Grant Lawsuit Using ERA Threatens PA Injection Wells & Fracking
In a disappointing decision, Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court recently ruled a long-running lawsuit filed against Grant Township (Indiana County, PA) will continue on through the court system. For the past several years we’ve reported on the case of Grant Township, a town that passed an ordinance cooked up by the radical Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) to try and block a state-approved injection well. Part of the ordinance was tossed. However, Commonwealth Court has decided the town can continue to try and make a case that it should be able to override state law with its home-cooked regulations because by doing so they will somehow protect citizens’ health, which the town says is allowed under PA’s poorly-written Environmental Rights Amendment (ERA).
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In January PennEast Pipeline, a $1.2 billion new greenfield pipeline project from Luzerne County, PA to Mercer County, NJ, asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to break the project into two phases (see 
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer and other liberal Democrats don’t give a fig about the American shale industry. Yesterday there was talk about President Trump and his administration offering low-interest loans to shale oil companies to keep them afloat during this Saudi-Russian oil price war (see 
Dueling rallies at the Capitol in Harrisburg, PA yesterday provide the perfect picture of the difference between reasonable and unreasonable, between behavior that is adult and behavior that is juvenile, between pro-fossil fuel and anti-fossil fuel. It was also the perfect picture to describe why there is now an open civil war in the PA Democrat Party, and why trade union members are leaving the Dems in droves. The two rallies were there to support (or oppose) House Bill (HB) 1100, aimed at attracting new petrochemical investments to the state.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is about as power-mad as former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Notice how Dems love to run other people’s lives for them? The latest attempt at total control of every citizen’s life is to ban the use of fossil fuels in the city. de Blasio recently announced his administration wants to end the use of natural gas and fuel oil in buildings throughout the city by 2040. What’s not entirely clear is whether he will force existing buildings to retrofit to all-electric (or steam created by electric, etc.), or whether this applies only to new buildings and those receiving renovations. Any way you slice it, NYC is heading for a disaster of biblical proportions if this policy gets adopted.
Some Pennsylvania state Democrats are obviously feeling the political heat over their opposition to House Bill (HB) 1100, meant to attract brand new business and jobs to the state in the petrochemical industry (see 
Last Friday MDN told you about an initiative in Arizona and five other states to block the right of local municipalities from banning natural gas appliances and natural gas heat from homes and businesses (see 
In April 2017 Dimock Township (Susquehanna County, PA) resident Ray Kemble and lawyers from two different law firms filed a new lawsuit against Cabot Oil & Gas over claims of contaminated water from local fracking. Thing is, those claims were settled by Cabot with Kemble years earlier. Cabot said this was a renewed attempt to sully its good name and reputation and countersued Kemble and his lawyers for $5 million (see 
Anti-fossil fuelers know no depths to which they won’t sink in efforts to block *any* new natural gas pipelines. Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) has state approval to build a new 12-inch, 12-mile pipeline near Louisville to supply gas to 62 homes and businesses that can’t connect to LG&E’s local natgas utility system. The local Bernheim Arboretum has resisted attempts to build across three-tenths of one percent (0.028%) of Arboretum land–along an existing cleared path where electric lines already go (see 
We make no apologies for being big Donald Trump supporters here at MDN. Trump is the only presidential candidate committed to fossil fuel energy. All of the Democrat candidates, including the last two left standing–crazy Bernie Sanders and sleepy/creepy Joe Biden–are committed to ending the use of fossil fuels. We spotted an article in the New York Times (fake news alert!) that compares the positions of Sanders and Biden with respect to global warming and the environment. There is a difference, but not much of one. Both Democrats want to end the use of fossil fuels. The only difference is in how quickly.
We’ve commented from time to time on municipalities (cities) that stupidly ban new home and business construction from installing and connecting to natural gas supplies. Berkeley, California comes to mind since they were the first to do so. The trend is catching on in cities where leftist radicals infest city councils. In a bid to shut this madness down before it spreads (it’s the intellectual equivalent of the coronavirus), the state of Arizona, which shares a border with California wackos, last month passed a new law that puts a ban on municipal gas bans. Good for Arizona! Now five more states–Missouri, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Mississippi–are looking to ban gas bans too.
For years anti-fossil fuel zealots have used and abused the word “fracking” and its derivatives to describe horizontal hydraulic fracturing, and more generically to describe the entire shale oil and gas industry (drilling, pipelines, etc.). Antis love to slip in phrases like “fracked gas” and refer to those who work in the industry as “frackers.” They call themselves “fracktivists.” It all sounds so naughty. We happen to love the word and we embrace it, to shove it right back in their faces (others in our industry do not like the word and sometimes chide us for using it). A couple of so-called researchers have coined a new fracking-related term: “fraccidents.”
Nick DeIuliis, CEO of CNX Resources, has about had it up to “here” with the haters. At a recent speech to the Pittsburgh Rotary Club and the Pittsburgh Business Exchange, DeIuliis unloaded on extremists (whom he called “haters”) targeting the shale and petrochemical industries. He made a strong case for fossil fuel energy. He’s also not a fan of the “carbon-shaming mob mentality” of some leftist fund managers who are pressuring investment firms to divest from fossil fuel companies. Way to go Nick!