Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel

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    Energy Transfer Sues Big Green Groups for Inciting Terrorism in ND

    It’s about time our side litigated back! Energy Transfer, the company that built the Dakota Access Pipeline, filed a lawsuit yesterday against rabid, radical “green” organizations including Greenpeace, Earth First! and others, for manufacturing and disseminating “materially false and misleading information about Energy Transfer and the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) for the purpose of fraudulently inducing donations, interfering with pipeline construction activities and damaging Energy Transfer’s critical business and financial relationships.” Because of Greenpeace and other Big Green groups, DAPL was delayed, people were hurt during protests, violent acts were committed, property was damaged and the environment that the protesters profess to love was also damaged. It was a coordinated and organized attack against Energy Transfer, so the federal lawsuit is suing using federal and state racketeering statutes. Energy Transfer says Greenpeace led an organized effort to put eco-terrorists on the ground among regular protesters. Finally! Someone willing to call out these jerks and take the fight back to them! You may wonder why we cover this story here on MDN. Energy Transfer is also building the Rover and Mariner East 2 pipeline projects here in the Marcellus/Utica region. Both projects are vigorously opposed by Big Green groups with paid protesters. This lawsuit puts other Big Green groups on notice–your days of smearing and lying and agitating are over…
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    NY AG Schneiderman Takes Russian Oil Money, Attacks US Shale

    NY AG Schneiderman

    If this doesn’t beat all. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has, for years, been at the center of a conspiracy to shake down Exxon Mobil by claiming the company “knew” that burning its fossil fuels would lead to man-made global warming, and that Exxon actively worked to suppress that knowledge in the public sphere. Earlier this year Schneiderman refused (still refuses) to turn over emails that show he has been colluding with Big Green groups and those who fund them in a conspiracy against Exxon (see NY’s AG Schneiderman Sowing the Seeds of His Own Destruction). It’s now time to remove Schneiderman from office. Evidence has come out that Schneiderman has accepted more than $60,000 from a Ukranian billionaire with ties to Russia’s big oil companies. That is, Scheiderman has taken campaign money (bribes?) from Russian oil–and turned around and attacked American oil and gas. Schneiderman is fully behind New York’s ban on fracking. He’s also in there fighting against natural gas pipelines. Scheiderman has also received a whopping $251,000 from liberal billionaire Communist George Soros (and the Soros family). Soros is another Exxon enemy. So how does that work Mr. Schneiderman? You take money from Russian Big Oil and Communists, only to turn around and attack America’s shale industry? Really? It’s corrupt, and Schneiderman needs to go, NOW…
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    Radicals Admit #ExxonKnew Effort Aimed at Suppressing Free Speech

    A radical activist “closely aligned” with the #ExxonKnew campaign to try and bankrupt the oil giant has admitted the campaign is not really about a “cover-up” by Exxon that it “knew” global warming is real and that its oil/gas is contributing. In a bombshell admission, Naomi Oreskes says the #ExxonKnew campaign is actually about punishing Exxon for arguing against specific Big Green climate policies–not about what the company “knew”. That is, she admits it is about removing Exxon’s right to free speech. Shutting them up. Bullying them into silence. This is how free speech dies folks–when the fascist left demands nobody says anything they don’t like. Thankfully, Exxon is sticking up for free speech and our First Amendment rights…
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    PA State Senator Floats Bill to Make Criminal Protesters Pay

    PA residents in Lancaster County have a keeper in freshman Senator Scott Martin. Back in May MDN reported that Martin was cooking up legislation to send the cleanup bill for illegal protests–to the protesters (see PA State Senator Introducing Law to Send Protesters Cleanup Bill). The bill is now here–Senate Bill (SB) 754 (full copy below). Sen. Martin has refined his ideas. Law and order folks (those of us who are sane, rational people) are tired of the lawless actions by a few who oppose pipelines, drilling, Trump…whatever. Sen. Martin and those in the drilling/pipeline industry fully support free speech the right of antis to make fools of themselves. It provides entertainment! What Sen. Martin and those in the industry don’t support, however, is when paid protesting thugs break the law by destroying property and blocking access to legal businesses attempting to do legal work. We saw how so-called environmentalists (who were actually anarchists) “protested” in South Dakota–leaving behind an environmental disaster that cost millions to clean up–far worse than any pipeline spill would have been. Police and first responders were deployed–at a cost of millions of dollars. South Dakota bore most of the cost. That is, taxpayers paid for it. Under Sen. Martin’s bill, if protesters break the law while protesting in PA, incidents that require police and other first responders to handle the situation, those law-breaking protesters will pay the cost of said police and first responders. WE LOVE IT! It’s about time people were actually held accountable for their illegal actions…
    Read More “PA State Senator Floats Bill to Make Criminal Protesters Pay”

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    KM Plans to Convert Tennessee Gas Pipeline to Flow M-U NGLs South

    TGP – section of pipeline to reverse & convert to NGLs (click for larger version)

    Here’s a story that wasn’t actively on our radar. It’s an old story, but is now in the news again with the recent quorum reestablished at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). In August 2013, exactly four years ago, midstream giant Kinder Morgan and competitor midstream company MarkWest Energy (now part of Marathon Petroleum) signed a joint venture agreement to repurpose a significant portion of Kinder’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (964 miles of it) running from the Louisiana Gulf Coast to Ohio. That 964-mile portion of TGP currently flows natural gas from the Gulf northward. Kinder and MarkWest want to reverse the flow and instead flow natural gas liquids (NGL) through the pipeline from the Utica and Marcellus region south to the Gulf Coast. The project would also build a new 200-mile pipeline from TGP in Louisiana to Texas. In order to make the project happen, the first step is to ask FERC for permission to “abandon” (stop using) the 964-mile segment, called Pipeline No. 1, from Louisiana to Ohio. Which TGP did in Feb. 2015. The project progressed. Last November FERC issued a favorable environmental assessment for the project (full copy below). And then FERC lost a quorum of voting members in February of this year, stalling further progress. With a quorum now restored, antis in Kentucky, a state that seems to be allergic to any kind of pipeline for any purpose, have begun bellyaching about it. Which is what caught our attention. We’ve gathered together information we can find on this project–a potentially very important project–to move Marcellus/Utica NGLs to the Gulf Coast…
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    Using FOIA, Antis Discover 2 Minor Infractions by Rover in WV

    Anti-fossil fuel activists attempting to stop the unstoppable Rover Pipeline are doing their best to smear and prejudice people against the project. Rover has had its share of problems. We’ve chronicled those problems–like leaking 2 million gallons of drilling mud in Ohio when performing underground horizontal directional drilling (see Rover Pipeline Accident Spills ~2M Gal. Drilling Mud in OH Swamp). The company also had problems with water filling up trenches dug for the pipeline when severe rain hit (see OEPA & Rover at Odds Over Storm Water Runoff, “Fine” Now $714K). Rover also had problems in West Virginia. The WV Dept. of Environmental Protection to stop work in two of four counties after storm water runoff/erosion issues there (see WV DEP Orders Rover to Stop Pipe Construction in 2 of 4 Counties). The stop work order was lifted after a few weeks. Antis, using the Freedom of Information Act, have “discovered” that Rover was cited for similar issues in two other counties. However, WVDEP and Rover worked it out and resolved those issues…
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    Antis Pressure Virginia DEQ to Delay or Deny Permits for 2 Pipelines

    Anti-fossil fuelers, aided and abetted by liberal local media, continues the drumbeat to pressure the Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality to either block, or greatly slow down, approvals needed to build both the $5 billion, 594-mile Dominion Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project and the $3.5 billion, 301-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Both pipelines start in West Virginia. ACP crosses through Virginia and stretches into North Caroline. MVP terminates in southern Virginia. Some oppose the projects due to an insane hatred of fossil fuels (the same fossil fuels that make their existence and protest possible). Others don’t want a pipeline cutting across their favorite horse pasture. Ruins the look, ya know. There have been a blizzard of lawsuits and legal actions to try and stop both projects (see Corrosive Use of Legal System Attempts to Stop M-U Pipelines). However, antis have learned if they can pressure, coerce or otherwise threaten environmental agencies, that can be the most effective strategy of all. It has certainly worked in New York, where our Dept. of Environmental Conservation, bowing to political pressure, has (so far) blocked three urgent/critical pipeline projects. Virginia antis are hoping for a repeat there. If they can only pressure the DEQ into blocking or delaying ACP and MVP, it would give new meaning to their pathetic lives…
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    Faux “Conservative” Group Campaigns Against Fixing PA’s Broken DEP

    A national group of antis calling themselves “conservative” are attempting to meddle in the affairs of Pennsylvania. If you’ve been reading MDN for any time, you know about the current huge, stinking mess of a budget in Pennsylvania. Republicans, which control both the House and Senate, passed an unbalanced budget of $32 billion. Problem is, there’s only $30 billion of projected revenue. So after passing the spending part of the budget, they now have to “come up with” $2 billion to cover the difference. The pressure has been intense to punish the successful Marcellus industry by stealing even more of their money (PA already takes an overly generous portion of their profits). Senate Republicans caved to the pressure and floated a spending plan that includes a severance tax (see Traitorous PA Senate Republicans Pass Severance Tax Bill). The House, so far, has resisted the siren song that wants to lure them onto the rocks of killing the Marcellus industry. So far. The Marcellus industry has, for years, complained about the sloooooooow response times in approving drilling permits by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). As an olive branch to the industry, Senate Republicans also included (in the budget bill) fixes to the slow DEP, to speed things up (see PA Senate’s “Olive Branch” of “Relaxed Regulations” for Drillers). Now we hear from some national group, calling themselves Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, that the PA Senate plan to fix the DEP will create an environmental holocaust. Let us assure you, there is nothing “conservative” about Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship. They are Big Green liberals pretending to be conservative. They’re now spending big money (from their Big Green friends) to advertise, in a bid to pressure the legislature to dump the “fix the DEP” plan…
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    If NatGas Pipeline is Blocked, NY Elec Plant Will Use Oil Instead

    For the past 2+ years MDN has chronicled the journey of Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) to build a $900 million Marcellus gas-fired electric plant in Wawayanda, NY, called the Valley Energy Center. Early on the project faced court challenges, but a judge gave final approval to build it in September 2015 (see Orange County, NY Marcellus-Fired Electric Plant OK’d by Judge). One of the “locals” who objected to the plant is Hollywood actor James Cromwell, star of movies like Babe and Star Trek: First Contact. Cromwell has a summer home in the area and doesn’t like the idea of an electric plant nearby, so he became a criminal protester (see Actor James Cromwell Arrested Protesting NY Power Plant Site). It took a few years, but Cromwell was finally jailed after refusing to pay a fine related to his arrest. He ended up serving just three of his seven day sentence (see “Privileged White” Actor Cromwell Serves < Half of Jail Sentence). Being famous and rich has its perks–including corruption of justice. The thing about Hollywood actors who are good at their craft, as is Cromwell, is that in other areas of life they are often stupid, as is Cromwell. Case in point: Cromwell thinks he can stop the $900 million plant, which is more than half built, by opposing a short, 7.8-mile pipeline spur off the Millennium Pipeline to feed the plant (see NY DEC Holds Sham “Hearing” for Power Plant Pipeline). Stop the pipeline, and the plant won’t open, right? Wrong! The owner has a Plan B for the plant, otherwise they would not have begun construction in the first place. If for some reason the natural gas pipeline doesn’t get built (highly unlikely), the plant will burn oil instead. Apparently Cromwell would rather have MORE air pollution around his home rather than allow a clean-burning pipeline to feed the plant. What a dope. The plant will open either way, with or without natural gas feeding it…
    Read More “If NatGas Pipeline is Blocked, NY Elec Plant Will Use Oil Instead”

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    Corrosive Use of Legal System Attempts to Stop M-U Pipelines

    Constant frivolous lawsuits against legal, legitimate businesses performing a valuable service for society is having a corrosive effect on our legal system. That’s the thought that hit MDN as we read, yet again, about lawsuits and actions against pipelines in Virginia and West Virginia. In Virginia, radicals from the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League are pressuring the state Attorney General to get involved to try and stop Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline–a $5 billion, 594-mile natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina. In West Virginia, the Sierra Club and several other far-out-on-the-left fringe groups are suing the state Dept. of Environmental Protection for having the audacity to evaluate and then approve the Mountain Valley Pipeline project there. Mountain Valley is a $3.5 billion, 303-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County. This ongoing barrage of lawsuits and actions are meant to delay these projects–to give antis more time to whip up opposition and to figure out how to legally (or illegally) stop them. Yes, antis often engage in illegal activities when they disagree with a lawful activity, like building a pipeline. All of these legal machinations tie up our courts and, in our opinion, corrode our legal institutions, causing irreparable harm to pipeline companies. It’s time to fight back and hold these groups (and individuals) accountable. Make them PAY (money) for their strategy of delay. Only when we hold people accountable for their actions will this mess stop…
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    Big Green Groups Stage Walkout at PA DEP Atlantic Sunrise Hearing

    Last night the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) held one final public hearing for the Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project–in Lancaster. As we previously reported, anti-fossil fuel nutters planned to gather prior to the meeting so they could choreograph a “walkout” of the meeting, as a form of protest (see PA DEP to Hold Final Atlantic Sunrise Hearing, Antis Plan Walkout). Indeed that is just what happened. A group of petulant babies got up during the meeting, theatrically put on surgical masks, and walked out. They then held their own meeting outside, to regurgitate the same lies and smears they’ve been spreading for months. Meanwhile, inside the meeting, the adults who remained spoke up about legitimate concerns with the project, which is why the meeting was held in the first place…
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    PennEast Pipeline Asks FERC for Expedited Final Approval

    Jeff Tittel, the head of the New Jersey Sierra Club, last week called President Trump a “fossil fool in the White House” and panned Trump for doing his Constitutional duty in appointing new members to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Tittel’s latest titillation came in response to PennEast Pipeline sending a letter to FERC last Thursday requesting the agency move forward posthaste with granting the project a final certificate to proceed to construction–something that terrifies Tittel and his sidekick, THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum. Tittel and van Rossum have staked their reputations and the reputations of their anti-fossil fuel groups on stopping PennEast. So once the bulldozers fire up and begin digging trenches, it’s all over for them. They might actually have to find real jobs. Below is PennEast’s request to FERC along with the instantaneous (and paranoid) reaction from several Big Green radical groups….
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    The Shocking Ignorance of Anti-Fossil Fuel Protesters

    Every now again we go on a rant about the hypocrisy, indeed the stupidity, of those who claim we can just stop using fossil fuels altogether–now–and switch to so-called renewables. If we only had the political will. According to the fantasizers, solar and wind and hydro and other non-fossil fuel sources could eliminate the need for fossil fuels. But what they fail to understand or grasp or admit (or perhaps all three), is that without fossil fuels they would not have clothes, houses, cell phones, vehicles for transportation and a host of other modern conveniences. Frankly, without fossil fuel extraction, we would immediately be plunged back into the Stone Ages–with cruel, very short, lifespans. Antis fail to recognize the key role fossil fuels play in our everyday lives. Our ongoing prediction, which will be proved long after we’ve exited this world, is that fossil fuels are here for at least the next 100 years. We spotted a local letter to the editor from a numskull spouting this “fossil fuels will kill us all” meme, and on the same day, an article by the always-excellent David Blackmon, writing for Forbes, which outlines many of the ways life would change without fossil fuels. Together these two pieces show the stark contrast between those who think, and those who don’t…
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    CORNballs Get Cornier – Say They’ve Been “FERC’d” re NEXUS Pipe

    The CORNballs of Ohio are not happy campers in their quest to try and shut down the $2 billion, 255-mile NEXUS interstate natural gas pipeline that will run from Ohio through Michigan and eventually to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada. CORN stands for Coalition to Reroute NEXUS. CORNballs is what we affectionately call the group–as a way of pointing out their nutty real purpose, which is to try and shut the NEXUS project down. Their aim has nothing to do with “rerouting” and everything to do with shutting it down. In May 2017, the CORNballs revealed their true colors when they filed a lawsuit in federal court in Akron, OH (see CORNballs Strike Again, File Lawsuit to Stop NEXUS Pipeline). As part of that lawsuit, lawyers for the CORNballs filed claims the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) acted illegally during the approval process (see CORNballs Accuse FERC of Illegally Approving NEXUS Pipeline in OH). As we said at the time, “Good luck with proving that in court.” NEXUS filed a motion to dismiss this frivolous case, based on the fact the federal court in Akron doesn’t have jurisdiction, and earlier this week that is just what happened. The court said they don’t have jurisdiction to consider the lawsuit. The news seems to have hit the CORNballs pretty hard. They’re not only upset about the court decision, but also about the U.S. Senate performing their Constitutional duty by voting to confirm two new commissioners for the federal agency that approves projects like NEXUS–the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). One CORNball quipped they’ve been “FERC’d”…
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    OH Law May Keep 7th Anti-Frack Measure Off Youngstown Nov. Ballot

    In May, MDN told you that virulent anti-drillers in Youngstown, OH, puppets of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), have once again circulated a petition to put a so-called Community Bill of Rights ballot measure on the ballot this November (see Youngstown Antis Seek to Legalize Anarchy with 7th CELDF Petition). The same people have tried six times before–and the ballot measure failed every single time. However, this time is different. In addition to the usual no fracking, no pipelines pablum, this 7th petition has language that makes it legal to break the law. If the ballot measure were to pass, 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 anti. It would be within her rights to sit there and block legal, legitimate activity–all in the name of saving Mom Earth. It would create mob rule. The sad news is that the petition garnered enough signatures to appear on the ballot this November (see Youngstown Frack Ban Vote on November Ballot – for 7th Time). The happy news is that under a new Ohio state law giving county boards of elections more discretion, the Mahoning County Board of Elections will almost certainly block the measure from appearing on the November ballot–because the anti-frack ballot measure conflicts with established state law that only the state can regulate the oil and gas industry…
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    Sunoco Strikes Deal with Devil, “Settles” with Anti Groups re ME2

    Energy Transfer’s Sunoco Logisitics unit has struck a deal with the devil–the devil being the Philadelphia-based (and odoriferous) Clean Air Council, THE Delaware Riverkeeper and Mountain Watershed Association–that will ultimately lift the current ban on underground horizontal directional drilling (HDD) for the Mariner East 2 NGL pipeline project. The three Big Green groups (well funded by colluding leftist organizations) filed an appeal with the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board to block all HDD work following several drilling mud leaks, one of them fouling a water aquifer in Chester County (see Sunoco LP’s Generous Deal to Chester Co. Residents with Water Issues). The Hearing Board judge agreed and stopped all HDD work, temporarily (see PA Enviro Judge Puts 2-Week Pause on ME2 Pipeline Drilling). However, earlier this week the judge allowed a partial lift of the ban (see PA Enviro Judge Lets Sunoco Restart ME2 Drilling 16 of 55 Locations). Sunoco and the Big Green groups have now “settled.” The terms of the “settlement” call for Sunoco to reevaluate and resubmit plans for HDD drilling at 47 locations for review by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). Landowners who live within 450 feet of a planned HDD site may request water well testing before, during and after Sunoco’s underground drilling activity. In return, the Big Green groups agreed to drop their appeal requesting no further HDD work. As deals with the devil go, perhaps this one isn’t so bad after all. However, we still question why the groups had standing to bring the action in the first place…
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