Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel

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    Poll: PA Voters Want AG Kathleen Kane to Resign

    We have a second poll to share with you today from Robert Morris University, conducted in early June, this one on the topic of Pennsylvania’s anti-drilling and law-breaking Attorney General, Kathleen Kane. We won’t recount the laundry list of Kane’s persecution of the drilling industry in the state. We’ll only remind you that a grand jury is rumored to have found that she lied under oath–a little offense called perjury (see PA Grand Jury Finds Anti-Drilling AG Kathleen Kane Lied Under Oath). In a desperate attempt to hold on to power, Kane hired Lanny Davis to represent her in court. Lanny was Bill Clinton’s attack dog lawyer, hired to represent him after he lied under oath about getting BJs in the Oval Office. The depressing news coming from the RMU poll is that half of the residents of Pennsylvania don’t know about the “controversies” surrounding Kane–the fact that she lied under oath, etc. But of the other half who do know about it, two-thirds of them think she should resign–now…
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    Cecil Twp Approves MarkWest Compressor, with Poison Pill Conditions

    Cecil Township (Washington County), PA, one of the seven selfish towns that sued to overturn a portion of PA’s Act 13 oil and gas drilling law granting them the right to retain local zoning authority over oil and gas related activities, have found their Act 13 victory to be somewhat hollow. As MDN reported nearly a month ago, Cecil has steadfastly refused to grant a permit to MarkWest Energy to build a compressor station since 2010 (five years ago!). After a lawsuit that worked its way through various levels of courts, and after Cecil exhausted all other options, a judge ordered them to grant the permit no later than May 30. Cecil proceeded to violate that deadline (see Cecil Twp Violates Court Order re MarkWest Compressor Permit). Last night, after intense last minute negotiations with MarkWest, the town finally voted to grant the permit, but not before sneaking in two last minute changes to conditions both sides worked out in advance, changes that will likely mean yet another trip to the judge. Seems Cecil is still intent on stopping the compressor station…
    Read More “Cecil Twp Approves MarkWest Compressor, with Poison Pill Conditions”

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    VA Gentry Class Raising $1M to Oppose Atlantic Coast Pipeline

    Wealthy landowners in Virginia are halfway to raising $1 million in their effort to torpedo Dominion’s planned $5 billion, 550-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Just yesterday we told you that a majority of residents in West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina support the project (see Poll: Majority of Voters in VA, WV, NC Favor Atlantic Coast Pipeline). The pipeline will flow natural gas from the Marcellus/Utica to points across the southeast. That is, unless NIMBY’s raise enough money to run advertising campaigns to convince officials and regulators that this pipeline should not get built. Never underestimate the power of a bribe, er, a, “advertising” money. The new favorite phrase of those who oppose pipelines (watch for it in sycophantic media stories) is that pipelines are a “scar” on Mother Earth. How wicked and despicable to want to scar your mother…
    Read More “VA Gentry Class Raising $1M to Oppose Atlantic Coast Pipeline”

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    Bumper Sticker: Ban Food & Water Watch Now

    Ban Food & Water Watch Now. That’s the bumper sticker we think people should put on their vehicles to express displeasure with the lies peddled by this un-American organization. Big Green organizations like the Park Foundation and the William Penn Foundation fund the activities of Food & Water Watch and other virulently anti-drilling organizations (including the Sierra Clubbers). In turn, these partisan hacks peddle lies at public meetings, and use money from their Big Green benefactors to launch frivolous lawsuits that slow down and in some cases stop shale drilling and pipeline projects. We think they should be stopped. They should be banned. What? “That’s outrageous! They have a right to express themselves!” So too, do pro-drillers. We have as much right to demand that THEIR organization be banned as they have to demand that fracking and pipelines (and all of the jobs and economic benefits that come from it) be banned. We’re simply putting the shoe on the other foot to see how they like wearing it. At a minimum, the IRS needs to investigate their tax exempt status with an eye to revoking it…
    Read More “Bumper Sticker: Ban Food & Water Watch Now”

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    Antis Hate Marcellus Shale Drilling…Because of Richard Nixon?!

    Richard NixonOne of the most hated politicians (for the liberal left) in all of American history was Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th President of these United States. Which is ironic, because it was Nixon who created the blight on America we have today known as the Environmental Protection Agency–one of the libs’ favorite government agencies. Anywho, imagine our delight when we read this headline from a letter to the editor in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale fulfills President Nixon’s dream of energy independence.” The letter (full copy below) is written by MDN friend Joe Massaro from Energy in Depth. It got us to thinking, maybe the libs hate Marcellus Shale drilling not only because they consider it a crime against Mother Earth, with so-called global warming, but maybe they instinctively hate it because they hate Richard Nixon! Yeah! Libs don’t have to make sense (they rarely do)–and this explanation is as good as any, right? Read on to see how our buddy Joe found yet another liberal sore spot–associating Marcellus drilling with Richard Nixon–and jammed his foot on it…
    Read More “Antis Hate Marcellus Shale Drilling…Because of Richard Nixon?!”

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    Why Haven’t Anti Groups Opposed Andrew Place for PA PUC?

    Andrew Place - EQTSurprisingly, a very perceptive article in the Harrisburg Patriot-News asks the question, Why hasn’t there been a peep on the part of anti-drillers over the nomination of EQT’s Andrew Place to become a member of the board for the state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC)? Indeed, it’s a great question. EQT is a major Marcellus Shale driller based in Pittsburgh. The PUC is charged with collecting impact fees from shale drillers. The author of the article says imagine this headline, if it were 2014: “Corbett administration taps shale industry exec for key regulatory post.” Mainstream (Democrat) media would have a field day! We would have been treated to nonstop exposés on how Tom Corbett is in the back pocket of the drilling industry…political payoff…political patronage…backroom dealing…conflict of interest…et cetera ad nauseam. A year later it’s a Democrat governor doing the appointing, so the obedient Democrat media hasn’t breathed a word questioning the appointment. We’ve seen wingnut groups disagree with Wolf when it comes to drilling–they’d rather have no drilling than tax it, given the option. So why are these same “environmental” groups, like PennFuture which is opposed to the drilling industry and anyone/anything connected to it, apparently OK with the nomination of Andrew Place?…
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    Pitt. Post-Gazette Affirms AMA Lie re Frack Chemical Disclosure

    Shale drillers already full disclose the relative thimbleful of chemicals used in fracking solutions. They do so by listing them on the FracFocus.org website–well by well for each well they drill. Recently the American Medical Association, either through ignorance or (more likely) an intentional desire to mislead the American public voted to adopt a resolution calling for the full disclosure of chemicals used in fracking (see American Medical Assoc Votes for Full Disclosure of Frack Chemicals). Makes no difference that this already happens. The point is to further the myth that it doesn’t happen. Just to ensure low information headline readers are 100% brainwashed on this issue, the editorial writers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette come along to affirm the AMA’s lie…
    Read More “Pitt. Post-Gazette Affirms AMA Lie re Frack Chemical Disclosure”

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    Anti Drillers Demand DRBC Hold 7 Meetings on PennEast Pipeline

    Some 16 so-called “environmental and community” groups (leftist/socialist groups) are calling on the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to hold seven public hearings on the proposed PennEast Pipeline, a 114-mile pipeline slated to run from the Scranton, PA area to the Trenton, NJ area. Why stop at seven? Why not 10? Or 20? Or 50? Let’s have a public hearing every day of the week! The aim is, of course, to provide free publicity and a forum for anti-drillers to engage in their freak shows. We’ve watched plenty of them at the podium at these kinds of meetings–and yes, it’s a freak show. The DRBC, itself tending to the anti-drilling side of the isle, is trying to interfere with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) sole authority to permit or not permit the PennEast. Apparently there’s a bit of detente on the issue and FERC will hold one joint public hearing with the DRBC. The freaks, er, a “environmental groups” are demanding the DRBC up that number to seven–because two minutes allotted for each speaker in front of the microphones and cameras is just not enough…
    Read More “Anti Drillers Demand DRBC Hold 7 Meetings on PennEast Pipeline”

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    CORNy Letter to FERC: NEXUS Pipeline will Contaminate our Creeks

    The anti-drillers who inhabit Oberlin (Lorain County), OH are nothing if not determined. In November 2013 Oberlin voted to commit economic suicide by passing a so-called Community Bill of Rights law, which is nothing more than a ban on shale drilling (see Economic Suicide Avoided in 2 OH Cities but Oberlin Pulls Trigger). Of course so-called “home rule” laws have since been overturned by the Ohio Supreme Court (see OH Supreme Court Strikes Down Home Rule in Gas Drilling Case). The NEXUS gas pipeline is planned to run through the Oberlin area, so a group calling themselves CORN–Coalition to Reroute NEXUS–popped up in Oberlin and surrounding counties to oppose the pipeline. Why? Because it will flow nasty, evil fossil fuels. We call it the CORNy opposition. A member of CORN from the Oberlin City Council has written to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)–which is reviewing the NEXUS project–to say if the pipeline is built, it will “result in the contamination of the streams that produce water for the city’s domestic use.” Just one CORNy lie right after another…
    Read More “CORNy Letter to FERC: NEXUS Pipeline will Contaminate our Creeks”

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    THIS is the Loyal, Anti-Drilling Opposition in WV?? [Video]

    It always helps to know who the loyal opposition is. When we witness anti-drillers at public hearings we’ve attended about regulations and pipelines, we often marvel. This is the opposition? How on earth do they achieve the successes they achieve? We also wonder, do people “in the middle” who haven’t made up their minds about who to believe in the great fracking debate–do they know that these are the people behind the push to eliminate fossil fuels? Would it make a difference if they did know?…
    Read More “THIS is the Loyal, Anti-Drilling Opposition in WV?? [Video]”

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    Shoe Now on Other Foot: Landowners Sue Martian Anti-Drillers

    shoe on the other footIt’s about time. Twelve (12) leaseholders and a real estate developer in Middlesex and Adams Townships, in Butler County, PA (near the Mars School District) have filed a lawsuit against local anti-drillers as well as against THE Delaware Riverkeeper and the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council, suing them for damages because their ongoing frivolous lawsuits have keep the leaseholders from realizing profits from their leased land. And get this, the Martians and Big Green groups being sued are upset, saying their free speech rights are being infringed. Talk about nuts! It’s OK for anti-drillers to launch lawsuit after lawsuit, but as soon as someone pushes back and files a lawsuit against them, they start squealing like little piglets…
    Read More “Shoe Now on Other Foot: Landowners Sue Martian Anti-Drillers”

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    NJ Antis Change Gear, Hire Quiet Guy to Head Anti-Pipeline Effort

    Anti-drillers in New Jersey must be growing tired of the angry demeanor of their current “movement leaders”–people like Maya van Rossum from THE Delaware Riverkeeper. So they’re putting their chips on a quieter, gentler anti-driller they hope will be more effective in stopping projects like the PennEast Pipeline. NJ antis have hired Thomas Gilbert, 45, a “longtime activist known for his land preservation work” to become the campaign director at New Jersey Conservation Foundation, starting June 15. They’re hoping the NJ Conservation Foundation can be “the one ring to rule them all” by organizing together disparate anti groups to defeat projects like PennEast. Anti-drillers have tried the go-it-alone, not-nice route–so this time they want to try the let’s-all-cooperate-nicey-nice route. It’s the same old hardened anti-drilling philosophy dressed up in a nicer package. But make no mistake–they want to end the use of fossil fuels in New Jersey–and that’s why Gilbert has been hired…
    Read More “NJ Antis Change Gear, Hire Quiet Guy to Head Anti-Pipeline Effort”

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    MA Bill Prevents Pipeline Costs from Passing to Electric Customers

    Part of the opposition to pipelines in states like Massachusetts centers on the issue of whether or not the gas flowing through the pipeline will get exported. For sure the majority of the gas will be used in places like Massachusetts–and some of that will go to consumers–but a great deal of it will go to electric generating plants, to lower the incredibly high cost of electricity in New England. Because the customers for the gas are electric utilities, and because the utilities don’t have piles of cash laying around, the utilities (in some cases, not all cases) want to pass along some of the cost of the proposed pipelines to electric rate payers. That is, electric customers. You and me. The response from anti-drillers is, “Hey–since a lot of this gas will get exported anyway, not benefiting the state, why should electric rate payers bear the cost of building the pipeline?” And so some anti-drilling state legislators have introduced a bill that would prevent any pipeline cost from being passed on to Massachusetts rate payers if ANY of the gas in that pipeline eventually gets exported. Do anti-drillers, in this case, have a point?…
    Read More “MA Bill Prevents Pipeline Costs from Passing to Electric Customers”

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    MSC Devastating Critique of “Low Birth Weight Near Fracking” Study

    Yesterday MDN told you about a new anti-drilling-backed so-called “study” by students at the University of Pittsburgh making wild claims about babies born near Marcellus Shale fracking sites having lower birth weights than those not born near frack sites (see Study Tries to Link Marcellus Fracking to Low Birth Weight Babies). We outlined the link between bought-and-paid for “science” that gets amplified by mainstream media. The Marcellus Shale Coalition also published their own criticism, saying, “A new non-peer reviewed paper – funded by the Heinz Endowments and posted on a pay-for-play website – fails by virtually every measure to demonstrate basic and sound research principles. Below are several of the many factors that skew the advocacy paper’s so-called findings.” The MSC goes on to critique the “research” and completely shredding and exposing it for the fraud it is…
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    Study Tries to Link Marcellus Fracking to Low Birth Weight Babies

    Junk ScienceHere’s how it works in anti-drilling land. Students who want to make a name for themselves and earn some cashola accept “funding” (i.e. a bribe) from an anti-drilling organization. The “funder” (i.e. briber) determines the topic and result they want the “research” to report. The students, from a prestigious school, then doctor up the research with enough surface credibility to fool stupid mainstream media types. The students then publish that “research” in an online journal with very low standards. What do you get? Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health accepting money from the Heinz Endowments to publish a study claiming mommies who live close to Marcellus Shale wells have babies with low birth weights (copy of the study below), published in the online journal PLOS ONE, now being picked up by the likes of CBS and other news outlets who are reporting what the authors themselves say is research that doesn’t prove anything. News headlines are then generated linking fracking to a negative health condition. The low-information, headline-only reading crowd reads the headline and never bothers to question whether or not it’s true (which it isn’t), and voila–we have another case of public brainwashing, assisted by students prostituting themselves for money and fame, and damaging the reputation of the University of Pittsburgh. All bought and paid for by a big money donor to the school, Teresa Heinz-Kerry, using her dead first husband’s money…
    Read More “Study Tries to Link Marcellus Fracking to Low Birth Weight Babies”

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    Anti-Drilling Groups File to Defend BLM’s New Federal Lands Frack Rule

    The “sue and settle” gang is back. A group of six virulently anti-drilling, fossil fuel-hating organizations, calling them (don’t laugh) “conservation groups” (nothing of the sort) have filed to intervene in two lawsuits brought by the individual states and the oil and gas industry against the federal government over the new fracking rules released by the federal Bureau of Land Management (see BLM Introduces “Final” Fracking Rules for Fed Lands – 3 Yrs Late). Here’s how it works with sue and settle: the federal government gets Big Green groups (with lots of money) to bring lawsuits against a department, like the EPA or BLM. The government agency then promulgates new restrictive and jobs-crushing rules that have the force of law because “the lawsuit and judge made us do it.” And unless those “rules” are challenged in court to get them repealed, we end up with laws created by government agencies and judges instead of the legislature, the way the Founders intended. So when the good guys sue to overturn these overreaching “rules”, the sue and settle gang with lots of Big Green money comes back to try and stop it. The groups are once again being led (by the nose) by Earthjustice and include the Sierra Clubbers, Earthworks, The Wilderness Society, Conservation Colorado Education Fund, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and Western Resource Advocates. None of them are truly concerned with “conservation,” contrary to what they say. They are all left-leaning political groups…
    Read More “Anti-Drilling Groups File to Defend BLM’s New Federal Lands Frack Rule”