The clash between rural New York state mineral rights owners and opponents of natural gas development comes through in a new short film, “The Empire State Divided,” by the Foundation for Land and Liberty. The 22-minute film is divided into three parts. Check out part 1 below and see all three here.

The film was produced by Karen Moreau, the foundation’s former president who earlier this month was named executive director of the New York State Petroleum Council, a division of API. The film depicts economic and political conditions in the state’s southern tier, where struggling farmers and job-starved communities see the potential benefits of natural gas production being kept out of reach by the state’s moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, which is strongly backed by natural gas oppone... more »

As the Wall Street Journal pointed out in an editorial this week, Pennsylvania and New York are writing distinctly different chapters in a tale of shale natural gas development:

"Politicians wringing their hands over how to create more jobs might study the shale boom along the New York and Pennsylvania border. It's a case study in one state embracing economic opportunity, while the other has let environmental politics trump development."

Two states, two approaches to the natural gas-rich Marcellus shale formation that lies under portions of both. Pennsylvania:

• More than 2,000 wells drilled since 2008.
• $2.8 million in direct economic benefits from natural gas company spending on wages, payments on capital and taxes - per well - according to a Manhattan Institute study from earlier this yea... more »

PoliticoPro reports that a New York state advisory panel on hydraulic fracturing is taking flak from some environmentalists despite the fact a majority of the committee's members are ... environmentalists.

There's a simple explanation: Some of these folks just aren't all that interested in helping a process that will bring more natural gas - clean-burning, abundant, affordable - to U.S. Here's what David Braun, co-founder of United for Action, a New York-based anti-fracking group, told PoliticoPro:

"The environmental groups that are involved are too interested in regulating rather than serving their general purpose, which is to defend our resources, defend the people and to not push these sorts of things through."

Braun refers to hydraulic fracturing, the drilling technology that's revolut... more »

A new academic study says New York's moratorium on shale gas extraction via hydraulic fracturing stands in the way of more than $11 billion in economic output, thousands of new jobs and more than $1 billion in state tax revenues.

Those benefits would accrue by 2020 if last year's ban on fracking/horizontal drilling, according to the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research study, released Wednesday. State legislators currently are considering extending the ban, which is scheduled to expire next month.

Primary author Timothy Considine told the Binghamton (N.Y.) Press & Sun-Bulletin the report's estimates are conservative, based on 330 horizontal wells in the Marcellus shale region of southern and western New York. "It could be much larger than the numbers projected in my report," said Consid... more »

Sometimes it seems like the only news is bad news, but let's take a moment to focus on the positive. The good news is the oil and natural gas industry is making life better in communities around the country. Here's a sampling:

The Observer in Dunkirk, N.Y., has an op-ed column by Petro Enterprises CEO David W. Keefe, noting the positive impact of Marcellus shale gas exploration and development. Keefe writes:

(Marcellus) is estimated to contain up to 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, making it, potentially, the second-largest gas field in the world. New York's portion of those reserves could be as much as 50 trillion cubic feet. Drilling the Marcellus in Pennsylvania during a two year period ending in 2010 created 44,000 jobs. Similar performance is expected in New York with the addit... more »