Anarchists Brag About Vandalizing Mariner East 2 Constr Equipment
A group of lawless anarchists–people calling themselves “anti-capitalists” from the Philadelphia area, have admitted in a blog post that they engaged in illegal, criminal (we’d call it eco-terrorist) activities against construction equipment being used in Media (Delaware County), PA for the Mariner East 2 Pipeline project. The criminals, from the anti-American group Philly Anti-Capitalist, said they filled the fuel tanks of a flatbed truck and several excavators with sand and sugar–meant to ruin the engines. They even outline how to inflict maximum damage to the engines by removing the fuel filters. These idiots justify their criminal actions by saying, “Human-caused ecological collapse and mass extinction are upon us.” In other words, they’re loony tunes. Crazy. Driven to commit criminal acts because they’ve been brainwashed into believing mankind is poisoning Mom Earth by extracting and using fossil fuels. And brainwashed against liberty and freedom as personified in the United States. They are serious (and dangerous) nutjobs. We sincerely hope the FBI, Homeland Security and other police organizations hunt them down and jail them for destroying private property…
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Police in Lancaster County, PA are trying to get out in front of what they expect may be a tense situation. Big Green groups along with local nutters in the Lancaster area have pledged so-called non-violent action to stop work on the now-fully permissioned Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project. Atlantic Sunrise is a $3 billion, 198-mile natural gas pipeline project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from northeastern PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County. Lancaster Against Pipelines, headed up by Mark Clatterbuck (who participated in the ineffective protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline) and his wife Malinda. The clattering Clatterbucks have made threats that they and their “many” followers will enter private land and do whatever it takes–lock arms, chain themselves to something, etc.–to stop the backhoes and bulldozers. Several local town police departments, wanting to be prepared, sent a form letter/survey to residents where the pipeline will cross, to ask them (a) if they (the landowners) plan to allow antis onto their property, and (b) if they don’t plan to allow antis, will they consent to allowing the police to arrest antis on their property. Manor police Chief Todd Graeff says his department is neutral with respect to the pipeline–they just want to know where they have permission to enter and arrest people, and where they don’t. In West Hempfield “many” of the questionnaires have been signed and returned. Every single returned questionnaire gives the police permission to arrest antis on their property. Which is a VERY loud and clear signal to the troublemakers: You WILL get arrested and jailed for your shenanigans…
Back in May MDN told you about the antis running the City of Green, Ohio (see 
This is likely the “make or break” week that will tell us whether or not a Marcellus-killing severance tax will pass the Pennsylvania legislature. The PA budget is now close to 100 days late–at least the final bits of the budget. Republicans run both the PA Senate and House. They did the ultimate stupid thing by passing a spending plan of $32 billion with only about $30 billion available to pay for it. So over the past three months there has been intense pressure by Gov. Wolf (Democrat) and Philadelphia (even northeastern) RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) to pass a severance tax–on top of the existing impact fee. Wolf needs the severance tax because he promised the money to Philadelphia teacher’s unions–as payback for electing him. If he doesn’t get the tax, he stands of good chance of not being reelected. It’s always about politics. Lawmakers are back in Harrisburg today, in session, and the mainstream media “mood” indicates a deal will get done this week. Will a severance tax be part of it? We hope not! It is possible, but seems (to us) unlikely that the severance tax will get passed…
In July, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a favorable final environmental impact statement (EIS) for Dominion’s $5 billion, 594-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP)–a natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina. At least, we *thought* the pipeline would end in North Carolina–at Lumberton. However, Dominion vice president and general manager for Southern pipeline operations, Dan Weekley, seems to have spilled the beans at an industry conference that Dominion has designs on extending Atlantic Coast beyond North Carolina–into South Carolina. He said “everybody knows” that Atlantic Coast is not going to stop in Lumberton, “despite” what current plans say. It was just two months ago that FERC issued a final, favorable environmental impact statement for the project–a project that terminates in NC (see 
One of the interesting breakout sessions MDN editor Jim Willis attended at last week’s Shale Insight event in Pittsburgh was a panel of lawyers discussing recent rulings in the Marcellus/Utica related to eminent domain and royalties. Sitting with the lawyers was a non-lawyer panelist from Williams. Aaron Blair is right-of-way manager for Williams in the northeast. He managed securing easements for the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project, Williams’ $3 billion, 198-mile pipeline project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from northeastern PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County. The lawyers on the panel peppered Blair with questions about his strategy for securing rights. Blair’s strategy boils down to this: if/when you need to file for eminent domain, do so in federal, NOT Pennsylvania state court (and certainly not with appointed commissions). Blair finds federal judges know the law and stick to the law–and the case law with regard to eminent domain, whether you like it or not, is quite clear when it comes to pipelines. Atlantic Sunrise began with needing leases from about 950 landowners. In the end, just under 50 of them had to be settled with eminent domain proceedings in court. Here’s an overview of what Blair said on the panel…
Landowners in Wayne (and Pike) counties in northeastern Pennsylvania are not going to stand by and allow their property rights to be stripped away from them. Two weeks ago the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), which has had an ongoing, “temporary” ban on fracking within the Delaware River Basin since 2010, voted to begin the process of implementing a permanent ban (see 
Lone Pine Resources, a U.S.-based driller, has a huge amount of Canadian Utica Shale acreage in the province of Quebec. As we reported in 2012, they own 398,850 gross (240,320 net) acres of leases (see 
Events related (or of interest) to the Marcellus and Utica Shale, primarily pro-drilling events.
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Indian who led Dakota Access pipeline fight voted out of office; Powelson says FERC is not a rubber stamp; enviro movement blind to damage it does to working class; corporate raiders push shale firms to separate exec pay from shale drilling; Chesapeake Energy maxes out the credit cards; natgas inventories lower this year, but higher than 5-yr average; why the U.S. exports oil when we also import it; adequate oil export infrastructure needed, urgently; and more!