| | | |

“Athens 8” Criminal Protesters Receive Slap on Wrist by OH Court

Eight loud, obnoxious and anything-but-peaceful protesters were arrested in February near Athens, OH for trespassing and illegally blocking the entrance to an injection well site (see Break the Law in OH, Get an Award – Anti-Drilling Nuttery on Display). The eight alleged criminals–charged with criminal trespass–have successfully pleaded their crimes down to disorderly conduct and let go with a slap on the wrist by an Ohio court.

One of the protesters, a “sustainable” organic farmer, Gilbert (Kip) Rondy, someone who operates “unheated greenhouses” (apparently that’s a badge of honor instead of a sanity test), read a statement to the judge that attempts to excuse his and the other protesters’ lawless actions by saying they had to do it to protect Mother Earth. This one will give you a chuckle like it did us…
Continue reading

| | | | |

Break the Law in OH, Get an Award – Anti-Drilling Nuttery on Display

Here’s a life lesson for the kiddies: Start an “organic” farm, and when you don’t get a lot of business because your prices are twice those of everyone else, become a shrill anti-driller and claim Mother Earth is getting poisoned by evil fracking (gets you noticed). Then, take “direct action” against those nasty drillers, which is a euphemism for break the law. And when you’re done, receive an award for it! That’s the brief story of Gilbert (Kip) Rondy, co-owner of Green Edge Gardens in Amesville, OH.

Rondy is one of the so-called “Athens 8” arrested for illegally blocking access to an injection well site near Athens, OH. To reward his illegal behavior, the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association is bestowing on him their Stewardship Award. How nice. We wonder, how would Rondy like it if a group a pro-drillers showed up and blocked access to his organic farm for oh, say a week or so? Would that be worthy of an award too?…
Continue reading

| | | |

Athens County, OH Anti-Drillers Sue to Stop New Injection Well

Anti-drillers with the Athens County Fracking Action Network (ACFAN) have filed a legal challenge to the permit issued last month by the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) approving a new injection well to be drilled in the county. The injection well would be the second well at a site owned by K&H Partners and would dispose up to 168,000 gallons of frack wastewater per day. According to ACFAN, this is the first challenge to a permitted injection well in 20 years, something they’re quite proud of.

Here’s the ACFAN announcement:
Continue reading

| | |

Athens County Apologizes for Calling Anti-Drillers ‘Terrorists’

Funny, unsettling, maddening–all of the above is the situation in Athens County. It is indisputable that some extreme environmentalists are terrorists–they damage property and inflict terror, which is the definition of terrorist. However, not all anti-drillers are terrorists. But some are. And so the Athens County Emergency Management Agency in selecting a pretend scenario to use for training selected an unnamed (totally fictional) anti-fracking extremist group as the focus of their training exercise.

Selecting anti-frackers for their training scenario drove the wackos in the Athens County Fracking Action Network right over the proverbial edge. They spit and sputtered and blustered that their sensibilities had been mightily offended, and so the Athens County Emergency Management Agency issued an apology to the poor babies, even though the Fracking Action Network was not the named boogeyman of the exercise–nor even hinted at…
Continue reading

| |

Will Utica Shale Drilling Come to Athens County, OH Soon?

coming soonFrom time to time Athens County, OH pops up on the radar screen–mostly related to a misguided attempt by a few anti-drillers to ban fracking (see last month’s article Athens Election Board Votes Against Anti-Frack Ballot Measure).

However, there has been no Utica drilling in Athens County so far. Is that about to change? The Athens News says drilling is inching steadily closer. They take a close look at the prospects (and evidence) that drilling may come to this southeastern Ohio county–soon…
Continue reading

| | | | |

Athens Election Board Votes Against Anti-Frack Ballot Measure

Members of the Athens County, OH Board of Elections voted last Thursday to not put a proposed anti-fracking measure on the ballot in the November election that would not only ban fracking in City of Athens, but also up to 20 miles outside of the city–a breathtaking, egregious power grab that the election board’s attorney advised them against supporting. One member of the Election Board who is anti-fracking, having signed an anti-fracking petition before assuming her office, properly recused herself from the vote citing ethics requirements. The rest of the board members unanimously voted against running the wrong-headed proposal on the ballot this fall.

Anti-drillers from the misnamed “Athens Bill of Rights Committee” are considering their next move, likely legal…
Continue reading

| | | | | |

Athens Politicians Support Injection Well Ban for Frack Wastewater

Although no Utica Shale permits have been issued for drilling in southeastern Ohio Athens County so far, the potential does exist (see Athens County, OH Upgraded to “Good” on ODNR Utica Map). Along with drilling comes wastewater. Many drillers recycle it, but some dispose of it via deep injection wells throughout Ohio. Athens County commissioners have voted to support a ban on all fracking wastewater disposal by injection wells.

Are the Athens commissioners trying to send a message to the drilling industry to stay away?…
Continue reading

| |

Athens County, OH Upgraded to “Good” on ODNR Utica Map

Although the Tennessee Gas Pipeline and the Tetco pipeline (both major natural gas pipelines) run through Athens County, OH, and although there are several compressor plants in the county, so far there’s been very little shale drilling in the county, and none that specifically targets the Utica Shale. However, with a change in the “potentially good places to drill” map published by the Ohio Geological Survey (see today’s related story), that may change…

Continue reading

| | | | | | | | | | | |

Encore Energy to Anadarko: We’ve Got OH Land for You

A for-profit company that pools acreage from both landowners that want to lease their land, and from energy companies with leases who want to re-sell those leases, is trying to get the attention of Anadarko and other drillers in the Ohio Utica Shale. Encore Energy issued a press release yesterday announcing they have land available for lease. They specifically tap Anadarko on the shoulder to tell them they have 1,300 Utica Shale acres “just 3 miles” from land they’re already drilling on in Washington County, OH.

Encore is shopping more than 18,000 acres across a number of Ohio counties, including Morgan, Washington, Noble, Guernsey, Monroe, Athens and Meigs. Here’s their “hey Anadarko, pay attention” press release:

Continue reading

| |

Samples Provide First Clue to Utica Underneath Athens, OH

Although we don’t have a great deal of information about the Utica Shale in Athens County, Ohio, a recently drilled vertical well targeting the Medina sandstone formation reached all the way down to the Utica.

Samples from that well give us some inkling of what may lie below Athens in the Utica layer, and whether or not the Utica would be productive in that area (hint: it’s good news):

Continue reading

| | |

Anti-Drillers in Ohio Learn to Break the Law at Special Camp

Some 40 anti-fracking “activists” learned how to break the law at a recent “action camp” held in Athens County, Ohio. In addition to sessions on how to spin a good tale for the media, attendees learned about “civil disobedience” and “direct action, blockading injection wells” and the like. That is, they learned how to illegally shut down legitimate, legal business activity.

And attendees didn’t waste any time either. Less than 24 hours later they protested at a nearby injection well. According to their own leaders, protesting injection wells is just the beginning. Their real aim? To illegally shut down fracking.

Continue reading

| | | | |

ODNR Approves 4 Wastewater Injection Wells, More on the Way

Now that the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) has created tougher regulations for wastewater injection wells following earthquakes last year related to injection wells, they are once again approving new wells.

On Tuesday ODNR signed off on four new injection wells—another 30 applications are in the pipeline for consideration:

Continue reading

| | | | |

Large Block of 95K Acres Available for Lease in OH Utica Shale

A private firm representing landowners with 95,000 acres in southeastern Ohio issued a press release yesterday essentially saying, “Hey, we’re still here, and we still have 95,000 acres to lease to some lucky driller.” The land is located in Washington, Athens, Meigs, Muskingum, and Perry counties in southeastern Ohio.

MDN is not in the habit of running this kind of “news,” but we are today because a) it helps the landowners, and b) it’s more or less a large landowner group—even though it’s a for-profit venture. And so, without further ado:

Continue reading

| | |

Civil Disobedience, or Eco-Terrorism? Go Climb a Tree

Somewhere, at an undisclosed location “just outside Athens, Ohio” starting on Saturday of this week, anti-drillers will go to camp to learn how to…climb trees? Yeah, climb trees. Apparently people with the anti-drilling gene missed out in their early years and now need corrective instruction to teach them how to “go climb a tree.”

After you stop laughing (like we did), and read a bit further, you’ll find out the intent of the anti-driller tree-climbing camp is a bit more nefarious. It’s to teach people how to engage in civil disobedience (we call it eco-terrorism) by climbing trees, stretching ropes between trees, and oops, guess that nutjob protester just happened to fall on the road right in front of that truck on the way to a drill site. Isn’t that a shame/coincidence? (Yes, that’s exactly what they planned to do near a drill site in central Pennsylvania before it was stopped by the police, read this MDN story.)

Continue reading