Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel

  • | | | |

    Snap: Va. Dems Total Crack with Reality – Call Pipelines “Death Rattle”

    A rather juvenile, kindergartenish attitude appears to be taking root in the Democrat Party–at least in the Old Dominion. Dems there have decided that wind and solar, which provide something like 2.9% of all electric generation in the country, should just take over now and that we should stop building any/all pipelines that flow evil, nasty, “yesterday’s energy” called fossil fuels. And on that self-deluding basis, a group of Dems from Roanoke and across the state signed a (blithering idiot) letter to Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam demanding that he just stop both the Mountain Valley Pipeline and Atlantic Coast Pipeline projects in Virginia–federal projects. Of course the Dems are not really THAT stupid. This is a sleazy political calculation–playing to the nutjob base that elects them. States don’t have the right to overrule the federal government. The last time Virginia tried to overrule the federal government was in 1860, and you know how that turned out…
    Read More “Snap: Va. Dems Total Crack with Reality – Call Pipelines “Death Rattle””

  • | | | | | | |

    Grandma Red Comes Down from Tree After Judge Orders $1K/Day Fine

    Theresa “Red” Terry (whom we call Grandma Red) and her daughter Minor Terry finally came down from the trees where they were perched since April 2 in an illegal attempt to block Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from cutting the trees. They came down on Saturday after a federal judge said if they stayed past midnight Saturday, they would each be fined $1,000 per day. The money would go to MVP. Red said, “Mountain Valley has taken enough from us…There wasn’t a lot more I could do up there besides show my ass and give them money.” As we previously reported, a number of Virginia lawmakers expressed their support of the Terrys and their flagrant disregard of the law (see Virginia Democrat Lawmakers Side with Lawbreakers in MVP Protest). A crowd of 100 or so gathered on Saturday, complete with six packs of beer, to watch the spectacle of Grandma Red coming down to earth. A sycophantic press was there to fawn all over Red and her daughter…
    Read More “Grandma Red Comes Down from Tree After Judge Orders $1K/Day Fine”

  • | | | | | |

    Va. State Senator Suing Forest Service for Blocking Illegal Protests

    There is nothing mysterious or complex about the actions taken by a Virginia State Senator, Chap Petersen (Democrat from the swamp, the D.C. area). Petersen is a lawyer and has just sued the U.S. Forest Service because the Forest Service is blocking a road in the Jefferson National Forest, which is their RIGHT to do (they manage it), because down that gravel road are several ILLEGAL TRESPASSERS who refuse to come down from trees that need to be cut down to make way for the federally-approved Mountain Valley Pipeline. There’s nothing complex in understanding that Petersen (did we mention he’s a Democrat?) supports lawlessness and anarchy. Imagine that, a lawmaker who supports people that break the laws he makes. How idiotic is that? Here’s the story of how Virginia Dems in high places continue to flout the laws of our country in their quest to retain political power (and contributions) by currying favor with radical Big Green supporters…
    Read More “Va. State Senator Suing Forest Service for Blocking Illegal Protests”

  • | |

    Americans Being Duped by Russians into Opposing Pipelines

    This story should make every patriotic American good and angry–at how Russia continues to try to defeat the American shale miracle (for Russia’s own selfish economic reasons). And it should make anti-fossil fuelers ashamed at how easily they’re played (and how stupid they really are), to fall for the propaganda campaigns run by Russia against American shale energy. An article recently appearing on the McClatchy news service exposes how Russian operatives, using false identities on Twitter and other social media platforms, convinced a handful of stupid anti-fossil fuelers in Miami to turn up at a fake rally, and then a Russian television network swooped in to film it, circulating that footage, convincing even more antis to organize and rise up against the Sabal Trail pipeline. It was a resistance movement generated whole cloth from nothing by Russia. All in an effort to get the pipeline shut down. Which may now happen! Bottom line: a bunch of stupid American antis allowed themselves to be played by Russians against their own country. Russian money also pours into groups like the Sierra Club via offshore accounts. The Sierra Club turns around and uses that money to oppose American infrastructure projects in the oil and gas industry. Call Robert Mueller! Somebody needs to investigate!…
    Read More “Americans Being Duped by Russians into Opposing Pipelines”

  • | | | |

    Antis Weaponize PA Enviro Rights Amendment in Effort to Kill Shale

    AR-15 rifle

    The Pennsylvania Environmental Rights Amendment (ERA), passed by the good citizens of PA in 1971, is a poorly worded piece of legislation with good intentions, adopted in a hurry in response to a disaster. Like all legislation that’s hurried and adopted in response to disasters (natural or man-made), the ERA is deeply flawed. Antis are now using the ERA as a bludgeon–perhaps a better analogy is more like an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle–in their attempt to assassinate the Marcellus Shale industry. Unfortunately, they are having some success in the PA court system. The ERA laid dormant after its adoption until an awful PA Supreme Court decision in 2013 breathed new life into it for antis (see Ongoing Fallout from PA Supreme Court’s Wrong Act 13 Decision). Since that time, antis have sued drillers and pipeline companies a number of times, citing the ERA, and in some cases winning (see PA Anti Strategy: Weaponize Recent Court Ruling Against Shale Dev). Emboldened by these wins, “Article 1, Section 27” as the ERA is known, is being employed in more places, even (especially) outside the court room…
    Read More “Antis Weaponize PA Enviro Rights Amendment in Effort to Kill Shale”

  • | | | | |

    Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH) Wants Feds to Regulate Fracking

    U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, Democrat from Ohio

    U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, Democrat from the 13th District in Ohio, signed up last week to co-sponsor a new bill called the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals, or FRAC, Act. In fact, all 61 co-sponsors of the bill were Democrat–no Republicans–which is a big, fat, red flag. A totally partisan bill. Democrats have been trying this trick since 2009. It’s nothing new. Supposedly the FRAC Act will require “transparency,” forcing frackers to disclose which chemicals are used in hydraulic fracturing. The thing is, drillers already disclose that information! What the FRAC Act is REALLY all about is federal regulation of the oil and gas industry by doing something that has never been done before: subjecting oil and gas drilling to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. We’re tired of revisiting this topic, but feel compelled to set the record straight because of this renewed attack on the industry. Fact: There is no “exemption” from the Safe Drinking Water Act for drillers–they never were under the Act to begin with! The U.S. Constitution vests the power to regulate oil and gas activity with the individual states–NOT with the federal government. What Ryan and his fellow libs are trying to do in forcing oil and gas under federal regulation is a bastardization of the Constitution–an erosion of states’ rights. Which is why Ryan needs to be voted out of office. Shame on him. He’s from one of the biggest stars in the shale firmament–the Ohio Utica. And yet he’s pushing to kill it. There’s nothing “common sense” about the FRAC Act, as Ryan claims. It’s all “nonsense.” Here’s the latest attack by Dems at the federal level, a group that wants to kill the shale miracle in this country…
    Read More “Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH) Wants Feds to Regulate Fracking”

  • | |

    Unholy Alliance Between Greens & Landowners Harming Environment

    Different people oppose fossil fuel projects for different reasons. It’s easy to simply paint everyone who opposes fossil fuel projects with the broad brushstroke of calling them “antis.” Yes, they are “anti” something–pipelines, shale drilling, compressor station, etc. However, many who are “anti” are really just “not in my back yard” (NIMBY), not driven by a particular ideology beyond a perceived threat to their own property. Then there are those we call antis who *are* driven by ideology–an irrational ideology that says all fossil fuels are evil and we must convert to so-called renewables now, before it’s “too late.” The problem is when NIMBYs (i.e. landowners) form alliances with agenda-driven, anti-fossil fuelers. Landowners figure, like the old Arab proverb, that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Landowners who oppose pipelines, drilling, etc. are striking a bargain with the devil when they form these alliances in opposing their pet projects. When a particular battle is over, landowners may be surprised to learn that they themselves are the next target for groups like the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund, Riverkeeper, Food & Water Watch, etc.–the very groups they thought were their friends. We spotted a column in the Houston Chronicle that does a great job of exploring this issue, well worth the couple of minutes it takes to read it. Landowners who adopt the NIMBY mindset, and the radical green groups they align themselves with, are actually harming the environment by their actions–not saving it. Here’s how…
    Read More “Unholy Alliance Between Greens & Landowners Harming Environment”

  • | | | | |

    PA Court Rules ME2 Pipe has Power of Eminent Domain, Period

    One of the ways anti-fossil fuel groups have tried to stop the Mariner East 2 Pipeline project is by tying it up in court. Various lawsuits have been filed going back years (see our list of lawsuit stories here). One litigant, a Big Green group headquartered in Philadelphia, the so-called Clean Air Council, has tried repeatedly to get the courts to deny ME2 the right to use eminent domain in cases where landowners refuse to cooperate (see Clean Air Council’s Strange War Against Mariner East Pipeline). CAC argued that ME2 is not a “public utility” and therefore not entitled to the use of eminent domain. That argument flamed out. They also argued since ME2 crosses a state boundary–into a small part of Ohio–it’s not an intrastate but interstate project and should be subject to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) instead of the PA state Public Utility Commission (PUC). That argument bombed too. CAC then argued ME2 is using a public taking for a private enterprise (not for the public good). Also tossed out. A court case that began in 2015 made its way to the PA Commonwealth Court and yesterday the Commonwealth Court finally shut down the CAC’s long-running lawsuit once and for all, denying their wild claims…
    Read More “PA Court Rules ME2 Pipe has Power of Eminent Domain, Period”

  • | | | |

    1 MVP Tree Stand Comes Down, VA Gov. Calls Sitters “Unlawful”

    Va. Gov. Ralph Northam

    An update on the ongoing situation where several radicals are sitting in the tops of trees (or on a platform) to try and stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline from cutting down said trees in order to install the pipeline. There are, by our informal count in sifting through the news, four “tree sits”–with three of them in Virginia and one in West Virginia, along with a “pole sit”–someone perched on top of a pole that is held upright by ropes to nearby trees. The pole sit is in Virginia as well. Democrat politicians in Virginia have by and large supported the illegally trespassing lawbreakers (see Virginia Democrat Lawmakers Side with Lawbreakers in MVP Protest). We pointed out the Dem lawmakers might change their tune if MDN showed up with a tent and camped out in their driveway, trespassing on their land. One can dream. At any rate, the new news is this: One of the tree sitters in Virginia decided to give up the protest. As soon as he/she was on the ground the stand was disassembled and removed by the U.S. Forest Service. So that’s one of the four tree sits gone. Everyone else is still in place. U.S. Senator from Virginia, Tim Kaine (the loser who ran with Hillary) says he supports the lawbreakers. Typical. However, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam was more nuanced. Northam tried to have his cake and eat it too. He called the protesters “unlawful” and indicates he doesn’t support them, but then he turned around and said police should continue to feed and protect them. Typical swamp dweller response…
    Read More “1 MVP Tree Stand Comes Down, VA Gov. Calls Sitters “Unlawful””

  • | | | |

    OH Supremes Blow It, Allow Youngstown Frack Ban on May Ballot

    Although Youngstown, OH voters have voted down various versions of a proposed frack ban law six previous times, on Tuesday the Ohio Supreme Court voted 5-2 to allow a seventh such ballot measure to appear before Youngstown voters on May 8. The kicker: This seventh ballot measure is even worse–far more radical–than the previous frack ban measures voted down. The new ballot measure makes the illegal, legal (see Youngstown Antis Seek to Legalize Anarchy with 7th CELDF Petition). In addition to the usual no fracking, no pipelines pablum, this latest ballot measure has language that makes it legal to break the law. If the ballot measure passes, and if an anti got it into her head to sit in front of a bulldozer that was about to clear ground for a wellpad, or dig a trench for a pipeline, the police would not be able to arrest and remove the law-breaking anti. It would be within her rights to sit there and block legal, legitimate activity–all in the name of saving the planet. That’s the insanity the Supremes, in their “wisdom,” are allowing to go before voters in two weeks. It would be institutionalized anarchy. Of course the ballot measure doesn’t stand a chance of passing, which is good. But it does cause angst, and it causes the adults who live in Youngstown to once again have to spend time and money to defeat it. We wonder, will we be writing about the 25th ballot measure to come before voters after 24 of them have been voted down–say in five years from now? When will Ohioans say “enough” to the CELDF and their radical agitation and send them packing?…
    Read More “OH Supremes Blow It, Allow Youngstown Frack Ban on May Ballot”

  • | | | | |

    Outrage: Police Send Pizza & Sandwiches Up Tree to Protesters

    This is almost beyond words. Earlier this week MDN reported that arrest warrants had been issued for a 61 year-old woman and her daughter sitting 30 feet up in the top of a tree that needs to come down to make way for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (see Arrest Warrant Issued for MVP Tree Sitting “Grandma Red”). Theresa “Red” Terry and her daughter, Theresa Minor Terry (“Jr.”) are illegally trespassing on property (the tree) that now belongs to MVP, via eminent domain. Sometime in the past week or so police began to deny Red’s supporters from passing food and water up the tree. They also have been turning bright lights on the two Theresas during the night, in an effort to deny them sleep and force them down. As the police said: They are meeting the “non-violent protest action” with “non-violent police action.” So what happens when Red and Jr. tell the police they’re hungry and out of food? The police scramble a cop car to the nearest pizza joint and double-time a pizza, and bologna sandwiches, up the tree to the two alleged criminals sitting at the top. To the same two people for which arrest warrants have been issued. We’re confused. Why would the police accommodate two people BREAKING THE LAW BY TRESPASSING? If the police won’t enforce the laws, our country is done. Toast. It will be every man and woman for him/herself–and it won’t be pretty. Selectively enforcing (or not enforcing) the law is not an option. The Roanoke County police guarding the tree should either do their job, or be fired…
    Read More “Outrage: Police Send Pizza & Sandwiches Up Tree to Protesters”

  • | | | |

    The Miseducation of Our Youth: Global Warming Brain Disorder

    As supporters of the fossil fuel industry, we must deal with the issue of catastrophic, man-made global warming head-on. Our kids now grow up believing this lie, and they turn into activists demanding action–sometimes to the point of violence–in support of this lie. We recently read an opinion column by a young woman who appears to be bright, earnest, talented, dedicated–and she believes the lies taught to her about fossil fuels and their role in society. She recently protested in Albany, willing to risk arrest, all in the name of demanding Gov. Cuomo end the use of all fossil fuels in New York State. She’s deathly afraid (we’d call it a phobia) of a common occurrence: the construction and operation of a natural gas-fired power plant in Orange County, NY. What this young woman apparently doesn’t understand is that New York would be plunged back into the Dark Ages if we were to forgo all fossil fuel use–as she is demanding via her protests. Wall Street would move to another state with no electricity to operate its computer networks. Disease and death would be rampant throughout the state. Reliable electricity (used to charge the phone she uses to snap selfies of her protest marches and arrests) would be a thing of the past. It’s really quite sad that this young woman has been completely and incontrovertibly miseducated. Lied to. Education malpractice. The real shame is that she parades her abject ignorance for the world to see. The miseducation of our youth–the intentional lies told to them about man-made global warming, must stop…
    Read More “The Miseducation of Our Youth: Global Warming Brain Disorder”

  • | | | | | |

    Arrest Warrant Issued for MVP Tree Sitting “Grandma Red”

    Enough is enough. It’s time to end the silly charade of a 61 year-old kook sitting 30 feet up in the top of a tree that needs to come down to make way for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Mainstream media could no longer maintain the veneer of credibility and continue to intentionally conceal the identity of the woman who would only call herself “Red”–which they did for weeks. No more. Her name is Theresa Terry. She goes by the nickname “Red.” We call her Grandma Red because she’s older (no idea if she’s actually a grandmother or not). Red’s daughter, also named Theresa, is up the same tree with her. The two Theresas are illegally trespassing on property (the tree) that now belongs to MVP, via eminent domain. As we told you on Friday, a group of far-left, liberal Democrat Virginia lawmakers actually support Red’s illegal action (see Virginia Democrat Lawmakers Side with Lawbreakers in MVP Protest). Sometime in the past week or so police began to deny Red’s supporters from passing food and water up the tree. They also turn bright lights on the two Theresas during the night, in an effort to deny them sleep and force them down. As the police say: They are meeting the “non-violent protest action” with “non-violent police action.” Which the radicals, hilariously, claim is “police abuse.” You see, antis can do whatever the heck they want to do–even breaking the law–and it’s righteous and pure as the wind-driven snow. But when you use their own tactics against them, that’s brutal. That’s persecution. That’s police abuse. Here’s an update on Grandma Red and the quest to remove her from her magic tree house 30 feet up in the air…
    Read More “Arrest Warrant Issued for MVP Tree Sitting “Grandma Red””

  • | | | | |

    New York Frack Ban a Result of Russian Collusion? Yes!

    A blockbuster article appearing in the Heritage Foundation’s publication The Signal connects the dots to show how a Russian-funded and backed front group called the Sea Change Foundation funneled (money laundered) millions of dollars of Russian money to Big Green groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club, and then how those groups used that funding to pressure Gov. Andrew Cuomo into banning fracking in the Empire State. It is a case of either knowing, or unknowing, collusion with Russia to shut down the shale industry in MDN’s beloved home state. And yet mainstream media actively blocks any reporting of this story. It is complicated and tough to show enough evidence to take to a prosecutor or judge, but when has that ever stopped mainstream/liberal media? The biased press has hounded Trump mercilessly for two years over collusion with Russia–something that never happened. And yet we now have a story about money laundering in Bermuda and a trail that shows Russian money influencing a frack ban in New York–and it’s silence. Crickets. The press is curiously uncurious about a connection between Russia and Cuomo and the frack ban. Why is that?…
    Read More “New York Frack Ban a Result of Russian Collusion? Yes!”

  • | | | | |

    Virginia Democrat Lawmakers Side with Lawbreakers in MVP Protest

    More than a dozen liberal Democrat state lawmakers in Virginia attended a press farce yesterday to express their support for a lawbreaking Virginia woman from Roanoke County who has, like other radical anti-fossil fuelers, taken to living at the top of a tree on her property (see VA Tree Sitting Continues in Failed Attempt to Stop MV Pipeline). The tree is in the legal right-of-way for the Mountain Valley Pipeline and needs to be cut down. The trespassing woman won’t publicly admit her name, and the sycophantic press, which knows her name, won’t publish it. If we find out we certainly will publish it. At any rate, she calls herself “Red.” We call her Grandma Red because she’s an old(er) lady. Grandma Red, along with her daughter, are illegally perched/trespassing at the top of a tree (on a platform, a “magic treehouse”) on her property, refusing to come down. Police officers now keep 24/7 watch of the tree, preventing radical supporters from passing food and water and toilet paper up to Red and her daughter. The “more than a dozen” Democrat lawmakers at yesterday’s farce waved “I stand with Red” signs and said preventing radicals from aiding and abetting Grandma Red in her illegal tree sitting is “inhumane.” If anyone can now just decide to disobey a law they don’t like, maybe we’ll disobey a law too. What if we show up at the home of one of those Virginia lawmakers and sit down in the middle of their driveway and refuse to move–preventing that lawmaker from backing his/her Mercedes out of the garage? Maybe set a pup tent up in the driveway and hang out for a few weeks–block that person from leaving the house. How is that any different from what Grandma Red is doing? When our leaders, the people who make the laws, encourage disobedience of those laws, we have anarchy–a lawless society…
    Read More “Virginia Democrat Lawmakers Side with Lawbreakers in MVP Protest”

  • | | | |

    Insane Legislation Requires PA Residents Use 100% Renewable Energy

    Right around Earth Day politicians become even nuttier than they usually are. This year is no exception. A truly breathtaking, totally insane pair of bills have just been introduced in the Pennsylvania legislature, in observance of Earth Day, that would force all Pennsylvanians to use electricity generated from 100% so-called renewable sources by the year 2050. It’s totally preposterous and lunatic–but there you have it. Actually being in your right mind is no longer a requirement for high office–at least in PA. Democrat Rep. Chris Rabb introduced the bill in the PA House, and Democrat-lite (i.e. RINO) Sen. Charles McIlhinney introduced the bill in the PA Senate. Unsurprisingly they’re both from the Philadelphia area, where living in the real world doesn’t exist. The object of the proposed law is to dump the use of all “fossil fuels” and instead rely on unreliable wind and solar to produce all electricity in the Keystone State. Do you know how much of PA’s electricity is produced by wind and solar today? A piddly 2.8%. Nuclear generation is the #1 source of electric in PA at 41%, followed by coal at 29.6% and natural gas at 25%. Do you really, in your heart of hearts, believe PA can generate 100% of its electricity from wind and solar by 2050? It’s a fantasy, totally unconnected with reality. Yet that’s all we’ll hear and read for the next few days until, blessedly, we get past so-called Earth Day…
    Read More “Insane Legislation Requires PA Residents Use 100% Renewable Energy”