News items of interest: The University of Pennsylvania’s Center of Excllence in Environmental Toxicology has organized a group of researchers from UPa, Columbia, Johns Hopkins and the University of North Carolina to study whether the drilling in the Marcellus Shale play is hazardous to human health. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/21/taking-a-harder-look-at-fracking-and-health/ Here is a…
Here’s another amazing NASA photo, showing light from drilling activity in the Bakken Shale Play: You can see more photos here, At NPR’s Robert Krulwich blog.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is scheduled to decide whether the Lesser Prairie Chicken should be listed as an endangered species. Its Texas habitat is in the Panhandle and West Texas. The bird’s habitat extends into Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas and Oklahoma: The listing could have an adverse…
In a prior post, I wrote about a new development at the Texas Railroad Commission: granting permits for “allocation wells” – horizontal wells drilled across lease lines without pooling the leases. Since I wrote that post, our firm was retained to represent the parties protesting EOG Resources’ application for a permit…
The Corpus Christi Caller Times recently published an excellent piece on Gregg Robertson, the geologist responsible for discovering the value of the Eagle Ford formation. Read it here. Gregg is not only an excellent geologist, but also a fine human being. He deserves the award for newsmaker of the year,…
The Texas Groundwater Protection Committee has a new website that provides a wealth of information and links for those interested in groundwater resources and regulation in Texas. The Committee was created by the Texas Legislature in 1989 to provide coordination among nine state agencies that deal with groundwater: the Texas…
The Energy Information Administration continues to produce fascinating graphs. Two recent ones are below. Natural gas hammered coal last year. Low natural gas prices still made electricity cheap. West Texas Intermediate Crude declined, while Brent crude increased. Electricity generated from natural gas equaled that generated from coal for…
State Representative Van Taylor, R-Plano, and Senator Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, have introduced a bill to allow for forced pooling in Texas. The House bill, HB 100, may be viewed here. The bill would allow an operator to force-pool mineral, royalty and leasehold interests into a unit if the operator obtains…
Here are two good websites that provide interesting and balanced views about energy production and consumption: The Rational Middle, and Think Progress. The Rational Middle is a series of films by the people that produced the movie Haynesville – A Nation’s Hunt for an Energy Future. Its goal is to encourage…
I recently heard an interview with George Mitchell, the independent operator who found the key for combining hydraulic fracturing technology and horizontal drilling to unlock vast reserves of gas in the Barnett Shale, the first shale play. And it only took him 17 years to figure it out. Now 93…