Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel

Air Quality | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Research

UMD Junk Science Research “Links” Shale Drilling to Air Pollution
May 4, 2015May 4, 2015

A new anti-drilling “study” (i.e. junk science) has just been released by anti-drillers at the University of Maryland–pretending to be real science when it’s not. The study claims to show that locations hundreds of miles “downwind” from active shale drilling operations end up with higher levels of ethane in the air than other locations. Of course the “researchers” didn’t bother to conduct similar tests and analysis for locations not downwind from drilling. They found a spike in ethane concentrations in the air in Baltimore and immediately jumped to the conclusion it’s from Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale drilling, and then worked hard to connect a bunch of dots that would “prove” just how nasty and vile this whole Marcellus shale drilling thing really is (and consequently why it should be banned in PA, WV and OH). Predictable, and sad that yet another institution like the University of Maryland has prostituted itself on the alter of Big Green…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Education | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Pennsylvania

PA Teacher Pollutes Minds of 7th Graders Against Electric Plant
May 4, 2015May 4, 2015

An anti-drilling teacher is brainwashing her seventh grade students into opposing the Invenergy natural gas-fired electric plant proposed for Jessup. Using lessons she’s teaching her students about the great Aristotle and his teachings on rhetoric, Ms. Grace Piconi-Augelli claims her students can sniff out fraud and subterfuge when they see it–and they (or rather Ms. Piconi-Augelli) see it with Invenergy and their plan to use clean burning Marcellus Shale gas to power what will be the state’s largest natural gas-fired electric plant. Ms. Piconi-Augelli is teaching her students about rhetoric, but apparently she skimmed over the section on Aristotle’s teachings on logic…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues

The Anti-Fracking Game Plan – Courtesy Saul Alinsky
May 1, 2015May 1, 2015

MDN spotted a post on the always-excellent Natural Gas Now website authored by MDN subscriber and friend Curt Coccodrilli–and we liked it so much we’re repeating here, in full. Curt has the fortunate/unfortunate luck to live in the Delaware River Basin and he’s been an astute observer of the antics by anti-drillers in his neck of the woods for years. Curt noticed how their behavior seems to match that proffered by the now infamous Saul Alinsky in his book, “Rules for Radicals.” Some of Alinsky’s devotees and followers are Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama. Alinsky is largely responsible for launching a whole generation of people (like Obama) who call themselves “community organizers.” They are, in fact, community agitators–those who tear down instead of building up. Curt read the book and offers up his take on how anti-fracking zealots have adopted Alinsky’s “rules” and how they employ them today. He calls it Rules for Radicals: The Fractivist Edition…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Guernsey County | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Pipelines

Marcellus/Utica Welder by Day, Prostitute by Night?
May 1, 2015May 1, 2015

MDN told you about the outrageous comments by Sandra Steingraber (from Ithaca College) in her address to a group of “feminists” in Pittsburgh last week (see Steingraber: Only Jobs for Women in Fracking are Maid & Prostitute). The obviously sexist Steingraber said this about jobs for women in the shale industry: “The jobs for women are ‘hotel maid’ and ‘prostitute’.” So when we spotted an article about a female welding instructor at Zane State College in Cambridge, OH–and how she trains both men AND women for welding jobs in the oil and gas industry (jobs that after a year or so on the job fetch a salary of $150,000), we thought we would share it with you. And no–the female welding instructor and her students are not a prostitutes by night. The headline was just a shameless ploy to draw you in and encourage you to read the article about these gutsy women doing hard, physical work in what Steingraber calls a “man’s world”…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines

Wrath of Kann: Lancaster Anti-Driller Arrested/Ejected from Mtg
April 30, 2015April 30, 2015

All’s we can say is, it’s about time! A loud mouthed anti-drilling protester in Lancaster County, PA was arrested and removed from a public meeting Tuesday for disorderly conduct. That is, she wouldn’t shut her mouth. So the officials running the meeting removed her. The meeting was an educational forum about so-called home rule and what role the town can and should play when it comes to regulating things like pipelines. The Conestoga Township supervisor running the meeting asked for questions from the audience, not pontificating. The anti-driller wanted to use the forum as a platform to vomit her opinions about the Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project. The supervisor repeatedly said it is an educational forum and the audience may ASK QUESTIONS ONLY. She wouldn’t relent and she wouldn’t ask a question–and she wouldn’t shut up. So they removed her and now she’s threatening a lawsuit…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

MDN Pays Compliment to CORNy Anti Group
April 30, 2015April 30, 2015

You won’t hear or read it often (because it’s rarely deserved), but we’d like to pay a compliment to a group of CORNy anti-drillers. MDN previously told you about CORN–the Coalition to re-Route Nexus (see CORNy Opposition to NEXUS Pipeline in Eastern Ohio). The group is encouraging people to show up at Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) scoping hearings about the NEXUS–to encourage FERC to re-route the pipeline. And therein is the genesis of our compliment. At least officially, CORN leaders don’t outright oppose building the NEXUS. Instead, they are asking for the NEXUS to be re-routed away from the Akron, OH area. There’s probably not a good reason to re-route it, but this is one of the few times (maybe the only time) an anti group has said, in essence, “hey, let’s work together and find a better route for this pipeline.” So kudos to the CORNy folks. We’ll hold you to your word that you DO want to see the pipeline built–just built along a different route…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Pennsylvania

Fossil Fuel Hatred Run Amok: Sierra Club Against Clean Air in PA
April 29, 2015May 4, 2015

Converting from burning coal to burning natural gas to produce electricity is, according to the vast majority of Americans, a good thing to do. Coal burns much dirtier than natgas–it’s a plain and simple fact. We’re not slamming coal or saying we should stop burning coal–we’re just keepin’ it real. When Invenergy announced they planned to build Pennsylvania’s largest gas-fired electric plant near Scranton, in Jessup Borough (Lackawanna County), PA, and fire it with cheap, abundant and clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas, most folks welcomed it (see Marcellus Gas to Power Combined-Cycle Electricity Plant in NE PA). Oh, there’s always a small minority who oppose such plans (see Gas-Powered Electric Plant to be Built “on Thousands of People”). You would think so-called environmentalists would be the first in line to support such a project because it makes the air cleaner. But then, you would be wrong. A classic case in point is the Sierra Club–an organization that exists to fundraise. The Sierra Club is against the Jessup electric plant project. Why? Because it will “encourage further natural gas hydraulic fracturing in Northeast Pennsylvania”…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Onondaga County | Research

Syracuse Prof Targeted in Effort to Discredit Drilling Research
April 29, 2015April 28, 2015

How’s this for the pot calling the kettle black: A Syracuse anti-drilling attorney says a Syracuse University professor who co-authored a research report published in the peer reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology is ethically challenged because the prof didn’t declare a “financial interest” with Chesapeake Energy. Chesapeake is the company providing years and years of data used as the basis for the study (the only available data of its kind). With advance apologies to our many lawyer subscribers…An attorney accusing a professor of being ethically challenged? If that doesn’t beat all! We highlighted the important Syracuse research study in March (see Syracuse U Study: Fracking Doesn’t Cause Methane in PA Water Wells). The lead author is Syracuse University professor Donald Siegel. Dr. Siegel’s good work comes to the “wrong” conclusion (for anti-drillers), so he instantly became a target. Apparently Siegel “has a contract” with Chesapeake and he makes a little extra coin on the side doing work for private companies like Chesapeake (a common practice among professors). Because Siegel didn’t declare the small fees paid to him by Chesapeake as a conflict of interest when filing his research report, he’s now being targeted for reputation assassination by an anti-drilling squad…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY | Tompkins County

Cornell Prof Admits He’s Anti-Drilling Advocate, Not Impartial
April 29, 2015April 28, 2015

Tony Ingraffea

When someone says “a professor of hydraulic fracturing from Cornell University” is bad mouthing shale drilling, it certainly grabs your attention. Cornell is a storied institution and professors at Cornell face tough competition to teach there. We’ve written plenty about Dr. Anthony Ingraffea, the Cornell prof with a bachelors degree in aerospace engineering from Notre Dame and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder–and an “expert” in hydraulic fracturing. Ingraffea has a nice sideline business of bashing fracking whenever and wherever he can–and when he does so, it is with the full reputation and backing of Cornell University behind him. We still remember the first time we heard Ingraffea in person (see Cornell Hydraulic Fracturing Expert Headlines First Meeting of New York Residents Against Drilling (NYRAD) in Vestal, NY). Ingraffea spoke about everything at that meeting–except the science of fracking. And therein is the bait and switch that Ingraffea engages in. He trades on his reputation as a geologist and scientist, and on the reputation of Cornell–yet he never attacks the actual science of fracking. To do so would be intellectual and professional suicide. It is the other, tertiary issues Ingraffea attacks–like “boom and bust” cycles, and truck traffic, and theoretical damage to water aquifers. Recently Tony finally admitted, on the record, that he’s not an impartial scientist at all when it comes to fracking. Tony himself said he’s an advocate and that he engages in advocacy–not science…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Dauphin County | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania

Charges Against 2 PA Anti-Drillers Dismissed on Technicality
April 28, 2015April 28, 2015

Yesterday MDN told you about two Pennsylvania anti-drilling protesters who, among six others, were arrested in January for disorderly conduct at the inauguration ceremony of Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf. The two appealed their conviction (see Anti Protesters Who Disrupted Wolf Inauguration Appeal Conviction). There was a hearing yesterday in Dauphin County Court and, unfortunately, the Dauphin County District Attorney’s office failed to produce witnesses to finger the two as lawbreakers. So the judge (whom we presume is anti-drilling) used that as an excuse to dismiss the charges against the pair of hippies, er, ah, protesters…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues

Global Warming Meme has Been Around Nearly 100 Years
April 28, 2015April 28, 2015

Ever get the feeling of “been there, heard that” when it comes to anti-fossil fuel nutters? Maybe we’re all so dreadfully tired of the same old crapola because we’ve heard it repeatedly–for the past 100 years–as pointed out in a letter to the editor of the Scranton Times-Tribune…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

NY Artist “Channels” Grandma Moses to Paint Anti-Fracking Pictures
April 28, 2015April 28, 2015

FWIW…There is an upstate New York artist who claims famed (and dead) American folk artist Grandma Moses took over her body and guided her hand to produce–yes–anti-fracking art. You really cannot make this stuff up, it’s so off the charts bizarre. She claims her art shows the effects big oil and gas companies have had on upstate New York–except there have been no effects because there’s been no drilling! But facts never get in the way of good fiction, either on the page or on the canvass. Apparently the anti-fracking artist can’t find any museums in New York to show her Moses-inspired art, so she’s displaying (right now) at a museum in Vermont…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Frack Ban Regs “at Printer”; Is There a Potential Loophole?
April 27, 2015April 27, 2015

New York State’s anti-drilling Dept. of Environmental Conservation Commissioner, Joe Martens, is doing his best to concoct a litigation-proof Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS). The SGEIS is the document that will find too many “troubling” aspects of fracking to allow it in New York. Except there’s potentially a loophole coming in the SGEIS, if press reports can be believed. Fracking WILL be allowed IF it uses under 300,000 gallons of “liquid”–the liquid most likely being water. (A typical well takes 5-8 million gallons of water to frack.) The NY loophole of using up to 300,000 gallons of liquid leads pro-drillers like MDN to muse: Is there an alternative liquid, other than water, that can be used to frack a well economically at under 300K gallons? What if the substance is foam and not liquid–is foam exempt from the 300K gallon cap? Or how about this: Can a driller use 299,999 gallons of water to frack a well and get enough gas out of it to break even and wait until the idiot we have in office now (Gov. Andrew Cuomo) is gone and go back later and re-frack the same well once the 300K gallon restriction is lifted? Hey, it’s fun to speculate. We’re not trying to foster false hope, but we do wonder if there’s a loophole in the SGEIS that can be exploited so landowners and drillers (the good guys) can beat extremist environmentalists like Cuomo, Martens and Yoko Ono (the bad guys)…
Read More “NY Frack Ban Regs “at Printer”; Is There a Potential Loophole?”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Anti Protesters Who Disrupted Wolf Inauguration Appeal Conviction
April 27, 2015April 27, 2015

More than 100 anti-drilling, anti-fossil fuel protesters spoiled PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s otherwise nicey nice inauguration in January (see Anti-Fracking Protesters Spoil PA Governor Inauguration Ceremony). Of the 100 or so loud mouths at the inauguration who tried to spoil it for everyone else, eight of them were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. They were all convicted. Now, two of the eight are appealing their convictions. It seems they don’t want to be held accountable for their lawless actions…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Research | Statewide NY

New Report Exposes NY’s Fraudulent “Science” Used to Ban Fracking
April 24, 2015April 24, 2015

A new report just published by the always excellent Energy in Depth (EID) shreds to pieces the so-called science used by anti-driller and still Acting Commissioner of the New York State Health Department Howard Zucker. The report, titled “A Look Inside New York’s Anti-Fracking Echo Chamber” (full copy below) details Zucker’s use of a bunch of anti-driller-backed research reports, compiling them into a document he used as cover to recommend a ban on fracking in the Empire State. Zucker’s corruption is now exposed for the world to see. Simon Lomax from EID presented a copy of the highly damaging report to a House of Representatives committee hearing yesterday, convened to discuss state and local bans on fracking. New York officials are spitting and sputtering and backpedaling. They can’t find a rock big enough to hide under…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

PA Anti-Driller Fined $1K for Trespassing on Cabot O&G Site, Jail?
April 24, 2015April 24, 2015

A little-known (outside of northeast Pennsylvania) anti-driller, Vera Scroggins, was fined $1,000 yesterday in Susquehanna County court. Vera’s biggest claim to fame is her potty mouth treatment of FrackNation filmmaker Phelim McAleer (watch it here). She is a repeat trespasser on Cabot Oil & Gas drilling sites and has been warned, repeatedly, to stay off their land–for her own safety and the safety of others. Scroggins runs so-called tours where she shows New York City celebrities and other urbanites (who don’t know the difference between a cow’s udder and a roof gutter) the gas fields of Susquehanna County, claiming drilling operations somehow harm local residents. The judge has had enough. He said at the hearing that Vera has 45 days to pay the fine for her latest violation and if she doesn’t, she’s going to jail. Vera maintains her latest violation wasn’t a violation–that the court is relying on the testimony of someone who lied under oath about seeing her trespass…
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