 Responsible Drilling Alliance will hold a Membership Meeting on Tuesday, November 13th at 7pm. The meeting will be held upstairs at
Please RSVP by email, and include "Membership Meeting" in the subject line.
We understand that traveling to a nighttime meeting in Lycoming County is difficult for some members. All members are welcome to join us on the 13th, but we will be glad to hold membership meetings in requested locations if needed.
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Don't Go Buy That New Lamborghini
( Note: This op-ed is by Sullivan County resident and RDA member John Trallo dervied from his personal research )
Due to the density of the shale in this part of North America, Marcellus and Utica shale plays have higher drop-off rates (the rate at which production slows) than the Barnett. That means Marcellus wells will have to be re-stimulated (re-fracked) more frequently than other shale plays, requiring more water and chemicals.
Marcellus wells will have to be drilled in a much closer proximity than other shale plays, using up more land mass. Higher post-production costs means lower royalty payments for many land owners, since royalties may be on the "profit" after the company recaptures their cost. Consider that it costs an average of $2M to drill a Barnett horizontal well and an average of $4M to drill a horizontal well in the Marcellus (twice the cost-half the production).
So, when considering the drop-off rate of Marcellus wells compared to the Barnett and the Fayetteville shale plays (both of which are already in a steep decline), the life span of Marcellus wells (and the royalty payments) are going to be much less than anticipated. Barnett wells drop off rate is approximately 50-55% every 12 to 14 months (Fayetteville is about the same). Marcellus wells tend to drop off at a rate of 67% every 105 days. The Utica declines even faster. All things considered, I'm guessing most land owners who's wells are in production have already seen the most money they're going to see from individual Marcellus wells in NEPA. To quote the Chesapeake representative at landowner meetings in Shunk, Elkland, Fox, and Forks Twps. a few months ago: "Don't go out and buy that new Lamborghini." The gas companies, Gov. Corbett, and many of the politicians blindly supporting the gas industry in PA have said: "PA is going to be the Texas of Natural Gas." How do these "good neighbor" companies do business in Texas? Lax regulations and unpaid royalty payments. ( Ed. note: and a healthy severance tax). We seem to be headed down that messy and dangerous road here in PA too. |
Support The Keep It Wild Campaign!
 Responsible Drilling Alliance is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization funded entirely by donations. Running the Keep It WILD campaign costs money and we need your help to recuperate funds. Please considering donating.
We accept money through PayPal via the
Responsible Drilling Alliance
PO Box 502 Williamsport, PA 17703 
Thank you for your support!
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What's Scarier Than Ghouls & Goblins?
Anadarko Drilling Near Rock Run!
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Thanks to RDA member Mary Howe for carving such a stellar pumpkin.
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Calm your fears!: send an email to DCNR Secretary Richard Alan (rjallan@pa.gov) asking him to keep Anadarko OUT of the Clarence Moore tract. You can snail-mail him at:
Richard J. Allan, Secretary
Department of Conservation & Natural Resources
P.O. Box 8767
Harrisburg, PA 17105
Happy (belated) Halloween from RDA!
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Sign The Petitions To Protect Rock Run!
Petition to protect Rock Run from unnecessary shale gas development. Click to sign.
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Post-Inauguration: The First 100 Days
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Romney greets coal miners in Ohio. SAUL LOEB/AFP/GETTYIMAGES
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 | | Barack Obama tours a solar complex in Nevada. JESSICA EBELHAR-POOL/GETTY IMAGES |
Where's the country headed? Nowhere fast, unless the newly elected president drops "drill more, faster" campaign rhetoric - so argue Pam Solo, president of the Newton, Mass.-based nonprofit Civil Society Institute, and Heather White, chief of staff for the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, based in Washington, D.C. The pair recently collaborated with other natural-resources experts across the country to help create a beginner's guide for the next commander in chief: the American Clean Energy Agenda's "First 100 Days."
Here is a summary of the guide:
First, work to establish a much-needed national water policy in order to avert or mitigate current and future water scarcity problems that face the nation if today's electric generation mix remains unchanged or becomes even more dependent on fossil-fuel-fired and nuclear power.
Power generation in the U.S. accounts for 41percent of all freshwater withdrawals.
Second, the president must establish sustainability criteria to guide the choice and deployment of new electricity-generating technologies.
Americans require and support a power system that is affordable and reliable, consumes modest volumes of water, substantially reduces public-health impacts, improves environmental quality and addresses climate change. The incoming administration should work to eliminate all public support for energy technologies that do not meet these criteria.
Third, the next administration must begin to make energy efficiency and noncombustion- based renewable-energy technologies the core of the electric power system and adopt policies and programs that lead to eventual replacement of fossil-fuel-fired and nuclear power plants.
Fourth, and finally, the next president must make it a priority to ensure that the United States becomes the acknowledged global leader in job-creating clean energy technologies and in confronting the challenge of climate change.
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Toxic Trespass: Chemicals In Industry
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Sara Steingraber, PhD ecologist, writer, speaker, and cancer survivor. Photo: Benjamin Gervais/The PPC
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"The idea that other people's chemicals can enter our bodies without our consent as an act of toxic trespass, and that this can alter the chemical pathways of our bodies, trigger certain switches, turn off and on certain hormones, places cancer as a human rights issue," said Sara Steingraber to Sage Magazine.
"Anytime there's a disconnect between those who benefit and those who pay a price, we have a human rights issue," Steingraber continued. "Central to human rights is equal protection under the law. When we look at cancer, it's not a random tragedy. People live near certain types of activities-whether large-scale agriculture or industry-where cancer is more common."
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