Keck ConsortiumApril 26, 2014

MASSACHUSETTS ENTERS THESHALE GAS DEBATE: FACTS VS FICTION

Assessment of UndiscoveredOil and Gas Resources ofthe East Coast Mesozoic Basins of the Piedmont, Blue Ridge Thrust Belt, Atlantic Coastal Plain, andNew England Provinces, 2011

USGS Fact Sheet 2012-3075

June 4, 2012

140 km x 30 km

Open

Closed

Open

N

28 x 20 km

FACT SHEET FINDINGS

Quantitatively Assessed 5 of 14 basins

Only 3 basins showed high potential

Hartford basin not assessed

Hartford Basin shares tectonic heritage with other basins so conditions for HC generation, migration, accumulation, preservation may have existed

Park River Tunnel Project

• Thin• Cut by faults• Unevenly heated• Texaco visited in 1970’s

Oil and gas will not be found in large quantities with current technology and forecasted oil and gas prices

Observations not in USGS Fact Sheet

310 CMR 27.00

Geology not suitable and regulations prohibit fracking

“There’s some evidence, just looking at the geological literature, that there’s something there. How much is speculative, though. Maybe someone will drill a wildcat well in the next 20 years or so and get lucky.”

Milici said that just because his team didn’t assess all the basins, though, doesn’t mean that there is nothing underground.

Merits of fracking vs. misinformation

http://www.geo.umass.edu/stategeologist/shalegas.htm

Boston Globe, 12/13/12

Fracking could come to the Pioneer Valley…

Legal Concerns

• Did the State statute passed intend that State DEP ban fracking in 1982; federal law upon which the State statute draws guidance did not ban fracking

• Did the legislation delegate to DEP the responsibility of making policy decisions? If not, violates Article 30

• Can the regulation prohibiting Class II wells be consideredtaking? If so, violates Article 10

• 40 CFR 147.1101(a) “UIC program for all classes of wells on Indian lands in the State of Massachusetts are

administered by the EPA”

If challenged, regulation may fail to hold up

House Bill 3796An Act to protect drinking water from hydraulic fracturing

“No person may engage in hydraulic fracturingin the Commonwealth”

“No person may collect, store, treat, or disposeOf wastewater hydraulic fluid, wastewater solids,Drill cuttings or other byproducts from Hydraulic fracturing with the Commonwealth”

Provide testimony

Not the threat of fracking but the weakness of statute

Pipeline!

….FEMA has remapped waterfront properties from the highest-risk flood zone, saving the owners as much as 97 percent on the premiums they pay into the financially strained National Flood Insurance Program.

Gas exploration and production

(US Energy Information Administration)

What is the Legal Landscape for Fracking in Massachusetts

“No person shall inject fluids into or through anInjection well and no person shall construct,Install, operate or maintain any Class I, II, or IIIInjection well, except as authorized by 310 CMR 27.00

310 CMR 27.04(1)

May 13, 1982

Evolution

Fracking is a certainty

Fracking is a possibility

Fracking probably isn’t going to happen but disposalmight happen in MA especially if NY allowsfracking

Even if fracking doesn’t come, our existing statute isreally weak and we need to strengthen it

Public issues take time!

Time Commitments

6 weeks for FAQs

Preparing materials and slides for talks

2 weeks to prepare written statement for legislators

Talks with towns who are preparing by-laws to ban fracking and disposal of produced fluids in is ongoing even if fracking is not a direct

threat