Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel

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    Anti Groups Try to Convince EPA They Got it Wrong with Water Study

    wrongHoping to get one more squeeze and a few more drops of juice out of news that’s now years old, the odious Earthworks and equally odious Food & Water Watch organized a protest rally in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday and trotted out the same old tired, lying anti-drillers from Dimock, PA, Pavillion, WY and Parker County, TX to “demand” that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) simply dump the findings of their four-year study that concluded fracking doesn’t pollute water supplies (see EPA Draft Report Says Fracking Doesn’t Pollute Groundwater Supplies). Anti-fossil fuel organizations like Earthworks and FWW about had a conniption fit when the EPA announced that after turning over every stone, pebble and spec of sand, they couldn’t find proof that fracking contaminates groundwater supplies. So the only thing they could do was to condemn the EPA. But therein lies the problem–because the EPA colludes with these same groups on sue-and-settle court cases all the time. They’re friends. They’re buddies. So falling out with the EPA leads to being conflicted. The planets are not properly aligned. How to resolve it? Convince the EPA with protests and pressure that they were wrong. They did it wrong. They ignored some of their own research and reseachers and came to the wrong conclusion. “Just admit you were wrong and everything will be OK. We’ll forgive you.” That’s what the “rally” was about on Wednesday in DC…
    Read More “Anti Groups Try to Convince EPA They Got it Wrong with Water Study”

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    PA Big Green Groups Elated: Latest EPA Sue-and-Settle Scam Worked

    scam alertA gang of Big Green groups are tickled pink–or is it tickled “green”–that their continuous frivolous lawsuits against the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have once again yield the desired result. Radical leftist “green” groups like Earthworks, Environmental Integrity Project, THE Delaware Riverkeeper, and yes, PennFuture (where PA’s current Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley, used to work), had previously sued the federal EPA to force onerous new reporting rules on natural gas processing plants, using lies about the kinds of air pollutants released by the plants. The EPA cooperates with these sleazy organizations in a “sue and settle” scam. “Hey, you sue us for this, a liberal judge will ‘make us’ do it–then we can bypass Congress and everyone else and set up our own laws outside of that stupid old Constitution.” That’s how these groups collude with the EPA (see Environmentalists & Government Collude in “Sue and Settle” Cases). So a group of Big Green groups mostly located in PA were elated when the EPA confirmed their latest sue-and-settle scam had worked. So elated they issued a press release doing a happy dance–loaded up with yet more lies about the oil and gas industry. We bring you their press release below to (a) point out how many sleazy Big Green groups are engaging in this nefarious activity from the Marcellus/Utica region, and (b) point out the incestuous nature of these groups–with people like John Quigley now actually (fantastically) in charge of regulating the oil and gas industry in PA–although he used to actively work against that same industry when he worked for PennFuture…
    Read More “PA Big Green Groups Elated: Latest EPA Sue-and-Settle Scam Worked”

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    Youngstown Halloween Scare: the CELDF Ballot Initiative

    HalloweenHere’s something that should scare the #$%@ out of you this Halloween: the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). The CELDF, based in Pennsylvania, is attempting to interfere in other states like Ohio by fleecing local governments into believing they can pass so-called community bill of rights legislation (i.e. “home rule” laws). Problem is, the local communities who have tried it keep getting sued, and losing in court–and taxpayers end up paying tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees in an empty gesture to make a statement opposing shale energy. Our friends at Energy in Depth have put together a video for this Halloween that exposes the CELDF and should scare you to death, especially if you live in Youngstown, OH where a CELDF ballot initiative will be on the ballot this November (next week), for the FIFTH TIME…
    Read More “Youngstown Halloween Scare: the CELDF Ballot Initiative”

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    Delaware Riverkeeper Scams FERC in Review of PennEast Pipeline

    scam alertTHE Delaware Riverkeeper is running a scam on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). By all accounts it is a legal scam–but a scam nonetheless. FERC has a process known as a motion to intervene. Individuals, towns and organizations with a vested, legitimate interest can file to “intervene” in a project application–like the PennEast Pipeline. PennEast recently filed their application, so those people who may be affected can file to intervene–offer comments to FERC and remain updated by FERC–to ensure FERC hears and addresses the information and concerns of people with a vested, legitimate interest. Typically an intervenor might be a township where the pipeline is planned to run, or perhaps a farmer with a concern that a pipeline will destroy a good hay field. If you just want to mouth off about fossil fuels and fracking and evil pipelines–send a comment to FERC. They get mountains of them for every project. Here’s the scam: Riverkeeper recently ran “intervenor training” in an attempt to get as many people as possible to sign up as intervenors, including children, thereby overloading FERC’s ability to keep track of it all and respond to it all–slowing down the approval process for PennEast. As a fringe benefit, the more intervenors who register, the more the media makes a big deal out of it. It’s all a scam. It’s a setup. And we expose it below…
    Read More “Delaware Riverkeeper Scams FERC in Review of PennEast Pipeline”

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    Mass. Attorney General Continues Campaign Against NED Pipeline

    Maura Healey
    MA AG Maura Healey

    Does the shrill-sounding Massachusetts Attorney General, Maura Healey, belong to any radical environmental groups like the Sierra Club? Because she sure sounds like she does. Healey is doing everything in her power (and she wields a lot of power) to inject herself into the federal government’s role of approving or not approving Kinder Morgan’s proposed Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline project–a project that would stretch from Pennsylvania into New York, through Massachusetts into New Hampshire and finally back into Massachusetts near Boston. It is a mammoth $5.5 billion project meant to address the economic hardship situation in New England where they pay 4x what other areas of the country pay for electricity and natural gas. Yet the shrill-sounding Healey continues to file letter after letter with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the agency tasked with reviewing the project, hoping she can convince them to reject the pipeline. Healey is one of the many unreasonable (not able to be reasoned with) anti-fossil fuelers against the project–because it’s a fossil fuel. Here’s her latest tirade, filed with FERC last Friday, the last day for public comments on the NED project…
    Read More “Mass. Attorney General Continues Campaign Against NED Pipeline”

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    Harrisburg Newspaper’s Attack Series on Marcellus Exposed

    media biasOne of the Pennsylvania Democrat in-house publishing operations is the Harrisburg Patriot-News. Owned by Dems, run by Dems, slavishly supportive of Dems. That about sums up the Patriot-News. They don’t even pretend to be unbiased in their “reporting” on issues like the Marcellus Shale. This past Monday the Patriot-News began running a series of lying hit pieces against the Marcellus industry–in a transparent attempt to help their boy Gov. Tom Wolf in his bid to hike taxes on the drilling industry. We’ve read some of the articles. Lie after lie after lie. We haven’t commented on it here in MDN because it’s just more of the same. Why bother? The paper is obviously agenda-driven and cares nothing whatever about reporting real, actual news. However, MDN friend Tom Shepstone has put together a brilliant expose of their lies, so we’re bringing you a copy (from his always-excellent Natural Gas Now website) below. Tom points out this “series” by the Patriot-News is a perfect example of why no one trusts the media any more…
    Read More “Harrisburg Newspaper’s Attack Series on Marcellus Exposed”

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    Enviro Groups File Lawsuit Against EPA to Force O&G Waste Regs

    Sue and SettleThe legal beagles at energy law firm Babst Calland are raising the alert that another “sue and settle” lawsuit has been filed against the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by seven radical environmental groups. This is the latest attempt at forcing the EPA to comply with a lawsuit that they intentionally lose. What? Yes, they intentionally lose the lawsuit and then tell Congress that they “have to” comply with a court order “forcing” them to enact certain unlegislated rules and regulations in order to comply with a judge’s order–in effect giving them one more weapon in their arsenal to illegally regulate the oil and gas industry. Regulation of oil and gas is Constitutionally left up to the individual states. The EPA, especially under Obama, has been innovating ways to circumvent the Constitution and Congress and cease regulation authority. So-called “sue and settle” lawsuits are one of the ways they do it. Here comes another one. This time radical environmental groups (which should be sued themselves) have sued the EPA to force them to regular oil and gas drilling wastes under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Here’s a summary of what’s happening…
    Read More “Enviro Groups File Lawsuit Against EPA to Force O&G Waste Regs”

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    81 Big Companies Sell Out U.S., Support Obama’s Climate Madness

    climate change insanityIn December President Obama will travel to Paris to sign a climate treaty that forfeits the sovereignty of the United States of America–the country he swore to protect. The Paris climate treaty is another in a long line of attempts (like Kyoto) to convince stupid Americans to give up the right to control their own country and destiny–to sell ourselves out and let non-American, un-elected socialists from other countries determine how we will live in the future. They use the bogeyman myth of global warming to do it. They are all aiming to commit mass energy suicide by outlawing fossil fuels–but it won’t work if we don’t play along. We pray Congress stops this madness, but now we despair. You see, big business is in bed with big government and funds the political ruling class in Washington and in return the politicians pass laws favorable to them. Some 81 of the biggest big businesses (who contribute heavily to Congress and receive preferential treatment in return) have signed on to a pact to support Obama’s climate madness. They actually want him to sign the treaty that gives up our national sovereignty. Without these 81 big businesses (full list below) you literally could not live–from Walmart to Hershey to Nike to Apple to Google to Kellogg’s to American Express…the list goes on. Sadly, even some in our own industry have signed on, including Invenergy. Shame on them. If we were to boycott them (as should happen) we’d have to live like hermits in the wilderness. No one can live without the goods and services provided by this list of 81 mega corporations. And each and every one of them have sold us out. It’s truly a sad and depressing day…
    Read More “81 Big Companies Sell Out U.S., Support Obama’s Climate Madness”

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    The Big (Green) Money Behind NY’s Anti-Fracking Movement

    Big Green MoneyWhat many rank and file members of the New York anti-fracking movement may not realize, or perhaps chooses to ignore, is that the people at their rallies and meetings standing behind the microphones are being paid to do so. The organizers of groups like New Yorkers Against Fracking and Frack Action are funded by the odious Park Foundation to pedal their smears and lies against fossil energy. The Park Foundation gave New Yorkers Against Fracking $125,000 earlier this year, in part to pay for organizers to travel across the country spreading the word (i.e. lie) that a little rag-tag bunch of protesters convinced the mighty Andrew Cuomo of the righteousness of their cause–and you can do it in your state too. In other words, the anti-fracking movement has become a cottage industry where people get paid to mouth off at rallies, before reporters–before anyone who will listen. They are paid by the Park Foundation and other Big Green groups to do so…
    Read More “The Big (Green) Money Behind NY’s Anti-Fracking Movement”

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    Scranton Newspaper: PA/OH/WV Should Cooperate on High NatGas Tax

    it's not fairWe wonder, do the liberal editors of the Democrat propaganda machine known as the Scranton Times-Tribune consider it “fair” to close down legitimate businesses that provide jobs and tax revenue to the state by targeting them with even higher taxes, forcing them out of business because they no longer turn a profit? Is “profit” a bad word around the news room of the Times-Tribune? Is the word “capitalism” banned from so-called reporters’ lips at the Times-Tribune? Those are the kinds of thoughts that roll around our brain box when we read yet another sycophantic “we need to tax the Marcellus industry more than we do already” editorial from the brainiacs at the Times-Tribune
    Read More “Scranton Newspaper: PA/OH/WV Should Cooperate on High NatGas Tax”

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    PennEast Pipeline May Use Eminent Domain on Holdout Landowners

    eminent domainIf landowners along the route of the PennEast Pipeline don’t sign a lease with the company, PennEast says they will be forced to (and will) use eminent domain to gain lease rights. The PennEast, as a reminder, is a proposed pipeline costing $1 billion that will run from Luzerne County, PA (near Wilkes-Barre) all the way to Mercer County, NJ (just outside of Trenton), flowing 1 billion cubic feet of clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas each and every day. Landowners along the pipeline’s route will still own the land, but there will be restrictions–you can’t erect a building over top of a pipeline, for example. PennEast looks at eminent domain as an absolute last resort. However, according to the radicals at the PA Sierra Club who are opposing the pipeline, around two-thirds of the landowners along the pipeline’s route have not yet signed a lease to allow the pipeline across their land. PennEast recently filed their official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see PennEast Pipeline Files Official Application with FERC, Antis Mad). Here’s an update on the eminent domain issue and the rank hypocrisy of the Sierra Clubbers on the pipeline issue…
    Read More “PennEast Pipeline May Use Eminent Domain on Holdout Landowners”

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    What’s Next for NY/NJ Port Ambrose Floating LNG Terminal?

    who caresTwo days ago MDN told you that the U.S. Coast Guard has approved of a project off the coast of New York and New Jersey that would import natural gas from Trinidad (see Coast Guard Approves Port Ambrose LNG Import Terminal Near NYC/NJ). The USCG’s approval is an important step–but not the only step before Liberty Natural Gas begins construction of the Port Ambrose floating LNG facility. The project must be approved by the United States Maritime Administration too. And, either governor, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo or NJ Gov. Chris Christie, can veto the project and prevent it–a lot of power for a governor to wield. We’re not all that excited about the Port Ambrose project ourselves–we think it’s not necessary with all of the gas we have in the Marcellus/Utica. We also don’t like how Liberty bashes “fracked gas” like the molecules in Marcellus gas are somehow different from natural gas imported from Trinidad. That’s just a marketing ploy. What’s really hilarious is how anti-fossil fuelers are reacting. Once again, as they did with the fracking issue, antis are stalking Gov. Cuomo at public events to pressure him to veto this project. A group of made complete asses of themselves Wednesday night by dressing up in Revolutionary War-era costumes and singing environmental versions of songs from the musical “Hamilton” that Cuomo attended. Will Cuomo cave to these nutjobs yet again as he did with fracking? Will Liberty get to build their off-shore import terminal? Do we even care?…
    Read More “What’s Next for NY/NJ Port Ambrose Floating LNG Terminal?”

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    Landowner Lawsuit Against Martians NOT Dismissed After All

    My Favorite MartianLast month MDN told you that a county judge in Butler County, PA dismissed a lawsuit brought by a business and group of Middlesex Township landowners against two Big Green groups and four anti-fossil fuel parents from the Mars School District–whom we refer to as the Martians (see Landowners’ Countersuit Against Martians Tossed by Obama Judge). MDN reported the lawsuit was dismissed based on a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story which interviewed one of the lawyers for the Martians, from the anti-American American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The ACLU flack said the case was dismissed and we figured he must know how courts work, so we believed it. Our mistake. The unquestioning Post-Gazette reporter also bought the lies pedaled by the ACLU lawyer. What really happened was this: The judge said the case will be dismissed IF a more specific case is not filed within 20 days. Guess what? A new case was filed and (so far) the lawsuit against Delaware Riverkeeper and the Clean Air Council (both of Philly, on the other side of the state) as well as against the Martians, is still alive…
    Read More “Landowner Lawsuit Against Martians NOT Dismissed After All”

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    Shale Playing Big Role in PA Supreme Court Race, 3 Open Seats

    vote early vote oftenEven the election of judges for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is political, sadly. Extreme leftist environmental groups in PA, including Clean Water Action, the Pennsylvania Sierra Club, PennEnvironment, and Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania are engaging in political activities (in violation of their non-profit, tax-exempt status) by endorsing a slate of candidates and pushing their members to vote for those candidates. We know this will be a complete shock for you, but the three candidates running for three open seats on the Supreme Court being pushed by the enviro extremist groups are all (gasp) liberal Democrats who are likely to vote against the Marcellus Shale industry on cases that come before the high court…
    Read More “Shale Playing Big Role in PA Supreme Court Race, 3 Open Seats”

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    Gang of 20 Anti-Fossil Fuel Groups Attack Philly Energy Hub Plan

    can't fix stupidMore evidence of the insanity of well-funded Big Green groups like Food & Water Watch, THE (arrogant) Delaware Riverkeeper, Clean Air Council and others. Not getting enough traction on their own, 20 Big Green groups have decided to collude in violation of their non-profit status. The 20 groups held a “massive” joint rally yesterday in Philadelphia (pictures look like there’s maybe three dozen people present) to announce the formation of a new coalition called Green Justice Philly. The object of the coalition is to push back against the plan to make Philadelphia an energy hub in the northeast–like Houston is in the southwest. The gang of 20 have pledged to coordinate their lies and attacks on the fossil fuel industry, hoping to stop forward progress against fossil fuel companies, which they call “lawbreakers.” The gang of 20 is pressuring Philadelphia City Council to decline new permits for companies like Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES)–which operates the East Coast’s largest refinery on the banks of the Delaware River–hoping to prevent PES from building anything new or expanding their existing operation any further in Philadelphia. The gang of 20 wants to choke off new jobs and new investment if those jobs and investment comes from the evil, vile fossil fuel industry. Boggles the mind…
    Read More “Gang of 20 Anti-Fossil Fuel Groups Attack Philly Energy Hub Plan”

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    Walnut Cove, NC Plans to Pass Illegal Frack Moratorium

    illegalLast month MDN told you about the a group of politicians in Stokes County, North Caroline (Board of Commissioners) who voted to pass a three-year moratorium on shale drilling in the county (see Sad: NC County Passes 3-Year Moratorium on Fracking). Not long after that story ran the NC state legislature passed a law, signed by the governor, that makes such local laws illegal, nullifying the Stokes County vote (see NC Legislature Makes Local Frack Bans/Moratoria Illegal). MDN was contacted by one of the top geologists in the Marcellus/Utica, originally from North Carolina, to let us know there really isn’t anything much worth fracking in Stokes County anyway–so it’s kind of an empty political gesture. Now a township in Stokes County–Walnut Cove–is set to vote on the same thing, knowing full well their vote is illegal, daring someone to challenge them in court…
    Read More “Walnut Cove, NC Plans to Pass Illegal Frack Moratorium”