Anti-Drilling Trout Unlimited Crying Over $180M in Frozen Funds
For more than 13 years MDN has harped on the fact that groups like Trout Unlimited are filled with extremist anti-drillers (see our article Anti-Drilling Close-up: Trout Unlimited from October 2012). In February 2014, a national organization aimed a spotlight on Trout Unlimited and several other so-called “conservation” groups (see Trout Unlimited, Other Groups Outted as Radical Green Groups). The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) said TU and several other groups, while starting with good intentions, have been “co-opted by wealthy grant-making bodies notorious for their support of anti-gun, radical environmentalist agendas” all the while pretending to support hunters and fishermen. Now comes word that anti-drilling TU is being funded with OUR tax dollars—some $180 million of our tax dollars. Trump and the DOGE team have frozen that funding and TU is crying like a baby. Read More “Anti-Drilling Trout Unlimited Crying Over $180M in Frozen Funds”
Two months ago, a video circulated on social media featuring a Biden EPA political appointee talking about “tossing gold bars off the Titanic,” intentionally rushing to get billions of tax dollars recklessly out of the agency before Inauguration Day. The EPA’s new sheriff, Lee Zeldin, located $20 billion of those gold bars sitting at a Citibank bank account (see 
Sorry to be so blunt: You can’t fix stupid. You can only call attention to it, which is what we’re doing with a group of “40 to 50” protesters who gathered yesterday at the Ohio Statehouse to protest drilling for oil and gas under state-owned land, including drilling under (not on) state parks. It was cold and blustery, so they get props for coming out in the foul weather. However, all of the clothes they wore, including the coats, hats, mittens, gloves, boots, not to mention their signage, the glasses some of them wore, the cell phones in their pockets, the bullhorn and podium the used—were all made from the very oil and gas they were protesting. Not to mention none of them arrived there by horse and buggy or by walking. They all drove vehicles made from and powered by fossil fuels. Do they realize how ridiculous they looked? No, we suppose not. 
In May 2024, more than 50 “groups” colluding with ringleader Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI) sent a letter to the Department of Energy (DOE) calling for the suspension of the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2), falsely claiming an “extreme lack of transparency” and lack of “meaningful community engagement” during project negotiations (see 
Earlier this month U.S. District Judge Robert D. Mariani dismissed the Wayne Land and Mineral Group (WLMG) v. Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) lawsuit that argued the DRBC had “taken” the property rights of landowners in eastern Pennsylvania, robbing them of their right to allow shale drilling on and under their land. It’s a sad and bitter end for landowners in PA’s Wayne and Pike counties where there is bountiful Marcellus shale waiting to be extracted. 
Wow! What a difference 10 years and the election of Donald J. Trump can make. In May 2015, MDN reported that HSBC Bank (otherwise known as The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) circulated a note to investors telling them they should divest from fossil fuel companies. HSBC said if they didn’t divest from fossil energy, they “may one day be seen to be late movers, on ‘the wrong side of history’”. We told you then that fossil fuel supporters should consider divesting from HSBC (see 
President Trump is close to taking an ax to the root of an EPA regulation that has allowed leftist environmentalists to rule the roost for the past 15 years. In 2009, the EPA adopted a major regulatory rule called the “endangerment finding.” The finding concluded that six so-called greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) — constitute an endangerment to public health and welfare due to their contribution to global climate change. The finding gives the EPA the power to regulate those gases under the umbrella of the Clean Air Act. Trump intends to overturn the finding, which would take down all the greenhouse rules for CO2 and methane. 
Last week, President Trump issued a directive to the heads of Executive Branch agencies to review all funding said agencies provide to NGOs (nongovernmental organizations). The aim is to pull the plug on funding NGOs engaged in actions that actively undermine the security, prosperity, and safety of the American people. There’s a LOT of corruption in NGOs. Big money from the federal government (taxpayers!) flows in, and the NGOs give it to crazy anti-American, anti-energy programs and agencies. Elon Musk is convinced there’s a LOT of corruption in the form of payments (kickbacks) going to grease the palms of people all along the food chain. Our specific interest is in defunding environmental NGOs—organizations like the National Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, Food & Water Watch, and other disgusting organizations that are using (at least in part) OUR money. 
We’ve made this observation many times over the years, but here we go again. Ever notice how lefty environmentalists “demand” this and “demand” that? They’re a very demanding bunch, which is why nobody pays them any attention (except us). Here’s the latest example. A group of 30 “organizations” (many of them fronts for one or two people) sent a letter to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine demanding that he block/suspend/pause shale drilling under (not on) Ohio state lands, including parks. The letter uses factual inaccuracies and outright lies to try and scare DeWine into blocking legal drilling under state-owned land. 
Arguably the most qualified person to ever become Secretary of the Department of Energy, Chris Wright (CEO of Liberty Energy, a fracking company) was confirmed on Monday by the full U.S. Senate (59-38 vote), replacing arguably the most unqualified person to ever hold the position, Jennifer Granholm. The comparison is striking. Chris Wright not only headed a major oil and gas company, but he also has experience with the nuclear energy space and advanced degrees in electrical AND mechanical engineering. Smart guy. Granholm, on the other hand, was a complete political hack picked by Biden to do the bidding of the radicalized left. She’s been a political hack her entire adult life, first as Attorney General and later as Governor of Michigan. She didn’t know (still doesn’t) a darned thing about energy, which is quite obvious. 
Pennsylvania’s do-nothing Governor, Josh Shapiro, traveled to Pittsburgh yesterday to put on another shuck-and-jive all-sizzle-no-steak show. He was there to unveil what he calls his “Lightning Plan” for energy in the state. His big plan? Reintroduce and try to bully Republicans into accepting a Marcellus-killing carbon tax and onerous regulations on emissions (called PACER, see 
In June 2019, the New York State legislature passed a horrific “energy” bill that was later signed into law by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (see 
There has been a shift in the ongoing war to defeat fossil energy. Have you felt it? It’s a shift in the direction of those of us who support fossil energy. Yes, the election of Donald Trump, who ran on a platform of unapologetically supporting oil and gas (and coal), and his overwhelming victory is a watershed moment in history. However, we propose that Trump’s win is a result (evidence of) and not the cause of this shift. A recent commentary in the Wall Street Journal nails the reason for the shift against radical environmentalism and in favor of fossil energy. The article begins with this lucid and insightful statement: “Momentous social movements begin to die the moment adherents figure out their leaders don’t believe what they say.” 
Last November, three of five supervisors in Cecil Township (Washington County), PA, voted to ban all new fracking via a new setback (distance from well to nearest structure) requirement of 2,500 feet (see 
In March 2024, we reported that two Democrats and one anti-drilling RINO who run Bucks County, PA government (a Philadelphia suburb) fell for the bait by Big Green and filed a lawsuit against Big Oil companies for supposedly, knowingly, causing the Earth to toast to a cinder (see 
BlackRock is the largest investment firm in the world, currently with $11.6 trillion of investments under management. Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, pushed the so-called ESG (environment, social, governance) agenda for years. What the left and people like Fink mean by ESG is don’t invest in or use fossil fuel energy (E), everything is racist (S), and the government is always right when Democrats are in charge (G). Fink stopped using the ESG term in 2023, although he continued to push the ESG agenda of divesting from fossil fuel companies (see