FERC’s Chatterjee to Actor James Cromwell: ‘Come at me bro!’
We continue to be really impressed with the current Acting Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Neil Chatterjee, and his willingness to take the fight right back to radical antis. Chatterjee is not unlike President Trump, who appointed him to the post. Frankly, it’s a surprise for us, since Chatterjee has worked for years for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (a swamp dweller). We figured Chatterjee was a swamp dweller too–but perhaps we misjudged him. Chatterjee recently turned up the heat with Facebook posts aimed at nutty Hollywood actor James Cromwell (he of Babe and Star Trek: First Contact fame). Cromwell recently attended a FERC meeting chaired by Chaterjee and proceed to make a king-sized @$$ of himself in the meeting room, requiring security to escort him from the room (see Old Hippie/Actor James Cromwell “Escorted Out” of FERC Meeting). Chatterjee fired off some choice words at Cromwell, including a comment that invites Cromwell to “Come at me bro!” What’s obvious when you read Chatterjee’s comments is that it’s done in a lighthearted way–not mean or nasty. He’s tweaking Cromwell and other antis, using humor to do it. And they are a humorless bunch. Chatterjee’s lighthearted humor in tweaking Cromwell went right over the heads of mainstream media and the inside-the-Beltway swamp dwellers, who are all aghast, criticizing Chatterjee as not acting like a regulator should act. We wish more government officials acted like Chatterjee–and Trump…
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THE Delaware Riverkeeper herself is back with more of her overlord’s money to file yet another frivolous lawsuit against a pipeline project in New York State. In August 2016, Millennium filed an application for what it calls its Eastern System Upgrade (see 
In June, radical anti-drillers from the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation won a case at the PA Supreme Court by the skin of their teeth (
In October MDN told you about 23 radicalized protesters who tried to block access to equipment being used to construct the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline in Lancaster County, PA–on property owned by a sect of Catholic nuns whom we call Sisters of the Corn (see 
What’s in the water in Kentucky? Seems to be a state full of anti-drilling, anti-pipeline nutters. Kentucky has been responsible for killing at least one pipeline, the Bluegrass Pipeline that would have flowed Marcellus/Utica NGLs (natural gas liquids) all the way to the Gulf Coast (see 
Lancaster Farmland Trust, a leftist group that seeks to stop all development of land in and around Lancaster County, PA, sued a farmer and Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline after the Lancaster farmer signed an easement on a piddly 1.5 acres of land. The Trust claimed according to the terms of the deed the landowner didn’t have the right to sign the easement (see 
A few weeks ago a group of environmental Nazis pledged to “swarm” and shut down a SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) meeting where a vote would be taken to build a Marcellus gas-powered electric plant that would provide electricity to SEPTA’s northern Regional Rail lines–a win/win for all Pennsylvanians (see 
This is truly outrageous and disgusting. We feel filthy just having to read and report on this news–filthy because of the outright falsehood of the preposterous allegation. Did you know that pollution can now target people based on their race? That’s what the idiotic State Rep. Donna Bullock (Democrat from Philadelphia), along with the radical Moms Clean Air Force and Defend Our Future groups said at a presser yesterday. They claim that “toxins from the oil and gas industry disproportionately impact African-American families throughout Pennsylvania.” They cite a faux report from the National Association for the Advancement of [Liberal] Colored People (NAACP) that claims “African-Americans are exposed to 38 percent more polluted air than their white counterparts” because of the oil and gas industry. Utter rubbish. “Hey, I’m a pollution molecule floating around and if I see a black person, I’ll just zoom right into that person’s nostrils–but I’ll leave the white folk alone.” You see how absurd this is? The NAACP claims more black people live near oil and gas operations than white people–although they offer no data to back up the claim. And because they live closer, that means they’re “polluted” more than others. Again, rubbish. When will someone stand up to such insane claims and demand these people resign and slink away in shame?…
Advocating for anarchy (a doing away of laws and letting the mob rule) is not unique to radical environmentalists in the United States. Such anarchy is alive and well in the Canadian environmental movement too. The Utica Shale, which underlies much of the Marcellus Shale, also underlies part of Canada’s Quebec province. From time to time we highlight news concerning the Utica in Canada. There hasn’t been much news to highlight over the years since Quebec has had a moratorium on fracking since 2012. But as we reported in December 2016, something of a minor miracle happened–the Quebec National Assembly voted to pass Bill 106, ostensibly to support Quebec’s “clean power plan” (see 
Washington State is a strange place. Yes, the state has given us world-changing companies like Microsoft and Boeing. It’s also changed our coffee drinking habits by giving us Starbucks. But Washington State is also home to some seriously demented and dangerous people. We spotted a story in the Washington (DC) Post that confirms what MDN has been saying for years (not that we need confirming): anarchists are some of the core members of the anti-fossil fuel movement. An anarchist, in case you need a definition, is “a person who rebels against any authority, established order, or ruling power” (Merriam Webster). In other words, lawless. A law unto themselves. Gangs of bullies. Lord of the Flies. You get the picture. The WashPo story, using flowery and laudatory language, reports that a group of anarchists in Washington State have set up a tent village on top of railroad tracks that come out of the Port of Olympia. Ceramic proppants–artificial beads that are used in place of frac sand–are shipped to the Port and from there, loaded onto rail cars and hauled cross country, mostly to the Bakken Shale play in North Dakota, where they are used to frack shale wells. An encampment was set up on Nov. 17 to block those shipments and it’s still there–because local Police Chief Ronnie Roberts (hired to uphold the law), doesn’t like fracking and won’t arrest these whack jobs and eject them. That’s why we say Washington State is a strange place…
PennEast Pipeline is a $1 billion, 120-mile primarily 36-inch natural gas pipeline that will stretch from Dallas (Luzerne County), PA to Transco’s pipeline interconnection near Pennington (Mercer County), NJ. The pipeline is an important conduit to move gas from the prolific gas fields of northeastern PA to markets in southeast PA and New Jersey. From the beginning of the project there have been a collection of so-called environmental organizations opposing it–including THE Delaware Riverkeeper, NJ Sierra Club, and the NJ Conservation Foundation. All radical groups, far far out of the mainstream. They also share something else besides an irrational hatred of fossil fuels–they’re part of a conspiracy to defeat PennEast funded by the William Penn Foundation. William Penn funds the aforementioned groups, as well as buying their own “media” in news outlets by funding StateImpact Pennsylvania and a news site called NJ Spotlight. William Penn sits in the background, pretending to be apart and aloof (to protect their IRS non-profit status) while pulling the strings and directing the opposition. Why the IRS turns a blind eye, we can’t say. At any rate, William Penn pulled another string this week–prompting their serfs at the NJ Conservation Foundation to file a lawsuit against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The cockamamie claim is that IF FERC approves PennEast, the pipeline will then be able to invoke eminent domain to allow it to enter properties and complete route mapping for the pipeline. Right now some hardened antis who live along the route refuse to allow PennEast to step one foot on their property. So NJ Conservation Foundation has filed a lawsuit (copy below) to prevent FERC from issuing a final certificate for PennEast because PennEast will then gain the right of eminent domain. The lawsuit claims PennEast using eminent domain to build the pipeline would be an improper “taking” of private property under the Constitution. The only problem (for the William Penn-backed NJ Conservation Foundation) is that no “taking” has actually happened until FERC approves the project. That is, the lawsuit anticipates a harm that hasn’t happened. We expect that little fact will not escape the judge’s notice and that the lawsuit will be tossed in short order…
Why are we not surprised that antis are NEVER happy. EVER. Sunoco Logistics Partners has, after experiencing problems using underground horizontal direction drilling (HDD) at a couple of locations near Philadelphia while building the Mariner East 2 NGL pipeline, decided to abandon HDD and instead switch to another method to get the pipeline installed. Even with the change in methodology, antis are still fussing and moaning. The only outcome that will make them “happy” is for Sunoco to abandon building the pipeline, which isn’t going to happen. Even if Sunoco did quit building ME2, we doubt the antis would really be happy. Have you ever noticed they’re perpetual sourpusses?…
The ultra-radical group from Pennsylvania called the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is devoted to stirring up anarchy and lawlessness, not only in Pennsylvania but elsewhere, like Ohio. CELDF has launched a campaign to amend the Ohio State Constitution. Two CELDF ballot initiatives (full text below) would amend the Constitution to make it legal for local communities to usurp the state’s role in regulating oil and gas. We’ve written plenty about the CELDF, which is behind a number of bizarre lawsuits like the one claiming that an ecosystem is a “person” with rights (see 
In Pennsylvania, the “Office of Environmental Justice” (sounds like a comic book thing) is nothing more than a way for po’ folk and minorities to sue the Marcellus industry over non-existent transgressions. In 2015, then-Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), John Quigley, “reactivated” the Office of Environmental Justice (see 
Earlier this year Xpress Natural Gas (XNG) spent $18.6 million to build a “virtual pipeline” facility in Susquehanna County, PA that employs ~90 people and loads up to 100 compressed natural gas (CNG) tanker trucks each day with PA Marcellus gas, for deliveries to customers across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states (see