PennFuture Tries to Bully Allegheny County re Lease Revenue
The true colors of PennFuture, a radical anti-drilling group, are now revealed for all to see. In June, MDN warned you that Big Green groups like PennFuture are attempting to “weaponize” a recent PA Supreme Court ruling (see PA Anti Strategy: Weaponize Recent Court Ruling Against Shale Dev). The Supremes, in a sharply divided decision, sided with a virulent anti-drilling group, the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation, against the state, saying that any revenue generated from leasing and drilling on *state-owned land* must be used solely for conservation and the environment (see PA Supreme Court Hands Antis Partial Victory re State Land Drilling). The decision is based on the Oil and Gas Lease Fund Act, which states any revenue from oil and gas leases (and signing bonuses) generated for the Commonwealth (that is, for the state of Pennsylvania) “shall be placed in a special fund to be known as the ‘Oil and Gas Lease Fund’ which fund shall be exclusively used for conservation, recreation, dams, or flood control or to match any Federal grants which may be made for any of the aforementioned purposes” (see Radical Enviros Now the Tail Wagging the PA DCNR Dog re Funding). Radical groups have wasted no time. PennFuture is now bullying Allegheny County (Pittsburgh area) by saying any revenue raised by leasing county land for drilling, like parks and airports, must be spent on Big Green causes groups like PennFuture approves of, and not anything else. Which is ludicrous. However, they are citing the recent Supreme Court decision and using it as a bludgeon to force a change in the way lease revenues are spent. In other words, those revenues are now a poison pill. If municipalities like counties and local towns can’t spend lease money the way they want, it removes the incentive to lease those properties in the first place…
Read More “PennFuture Tries to Bully Allegheny County re Lease Revenue”
A change-up in tactics for Maya van Rossum, THE Delaware Riverkeeper. Until now, Riverkeeper has mostly concentrated it’s efforts on big, federally regulated interstate pipeline projects, like the PennEast Pipeline (see 
Isn’t it interesting how a small-but-mouthy group of anti-fossil fuelers can drive a media narrative? Just two days ago MDN told you about a meeting of 100 (likely far less) anti-fossil fuel protesters in Dexter Township, Michigan, who rallied to protest the impending construction of the Rover Pipeline in that area (see 
A young, brainwashed 17-year old woman was one of the headline speakers at a recent anti-Rover Pipeline rally in Michigan–apparently because she’s an Indian (i.e. Native American). However, her heritage really has nothing to do with her opposition to the Rover Pipeline. Her opposition is rooted in what we would call a break with reality–a psychosis. At a rally held in Dexter Township, MI near where Rover is scheduled to be built, the teenager said this to the “about 100” assembled: “‘We’re fighting extraction industries all across the country. It’s not just here. It’s not just Standing Rock,’ said…an Ypsilanti resident, urging other protesters to divest from fossil fuel companies and take their money out of big banks and put it in local banks and credit unions so they’re not supporting the extraction industry.” We hate to burst the young protester’s bubble, but “extraction industries” are the reason she even exists. “Extraction industries” not only provide energy (oil, gas coal), but “extraction industries” mine the metals that make up the innards of her expensive cell phone. “Extraction industries” provide the raw materials to produce plastics, which is in just about everything everyone touches these days–including the clothes on her back and the sneakers on her feet. To call for divestment, and to oppose “extraction industries” is a call to crawl back into a cave and die a very young death. It is, in a word, insane…
Here’s a story of some Catholic nuns who have forsaken their vow to serve Christ, and instead have taken up a vow to serve radical environmentalism–which is apparently their new religion. A group of nuns in Lancaster County, PA invited the radical group Lancaster Against Pipelines (whose organizer participated in the illegal blockage of the Dakota Access Pipeline) to build a “prayer chapel” in the middle of a cornfield that belongs to the Adorers of the Blood of Christ (as they are called). The chapel is meant to stand in the way of Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline, slated to go through that field. The so-called prayer chapel is little more than a few portable benches and a pop-up shelter like the one you would use when camping–just about big enough to cover a gas grill and leave enough room for two or three people to stand under it. The “prayer chapel” is obviously a statement thing. Knowing it will get torn down at some point, the sisters and their radical friends didn’t want to waste a lot of money on the project. Essentially this is a setup for a photo op when the bulldozers come through. It’s truly a shame to see how those who have dedicated themselves to the work of Jesus Christ have been co-opted and distracted from their far higher, and much better, calling. Unfortunately, the nuns are rank hypocrites. They themselves use–and promote the use of–natural gas for their own ministry on the very same parcel of property…
Totally biased, Big Green-backed mouthpiece StateImpact Pennsylvania, funded in part by taxpayers via PBS (a travesty), as well as funded in part by anti-drilling organizations like the Heinz Endowments and the William Penn Foundation (which appear to control StateImpact’s “reporting”), is targeting a PR agency because the agency has the audacity to do good work for Sunoco Logistics and the Mariner East 2 Pipeline project. You see, in liberal anti-drilling land, it’s OK for antis to smear and lie and fabricate all sorts of falsehoods about pipeline projects–but it’s not OK for the object of those smears (i.e. Sunoco LP) to fight back and to present its side of the issue. As soon as you fight back and tell your side of the story, you’re “targeting” innocent people, you’re attempting to bully the little guy. You’re mean. You’re pedaling fossil fuel death. That’s how it works in Big Green land. A recent article on StateImpact PA attempts a smear job on PR agency Bravo Group because Bravo has the gonads to say this on their website: “We’re helping Sunoco Logistics build public and policyholder support for its Mariner East projects, an infrastructure investment of more than $3 billion. The goal: secure regulatory approvals, neutralize opposition and develop the Mariner East projects on budget and without capital losses.” The “neutralize opposition” phrase in particular set off the anti-pipeline crazies, so StateImpact created an entire story focused on that phrase. You know you’re being effective when they attack you with a smear campaign…
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you are tempted to treat everything as a nail (Abraham Maslow, 1966). Such is it with radical anti-drillers who recently won a case at the PA Supreme Court by the skin of their teeth. The case dealt with the narrow issue of how PA can spend revenue raised by leasing and allowing drilling for oil and gas under state-owned land (see 
As MDN reported in June, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court of Appeals, in a sharply divided 3-2 decision, sided with virulent anti-drilling group Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation against the state in saying that any royalties generated from drilling on state-owned land MUST be used solely for conservation and the environment (see 
MDN has extensively covered the story of a family in Huntingdon County, PA radicalized by the Big Green movement into opposing the Mariner East 2 pipeline across their property. The Gerhart family, with the assistance of what Sunoco Logistics Partners calls “eco-terrorists,” have pledged to illegally block construction of the pipeline. So a few weeks ago Sunoco asked a Huntingdon County judge to grant an injunction against the Gerharts AND the interloping eco-terrorists–to have them forcibly removed if they attempt to stop construction which is about to begin (see 
A liberal Democrat County from the Washtenaw County, Mich. Board of Commissioners, someone who obviously ignores the rule of law, has pledged to break the law in her misguided attempt to stop Energy Transfer’s Rover Pipeline project from coming through her county. Lib Dems often like to pick and choose which laws they will obey and which they’ll ignore, so we’re not surprised by the mouthy reaction from Commissioner Michelle Deatrick, D-Superior Township. She’s like many other radical anti-fossil fuelers. Michelle is an Al Gore fan and has apparently overdosed on trailers for Gore’s forthcoming Inconvenient Truth Part Deux fictional flick, called “Truth to Power,” because that’s the exact phase she used at a recent board meeting. Here’s what mouthy Michelle had to say…
The Fresh Water Accountability Project, an anti-fracking group based in Michigan, has filed a frivolous lawsuit against the Patriot Water Treatment facility and the City of Warren, OH, claiming they are processing frack chemicals at their plants that don’t get processed enough–and consequently get released into the Mahoning River. This is not Patriot Water’s first time in court. Patriot has had a long-running feud with the Ohio EPA and Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR)–a feud that goes all the way back to 2011 (