Chesapeake is giving up its leases in New York state. “The decision, expected to be finalized next week, is a sign of energy firms’ growing frustration over operating in the Empire State, where most drilling is on hold, and also an indication of how Chesapeake is reining in spending after years of aggressive acreage buying left it with towering debt.” [Reuters]

A group of California state lawmakers are pushing for a federal investigation of, and possibly new regulations governing, hydraulic fracturing offshore. “This controversial well-stimulation technique needs greater scrutiny, particularly when it potentially jeopardizes our coastal way of life,” Assemblyman Das Williams wrote in a letter to the EPA. [LA Times]

This is just weird, and even if it’s technically a legal win for an oil and gas producer, it seems like a pretty serious PR gaffe…two children, aged 7 and 10, are under a gag order never to discuss hydraulic fracturing (ever in their whole lives) as part of their parents’ $750,000 settlement with Range Resources related to the company’s operations near their home in the Marcellus shale. “Gag  orders – on adults – are typical in settlements reached between oil and gas operators and residents in the heart of shale gas boom in Pennsylvania. But the company lawyer’s insistence on extending the lifetime gag order to the Hallowichs’ children gave even the judge pause.” [Guardian]