Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel

Allegheny County | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

Funny! NY Fractivist Steingraber Says Fracking is a “Feminist Issue”
April 6, 2015April 5, 2015

Bet you didn’t know that fracking is a “feminist issue” did you? Why? Well, we suppose because it’s mostly men who do the fracking. Men are the frackers and presumably women (meaning Mother Earth) are the fracked. Almost sounds like rape, doesn’t it? That’s exactly how it’s intended to sound by the likes of the bizarre and getting more so by the day Sandra Steingraber, the so-called “scholar in residence” at Ithaca College. Although Steingraber is on staff at IC, she doesn’t actually teach anything. She’s paid to parade around to events like today’s lecture at the University of Pittsburgh, titled “Fracking is a Feminist Issue: Women Confronting Fossil Fuels and Petrochemicals in an Age of Climate Emergency.” Honest to God you can’t make this stuff up. Words just really can’t convey the lunacy of liberals like Steingraber when they go completely off the rails as she has so obviously done. Rather than try to tell you how idiotic this is, we’ll just share with you the exact words they use to describe tonight’s “lecture”…
Read More “Funny! NY Fractivist Steingraber Says Fracking is a “Feminist Issue””
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues

Texas Fractivist Says Fracking Equals Rape, Earthworks Agrees
April 6, 2015April 5, 2015

If you’re walking down the street in Texas and you see a drilling rig, you darned well better RUN, because that rig may RAPE you. So says Texas anti-drilling activist Sharon Wilson. Wilson’s tweet and statements on the raping of Texans by oil and gas drillers was just too juicy for the odious “environmental” group Earthworks, so they picked it up and re-tweeted it, adding their own endorsement of her words. Wilson went off the rails and lost her cool when the Texas legislature voted to advance House Bill (HB) 40, a bill that would vest more regulatory oversight with the state rather than allowing local town boards to try and regulate drilling on their own. So-called “home rule” is the gold standard for anti-drillers like Wilson. She can go on a perpetual, never-ending tour of local town board meetings to proclaim her lies about fracking and drilling. If home rule is snatched away, why, she’ll have nothing to do!…
Read More “Texas Fractivist Says Fracking Equals Rape, Earthworks Agrees”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Statewide VA | Virginia

Researcher Uses Official UVA Email to Oppose Dominion Pipeline
April 6, 2015April 8, 2015

UPDATE 4/7/15: Rick Webb provided a response to this MDN article, which we’ve included below.

The $5 billion, 550-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline project is scheduled to pass from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina bringing cheap, abundant Marcellus and Utica Shale gas to the southeast (see Dominion Commits to Major New Marcellus/Utica Pipeline Project). Many Democrats support the project, including Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. But not all Dems support it. As with all proposed pipeline projects in the northeast/mid-Atlantic area, there are fossil fuel haters (global warmists) who oppose it simply because it’s a fossil fuel. One of those organizations is The Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition, a group set up and run by a retired University of Virginia environmental scientist Rick Webb. Although Rick retired last year, he continues to participate in supporting several research projects at UVA, including the Shenandoah Watershed Study (SWAS) and the Virginia Trout Streams Sensitivity Study (VTSSS). Rick recently sent MDN (and other media outlets) an email from his official UVA email account to promote his anti-Atlantic Coast Pipeline group. We wonder if UVA supports Rick’s anti-pipeline activities and knows that he is using his UVA email account (with an implied connection that UVA supports what he’s doing) to denigrate Dominion?…
Read More “Researcher Uses Official UVA Email to Oppose Dominion Pipeline”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Education | Industrywide Issues | New York | Onondaga County

Syracuse U Divests from Fossil Fuels, NYU Says “Irresponsible”
April 2, 2015April 2, 2015

Silly (and frankly stupid) “green” students at universities who apparently don’t have enough homework to keep them busy have lately been protesting and attempting to get the schools their parents pay so much money to, to divest from any stock holdings in evil, filthy, nasty fossil fuel companies. No, we’re not making this up. These idiots, who believe in global warming fairy tales, are demanding, like the petulant undisciplined children they are, that universities pull out a gun and just shoot themselves in the head financially. And you know what? Syracuse University has just done it. They’ve just committed financial suicide by bowing to pressure from children and divesting any fossil fuel stocks from their $1.2 billion endowment. Forcing Coach Jim Boeheim to retire, and now divesting from fossil fuels? We’re officially no longer Orange basketball fans. Meanwhile, the divest from fossil fuels issue was extensively studied by New York University–and they concluded to do such a thing is nuts…
Read More “Syracuse U Divests from Fossil Fuels, NYU Says “Irresponsible””
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | New York | Pipelines | Statewide NY | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Albany Times Union Says Electric Lines will Corrode NED Pipeline
March 31, 2015March 31, 2015

In an effort to bend over backwards, forwards and in any direction that will help, Kinder Morgan continues to have multiple talks with multiple communities in an effort to build their $6 billion extension to the Tennessee Gas Pipeline, a project called Northeast Energy Direct (NED). The pipeline would stretch from New York State through Massachusetts into New Hampshire before re-entering Massachusetts and terminating near Boston. It aims to bring desperately needed natural gas to New England. Yesterday we told you about the gutsy move by a local gas utility in MA that said if the pipeline isn’t built, no gas new customers (and no new gas appliances for existing gas customers) would be allowed–indefinitely (see Guts: No New Pipeline in MA? Then No New Natgas for Utility Customers). One of the ways Kinder hopes to minimize the project’s impact is by running the pipeline through existing rights of way where electric power lines are run. But ninny nanny anti-drillers have a counter argument even for that. Get this (it’s really quite funny): The anti-drilling Albany Times Union is reporting that the presence of power lines way up in the air will corrode pipelines deep under ground–so say “numerous scientific studies.” The TU refers to just one such study, written for Israel (not even a North American study). We’d say the TU is diggin’ deep in their propaganda advocacy to prevent shale drilling and pipelines…
Read More “Albany Times Union Says Electric Lines will Corrode NED Pipeline”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Cuyahoga County | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Litigation | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

CELDF Costing Towns Big $ With Losing Pipeline/Drilling Bans
March 30, 2015March 30, 2015

Communities that attempt to block pipelines (and drilling) with illegal so-called community rights ordinances that seek to block those activities are losing in court and, in at least some of the cases, taxpayers in those communities end up paying the legal fees for the pro-drilling side. That’s the good news we find in an article by a PBS “reporter” (we’d call her an anti-drilling propagandist) writing on the StateImpact Pennsylvania website. To the small group of fossil fuel-hating nutters in Conestoga Township (Lancaster County), PA, you may want to consider the considerable cost of launching yet another campaign funded by outsiders Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), the shadowy group behind much of this mischief. Be sure to ask the CELDF if they’re willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees if you lose (as you surely will) a legal challenge to a pipeline ban in the township. Make them put their money where their huge mouth is…
Read More “CELDF Costing Towns Big $ With Losing Pipeline/Drilling Bans”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation | Spectra Energy | Statewide OH | Summit County

CORNy Effect on FERC: NEXUS Forced to Consider Alternative Route
March 30, 2015March 30, 2015

The NEXUS Pipeline is a proposed 42-inch, now $2 billion natural gas pipeline that will carry Utica and Marcellus Shale gas spanning 11 counties in Ohio, 3 counties in Michigan, and eventually connect to the Dawn Energy Hub in Canada (see NEXUS Gas Pipeline Pre-Files with FERC, New Details Come to Light). MDN told you about a local anti-drilling group that’s trying to stop it or change it, flying under the acronym of CORN–Coalition to Reroute NEXUS (see CORNy Opposition to NEXUS Pipeline in Eastern Ohio). It looks like the CORNballs may have had an effect. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) told Spectra Energy and the other companies building the NEXUS they’ve been getting a lot of complaints and FERC wants the companies to investigate an alternative route for the NEXUS, away from the CORNfields of Green (Summit County), OH…
Read More “CORNy Effect on FERC: NEXUS Forced to Consider Alternative Route”
Anchor Drilling Fluids | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jefferson County (OH) | Ohio | Regulation

When the OH “CURE” is Worse than the Disease: Antis Nit Pick
March 27, 2015March 27, 2015

Sometimes the CURE is worse than the disease. Such is the case with the anti-drilling Communities United for Responsible Energy (CURE) in eastern OH. The group agitated and squawked and carried on with such histrionics that they’ve gotten the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) to order an oilfield services company to shut down a satellite location in Jefferson County, OH. The offense? Depends on who you ask. The company, Anchor Drilling Fluids, says it didn’t have a permit to store excess drilling mud–the stuff used by drillers to keep a drill bit cool and lubricated and free of bacteria. The ODNR says Anchor was recycling at that site and lacked a proper waste recycling permit. Question: If you mix drilling mud at a well site but don’t use all of it, and you then truck it back to HQ to store it for a few days or weeks before taking it somewhere else, is that “recycling”? Apparently it is for the ODNR…
Read More “When the OH “CURE” is Worse than the Disease: Antis Nit Pick”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues

Bonnie Raitt Gives Them Something to Talk About – Stupidity
March 26, 2015March 26, 2015

Bonnie Raitt has decided she’s going to give them something to talk about–and it’s not love. Raitt is the latest celebrity to mouth lies about fracking. She’s donating a couple of songs to a new album due out in June called “Buy This Fracking Album”–an attempt to fundraise for a losing effort. Raitt, whose musical talents cannot be denied (which makes this story so sad and painful to write), is regurgitating lies she’s been told. Raitt actually said fracking “destroys our water, our communities and our planet.” It’s just a shame that such a talent is so ignorant of the facts. The only way to get the attention of Raitt and the others contributing to the album is to never again buy a ticket to one of her concerts, never spend a penny on another song she sings, and deny her any kind of revenue. Money talks and it’s about the only language people like Raitt listen to, so let’s make sure she gets the message loud and clear…
Read More “Bonnie Raitt Gives Them Something to Talk About – Stupidity”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

Maryland’s Democrat House & Senate Pass Anti-Fracking Bills
March 25, 2015March 25, 2015

On his way out the door of the governor’s mansion in Maryland, then-Gov. Martin O’Malley decided to issue new rules to allow fracking (see Maryland Gets Ready to Frack! Gov O’Malley Files New Regulations). Which at the time we thought was really odd. O’Malley is an anti-drilling Democrat who obstructed fracking for the past four years he was in office. Why the change of heart on his way out the door? Now we know. He wants to run for president–and no one can run for president on a platform of stopping shale drilling. No matter what his motivation–what counts is that Maryland is seeing movement toward using the miracle of fracking. Except now both the Maryland House and Senate have just passed anti-fracking bills, one of which would slap a new moratorium on fracking for yet another three years. The good news is that Maryland’s new governor, Republican Larry Hogan, is pro-fracking and sure to veto any such nonsense…
Read More “Maryland’s Democrat House & Senate Pass Anti-Fracking Bills”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Washington County

Jesse White is Back, Trying to Run as Republican for Judge
March 24, 2015March 24, 2015

This is really rich. Remember Jesse White–a member of the PA House of Representatives (Washington County, PA) who cyber bullied some of his own pro-drilling constituents using fake online IDs? (see How the Mighty Have Fallen: PA Rep White Admits Guilt, Not Sorry) White didn’t, as any normal person would, resign in shame for his disgusting offense. He served the rest of his term and the Democrats in his district were obtuse enough to put him on the ballot again. He lost last November, big time (see End of an Ignominious Era: PA Rep Jesse White Loses). White has now set his sites quite a bit lower–running for PA magisterial district court judge. Around our neck of the woods they call it being a town justice–as low as you can go in the court system (no offense intended to magisterial judges who do an important job!). But get this: White tried to lock up both the Democrat AND Republican lines on the ballot for the upcoming primary in May–by getting 100 or so RINOs to sign his petition for the Republican line on the ballot. Just one problem–not all of the signatures were legit and a judge tossed enough of them that old Jesse can’t run as a Republican. That has him crying the blues yet again…
Read More “Jesse White is Back, Trying to Run as Republican for Judge”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Transco | Williams

Dela. Riverkeeper Loses Bid to Stop Transco Expansion in PA
March 23, 2015March 23, 2015

Question for THE Delaware Riverkeeper: What address should Williams send you the $1,125,000 bill because you blocked their tree cutting for a FERC-approved pipeline extension in Luzerne County? That’s how much it ended up costing Williams after THE Delaware Riverkeeper found a judge in Washington, DC who stopped Williams from clearing trees along the path of the pipeline expansion starting March 11 (see Dela. Riverkeeper Halts Transco Pipeline Upgrade with Lawsuit). Riverkeeper was hoping they could run the clock out because Williams can’t cut those trees from April through October, just in case an endangered Indiana bat decides to roost in a tree. Riverkeeper knows that and wanted to screw with the tree cutting schedule, hoping to buy an additional seven months to mount more legal challenges. The Riverkeeper legal shenanigan cost Williams real money (see Dela. Riverkeeper Leidy Lawsuit Costing Williams $125K per Day). It ended up being 9 days total, until a judge ruled last Thursday that Williams could resume their tree cutting (as we knew they would). Nine days at $125K per day is $1,125,000. Since Riverkeeper lost their case, we think they should pay the bill…
Read More “Dela. Riverkeeper Loses Bid to Stop Transco Expansion in PA”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Greenpeace Co-Founder Says Mankind Doesn’t Cause Global Warming
March 23, 2015March 23, 2015

This is really big news. It’s really important news. But don’t look for it on ABC/NBC/CBS/MSNBC/CNN/New York Times/Washington Post/Los Angeles Times/Etcetera ad naseum. They won’t run it because of media bias. Dr. Patrick Moore, a Canadian and ecologist, has been a leader in international environmentalism for more than 40 years. He co-founded Greenpeace and currently serves as chairman of Allow Golden Rice. Greenpeace is one of the biggest anti-drilling organizations on the planet (full of wackos). Yet, Dr. Patrick Moore is a climate skeptic. You read that right. Moore does not believe in man-made global warming. In fact, he calls the whole notion of catastrophic global warming from human activity “preposterous.” Below is a portion of a column written by Dr. Moore explaining his sound, scientific reasons for refuting the idiotic notion that mankind is causing the earth to toast…
Read More “Greenpeace Co-Founder Says Mankind Doesn’t Cause Global Warming”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

“Green” Dems Introduce ‘Frack Pack’ Bills to Take Over Drilling
March 23, 2015March 23, 2015

Listen to this load of cow manure coming from so-called environmentalists and their willing accomplices in Congress who are willing to spread it around the Capitol (perhaps hoping to fertilize the spring daffodils). With backing from Big Environment, several members of Congress have introduced a set of bills that mean a federal takeover of all oil and gas drilling in the country. Said Congresspersons are calling the bills the “Frack Pack.” The bills will add another set of teeth to the Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act that will mean the federal government will get to oversee all unconventional oil and gas activity. It’s a lib Dem’s dream come true–except the bills don’t stand a chance. It’s all window dressing–for show and fundraising purposes–to keep the greenies giving their greenbacks to the green whores in Congress…
Read More ““Green” Dems Introduce ‘Frack Pack’ Bills to Take Over Drilling”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

FERC Clears the Room at DC HQ After Riff Raff Start Mouthing Off
March 20, 2015March 20, 2015

As MDN recently reported, anti-fossil fuel protesters have a new target–the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Nutjobs and people without day jobs regularly show up at FERC headquarters to cause trouble. One of them has been banned, permanently (see Anti-Driller Banned from FERC Headquarters for Disruptive Behavior). It got to the point that when FERC held open meetings where the public can attend, they were routinely disrupted by ne’re do wells. So FERC, earlier this month, adopted a new rule used by other federal agencies to deal with people who become lawless at their meetings (see NGI’s Daily Gas Price Index, Protests Reined in By New FERC Rule). Yesterday was the first open meeting at FERC headquarters in Washington, DC since the new rule went into effect and true to form, the hooligans were out in force. So FERC Chairwoman Cheryl LaFleur stopped the meeting and under the new rules cleared the room of the riff raff who were bleating about the Cove Point LNG export facility currently being built in Maryland…
Read More “FERC Clears the Room at DC HQ After Riff Raff Start Mouthing Off”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Federal Court Tosses Out Lawsuit by Dr. in PA Act 13 Law – Again
March 19, 2015March 19, 2015

The end of a loooong chapter in lawsuits over Pennsylvania’s Act 13 drilling law came earlier this week when a federal appeals court ruled that no, Dr. Alfonso Rodriguez, a nephrologist from Dallas in Luzerne County, PA does NOT have “standing” to claim Act 13 applies some sort of medical “gag rule” that doesn’t allow doctors access to information they need to treat their patients. Dr. Rodriguez, along with seven selfish towns, sued to overturn Act 13. The towns didn’t like being told they couldn’t zone drilling out of existence within their borders, and the doctor didn’t like being told he couldn’t blab drillers’ trade secrets all over the place. So it went to PA’s Supreme Court and they ruled in favor of the towns, but sent parts of the lawsuit back to a lower court, including the doctor’s portion (see Act 13 Goes Back to Lower Court, Disturbing Comments from Judge). The case has now been tossed out no less than three times in federal court. Hopefully this third time is the charm…
Read More “Federal Court Tosses Out Lawsuit by Dr. in PA Act 13 Law – Again”