Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel

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    Big Green Exposed: List of Liberal Foundations Donating $3.7B

    From 2008 to 2016, liberal foundations forked over $3.7 billion (!) to rabid anti-fossil fuel groups. Much of that money went into suing fossil fuel companies (and the government), attempting to outlaw fracking and the extraction of oil, gas and coal. The money is given to groups like THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Food & Water Watch, the Sierra Club and other odious bottom feeders. The media would have you believe it’s David vs. Goliath–David being these innocent little green groups, Goliath is Big Oil. It’s actually the opposite. We are fighting against a well-organized, well-funded campaign to end the use of fossil fuels. And now, finally, we have a tool to identify who is behind all that money. A new website called Big Green, Inc. lists the donors AND recipients of that $3.7 billion, money aimed at so-called climate change issues. Who’s on the list? All of the groups we’ve already identified, and groups we’ve written about for years, including the William Penn Foundation, Park Foundation, Sea Change Foundation, California billionaire Tom Steyer’s foundation, Google billionaire Eric Schmidt’s foundation, and others…
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    7 Green Groups Attack Shell Ethane Pipeline “Exemptions”

    Seven radical green groups–Sierra Club, Clean Air Council (CAC), FracTracker Alliance, Earthworks, PennFuture, Breathe Project, Environmental Integrity Project–sent a protest letter last week to the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection objecting to a request by Shell that its 97-mile Falcon Ethane Pipeline be granted certain air permit exemptions. Shell is asking the DEP to determine whether or not (hopefully not) any emissions coming from the pipeline would be “minor sources,” exempting the pipeline from certain permits. The rads are telling the DEP to deny that request, in an attempt to slow or even stop the project. With no ethane, Shell’s $6 billion cracker plant, currently under construction, can’t begin operation. Will the DEP do the right thing and ignore these nutters?…
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    Antis Convince Libertarian Group to Oppose Mountain Valley Pipe

    We have to confess we have a lot in common, philosophically, with Libertarians. We like the philosophy of live and let live–as long as what you do (or what I do) doesn’t hurt the other person, nobody has a right to stop you (or me) from doing it. But the Libertarian philosophy does have its quirks–things we don’t agree with. Sometimes wacky. Like support for legalizing pot smoking. Can you imagine a bunch of potheads driving down our roads? We don’t care if they want to stone themselves into oblivion in the privacy of their own homes–but we do have public safety concerns. A fine line/balance between the public good and private freedom. Here’s another case of public good vs. private freedom: pipelines. We’ve always had a tough time with the use of eminent domain for pipelines. But in the end, the greater public good is served by running pipelines, and if there’s one or two landowners here and there who refuse to deal, eminent domain is regrettably, sometimes necessary. As a last resort. The Niskanen Center, a “right-leaning” Libertarian think tank, has just entered the pipeline debate by filing a “friend of the court” brief with U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, siding with radical anti-fossil fuelers against the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The Niskanen Center is understandably concerned about landowners’ property rights being infringed. Unfortunately, they’ve allowed themselves to be used by antis, people whose political philosophy is closer to Mao Tse Tung (Communist) than it is to freedom for everyone. How could the Niskanen Center be so easily duped? We think we know. They believe in the fairy tale of man-made global warming, which appears to color their view of freedom. If they can fall for that one, they’ll fall for anything…
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    Corrupt: Dem Govs, AGs Sell Their Offices & Power to Big Green

    Warning: Knowledge of what’s happening in the offices of governors like Jerry Brown (California) and Andrew Cuomo (New York), and their attorney generals, will make you want to throw up–at the overt corruption. A pair of research reports from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) shines a very bright light on what is major corruption at the highest levels of our state governments. One report, titled “Law Enforcement for Rent: How Special Interests Fund Climate Policy through State Attorneys General” (full copy below) details how Democrat Attorney Generals in various states, including New York and Maryland, are selling access to their offices to Big Green groups. AGs can only make so much mischief. They have budgets that control how many staffers they can hire. In order to circumvent those hiring limits, Big Green groups are funding lawyers and assistants to help AGs sue fossil fuel companies–they work right in the AG’s office! If it’s not outright illegal, it’s certainly unethical. State legislatures need to pass laws now to prevent this kind of abuse of our legal system to favor one side over another. The law is supposed to be blind and impartial, not weighted against one side or the other. If that weren’t bad enough, CEI published a second study titled “Government for Rent: How Special Interests Finance Governors to Pursue Their Climate Policy Agenda” (full copy below) showing how some Democrat governors are doing the same thing–allowing outside, paid-by-Big-Green staffers to be added to their operations in an attempt to slander and smear fossil fuel companies. Andrew Cuomo’s office is one of the offenders. THIS MUST STOP…
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    PA Antis Trot Out “Secret Chemicals Used in Fracking” Claim, Again

    This is getting really old. Every few years lying antis recycle the same debunked meme that “frackers” are trying to hide the identity of big, bad nasty chemicals they use to extract shale gas. The implication is those chemicals will kill you. And if you only knew what those chemicals were, why, you’d be outraged! And demand an end to all fracking. Problem is, it’s a total lie. Chemicals are FULLY reported by drillers, for every single well they drill. But that doesn’t stop antis repeating the same meme every few years. It’s just popped up again, in Pennsylvania. The Partnership for Policy Integrity, a shell/front group for Big Green radicals, has just released a totally fictional “report” that supposedly proves drillers in PA are hiding “secret chemicals” from the public. The report, which is titled “Keystone Secrets: Records Show Widespread Use of Secret Fracking Chemicals is a Looming Risk for Delaware River Basin, Pennsylvania Communities” (full copy below), is total BS. Made up. Lies. And yet mainstream news sources pick it up and run with it, believing and spreading the lies…
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    17 Governors Disadvantage Their States to Appease Global Warmists

    While we’re not a climate science web site, this misguided notion that mankind is causing the earth to catastrophically warm up is at the heart of irrational fossil fuel hatred–and motivates otherwise smart people into becoming bumbling fools, willing to do extraordinarily stupid things. Take, for example, the governors of 17 states–14 Democrats and three Democrat-lites (RINOs)–who recently signed a declaration to severely disadvantage their own states with so-called environmental measures that will supposedly save Mom Earth (and defeat Donald Trump, of course). These are all people who have drunk deeply from the Obama Kool Aid. Trump can’t do a single, solitary thing to revise, change, tweak or relax the massive over-regulation done by Obama, or “It’s the end of the world. We’re killing mankind. It’s an emergency. We must save the world from The Donald.” It’s freaking bizarre to watch. These states, already on the decline, will further decline economically while watching their neighbors do better. These states, all 17 of them, are being disadvantaged by the actions of their chief executives. We have the list below…
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    Enviros Oppose U of Michigan Plan to Use Gas-Fired Electricity

    Is there any fixing stupid? We suppose not. So-called environmentalists are opposing a plan by the University of Michigan to update the main campus’ Central Power Plant with a natural-gas fired turbine to produce electricity for the Central and Medical Campus buildings. By doing so, the University will leapfrog to achieving 50% of its goal to reduce so-called greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2025 (seven short years from now). Put another way, by building this gas turbine and using the electricity it generates, the University of Michigan will be halfway to their emissions reductions goals. One turbine. Clean natural gas. It’s a win/win all the way around. Yet environuts oppose the plan because it is a “long-term investment in fossil fuels.” Again we ask, is there any fixing stupid?…
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    Lancaster Nuns Appeal Atlantic Sunrise Pipe Case to US Supreme Court

    The Sisters of the Corn (our name for the a group of nuns in Lancaster County, PA) are not giving up their wildly hypocritical lawsuit against Williams for building the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline across their property. The good sisters are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, claiming infringement of religious freedom. The nuns use natural gas to heat an old folks home they operate, yet are trying to block the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline from traversing that very same property. We don’t know how they justify using natural gas yet actively try to block a pipeline that delivers it. The nuns, with the help of local anti group Lancaster Against Pipelines, stuck a garden trellis and a few wooden park benches in the middle of a corn field owned by the nuns (leased to a local farmer) directly in the path of the pipeline, declaring the site a “chapel.” Hence our attempt at humor, calling them “Sisters of the Corn.” The sisters then sued to block the pipeline based on religious grounds (see Lancaster Nuns Demand “Religious Freedom” Trial re Pipeline). It was a flimflam lawsuit from the beginning and the courts saw through it. The case was thrown out by a lower court, and appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third District. In July, the Third District tossed the case too (see Fed Court Tosses Lancaster Nuns’ Lawsuit re Atlantic Sunrise Pipe). The only legal option left to the sisters is to pray for a miracle–that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case, and find in their favor…
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    Jessup Town Board Grills Invenergy re Tiny Emissions Releases

    Antis on the Jessup (near Scranton, PA) Town Council delight in grilling officials from the Lackawanna Energy Center (LEC) at each monthly board meeting. LEC is a 1,480 megawatt, $1 billion Marcellus gas-fired electric plant still under construction, now 97% complete. When the plant is done it will be Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas-fired electric generating plant. The plant is being built in three trains or units. The first train/unit was done and online producing electricity since June–despite the efforts of a local group of antis who seized power of the local town board last November (see Jessup Town Board Continues Effort to Stop Gas-Fired Elec Plant). The second train went online in late July/early August. The third train will go online this month–in September. Cabot Oil & Gas is supplying all of the gas for the plant from neighboring Susquehanna County. At the monthly Jessup Council meeting last night, anti board members needled and smeared an LEC rep, implying LEC is hiding problems at the plant. Since May, when the plant began testing, there have been six releases of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions that exceeded state standards. On July 31, the plant exceeded the NOx standard of 2.0 parts-per-million (ppm) by a razor thin 0.1 ppm–for a whole 10 minutes. Which is a nothingburger. And yet the anti board members jumped all over LEC for not phoning up the neighbors the minute it happened…
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    Ohio Democrats Float Bill to Cap Injection Wells at 23 per County

    Liberal Democrat State Rep. Glenn Holmes (from Girard, Trumbull County, OH) is attempting to use a hammer to kill a fly. That is, he’s floating House Bill 723 to cap the number of injection wells at 23 per county, in an attempt to block a new injection well from getting built in Hubbard Township. Currently Trumbull County has 17 live and functioning wastewater injection wells. Five more are currently under construction. If the bill passes, it would prevent a newly-proposed well in Hubbard from getting built. Come here fly, see this hammer? Instead of debating the merits (or lack thereof) of the single well in Hubbard, how many wells are too many in Trumbull County, Holmes wants to limit injection wells everywhere in the state as his preferred solution. Right now Trumbull and Ashtabula counties are tied for the top spot with 17 active injection wells each. Nearby Portgage and Stark counties both have 16 injection wells. Meigs County, in southeast Ohio, has 14 active injection wells. Here’s the latest Democrat shenanigan aimed at stifling the Utica (and Marcellus) industry in Ohio…
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    Philly RINO Wants “Risk Assessment” of ME2, Now That It’s Built

    RINO (Republican In Name Only) Pennsylvania House of Representatives member Chris Quinn, from the Philadelphia area, introduced House Resolution 1034 last Wednesday. The resolution instructs the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the PA Public Utility Commission (PUC) to prepare a “comprehensive risk assessment of the Mariner East 2 [ME2] Pipeline.” Even though ME2 is 99% built and will soon go online. The resolution, which if passed doesn’t have any practical effect since it’s not a law, is actually an exercise in political derrière covering. What if the DEP and PUC performed such a risk assessment, and what if the report they issued found there are some risks associated with ME2 (as there are will any/all pipeline projects, roads, electric lines, stepping outside your door, etc.)? What then? The pipeline isn’t going away. It’s still going to be used, now that it’s built. Such is how the game is played by political swamp dwellers. Quinn also says he’s about to introduce House Bill (HB) 2609 requiring the state Attorney General to draft a landowner “bill of rights”–issued to landowners who may be subject to eminent domain for pipelines. Can’t wait to see what that bill says…
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    Small Group of Old Hippies Oppose Shell Ethane Pipeline

    A small group boasting a big name, The Breathe Project, recently sent a letter to the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection proclaiming their opposition to Shell’s planned Falcon Ethane Pipeline–a 97-mile pipeline system with two “legs” that will feed Shell’s mighty ethane cracker plant now under construction in Monaca, PA. Right. So the DEP and Shell should simply give up on the $6 billion ethane cracker, which can’t operate without ethane to feed it–ethane that will flow through this pipeline. Of course the group’s opposition is for show, maybe for fundraising, and certainly not serious. The funny thing for us was in viewing a picture of some of the members of the group, standing around clutching signs that say SHELL FALCON PIPELINE with a big circle/slash through it. The group, when you look at them, is the geriatric squad. Old folks. In our opinion, they look like old hippies–people who likely protested the Vietnam War in the 60s and have now found their new reason for living–to defeat a small ethane pipeline. On Thursday a tiny protest of the Falcon Pipeline (under two dozen people) caught the interest of the Pittsburgh Business Times on a slow news day…
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    BLM Panders to Radicals, Cancels OH Wayne Natl Forest Auctions

    Wayne National Forest

    One step forward and two steps back. That’s the modus operandi of the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the DC swamp dwellers who run it. After 10 long years, BLM finally began to auction a small amount of acreage in Wayne National Forest (WNF) in 2016 (see BLM Launches Auction to Lease Wayne National Forest for Fracking). WNF is a “patchwork” of public land scattered among private land. Some 60% of the mineral rights below WNF are privately owned. Those mineral rights owners have been denied the use of their property rights for over a decade. BLM controls drilling on federally-protected lands like WNF. BLM eventually conducted four (we think it’s four) auctions with under 2,000 acres total. And yet BLM still refuses to let drilling commence (see BLM Blocks Eclipse from Completing Utica Well in Wayne Natl Forest). On August 7 BLM announced another auction, for a piddly 75 acres. A radical Big Green group (far far out of the mainstream) called the Center for Biological Diversity protested the auction, and on August 28 BLM canceled the auction “while an appeal is under consideration.” That’s all it takes. Throw some Big Green money at eager radical lawyers, and everything stops. That’s all the excuse BLM needs. Who the heck in the Trump Administration is in charge of BLM? And why is this happening during Trump’s watch??…
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    2 New Protesters Take to Trees in Va. to Stop Mountain Valley Pipe

    Tree sitters protest the Mountain Valley Natural Gas Pipeline, Sept. 5, 2018 (Photo courtesy Lauren Bowman)

    We thought we had seen the last of Big Green protesters with names like “Ink,” “Sprout,” “Red,” “Nutty,” “Fern” and “Decard” illegally sitting in the tops of trees (or on poles) in Virginia as a tactic to prevent Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from cutting trees along the path of the pipeline. Nope. We have two more: “Lauren” and “Nettle.” Two youngsters (early 20s) have built themselves a make-shift tree house in Montgomery County, VA.–in the path of trees that are due to be cut down for MVP. Draping a banner that says, “No Prisons, No Pipelines” (whatever that means), the two nutjobs say they pick and choose which laws they want to obey. Which is called anarchy. But that’s their philosophy. They don’t agree with the law that says EQT Midstream has the right to build MVP, so they’re illegally attempting to stop it. As near as we can tell, they’ll have a long wait. Due to federal laws protecting bats and other so-called endangered species, MVP can’t cut those trees until November. At least that’s our understanding. At any rate, we now have two more protesters who will need to be starved or otherwise forced out the trees. When that finally happens (as it will), the police need to send a bill for their services to the protesters, not MVP…
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    Riverkeeper Lawsuit Against Atlantic Sunrise Tossed by Fed Court

    In May 2016, three Big Green groups–THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Lancaster Against Pipelines and the Sierra Club (fueled by money from the William Penn Foundation and Heinz Endowments)–conspired and sued the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) saying the DEP erred in granting federal Clean Water Act “401” stream crossing permits for Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project (see Dela. Riverkeeper Launches Lawsuit Against Atlantic Sunrise Project). It took nearly two and a half years, but yesterday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit finally rejected the lawsuit. Although the lawsuit was frivolous and a long-shot to begin with, we’re glad to see it resolved. It’s never good to have these lawsuits hanging out there–especially since startup of Atlantic Sunrise is coming any day now, which will be the ultimate victory over these nutters (see Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline Slightly Delayed, Ready by Sept 10). Riverkeeper’s Maya van Rossum, who fancies herself the sole protector of the Delaware River, threw a snit fit…
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    NJ Towns Win Delay for Phase 2 of Garden State Expansion Pipe

    You win some, you lose some. Today we brought you the news that THE Delaware Riverkeeper and other radical groups lost their case opposing the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project (see Riverkeeper Lawsuit Against Atlantic Sunrise Tossed by Fed Court). However, the same court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, went the other way on a different Williams project. Last August two New Jersey towns sued in federal court, seeking to overturn a decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to approve Williams’ Transco Garden State Expansion pipeline project (see FERC Fights NJ Town Effort to Decertify Garden State Expansion). The project was created to address supply disruptions following Superstorm Sandy in 2012. By upgrading compressor stations and adding a new meter station, the Garden State Expansion project will supply an extra 180 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of natural gas to “a new delivery point on Transco’s existing Trenton Woodbury Lateral pipeline.” Two towns in Burlington County (Bordentown and Chesterfield) where some of the work would be done for Phase 2 of the project filed a lawsuit asking the Third Circuit to overturn FERC’s previous decision to allow the project. They also asked that permits issued by the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) be revoked. Yesterday the court ruled that NJDEP erred by issuing permits for the project. However, the court ruled that the towns’ challenges to FERC’s order allowing the project lack merit (and were dismissed). So, a partial victory–but still more delays because of the ruling re NJDEP…
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