Beck Energy Still Fighting Munroe Falls, Years Later
Last June MDN shared with you the news that Munroe Falls (Summit County), OH had filed yet another frivolous lawsuit against Beck Energy to prevent drilling–after already losing a similar case before the Ohio Supreme Court (see Munroe Falls Won’t Let it Go: Files New Lawsuit Against Beck Energy). MDN received a statement from Beck Energy’s lawyer which said, among other things: “…the complaint the City of Munroe Falls recently filed lacks any good faith basis under existing law, and it is clear Munroe Falls’ intention in filing this complaint is to harass and maliciously injure Beck Energy” (see Beck Energy Lawyer Responds to Frivilous Munroe Falls Zoning Case). Munroe Falls’ harrasment of Beck Energy has been going on for years (see our list of stories here). Beck counter sued Munroe Falls in this latest case and asked for unspecified damages–meaning the potential for the city to be bankrupted by a big judgment (a very real possibility). Beck has now backed away from the ledge and has dropped some of the counterclaims against Munroe Falls. After all, Beck doesn’t want to bankrupt the good people of Munroe Falls over the illicit actions of its leaders. But there is still “legal wrangling” going on in an effort to end Munroe Falls’ harassment of Beck. Here’s the latest…
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Last December the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) said it would go on a “listening tour” in early 2017, to focus on so-called environmental justice–whatever that is (see 
In January 2014 MDN brought you the story that due to incessant nagging from the NJ Sierra Club and the NJ League of [Liberal Democrat] Women Voters the Pinelands Commission, which oversees a stand of scrub pines in South Jersey, nixed a plan for a new natural gas pipeline to bring cheap, clean, abundant Marcellus Shale natural gas to South Jersey for use by residents and to feed an electric plant a local utility wants to convert from burning coal to natgas (see 
Two weeks ago MDN brought you the news that not only has the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued final permits for two new injection wells in the state, they also sued the two townships where those permits were granted because the towns had adopted home rule laws that are illegal, in contravention to state law that give power to permit and control injection wells to the DEP only–not to local municipalities (see 
An MDN reader and friend recently forwarded along an email newsletter from the ALLARM Shale Gas Program. ALLARM stands for Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring. With the rapid growth of the Marcellus industry in Pennsylvania shale drilling in neighboring states, “concerned citizens” wanted ways to collect data on water quality impacts from shale gas activities. As a response to requests from communities, ALLARM developed a volunteer-friendly protocol in 2010 to assess small streams for the early detection and reporting of surface water contamination by shale gas extraction activities. Volunteers (i.e. anti-drillers) monitor water quality throughout the year, including conductivity, barium, strontium, and total dissolved solids–and physical parameters, including stream stage and visual observations prior to, during, and after shale gas well development. Monitors also participate in a quality assurance, quality control program which includes in-person trainings, routine meter calibration, and sample testing via split-sample analysis two times a year. Since they began monitoring local streams, nearly 5,000 observations have been logged. And what have we learned from all of this monitoring? That shale gas drilling is safe for local streams…
On Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) finally, after delaying a decision three times adding an extra eight months, issued a final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the PennEast Pipeline project. We should add, it was a favorable EIS. While FERC found (as they always do) that there would be “some adverse environmental impacts” from the project, those impacts “would be reduced to less than significant levels” with PennEast’s proposed construction plans. This is a major milestone and all but assures the project will now go forward and will be built and go into service sometime in 2018. What potential roadblocks remain? For one, PennEast will need water crossing permits from New Jersey, which they filed for last week (see 
Even though a companion story today reveals that a local school district in Middletown Township, PA (near Philadelphia) is completely satisfied that the Mariner East 2 pipeline is safe (see Delco School “Extraordinarily Satisfied” with ME2 Pipeline Safety), there are still a few hardened anti-fossil fuelers in Middletown who refuse to consider reason. They are keeping up a losing battle against ME2. Their latest approach is to pressure (i.e. bully) town officials to unilaterally reject the pipeline through their jurisdiction based on town zoning codes about setbacks–the distance from the pipeline to surrounding structures. Like two other towns with similar codes (Thornbury and West Goshen), the antis in Middletown are threatening to (surpise!) sue if the town doesn’t do what they (the antis) selfishly demand by rejecting the pipeline…
Let’s play “What if?” What if we followed the advice of the kooks who tell us to “keep it in the ground”–by which they mean we should immediately stop all extraction of fossil fuels–oil, gas, coal, etc. We’re told by the enviro left that renewables are here and ready now to take over the job of providing all of our energy needs. So what would REALLY happen if we stopped using all fossil fuels? The American Petroleum Institute commissioned a study of just that scenario. They released the study two days. Titled “The Impacts of Restricting Fossil Fuel Energy Production” (full copy below), the report reads like apocalyptic book of Revelation in the Bible. What would happen if there were no new private, state, or federal oil and natural gas leases; a complete ban on hydraulic fracturing; no new coal mines or expansion of existing mines; and no new energy infrastructure including pipelines? The U.S. economy would lose 5.9 million jobs. Our gross domestic product (GDP) would lose $11.8 trillion. Your household’s annual energy bill would jump by $4,552, per year! Crude oil prices would jump $40 per barrel, back to the bad old days of $100/barrel prices. (As an aside, because renewables really can’t take over the role of fossil fuels, we would become completely dependent on enemy countries in the Middle East for our oil.) Natural gas would jump from $3/Mcf to $21/Mcf. And your electric bill will go up by 56%. And that’s just for starters…
Isn’t it refreshing when those who oppose something, like fracking, or pipelines, are just honest about their true “heart of hearts” motivation? We’ve made the case for years that charlatans like Josh Fox (of Gasland infamy) attempt to manipulate public opinion through the use of lies–like “fracking pollutes water” and “pipelines explode.” They attempt to smear fundamentally safe practices like fracking through the use of innuendo, supposition and lies. What is their true motivation? They oppose fossil fuels. They believe, in a rather kindergartenish way, that solar and wind and so-called renewable energy sources are superior–and if you don’t want to pay the high price of those sources, well, they want to FORCE you to accept it. But we’re not Stalinist Russia–yet. They can’t just enforce their will on the public. So they have to convince enough of the public to believe their lies that politicians will follow suit and pass laws to strip away more of our freedoms (see 
Metaphorically speaking–Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s finger was on the trigger of a loaded pistol, pointed at the head of the once-great State of Maryland. And now, Hogan pulled the trigger, assassinating any hope of new jobs, new wealth for some of the state’s poorest people (farmers and landowners in western Maryland), and new tax revenue for local communities. BANG. Done. Killed. Death. Thanks Larry, you da man. We previously reported that the Maryland House had loaded the chamber, and then the Senate had cocked the gun and put it in Hogan’s hand (see 
Early Sunday morning there was a low-level earthquake in Monroe County, OH–that literally nobody felt–but was picked up on seismic monitors by the U.S. Geological Survey. There was, according to the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) one fracking operation “near” the earthquake that ODNR shut down within an hour after the event–out of an abundance of caution. Immediately several radical anti-drilling groups, including the Ohio Environmental Council and the Sierra Club, jumped on the news and declared fracking unsafe and too risky in the nearby Wayne National Forest. With zero proof that it was tied to either fracking or wastewater injection wells. Here’s the news, and the way the news is being distorted by antis…
Extremist environmental protesters who don’t want to hear any viewpoints other than their own (i.e., fascists who LOVE to suppress free speech), got a bit violent and ugly on Tuesday and shut down a meeting at Duke University (headquarters for insane environmentalism) where the Acting Chairwoman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Cheryl LaFleur, was scheduled to speak. Beyond Extreme Energy was one of the groups behind the illegal action. They have dogged FERC Commissioners for years. Perhaps some in the crowd were the same Beyond Extreme Energy lunatics that Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commissioner Rob Powelson previously called “jihadists”–because they show up at FERC Commissioners’ homes and threaten them (see 
We don’t use the word “jihadist” lightly or flippantly. A jihad is, according to Websters, “a crusade for a principle or belief.” Most of the time the media uses the term in reference to radical Muslims who perpetrate acts of terror and crime in a holy war to convert the world to Islam. We think there’s a close parallel to some (not all) extreme environmentalists. It is irrefutable that many in the environmental movement view their cause as a kind of holy war–against those they believe are harming Mom Earth. Against those who don’t or won’t “convert” to their philosophy on how best to protect the environment (i.e. dump the use of fossil fuels). Some of these extremists tip over into criminal and even terrorist activities. We saw it in the protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) project in North Dakota, when so-called protesters vandalized millions of dollars of equipment, set tires on fire, illegally blocked roads, and (one) even shot at police officers (see 
We found this story kind of funny. Apparently the word has gone out at the Trump Dept. of Energy that staffers, when preparing reports for the public, should avoid using the phrase “climate change.” Which is an asinine phrase, let’s admit it. By definition the climate changes. It changes every day and has since there’s been a climate. Anti fossil fuel zealots have tried to co-opt the phrase to mean “man-made global warming.” Because Mom Earth isn’t actually warming, it’s kind of hard to keep calling it “global warming.” So they invented the euphemism “climate change” instead. Team Trump has had enough of that kind of verbal dissembling. No more. Say what you mean and mean what you say. And so the egghead prima donnas who think they’re SO much smarter than everyone else are in full, fake outrage mode. They’re making fun of the adults in the room who have told them to straighten up and quit acting like petulant children…
The same old (very small) cast of environmental radicals is claiming victory in Maryland over the recently passed bill to ban fracking statewide–a bill that now sits on traitor Gov. Larry Hogan’s desk (he’s promised to sign it). Radicals from the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (and Food & Water Watch, and the Sierra Club, et al), who are waging a holy war against fossil fuels, say this momentous occasion is evidence of new “bipartisan” support sweeping the nation–that Maryland’s vote has “national implications.” It’s nothing of the sort. Anti-fossil fuel nutters are still by and large Democrats (and Socialists) and confined to a few far-left states (Maryland, New York, Vermont). Larry Hogan is an anomaly–a Republican who ran on a platform of support for fracking who suddenly, without warning and for inexplicable reasons, flipped and promised to sign a ban bill should one be proffered. We wonder, who paid who? There is corruption at work in this situation, of that we have no doubt. All of the so-called “leaders” of the ban frack movement in the Maryland legislature come from either the Washington, D.C. suburbs, or the Baltimore area. They are located on the opposite side of the state from where fracking would, theoretically, take place. These enviro radicals have hijacked the property rights of landowners in Allegany County and Garrett County, the only two Maryland counties with commercially viable shale deposits that could be fracked. It will be a sad day when Hogan turns his back on the people of Maryland and signs the law…