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Erie County, NY Falls for the FWW Lie, Bans Fracking & Road Salt

On Monday MDN told you about an eminent vote in western NY to ban fracking (see Erie County (Buffalo) NY to Vote on “Near-Ban” of Fracking). Yesterday, legislators for Erie County, NY fell into the trap set by the odious Food & Water Watch–legislators voted 9-2 to ban the use of road salt and dust suppressant safely manufactured from brine water that comes from oil and gas drilling. They also voted to deny taxpayers in Erie County the right to profit from drilling on county-owned land, when and if it ever comes to the county.

Right at the front of the hit parade gloating was FWW agitator, er, “organizer” Rita Yelda, who continues to falsely slander fracking and the products made as a result of fracking, like deicer (road salt). We hope Erie County residents enjoy paying for steep legal fees when this illegal law is challenged next year by Buffalo-based National Fuel (Seneca Resources)…
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Erie County (Buffalo) NY to Vote on “Near-Ban” of Fracking

The odious Food & Water Watch (FWW), a partisan anti-drilling organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., is behind a scare effort to get the Erie County (Buffalo), NY legislature to ban fracking on county-owned land, ban the treatment of frack wastewater, and ban the use of processed brine (sometimes erroneously called frack wastewater) as a deicer and dust suppressant throughout the county. Using processed brine–water from drilled gas wells with heavy minerals and anything harmful removed–as a deicer and dust suppressant has been happening safely across the country for years. Hey, if Erie residents want to double the price they pay for road salt (and they use a LOT of road salt for Buffalo winters), who are we to stop them?

The full Erie County legislature will vote on the ill-advised proposed ban this week at its December 12th meeting:
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NY Dems’ Testy Response to Criticism of Andy’s Fracking Indecision

T-shirt caution easily offendedThis is rich. The head of the Republican Party in New York State, Ed Cox, criticizes Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo over the issue of his impotency on the fracking issue (see Andrew Cuomo: Hamlet on the Shale), and the Democrats are so thin-skinned they immediately call for an investigation of Cox for “unethical or potentially illegal” actions. You can tell how vulnerable Andy and the Dems are on this issue by the way they misuse their power to try and obliterate all dissenting views.

Democrat State Sen. Timothy Kennedy of Buffalo is the latest shill to rise up and defend his boy Andy, calling for an investigation of Cox…
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National Fuel Gas Production Jumps 45% in FY13

National Fuel Gas Co. is headquartered in Buffalo, NY, but it’s the Pennsylvania Marcellus that is causing the company to grow “by leaps and bounds.” National Fuel said its oil and natural gas production jumped 45% during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. Via their Seneca Resources subsidiary, they are a major Marcellus player with 780,000 net acres in the PA Marcellus.

Which leads MDN to ask, what the heck are they still doing with their HQ in Buffalo? Why not move to Pittsburgh or someplace else in PA?…
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A New Marcellus Pipe Manufacturing Plant Comes to…New York???

Maddening? Yes. Startling? True. Teeth-gritting? You bet. Ironic and mystifying? Supremely so.

A Middle Eastern company has just announced they will invest $102 million to build a factory in South Buffalo, NY that will employ 170 people making steel pipes for the…wait for it…shale drilling industry. And who should plant his mug right in the middle of this announcement to take credit for the investment and jobs it will bring to the state? Gov. Andy Cuomo–the man who can’t decide whether or not he’ll approve fracking in New York. You can see why we’re having such a conflicted and mixed(-up) reaction…
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Natural Flame Near Buffalo May Change World Shale Gas Estimates

Buffalo eternal flameAn “eternal flame,” a naturally occurring flame that burns from a source of underground natural gas just outside of Buffalo, NY (see video below) may have profound implications for energy worldwide. The source of fuel for that flame, not yet fully understood, may mean everything we thought about how much natural gas is available in shale deposits is wrong–grossly wrong. And way, way too low…
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Univ at Buffalo President Shuts Down (Censors) Shale Institute

academic censorshipThe ignorant mob have won. A group of 83 anti-drilling, enviro-left faculty and staff at the University at Buffalo (UB), with the help of left-leaning mainstream media, have brought enough pressure to bear that UB’s president announced yesterday he is immediately shutting down the seven-month old UB Shale Resources and Society Institute. It’s a sad day for academic freedom and free speech. The inmates now run the asylum at UB.

UB President Satish Tripathi has proven that after a year and a half at the helm, he is not equal to the task of running a large university. Here is his “I’ve caved” announcement from yesterday, sprinkled with MDN’s snarky comments and observations:

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UB CLEAR: Burn the Fracking Witches and Their Castle

sharpening pitchforkWhat happens when those who commit the academic “crime” of supporting the miracle of hydraulic fracturing won’t apologize or back down from their views, and the academic institution “harboring” them bravely defends their right to have a contrary-to-orthodoxy opinion? Those in the witch hunt sharpen their pitchforks and become even more shrill, banging at the gates, demanding the witches be burned and the department (castle) they work for be obliterated. That’s the situation at University at Buffalo (UB).

Yesterday a group of faculty members, led by an English professor, along with some of their impressionable young students (whom they’ve convinced that fracking is a sin against the renewable energy orthodoxy), sent a letter and “report” (full copy embedded below) to the SUNY Board of Trustees demanding the UB Shale Resources and Society Institute be shut down because they won’t admit to their crime of being pro-fracking. Yeah, real science and academic freedom rule at UB.

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UB Defends Shale Institute & Study in Response to SUNY Board

An update on the witch hunt at University at Buffalo (UB). You may recall that UB had the temerity, the gall, to establish a Shale Resources and Society Institute (SRSI) in April of this year. When said institute turned out its first report in May, which detailed how environmental problems caused by Marcellus Shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania were isolated, mostly minor and on the decline, the anti-drillers just about came off the rails. It was an all-hands-on-deck, we-must-obliterate-the-credibility-of-the-report-and-the-people-who-wrote-it campaign. And so the witch hunt began (see this MDN story).

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SUNY Bd of Trustees Orders UB to Report on Shale Institute

Started by the George Soros-funded Public Accountability Initiative, the witch hunt at University at Buffalo—the university that dared to establish a Shale Resources Institute—continues full force (see this MDN story for background). Now the State University of New York (SUNY) Board of Trustees is “ordering” UB to report back to them details about the Institute. Interesting the kind of influence money can buy.

Here’s what’s being reported:

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83 University at Buffalo Profs Target Shale Institute

pitchforks and torchesThe witch hunt at the University at Buffalo (UB) continues. This time 83 UB faculty members have taken up their pitchforks and torches to aid in the hunt against the university’s new Shale Resources and Society Institute.

Anti-drilling Bloomberg news is only too happy to lend a megaphone to the effort:

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UB Issues Supportive Statement for its Shale Institute

You may recall that recently the brand new Shale Resources and Society Institute at the University at Buffalo (UB) published a 52-page study that found environmental problems caused by Marcellus Shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania were isolated, mostly minor and on the decline. The enviro-left perceived a threat. This is a major university coming out in support of drilling—something that cannot stand. So the enviro-left flew into action to try and shame, cajole and bully UB into retracting support for its own newly established Institute. And it seemed to work (see this MDN story).

But what’s this? Yesterday UB issued a press statement that supports the Institute. Sort of. Lukewarm. Half-heartedly. UB defended the Institute by saying the university does not and will not dictate the positions taken by its faculty members on controversial topics, and that UB has no plans to get rid of the Institute. Here’s the full statement:

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