The tone of the hydrofracking regulatory conversation has changed pretty drastically over the last week or so. Solid Shale has a long list of details you absolutely should read, but the two key ones I see (from a Dryden perspective) are:
Anschutz giving up on its lawsuit against Dryden, letting most leases expire while passing the suit itself to Norse Energy. It's not over, and Tom West will likely continue to be a headache for Dryden, but this is still a huge shift for us.
The New York State calendar for issuing the regulations - not the SGEIS, the regulations - on fracking faces a reset because it's gone on too long. This means new public hearings, and so on. Add that to the decision to add the Department of Health to the review, and it could be a long time before approval for anything.
It's not over until it's over, but that seems likely to be a long ways away.
Update: Here's the New York Times with similar speculation.
Update: This offers more of a probably spin on restarting the regulations process.
Posted by simon at October 1, 2012 7:02 AM in Anschutz lawsuit , energy , politics (state)
Hah! Yes, thanks for that link to Solid Shale. That article explains exactly what I figured out a year ago about the "business models" of the frackers -- it's all playing out roughly as I expected.
It'll take the politicians -- who were also being scammed -- a long time to realize that the frackers were never genuine. But we're passing the point of greatest threat, since the USGS keeps pointing out that there just isn't that much gas there.