The anti-drilling Sierra Club–an organization that once lauded natural gas as an energy bridge to the future but now hates it (because it’s a good fundraiser for them to demonize it)–went fishing for information in Ohio, and came up with nothing. The Sierra Club previously sued the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) seeking all documentation (emails, etc.) for the case of D&L Energy/Hardrock Excavating–the company that repeatedly dumped untreated frack wastewater in the dead of night down a drain–untreated wastewater that ended up in the Mahoning River (see Youngstown Business Dumped >200K Gal of Untreated Wastewater).
Not only did the ODNR immediately take strong action against the perpetrators of this environmental crime by shutting down the companies involved, the drilling industry itself loudly and strongly condemned it. Not good enough for the Sierra Clubers. They thought there may be some teeny tiny sliver of something they could demagogue and use in yet another fundraising letter–if only they could sort through the pile of communications surrounding the case. So they sued. The ODNR finally relented and gave them what they wanted–and according to the Sierra Clubers, there were “few new details” in the document dump. In other words, it was a colossal waste of time and taxpayer money…
