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Radio Disney Pressured, Pulls Out of OH O&G Education Program

Radio Disney had been participating in a tour of elementary schools in Ohio as part of an education project that, among other things, educates kids on how oil and gas drilling and pipelines work. Called “Rocking in Ohio” the program’s intent is to foster interest in science and technology. Because the tour is sponsored by the Ohio and Gas Energy Education Program and partially funded by the drilling industry, the anti-drilling brigade came out in force and has now pressured Disney into withdrawing from the program. We can’t have the truth getting out there in song and dance, ya know!

Few American-based media outlets are covering the story, so we have to get the Disney story from the pro-terrorist Al Jazeera America network. You know, the network that paid Al Gore a gazillion dollars for his dying Current TV network, finally making Al a rich man and giving Al Jazeera access to American airways to spread their garbage. The network that hires CNN has-beens like Soledad O’Brien to put a pretty face on an ugly network. The network that loves to air terrorists beheading people? Yeah, that network–the network owned by Middle Eastern oil sheiks who fear fracking will end their massive wealth gives us the Disney pulling out in Ohio story…
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Cabot’s Big CNG Celebration at Johnson College in Scranton, PA

Yesterday Cabot Oil & Gas held a “CNG Celebration” at Johnson College in Scranton, PA. Unfortunately MDN could not be on hand to help celebrate. However, we do have a couple of stories to bring you from that event.

The purpose of the event was several-fold: announce Johnson College’s curriculum expansion with new courses in compressed natural gas (CNG) technology and eventually a certification (with financial and technical assistance from Cabot); PA DEP Sec. Chris Abruzzo was on hand to announce $3 million in grants to businesses and organizations to purchase or retrofit vehicles to run CNG (see our companion story today); welcome the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s new executive director, David Spigelmyer; and show off some impressive big trucks and other vehicles running CNG. “Celebration” is an appropriate word that about covers it!…
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Cabot to Teach Hazelton, PA 9th Graders How to Frack

Ninth-grade students at a new magnet school opening this fall in the Hazelton, PA area will be taught a series of lessons on the technology, economics and environmental issues related to fracking and shale gas drilling. The plan calls for the school’s teachers to lead four lessons in the series, an “environmentalist” (i.e. anti-driller) will teach one lesson, and someone from Cabot Oil & Gas, the northeast PA driller funding the program, will teach two of the lessons. There’s sure to be stiff opposition to Cabot’s involvement from the anti-drillers. “Fair” to them would be Cabot pays for the whole thing but anti-drillers are the only voices heard in the classroom. Not this time!

MDN finds it amusing the program will feature a mock town hall meeting complete with squabbling neighbors and people falsely claiming their water wells have been contaminated. We need to learn ’em young, ya know…
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Lackawanna College NatGas Program to Get Boost from Obama Visit

President Barack ObamaMDN attended and reported on the grand opening of a new CNG fueling station in Susquehanna County, PA last week (see Cabot Launches CNG Fueling Station in NE PA). One of the presenters at that event was Mark Volk, president of Lackawanna College. Dr. Volk was there to sing the praises of Cabot Oil & Gas and their key support for Lackawanna’s new-but-rapidly-growing Petroleum & Natural Gas Technology program. Cabot has not only contributed money but also equipment and expertise to the program, one of only four or five programs like it in the country.

Lackawanna College–a 1,600-student, private 2-year school near Scranton, PA–is about to emerge on the national stage in a big way, and by extension, Cabot as well. President Obama will visit the school tomorrow (Friday, August 23) and deliver a speech “to the nation and world” from Lackawanna, no doubt touting the role of Lackawanna in preparing students through programs like the Petroleum & Natural Gas Technology program. In honor of President Obama’s visit and to celebrate Obama’s recognition of the importance of an educated workforce for the northeast and particularly for the vitally important oil and gas industry, Cabot’s own George Stark has penned the following exclusive “guest post” for MDN readers…
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Hess Sets Up Scholarship Program at Belmont College

Utica driller Hess Corporation and Belmont College (St. Clairsville, OH) announced last Friday that Hess has established a scholarship program that will make “multiple awards” of scholarships of up to $3,000 per student per year at Belmont. Students may be enrolled in either full- or part-time programs working on either an associates degree or a certificate.

The aim of the program is to help train non-traditional students–those out of work and downsized from a previous job. The awards are not just for those seeking energy-related jobs either…
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PA Teachers: Free Climate Change/Energy Course Courtesy Cabot O&G

Cabot Oil & Gas is serious about helping the local Pennsylvania communities in which they operate. A case in point previously highlighted on MDN: Cabot’s key fundraising role that got a 20 year-old stalled project of building a new hospital in rural Montrose, PA off the ground (see Cabot Effort Raises $4.4 Million for PA Physicians Clinic).

And now, yet another example: Because of Cabot’s generous donation, the normal $300 fee to attend Keystone College’s “summer camp” for 7-12 grade teachers (July 22-26) to study climate change and energy is now free! Continuing education credits available. Here’s the low-down on the program and how teachers (and other interested members of the community) may attend:
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Allegheny College Faces Green Monster of Its Own Making

This is truly rich. Allegheny College, a private, exclusive, rich coeducational liberal arts college (2,100 students, tuition $38,750/year) in the northwestern PA town of Meadville has been a national leader in brainwashing teaching young college kids about the morally superior ways of so-called sustainability and worshiping Mother Earth and all things “green.” But dang, some of those nasty fossil fuel companies are waving big bucks in front of Allegheny College to lease some of the college’s land. Specifically, drillers want to lease, wait for it… the 283-acre Allegheny College Environmental Research Reserve. Talk about ironic! Like taking a bite from the apple all those years ago in Eden, it seems the temptation is just too much for Allegheny.

The college has assembled a white-wash working committee of faculty, staff and students to try, somehow, desperately, to justify selling their souls to the fracking devil so they can take those piles of money. Problem is, the college has created a legion of true green believers who now feel violated, betrayed, confused that the very institution they pay $38,750/year to teach them to hate all fossil fuels would possibly consider changing course for filthy lucre…
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The Positives, and Negatives, of Shale Gas Drilling

No one pretends there are not negatives when it comes to oil and gas drilling, least of all MDN. There are some drawbacks–but the negatives must be weighed against the positives. Local business and government leaders in Carroll County, OH (the county with the most Utica Shale wells drilled, so far), had a frank discussion of the both the good and the bad in a recent meeting with State Rep. Andy Thompson, R-Marietta.

Highlights of the good and the bad when it comes to shale drilling:
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Grads: Want a High-Paying Job? Look in the Marcellus/Utica

Not that we haven’t already covered the topic of “get a job in the gas industry if you want to make really really good money” many times before. At this time of year with high school graduations aplenty, it doesn’t hurt to remind new graduates about the facts one more time.

So, how much money can you make working in the gas industry? A lot…
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Allentown, PA Children Brainwashed Against Fracking

It’s sick and it’s twisted: Brainwash school children against fracking so the next generation coming along will someday ban it. Oh, and while you’re at it, call it “art” and pretend you care more about the environment than anyone else. Foolish, sick, dumb. That’s what it really is.

Ignorance was on full display over the weekend in Allentown, PA as less than 50 people gathered (with media coverage of course) to act out skits about how fracking harms the environment and people. A group of local young (and old) “artists” from Allentown, with funding from Yoko Ono (who’s taste in art is decidedly pornographic), pimped and made fools of themselves for Ono’s anti-fossil fuel group:
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New Appalachian Petroleum Technology Training Center in WV

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin traveled to Fairmont, WV yesterday to announce the establishment of the Appalachian Petroleum Technology Training Center. The new program will offer students either a one-year certificate or a two-year associates degree in Petroleum Technology at both Pierpont Community and Technical College (in Fairmont) and at WV Northern Community College (in Wheeling). According to officials at the ceremony announcing the new center, people can earn starting annual salaries ranging from $60,000-$100,000 for working in natural gas drilling fields. This new program will help make that happen.

A “key feature” of the program are both indoor and outdoor drilling simulation laboratories, to give students hands-on field training…

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Shock Moderator for JLCNY’s Drilling Education Session in Albany

MDN has to confess this one is a head scratcher. Last week MDN received a media alert that the 77,000-member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) has taken up Gov. Cuomo’s challenge to educate lawmakers and the general public about shale gas drilling. The JLCNY will host a meeting in Albany for lawmakers, their staff, and “those charged with decisions related to natural gas development in NY state” on May 30. The educational session is appropriately titled, “Top Myths of Natural Gas Development: Debunked.”

The head scratcher is who will moderate it: Anti-drilling former Gannett reporter and author, Tom Wilber…
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Pete Seeger Will Play for Fossil Fuel Haters Fest in PA

Iconic folk singer and lefty activist Pete Seeger (now about 150 years old, a marvel to behold) will play a benefit concert for a group of fossil fuel-haters protesting the expansion of a natural gas pipeline in Pike County (northeast PA). They hate fossil fuels and the pipelines that deliver them—although hypocritically they use fossil fuels delivered by pipelines every single day.

Other helpful activities planned by the group: Brainwash school children with a “sustainable energy curriculum” at the Delaware Valley School District. What will they teach them? How wonderful it is to keep the thermostat set at 45 degrees? Every time your parents fire up the SUV for a run to Walmart they’re killing Mother Earth? (Be sure to rat out your parents to your greenie teacher, kiddies.) These are people with too much time on their hands…

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The Nutty Antics of Anti-Drilling Kids – Pittsburgh Edition

Anti-Drillers Stage Mock MarriageJust a few days after MDN editor Jim Willis visited Pittsburgh, a small group of 15 anti-drillers made fools of themselves in front of EQT Plaza in downtown Pittsburgh. Their (latest) cause? They don’t like the new Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD) and EQT’s participation in it. They believe the CSSD legitimizes "dirty" fossil fuels, like clean-burning natural gas, and since they (irrationally) hate all fossil fuels, any effort at ensuring mining of those fuels is done safely is tantamount to killing Mother Earth. Wackos.

To illustrate the "folly" of big, nasty drillers cooperating with eco-nut organizations like GASP and the Heinz Foundation, this small group of true believers (local college students with time on their hands, from a Fruit Loops organization called the Energy Action Coalition) staged a mock wedding in front of EQT…

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Brainwash Complete: Dickinson Co-Ed Wants PA Severance Tax

A young college co-ed from Dickinson College has penned an editorial run in the Harrisburg Patriot-News proving what a valuable education one gets at Dickinson—where they teach kids that drilling destroys the environment. (Hint: You may want to re-think sending your children, and your money, to Dickinson College).

Here’s her "brilliance" on display (with snarky MDN comments inserted):

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A Plethora of Shale Organizations/Institutes Spring Up in PA

Although there’s a small minority of mouthy people opposed to shale drilling in Pennsylvania (groups like the Sierra Club and PennFuture), most companies and organizations are clamoring to get a piece of the Marcellus drilling industry action in the Keystone State. Case in point: Several years ago the industry-backed Marcellus Shale Coalition was launched, a fabulous organization that promotes Marcellus Shale drilling and ensures certain standards are met by its members. It’s a “carrot” kind of organization—encouraging drillers to join and conform to common-sense rules. A few weeks ago, a new ad hoc group of drillers and environmentalists announced the launch of the Center for Sustainable Shale Development, or “CSSD” (see Important: Drillers & Enviros Form New Group, Launch Cert Program). CSSD wants to supplement state regulations with even tougher, more expensive rules. CSSD wants to force drillers to get their certification—a “stick” kind of organization. Not to be outdone, a few days after CSSD launched yet another group unveiled itself, called the Shale Gas Roundtable. They too are crafting “rules to drill by” that will soon be released (see Out of the Shadows: Another New Group Wants to Regulate PA Shale).

Academe wants in on the action too…

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