Penn Twp Frack Ban Decision Now in Hands of Local Judge
Last November we updated you on a lawsuit filed by a group of anti-fossil fuelers in Penn Township (Westmoreland County), PA (see Penn Twp Ninny Nannies File Lawsuit to Block Apex, H&H Wells). A group calling themselves Protect PT, backed with money and legal help from Big Green group PennFuture, filed a lawsuit to try and stop Apex Energy and Huntley & Huntley (H&H) from drilling wells in the township. A Westmoreland County judge heard some testimony in the case in April (see Penn Twp Antis Try to Use PA ERA to Block Shale Drilling). The peril with Protect PT’s lawsuit is that it uses Pennsylvania’s so-called Environmental Rights Amendment (ERA), which liberal PA judges have, in recent years, breathed new life into. The argument is that fracking denies those who live near this temporary activity their “right” to enjoy Mom Nature, therefore it should be banished forever. Protect PT is attempting to pull off a total frack ban in the Penn Township. Although the judge heard testimony in April, more was given this week. All testimony is now done and the case rests with the judge. We expect whoever loses will appeal. Below is a recap of the case and the testimony given this week…
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Who knew that Quakers, formally known as the “Religious Society of Friends” or “Friends Church,” could be so, well, unfriendly? Turns out the Quakers, who at first blush you might think are conservative, like the Amish, are far-left liberals. At a recent meeting of the Roanoke Friends, the Quakers adopted a statement (below) to “speak out against two natural gas pipelines [Mountain Valley Pipeline and Atlantic Coast Pipeline] proposed in Virginia, and all pipelines transporting gas extracted by hydraulic fracking. Fracking is a process documented to contaminate air and water with toxic chemicals, accelerating climate change and encouraging our dependence on fossil fuels.” Sorry my Quaker friends, but you just out-and-out lied. Fracking is not documented to contaminate air and water with toxic chemicals. Period. If you have real scientific evidence to the contrary, please produce it. If we take them at their word, the “friendly” Quakers want all pipelines that flow natural gas everywhere–including the ones that feed their own homes (!)–to be shut down. All pipelines, including local utility pipelines that feed the homes of millions of Americans, flow “fracked” gas. Most gas these days is “fracked.” The “friendly” Quakers also state their support of illegal, law-breaking protesters who sit in trees against a judge’s order, to stop work on pipelines. The Quaker Friends in Roanoke have shown themselves to be just one more non-thinking, knee-jerk reacting group of liberals who really don’t know what they’re talking about…
We’re happy to report that “Fern” and “Decard” have joined “Ink,” “Sprout,” “Red” and “Nutty” back here on Mother Earth. No, we’re not talking about a new Disney “Snow White” remake (Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey, et al). The names we listed are the names of so-called protesters who have been sitting in the tops of trees (or in the case of Fern and Nutty, on top of poles) in Virginia, part of an illegal action to prevent the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. These last two protesters, Fern and Decard, were recently forced down to earth and arrested. Pipeline construction through the areas they once occupied has resumed. Which is good news. This bunch of kooks were making a mockery of our justice system. Nutty was a woman who sat on top of a pole for nearly two months. Yeah, her self-selected nom de guerre was appropriate. She finally came down two weeks ago when she ran out of Snickers bars (see 
On Friday, a small group of anti-drilling Democrats and RINOs introduced a “bi-partisan” resolution that would create yet another black hole to dump taxpayer money into–a so-called Commission to Study Pipeline Construction and Operations that would “recommend improvements for the safe transport of oil, natural gas and other hazardous liquids through pipelines.” The “bi-partisan” (meaning TOTALLY partisan and anti-pipeline) members include Republicans in Name Only from the Philadelphia area coupled with virulent antis from the Democrat party. They do their best, with the help of sycophantic supporters in the media, to make it sound like an unbiased, impartial look at how to make pipelines safer and better. It’s nothing of the sort. It’s a commission aimed at shutting down any more pipeline development in the Keystone State. The good news, if there can be said to be good news, is that resolutions and in this case the commission it would create have zero ability to impose laws or regulations. It is an exercise in bloviating, giving a bunch of windbags a forum from which to bash fossil fuels and the methods used to extract and transport them. We predict this resolution is going nowhere fast…
Talk about cutting off a $200,000 nose to spite your face! One of the counties through which the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) will travel is Franklin County, VA. MVP is a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. For more than a year residents in Franklin County have opposed and hassled the MVP project (see 
Last winter, from Dec. 26 to Jan. 9, the northeast and New England experienced an extreme cold snap. New England essentially ran out of natural gas needed to feed electric generating plants. The entire region came razor close to succumbing to rolling blackouts. The only thing that prevented the blackouts was the restart of 1960s oil-burning electric plants. During that two week period, New England burned through 2 million barrels of oil to keep the lights on. Scary. Although a number of circumstances conspired to produce this “perfect storm” that almost tripped over into blackouts, there is one main, towering, primary reason why it happened: lack of natural gas pipelines. And there is one main, towering, primary reason why there aren’t more pipelines to flow more natgas into New England: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Andy has admitted, on camera, that his policy is to block any/every/all new natural gas pipelines (see 
Last week at a press conference an organization calling itself the Pennsylvania Conservative Energy Forum (PennCEF) officially launched. The group says it, “seeks to provide a conservative voice in the state energy policy debate, supporting common-sense, all-of-the-above energy solutions that are good for the economy, grid and national security, and the conservation of our state’s natural resources.” PBS’ StateImpact Pennsylvania, a mouthpiece for Big Green groups, opens its glowing article of the new “conservative” organization this way: “A group of political conservatives wants a voice in the state’s energy future.” Big red flag when StateImpact writes positively about a “conservative” group. We read the StateImpact article, located the PennCEF press release from last week, and looked over their website in detail. It appears PennCEF promotes an “all of the above” energy philosophy–EXCEPT fossil fuels, which are THE major source of energy today and for the next several generations. The use of the phrase “all of the above” used by PennCEF sounds eerily like what Lord Obama used to say. He said “all of the above” but meant he would pick the winners and losers. Solar and wind are the winners, fossil fuels the losers. Which is not truly an “all of the above” philosophy. We scoured the PennCEF website and a single reference (on an infographic) to natural gas. Nothing else about shale gas and its role in a clean energy future. We reviewed the Executive Leadership Council bios, the people who run the organization, and found Big Green, Big Solar, Big Wind, and Big Libs among those steering the organization. Our conclusion? There’s nothing “conservative” about PennCEF–other than a misappropriation of the word conservative…
The United Nations–essentially America’s enemies–recently issued a false report (full copy below) that tells the countries of the world to forget about shale energy as a way to lower carbon emissions and increase the standard of living among its peoples. Why? Because natural gas is methane and methane, according to UN warmists, is “worse” for the precious climate than CO2. Far worse. And because “everyone knows” that the world needs to dump the use of all fossil fuels sooner rather than later. So just forget about shale. Don’t give it a second thought. That about sums up the idiotic conclusions of this totally false, totally misleading report by the UN. Why are we not surprised? According to the wizards of smart issuing the report, it’s far better for counties to invest in solar (even though the sun doesn’t always shine) and wind (even though the wind doesn’t always blow)–and, you know, just keep your impoverished people living in mud huts. All in an effort to keep Mom Earth from toasting to a cinder. Even though the earth hasn’t been warming for 20 years!! Frustrating. Hard, actual science plays no role. This is a political report, not a scientific report. Bear that in mind as you read it…
Anti-fossil fuel nutters have finally, after months and years, scored a minor victory. They’ve been shopping to locate an ultra-liberal judge who would ignore the law and instead issue edicts from the bench–to shut down both the Mariner East 1 (ME1) and Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline projects. Yesterday Elizabeth Barnes, an administration law judge for the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), unilaterally ordered Sunoco Logistics Partners to “cease and desist all current operation, construction, including drilling activities on the Mariner East 1, 2 and Mariner East 2X pipeline” in West Whiteland Township (Chester County, PA). The judge also moved to shut down all operations of Mariner East 1 across the state, ruling that she is “enjoining Respondent from operating Mariner East 1.” It is a breathtaking display of arrogance and seizure of power that does not belong to her. The ruling runs counter to other decisions regarding these critical pipeline projects–projects that have been thoroughly vetted by numerous regulatory agencies. Construction of ME2 is 94% complete! ME1 has been flowing NGLs for over a year–with ZERO problems! And yet Barnes has shut it all down, with the stroke of a pen. We predict it won’t last long…
The radical Sierra Club is claiming a victory in temporarily stopping construction work of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) at four river crossings in West Virginia. On Tuesday the Sierra Club and a mishmash of other radicalized groups filed a motion asking the Fourth District U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to suspend a permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that allows MVP to construct the pipeline across streams and rivers in the Mountain State. The Clubbers’ tortured logic is this: When construction of the pipeline across a river, the stated standard is that construction can take no longer than 72 hours. MVP says it will need longer when constructing the pipeline across four rivers–Elk, Gauley, Greenbrier and Meadow. Therefore (say the Clubbers), MVP is in violation of the general permit issued by the Corps and that means ALL (not just those four rivers) construction should be stopped, immediately. The Fourth Circuit has not yet rendered a decision, however, the Corps itself said they had reviewed the standards and have (for now) rescinded the permit as it applies ONLY to those four rivers, NOT to any locations. So it’s a partial, and temporary, victory for the Clubbers…
It’s about time! One of the favorite tactics of antis to fall back on when they don’t win in court is to simply take the law into their own hands (i.e. anarchy). If the courts or a regulatory body (like FERC, or the PA DEP) refuse to stop a critical energy infrastructure project, like a pipeline, antis take it upon themselves to trespass, illegally, in an attempt to block work on the project. They call it “free speech.” It’s nothing of the sort. To trespass is, by definition, breaking the law. Antis know this. However, such a violation of the law is currently only a misdemeanor–a lessor penalty. The PA Senate has just approved a bill that would make infrastructure trespass for pipelines and other key energy infrastructure a felony, giving antis more incentive to behave themselves. Most Republican Senators (except a few Philly RINOs) voted for the bill. Most Democrat Senators (who prefer to be lawless), voted against it. We can only hope the bill gets adopted–it now goes to the House–although with Wolf as governor, we’re not confident it will get signed into law…
A mishmash of national Big Green and local Little Green (funded by Big Green) groups from Pennsylvania have banded together in order to apply pressure on (i.e. bully) a weak-willed governor, PA Gov. Tom Wolf. A coalition of anti-fossil fuel groups, calling themselves Pennsylvania Fracking Health Impacts, has begun protesting Wolf outside of fundraisers and other venues. Their demand? That Wolf enact an immediate moratorium (i.e. ban) on all fracking in the state. One of the useful idiots providing support to the new coalition is actor and fractivist Mark Ruffalo (who plays The Incredible Hulk in Marvel’s Avengers movies). Ruffalo trash-talked Wolf and said that Wolf, “has done nothing to help the many families who have been harmed by fracking. Now I am joining with the Pennsylvanians who are launching this public health impacts campaign to help shine a light on this unjust tragedy and ask when will Governor Wolf act?” Just because Ruffalo is a good actor doesn’t mean he’s smart. Far from it! He’s about as stupid as they come. Talented actor–you can’t take that away from him. But when it comes to actually having a brain? Sadly, he was passed over. The aim of the new group in PA is to see if they might be able to shame and pressure Wolf into shutting down the Marcellus industry. We seriously doubt that will happen, but hey, one never knows when it comes to Lib Dems…