’s natural gas needs for at least 14 years.

Penn State University geoscientist Terry Engelder says in a phone interview Monday that he now estimates 363 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could be recovered from the 31-million-acre core area of the Marcellus region, which includes southern New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and eastern Ohio.

Engelder and geologist Gary Nash of the State University of New York at Fredonia touched off a gas rush in the region last January with their study estimating that the Marcellus could yield as much as 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

LANCASTER, Pa.

Man gets 2 DUIs in five-hour period

Police say a central Pennsylvania man was arrested on drunken driving charges twice in less than six hours.

Michael Hufford’s first arrest came just before 11 a.m. Sunday. Police say his car hit the back of a stopped vehicle in Manheim Township, Lancaster County.

Hufford was arrested for suspected DUI. After he was processed, he was released to his girlfriend.

Hufford was arrested again just before 4 p.m. Police say the second accident happened after he turned left in front of another vehicle.

The 50-year-old was arraigned by a magisterial district judge after the second crash. Police say he was sent to Lancaster County Prison.

YORK, Pa.

Man kills wife, toddler and then himself

A suburban York man killed his wife and 2-year-old son before committing suicide inside their home, police said Monday.

John D. Goodman, 39, did not leave a note before he shot his wife, Julia, multiple times and shot their son, Langon, early Sunday morning, said Spring Garden Township Chief George Swartz.

Swartz said investigators were still trying to determine what happened and why. He said there is no evidence that the couple was divorcing or that any protective orders were in place.

York County Coroner Barry Bloss Sr. told the York Dispatch that John Goodman may have been recently laid off from his job as a surveyor in Lancaster. Bloss also said his office would try to confirm reports that 39-year-old Julia Goodman was pregnant.

The Goodmans had lived in the neighborhood near York Hospital since 2003, and before that they lived elsewhere in Spring Garden Township.

ERIE, Pa.

Freight-train death perplexes coroner

A Pennsylvania coroner is hoping toxicology tests and more investigation will help him figure out why a man was killed by a passing freight train.

Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook says the body of 23-year-old Timothy Villa, of Erie, was found near the CSX railroad tracks in the city Sunday about 2 a.m.

Cook says the investigation indicates Villa may have left a Halloween party shortly before he was struck and killed by the train. An autopsy Sunday confirmed the man died of massive trauma.

Cook says police are trying to contact the train’s crew. Cook is waiting for toxicology tests on Villa’s body before ruling whether the death was an accident, but says it does not appear to be foul play.

Copyright: Times Leader

By MARC LEVY Associated Press Writer

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The land agents, geologists and drilling crews rushing after the Marcellus Shale are raising something besides the natural gas they’re seeking: Talk of a natural gas tax.

Thanks to a state Supreme Court decision six years ago, Pennsylvania is now one of the biggest natural-gas producing states — if not the biggest — that does not tax the methane sucked from beneath its ground.

But momentum is gathering to impose such a tax. The Marcellus Shale — a layer of black rock that holds a vast reservoir of gas — is luring some of the country’s largest gas producers to Pennsylvania, and state government revenues are being waylaid by a worldwide economic malaise.

A spokesman for Gov. Ed Rendell says the administration is looking at the idea of a tax on natural gas, but a decision has not been made. Typically, Rendell does not reveal any tax or revenue proposals until his official budget plan is introduced each February.

Senate Republicans are planning a November hearing at Misericordia University in northeastern Pennsylvania to look at what effect can be expected on local governments if Marcellus Shale production lives up to its potential.

Local officials worry about damage to local roads ill-suited for heavy truck traffic and equipment. School districts could be strained by families of gas company employees moving into town. And some residents are concerned about gas wells disrupting or polluting the water tables from which they draw drinking water.

Legislators must find the fairest way for companies to share those costs, whether by levying a tax or through some other means, said Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre, the GOP’s policy chairman.

“I do think there is an understanding that some sort of compensation for municipalities is warranted,” Corman said. “We just have to figure out the best way to do that.”

So far, drilling activity is under way on the Marcellus Shale in at least 18 counties, primarily in the northern tier and southwest where the shale is thickest, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Land agents are trooping in and out of county courthouses to research the below-ground mineral rights. At least several million acres above the Marcellus Shale have been leased by companies in West Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania.

Just this week, Range Resources Corp. and a Denver-based gas processor said they have started up Pennsylvania’s first large-scale gas processing plant, about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh.

And CNX Gas Corp. announced that a $6 million horizontal well it drilled in southwest Pennsylvania is producing a respectable 1.2 million cubic feet a day — a rate it expects to improve in coming weeks.

In the opposite corner of Pennsylvania, drilling pads are now visible on Susquehanna County’s farmland, and hotel rooms are booked with land agents and drilling crews.

“It is the talk at the coffee shops, at the local grocery store, the gas station — everybody,” said state Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne.

Activity is still in the early stages, as exploration companies work to confirm their basic assumptions about the potential of the Marcellus Shale reservoir, and probe for the spots with the greatest promise, analysts say.

Industry representatives say they oppose a tax, and Stephen W. Rhoads, the president of the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association, questioned the wisdom of imposing a tax on gas production that is still speculative.

In some natural-gas states, a tax is collected based on a company’s gas production by volume.

But in Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that state law did not allow counties, schools and municipalities to impose a real estate tax based on the value of the subsurface oil and gas rights held by exploration companies.

An appraiser’s study presented last year during a House Finance Committee hearing estimated that the court’s decision had cost Greene, Fayette and Washington counties up to $30 million in county, school and municipal tax revenue.

The state’s county commissioners and school boards support the resumption of some type of taxing authority — although that could mean landowners would get smaller royalty checks.

Regardless, Doug Hill, the executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, said the matter is one of basic fairness since coal, gravel and limestone are assessed.

“The bottom line is it isn’t a windfall issue,” Hill said. “It’s a tax equity issue.”

___

Marc Levy covers state government for The Associated Press in Harrisburg. He can be reached at mlevy(at)ap.org.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

By MARC LEVY Associated Press Writer

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ A top state environmental official says Pennsylvania is ill-equipped to handle the huge influx of interest in drilling for a potentially lucrative natural gas formation.

John Hanger, the acting secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, made the comments during a hearing in Harrisburg before the state House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.

Hanger told lawmakers that he needs dozens more employees to review drilling permit applications and inspect drilling sites over the Marcellus Shale gas formation.

He also said he is concerned the state will run out of capacity to treat the contaminated water left over from the drilling process, but that state laws are largely adequate for protecting the environment.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press
Posted at: Times Leader

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ Five out-of-state companies are the high bidders for the right to drill for natural gas on more than 74,000 acres in Pennsylvania’s state forests.

The high bidders were among 17 companies that competed for the drilling rights over a potentially lucrative natural-gas formation known the Marcellus Shale. The 18 tracts that were put out to bid by the state forestry agency are located in Tioga and Lycoming counties in north-central Pennsylvania.

All together, the high bids total about $190 million.

Three of the companies are from Texas and two are from New York.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Posted at: Times Leader

The Associated Press
HARRISBURG — Despite opposition from environmentalists, the Rendell administration will give exploration companies thirsty to capitalize on sky-high natural gas prices new territory to drill in Pennsylvania’s state forests.

Read more Natural Gas Leases – Marcellus Shale articles

The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources said it is ending a five-year-old moratorium on allowing new shallow wells, and that it will auction the rights to drill on an additional 75,000 acres of state forest land for the first time since 2002.

If successful in the bidding that will take place later this year, the exploration companies will be able to take a shot at two deep gas reservoirs, the Marcellus Shale formation, about 6,000 to 8,000 feet underground, and the Trenton-Black River, which is more than 10,000 feet deep.

Both are thought to contain large quantities of natural gas, and have drawn the interest of exploration companies from Texas to Canada that have asked for access to all of Pennsylvania’s 2.1 million acres of state forests.

Much of the land to be leased is in north-central Pennsylvania, and department officials argue that the deeper wells, spaced farther apart, inflict less forest damage than shallow wells, which are typically drilled closer together.

New shallow wells may only be drilled if gas is found during the development of deeper gas fields, officials said.

“We’re very excited about the opportunity,” said Stephen W. Rhoads, the president of the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association, “We just wish it were larger; 75,000 acres is not a whole lot of land.”

Jeff Schmidt, who directs the Pennsylvania chapter of the Sierra Club, said the department gave in to pressure from oil and gas company lobbyists, as well as legislators sympathetic to the industry.

“These are publicly owned lands and we don’t believe the average citizen supports turning over these lands to the oil and gas industry,” Schmidt said.

“We just wish it were larger; 75,000 acres is not a whole lot of land.”

Stephen W. Rhoads
Pa. Oil and Gas Association

Copyright: Times Leader

Penn State study finds money Pa. landowners receive will ripple through state economy.

The Associated Press

STATE COLLEGE — With energy companies rushing to lock up rights to suddenly valuable deposits of natural gas, royalties earned by Pennsylvania landowners will ripple through the broader state economy, according to a Penn State University forecast.

Royalty payments will spur additional spending by landowners throughout the economy and lead to the creation of new jobs that will attract workers, researchers said.

There has been something of a land rush in parts of Pennsylvania recently as energy companies negotiate leases to drill into previously untapped reserves of natural gas.

A rock formation in parts of four states, called the Marcellus Shale, is believed to hold a large reservoir of natural gas. Geologists and energy companies have known for decades about the gas, but only recently have figured out a way to extract it.

In their study, Penn State researchers used $1 billion in annual royalty income as a yardstick to measure potential gains in employment, disposable income, population and other economic indicators in Pennsylvania through 2011. The actual amount of royalty income could be higher or lower; the study did not provide a forecast.

“It’s a real unknown at this point,” David Passmore, director of the Penn State Institute for Research in Training and Development, said Tuesday. “Royalty income only occurs when the asset is lifted out of the ground. When the gas comes out, nobody knows. How much comes out, nobody knows.”

According to the researchers, each $1 billion in royal

Copyright: Times Leader