Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel

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    PennEast Opponents Complain They’ve Been Outsmarted by UGI

    hypocrite.jpgIt’s always fun to point out just how hypocritical Big Green groups, like the Sierra Clubbers, actually are. The Sierra Club in New Jersey is all up in arms that utility company UGI has hired a former member of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, Pamela Witmer, as vice president of government affairs. MDN was the first source to tell you the importance of her hiring, i.e. to help get the PennEast Pipeline approved (see UGI Hires PA PUC Commissioner in Brilliant Move for PennEast Pipe). The Sierra Club is “blasting” Witmer’s hire as “exactly what’s wrong with government and the incestuous relationship between utilities and corporations.” This is delicious. We will take you chapter and verse through two top Democrats in PA that have moved in and out, back and forth, between government jobs and jobs at Big Green organizations and corporations–Katie McGinty and John Hanger. The idiots at the Sierra Club make it too easy to point out their raging hypocrisy…
    Read More “PennEast Opponents Complain They’ve Been Outsmarted by UGI”

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    PennFuture Bullies PA Town over Lack of Fracking Ordinance

    PennFutureIn May 2015 MDN reported that after more than two years of acrimony and lawsuits between Range Resources and Mt. Pleasant (Washington County), PA., Range agreed to close four freshwater ponds (called “impoundments,” not to be confused with wastewater impoundments) the company was using to drill wells in nearby non-Mt. Pleasant locations (see Range Capitulates, Closing 4 Freshwater Ponds in Mt. Pleasant, PA). Mt. Pleasant is one of the original seven selfish towns that sued PA to overturn portions of the Act 13 oil and gas law. They won. Sooner or later a company can take a hint that a township is anti-business, so Range left town. Mt. Pleasant never followed up their victory in 2013 to fix a “hole” in their zoning ordinances. Not that it makes a whole lot of difference. MDN notices two permits issued in Mt. Pleasant Township in early 2015, and nothing since then, according to our Databook series. But the radicals at PennFuture have noticed. Even with little-to-no drilling, PennFuture is threatening to sue Mt. Pleasant unless they adopt far more restrictive ordinances on shale drilling in the town. Which points out PennFuture’s hypocrisy. It’s OK for a town to pass really restrictive zoning laws, but if the town chooses to not pass such laws, which is allowable under the Act 13 court case decision, that’s not OK by PennFuture. The door only swings one way for the radicals of PennFuture…
    Read More “PennFuture Bullies PA Town over Lack of Fracking Ordinance”

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    Good News for Marcellus: New Brunswick Commits Fracking Suicide

    New Brunswick, Canada
    Click for larger version

    New Brunswick is a Canadian province that shares a border with the U.S. state of Maine. Since 2014 the brainiacs who run the province of New Brunswick have had a fracking moratorium in place–similar to what the State of New York had. Yep, you can see where this one is going. Last week those same brainiacs announced that the fracking moratorium in New Brunswick will go on “indefinitely.” Meaning it’s a ban, not a moratorium. The Canadian’s stupidity is a gift to the Marcellus/Utica because New Brunswick also shares a border with Nova Scotia and there are several LNG (liquefied natural gas) export facilities actively being planned. Those facilities will not get their gas from Nova Scotia or (now) from New Brunswick. The place those facilities will have to get their gas from is the Marcellus/Utica. So thanks, Canada!…
    Read More “Good News for Marcellus: New Brunswick Commits Fracking Suicide”

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    Radical Enviro Groups Demand BLM Stop Leasing in OH Wayne NF

    Wayne National Forest
    Wayne National Forest – click for larger version

    Yet another mindless, useless and scientifically wrong letter has been sent to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) by a group of radical environmental organizations to ask (demand, really) that the BLM halt its plans to allow fracking to take place in the Wayne National Forest (WNF). Nowhere in the letter sent by the Sierra Clubbers, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Ohio Environmental Council and Friends of the Earth does it mention that 60% of the land in WNF is PRIVATELY OWNED. And that the BLM has, for nearly 10 years now, blocked those private rights owners from profiting from their land. Recently the BLM took another baby step on the way to allowing fracking in WNF, which is what has set off the crazies and precipitated this latest factually incorrect letter…
    Read More “Radical Enviro Groups Demand BLM Stop Leasing in OH Wayne NF”

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    $500K Lawsuit Against Litigious Martians Tossed by County Judge

    My Favorite MartianMDN previously reported on the injustice happening in Bulter County, PA where a handful of anti-drilling parents from the Mars School District (“Martians”), backed by money from Philadelphia Big Green groups Delaware Riverkeeper and Clean Air Council, have filed frivolous lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit. The effort is aimed at denying landowners in Middlesex Township revenue from legally permitted drilling. The actions by these radicalized parents have cost the taxpayers of Middlesex Township over $80,000 in legal fees. Landowners with leases got together and sued the radicals to stop this miscarriage of justice (see Shoe Now on Other Foot: Landowners Sue Martian Anti-Drillers). The lawsuit proceeded with the radicals claiming they should be able to sue, but not be sued (see Litigious Martians Cry Like Babies Over $500K Lawsuit Against Them). Unfortunately a county judge has agreed with the Big Money groups from Philly and has tossed the lawsuit against them–with prejudice. Meaning it can’t be re-filed for another go. So much for “justice” when it comes to radical Martians…
    Read More “$500K Lawsuit Against Litigious Martians Tossed by County Judge”

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    Cove Point Protester Sentenced to Jail, Lied About Police Assault

    jail cellWhen did it become “vindictive” to prosecute criminals? That’s what we’re supposed to believe about the prosecution of a radicalized, anti-fossil fuel environmentalist who was just, after nearly one and a half years, sentenced to serve 15 days in jail for lying, falsely claiming local police assaulted her. In February 2015 Heather Doyle, a radical “activist” climbed a crane at the Dominion Cove Point LNG export facility to hang a banner that said, “Dominion get out. Don’t frack Maryland. No gas exports. Save Cove Point.” It’s bad enough that she endangered herself along with another activist who aided her. She also endangered rescue workers and police who had to remove her from the crane. Then Doyle lied to the police and claimed Calvert County Sheriff’s Office deputies assaulted her as they were removing her from the crane SHE climbed up. That’s a very serious charge–especially in this day and age. The police investigated and discovered she was lying, so the District Attorney pressed charges. And it took this long for the case to play out. On May 27, Judge Marjorie Clagett of the Calvert County Circuit Court sentenced Doyle to three months in jail, with all but 15 days suspended, 240 hours of community service, two years of supervised probation, and $165 in court costs. It ain’t much, but it’s a little bit of justice against radicals who frequently break the law in a misguided attempt to protest fossil fuels…
    Read More “Cove Point Protester Sentenced to Jail, Lied About Police Assault”

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    NJ Enviro Groups Continue Attacks on Safe, Needed PennEast Pipe

    straws
    Credit: Wikipedia

    Grasping at straws is the closest analogy we can think of to describe the latest desperate attempt by environmental groups in New Jersey to stop the PennEast Pipeline from getting built. Lawyers for the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association have written to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asking FERC to suspend its review of the PennEast Pipeline application. Why? Because, they say, PennEast hasn’t provided data requested by FERC and several state agencies. Which is, of course, a joke. PennEast has provided everything requested. This is yet another smokescreen, a delay tactic by people who irrationally hate all fossil fuels…
    Read More “NJ Enviro Groups Continue Attacks on Safe, Needed PennEast Pipe”

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    Boston “Religious” Leaders Arrested for Blocking Pipeline Work

    Left your first loveLast July MDN told you about a group of so-called religious leaders from the Boston area who have taken to worshiping Mother Earth (the creation) instead of worshiping the Creator (see Group of Bostonians Use Religion to Protest 5-Mile Natgas Pipeline). We won’t belabor the point we’ve made so often, that these people are hypocrites in the extreme by protesting “fossil fuels” when their very existence is dependent on fossil fuels. This group of so-called religious leaders are against a 5-mile natural gas pipeline that will deliver more cheap, abundant, clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas to local residents in the Boston area. Their sole objection to the pipeline is that natural gas is a fossil fuel, and they object to burning fossil fuels based on twisted religious grounds (even though they arrive at protest events in vehicles powered by fossil fuels). Fine. Let them spout off and make jerks of themselves. We have a First Amendment that allows them to do just that. But spouting off is not enough for this crew. They’ve taken to breaking the law. A group of these misguided “religious leaders” were arrested yesterday because they blocked a construction site for the pipeline, shutting down construction and costing Spectra Energy, the company building it, a load of money. Perhaps the parishioners at the “churches” (and synagogues and mosques) led by these “leaders” will enjoy seeing their offering money go to fund damages?…
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    The Carbon Crazies Turn Out at Exxon Mobil’s Annual Meeting

    System ChangeThe climate changer crazies were in full regalia outside of the Dallas, TX facility where Exxon Mobil was holding its annual meeting yesterday morning. Sporting signs that said “Keep It in the Ground” and “System Change not Climate Change” (which was from “an ecosocialist coalition”) and many others, these nutjobs shouted at investors filing in to the facility. Christopher Helman, a reporter from Forbes, was on hand–both inside the meeting and outside to talk with the crazies (give that man hazard pay!). Helman files this report…
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    PA Radical Enviros Blame Democrat Senator for Quigley Firing

    Jan Jarrett
    Jan Jarrett

    Jan Jarrett, former head of the radical Big Green group PennFuture and one of the people disgraced and fired John Quigley, former Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), colludes with to target Democrats who deign to disagree with his radical policies, is (surprise!) attacking Democrats who disagree with Quigley’s radical policies. Jarrett is accusing Democrat Sen. John Yudichak from Luzerne County, PA of “orchestrating…a vicious, successful smear campaign” against her “dear friend” John Quigley. What utter crap. Quigley and Jarrett are the ones who targeted people with a smear campaign. Quigley told Jarrett’s former employer PennFuture (and other Big Green groups) to get off their rear-ends (dropping the “f” bomb) and to do something about so-called “apostates” in the Democrat Party who are not supporting his wild and radical regulatory proposals (read the email here – Smoking Gun: Copy of the Email that Got John Quigley Fired). No doubt Sen. Yudichak had something to do with exposing the email sent by Quigley–FROM A PRIVATE ACCOUNT which is unethical in the extreme, perhaps illegal–to the light of day for all to see. But for Jarrett and others to blame Yudichak and target him for helping to expose Quigley’s unethical behavior is like a criminal blaming the victim for telling the truth about what happened…
    Read More “PA Radical Enviros Blame Democrat Senator for Quigley Firing”

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    Smoking Gun: Copy of the Email that Got John Quigley Fired

    smoking-gun.jpgIn the end, it was John Quigley’s own hubris that resulted in his demise as Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection. As we reported yesterday, last Friday Sec. Quigley suddenly resigned his position (see PA DEP Sec. John Quigley Resigns Over Email Collusion Scandal). Most media reports blame an email scandal as the primary reason for his dismissal. As one MDN reader wrote to us, how could Quigley be so stupid as to commit his remarks to an email? Why didn’t he just pick up the phone and call his buddies at Big Green radical groups to collude with them? Indeed. If he had, he might still have a job. Below we have a copy of the infamous email Quigley sent to PennFuture, PennEnvironment, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. In the email he drops the “f” bomb first thing–essentially a verbal slap across the faces of his Big Green buddies. He “encourages” them, like a Mafioso don, to extract payment for enviro “apostacy” from Democrats who dare to disagree with him and his radical enviro policies–and to “shame” Republicans. When you read it, you’ll know exactly why Quigley was FIRED by Gov. Wolf…
    Read More “Smoking Gun: Copy of the Email that Got John Quigley Fired”

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    OH Fractivists Want BLM to Extend Comment Period for Wayne NF

    Wayne National Forest
    Wayne National Forest – 60% of the mineral rights are privately owned

    The anti-drilling loons of Athens County, OH are at it again. ACFAN (The Athens County Fracking Action Network) along with other radicals like the Ohio Sierra Club, want the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to extend a comment period on drilling operations that are due to begin in Wayne National Forest (WNF). We’ve previously written plenty about WNF, including the fact that 60% of the forest is privately owned and that the federal government has blocked those private citizens from accessing the oil and gas under their land going on 10 years now (see our WNF stories here). ACFAN also wants another freak show, er, a, public hearing–so they can parade themselves before the cameras one more time. Thing is, the BLM has already held public hearings. The BLM has accepted public comments–for YEARS. It’s time to end this nonsense and to allow fracking to begin on PEOPLE’S PRIVATE PROPERTY. Enough of these delay tactics by groups like ACFAN…
    Read More “OH Fractivists Want BLM to Extend Comment Period for Wayne NF”

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    Pipes Stacked & Ready to Go in Lebanon, PA for Atlantic Sunrise

    Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline map
    Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline map – click for larger version

    Anti-drillers in Lebanon County, PA–virulently opposed to any new pipeline construction in the county–have their noses bent out of joint. Williams and their Transco pipeline have had the temerity to stack a bunch of pipe they intend to use when construction begins. This can’t stand!! It means (gasp) construction will soon begin. The pretend bubble these kooks live in has just been burst and they frankly don’t know how to handle it. They are “surprised and dismayed” by seeing the stacked pipes. It’s kind of amusing…
    Read More “Pipes Stacked & Ready to Go in Lebanon, PA for Atlantic Sunrise”

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    Big Green Groups Attack Rhode Island Gov re Clean NatGas

    RI Gov. Gina Raimondo
    RI Gov. Gina Raimondo

    Over a dozen Big Green groups–radicals opposed to clean-burning natural gas simply because it has the word “fossil” in front of the name “fuel”–are pressuring someone who they consider to be an easy target–the governor of the socialist state of Rhode Island. RI Gov. Gina Raimondo is supporting a critically-needed electric generating plant that will be powered by clean-burning natural gas–to be built by Invenergy. The reason Big Green opposes it? Because methane is “a potent greenhouse gas contributing to the climate crises.” First, there is no climate crises. Doesn’t exist. Second, these kooks not only claim the stuff you breathe out with every breath–carbon dioxide–is leading to man-made global warming, they now insist the smelly farts you emit (i.e. methane) are contributing to global warming too. Why does nobody point out the utter asininity of what they say? Why does anyone take them seriously? Here’s the latest diatribe from the usual sources, primarily the odious and misnamed Food & Water Watch…
    Read More “Big Green Groups Attack Rhode Island Gov re Clean NatGas”

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    PA DEP Sec. John Quigley Resigns Over Email Collusion Scandal

    John Quigley
    John Quigley – former PA DEP Secretary

    Last Friday the Pennsylvania Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), John Quigley, abruptly resigned. It was sudden and unexpected and came a few hours after Gov. Wolf’s administration announced it has launched an investigation into an email sent by Quigley using a private email account (same m.o. as Hillary) to several radically left environmental groups. He used a back channel to communicate with the groups, to avoid detection and future Freedom of Information Law requests. News reports say the email, which was sent in April, urged the enviro groups to mobilize and press for action to support the onerous so-called greenhouse gas regulations Quigley is trying adopt. Shortly after receiving the email, those groups, including Quigley’s former employer–the radical PennEnvironment–flew into action and began advertisements that support Quigley’s unpopular regulations. The ads targeted Democrats who are opposing the regulations. In other words, John Quigley colluded with PennEnvironment and other radical enviro groups. Whether the collusion was illegal or just unethical will be up to investigators (and perhaps prosecutors and the courts) to decide. It’s very good news–for drillers, landowners and all PA residents–that Quigley is now gone…
    Read More “PA DEP Sec. John Quigley Resigns Over Email Collusion Scandal”

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    NY AG’s Allegation of Tree Cutting by Constitution Pipe a Fraud

    Eric-Schneiderman.jpg
    NY’s arrogant AG – Eric Schneiderman

    The Attorney General of New York State, Eric Schneiderman, has been caught in a lie and he’s furiously backpedaling, trying to cover it up. On May 13 Schneiderman tried to pull a fast one by filing a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requesting FERC investigate the Constitution Pipeline for illegal felling of trees along the pipeline’s path in New York State (see NY Attorney General Asks FERC to Investigate Constitution Pipe). Guess what. Tree’s WERE cut along the path–but not by the Constitution. Landowners who wanted to realize the most money from trees that will eventually be cut were cutting the trees ON THEIR OWN, without the help, consent, assistance, nor any form of aide from the Constitution. Schneiderman’s pathetic response? The Constitution should have known those stupid farmers would cut the trees and should have done something to stop it. What breathtaking arrogance…
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