Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Wastewater

PA Dem Congressman “Steps Up” Frack Waste Witch Hunt
February 17, 2015February 17, 2015

Pennsylvania Congressman Matt Cartwright, an anti-drilling Democrat from northeast PA, began a bash-shale-drilling meme late last year (see PA Dem Congressman Demands Info from DEP on Frack Waste and PA Dem Congressman Cartwright Continues to Bash DEP). Cartwright wants to violate the U.S. Constitution and remove individual states rights to regulate oil and gas drilling and instead concentrate that power in Washington, D.C. where people like the arrogant Cartwright can control it via fiat. Cartwright is at it again. He’s “stepped up” his so-called investigation into shale waste disposal. The AP recently visited with Cartwright to take dictation…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Conway MA Offers Lame Excuses to Oppose Tenn Gas Pipeline
February 16, 2015February 16, 2015

If it wasn’t so tragic, it would be funny. Otherwise “intelligent” people in the Massachusetts town of Conway have concocted an ominous “report” on the proposed Kinder Morgan expansion of the existing Tennessee Gas Pipeline through their area. Since there are no real negatives to building the pipeline (it IS a pipeline, it gets buried in the ground never to be seen or heard from again)–they have to invent negatives to oppose it. Here’s how the lie goes: shale gas has a lot of radon in it (it doesn’t), and the gas traveling through the pipeline will be shale gas with radon, and EVERYONE knows those pipelines leak like sieves (it’s a wonder any gas actually makes it to market through those pipelines), and that leaking, nasty, fracked shale gas with radon will leak out and cause cancer. Just one teeny, tiny problem with that particular lie. How do you mitigate radon? Anyone? That’s right: You vent it into the air where it dissipates immediately…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

John Quigley’s Old Employer Likes High Wolf’s Marcellus-Killing Tax
February 12, 2015February 12, 2015

MDN has several stories today about the newly proposed 7.5% severance tax on Marcellus Shale drilling proffered by newly-elected Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. If you want to know whether or not this severance tax will work to undermine, and even stop, Marcellus Shale drilling, all you have to do is look at the comments of anti-drilling groups in the state–like the comments of the radical PennFuture. You may recall that Wolf’s nominee to head the Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley, used to work for PennFuture (what does that tell you about the future of drilling in the state?). According to the new “acting” CEO and head of PennFuture, this severance tax will help to end Marcellus Shale drilling in the state…
Read More “John Quigley’s Old Employer Likes High Wolf’s Marcellus-Killing Tax”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Regulation | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Anti Groups Beat Export Drum in Opposing MA Pipeline
February 11, 2015February 11, 2015

Anti-fossil fuelers continue to try and make the case that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should not allow Kinder Morgan to build an extension to the Tennessee Gas Pipeline through Massachusetts, called the Northeast Energy Direct project. Their favorite tactic is to find an issue that they believe will resonate with the general population and push for all it’s worth on that issue–with the gleeful help of mainstream (or “drive-by”) media. The latest wedge issue they’re harping on is that natural gas flowing through the pipe will get exported–implying that none of the gas flowing through the pipeline will benefit New Englanders. We previously dealt with the complex issues behind exporting (see Canadian LNG Exports, New England Pipelines & the Marcellus). Will some of the gas flowing through the TGP pipeline get exported to Canada and liquefied into LNG and exported across the ocean? No doubt. Will most of it get exported? No…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

NY Anti-Drillers have “Ban Fever,” Want to Spread It Beyond NY
February 11, 2015February 11, 2015

It wasn’t so long ago loonies in New York State pressured a politically weak governor, Andrew Cuomo, to ban fracking (see After 6+ Years, Andrew Cuomo Bans Fracking in New York). “Whew” (you may think), “That’s New York–you know, where all the liberal loonies live. Glad it’s not here in my state.” Well yes, in NY we do have more than our fair share of anti-drilling nutters. But don’t think you’re safe. Even though NY’s anti-drillers have had a small taste of “victory” in the Empire State, their appetite is not sated. Now NY’s anti-drillers are targeting drilling in other states. Their own members openly talk of halting/banning drilling everywhere, including PA. They say they’ve got the “ban fever” and just like the measles, they want it to spread…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Berks County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants

Canadian EmberClear Aborts Plan to Build $1B GTL Plant Near Philly
February 10, 2015February 10, 2015

Nearly a year ago MDN told you about another plan to build a gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Berks County, near Philadelphia (see Another New Gas-to-Liquids Plant Coming in PA – Near Philly). GTL plants convert natural gas into other products, like diesel fuel. Canadian company EmberClear planned to sink $1 billion into the project, but almost immediately the wacko anti-drillers came crawling out of the woodwork (see 0.0024 of Berks County Population Opposes New $1B GTL Plant). Even though fairly small in number, they are mouthy and they are dedicated. So much so that EmberClear has just announced they’re giving up on the project, partially (mostly?) because of the wackos who oppose it…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crime | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Anti-Drillers Don’t Like Being Considered Suspects in Crimes
February 9, 2015February 9, 2015

Some children are never taught the life lesson that actions have consequences–and that you have to take responsibility for your actions. Some of those children grow into adulthood never learning that lesson. If you belong to groups that engage in “peaceful” blockades of fracking facilities or drill sites or pipeline sites, while shouting and screaming like you’re possessed, you might end up on a “watch list” by law enforcement. Why? Because some who act the very same way you’re acting tilt over into acts of lawlessness–sabotage and breaking things. It’s only prudent to keep an eye on groups of people who might be prone to such actions. But if you’re a spoiled child who grew up to be a spoiled adult, you take offense at being held to account for your actions because, well because YOUR actions shouldn’t have consequences. Your actions never had consequences when you were growing up–why should they now? We’re speaking about those who don’t like the fact that law enforcement–and yes, the drilling industry–keeps an eye on people who may be prone to breaking the law…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crime | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Transco | Williams

Convicted Lancaster Protesters Taunt Williams After Court Date
February 9, 2015February 9, 2015

It’s kind of funny how eight anti-drillers can conflate themselves to seem as if they represent untold thousands. They get themselves arrested for a lawless act and they’re actually proud of it–like they’ve accomplished something with their lives. We’ve been following the somewhat bizarre story of the “Conestoga 8” in Lancaster County, PA who are trying to stop the Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project. One of the eight is supposedly a Native American (i.e. Indian) who goes by the name of Chief Carlos Whitewolf (see Indians on the War Path Against Pipeline in Lancaster County, PA and Indians on the Anti-Pipeline War Path – Part 2). Except his last name isn’t really Whitewolf–it’s Rivera. Huh. A “Native American” with a very Hispanic first and last name. That’s a new one. Anywho, Chief Whitewolf-Rivera is protesting on behalf of the Conestoga people–who have been extinct for generations. He’s asking the United Nations to step in and stop the pipeline, on behalf of the long-dead Conestogas (see Lancaster, PA Antis Request United Nations Interfere in Pipeline). Chief Whitewolf-Rivera and the other small band of ne’er do wells had their day in court, and then they went on a field trip to the local Williams office straight from court to see if they could get arrested again…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | New York | Research | Statewide NY

Anti-Drillers Try to Ban Drill Cuttings from PA in NY Landfills
February 9, 2015February 9, 2015

The anti-drilling group Environmental Advocates of New York has just published a 24-page “report” that claims drill cuttings–leftover rock and dirt from drilling a hole in the ground–that are being landfilled in New York State are radioactive and will make us New Yorkers all glow in the dark. Any day now. The report is titled “License to Dump” (full copy embedded below). Since anti-drillers successfully cowed the impotent Gov. Andrew Cuomo once, well, it ought to work again, right? Ban those drill cuttings Andy! Right now!! This is 24 pages of “notoriously toxic and radioactive” garbage…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Cumberland County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Sunoco Logistics

Anti Groups “Outraged” at Mariner East 2 Open House Invite
February 5, 2015February 5, 2015

Once again the Philadelphia-based anti-drilling group Clean Air Council (CAC), along with THE Delaware Riverkeeper (Maya van Rossum) have their collective knickers in a twist. The two groups are “outraged” that Sunoco Logistics, in sending around invitations to an open house on the Mariner East 2 pipeline, didn’t send one to them. Not only that, but the invites that were sent out–to landowners and elected officials–said the invite is “not transferable” to anyone else. We could hear the howls and screams from Philly all the way up here in upstate NY!…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Regulation | Statewide MD

Maryland Delegate Introduces Moratorium, Before Fracking Begins
February 5, 2015February 5, 2015

A member of the Maryland House of Delegates, David Fraser-Hidalgo (Democrat from Montgomery County) will host a news conference today to propose a bill that slaps a moratorium on Marcellus Shale drilling in the state–before such drilling has even begun. This is rich on many levels. First, Marcellus drilling would only happen in 1 1/2 counties at the far western edge of the state. Second, Fraser-Hidalgo sits his rear-end in Montgomery County, a Washington, D.C. suburb–at the opposite end of the state. Third, a commission made up of many his fellow Democrats evaluated fracking for *four* years, and outgoing Democrat Gov. Martin O’Malley recently green lighted fracking–with arguably the strictest rules anywhere (see Maryland Gets Ready to Frack! Gov O’Malley Files New Regulations). All of that is not good enough for Mr. Fraser-Hidalgo. Fortunately Maryland now has a new Republican governor, Larry Hogan, and Fraser-Hidalgo’s bill, if it passes, will be DOA on Hogan’s desk…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues

Anti-Driller Banned from FERC Headquarters for Disruptive Behavior
February 5, 2015February 5, 2015

With delusions of grandeur and fancying himself a latter-day Gandhi, the radical anti-fossil fuel activist Ted Glick, from the anti-drilling Chesapeake Climate Action Network, has been banned from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) building in Washington, DC. It seems FERC has had enough of Glick’s disruptions of their meetings–so they’ve shown him to the door. Glick, boasting about the FERC ban on his blog, relates the story of recently arriving at FERC HQ (he got there from his home in New Jersey via transportation from fossil fuels, after waking up in a home heated with fossil fuels, cooking a meal with energy from fossil fuels, and putting on clothes and shoes made with fossil fuels), to attend a small meeting arranged by some of his anti-drilling buds with one of the FERC commissioners…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County

PennFuture Does Happy Dance for Stopping Range Wells in SWPA
February 4, 2015February 4, 2015

The anti-drilling organization PennFuture–once the employer of newly nominated Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley, and the organization whose president was, until recently, Cindy Dunn, now nominated as Secretary of the PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources–is once again celebrating that shale drilling won’t happen. PennFuture has just pushed out a press release to claim credit for stopping Range Resources from drilling at a site in Washington County because the well pad would be a mile away from a school. They’re such heroes, such champs of the environment. What a positive organization serving the great good in PA (not!)…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pipelines

NJ Conservation Group Opposes PennEast Pipeline – Self Interest
January 30, 2015January 30, 2015

Bet you didn’t know that if the PennEast Pipeline, a 110-mile pipeline from Wilkes-Barre, PA to Trenton, NJ is built, it will pollute the drinking water for 2.5 million people. That’s the faux claim made by the New Jersey Conservation Foundation in a resolution they’ve just passed opposing the project. It’s pretty obvious the board of the Foundation is packed with anti-fossil fuelers (all of whom use fossil fuels every day of their lives). Such is the wacky world of anti-drillers. Make reckless and false claims, have those claims picked up and amplified by a sycophantic media that NEVER challenges them on those claims, and try to bend the unthinking public’s will against a project like the PennEast. Standard play book…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Gov Wolf Signs Exec Order to Ban Drilling Under State Land
January 29, 2015January 29, 2015

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is, disappointingly, keeping campaign promises to his anti-drilling supporters. Today he will make a trip to Benjamin Rush State Park in northeast Philadelphia to sign an executive order to prohibit (for now) any more leases for drilling under (not on) state-owned land. The move is creating child-like excitement among far-left “environmentalist” groups like PennEnvironment–well known for rabid anti-drilling activities. You may recall two governors ago Democrat Gov. Ed Rendell was hell bent for leather in leasing state-owned land for drilling ON said land. After his voracious appetite for money was sated and his Democrat cronies in the legislature spent all $444 million of it, Rendell tried to pretend that he’s an environmentalist by slapping an executive order–a moratorium–on any more leasing of state-owned land. Hypocrite. Last year Gov. Tom Corbett lifted that moratorium with an executive order of his own so that another $75 million of badly needed revenue could be raised by leases for drilling under (not on) state land. Today, Gov. Wolf will turn down that $75 million with an executive order of his own for purely political pandering reasons. How utterly disappointing (but not surprising)…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

Anti-Drilling Environment America Issues “Report” of Top Violators in PA
January 28, 2015January 30, 2015

Looky here–another new “report” has just been issued by yet another anti-drilling organization. Must be time for a new fundraising campaign. The far-left, anti-fossil fuel Environment America (aka PennEnvironment) has just released a sham “report” titled “Fracking Failures: Oil and Gas Industry Environmental Violations in Pennsylvania and What They Mean for the U.S.” (full copy below). The “report” claims, “Fracking operators in Pennsylvania have committed thousands of violations of oil and gas regulations since 2011. These violations are not ‘paperwork’ violations, but lapses that pose serious risks to workers, the environment and public health.” The “report” was authored by a lawyer and a journalist, both anti-fossil fuelers that use fossil fuels every day of their lives, and funded by the Colcom Foundation–a far-out organization dedicated to removing the “scourge” of humankind from the face of the earth (and no, we’re not making it up). This latest “report,” which will no doubt be reported by sycophants at places like StateImpact Pennsylvania as “news,” claims that Cabot Oil & Gas is the number one violator of the environment in Pennsylvania. The “report” also throws heaps of mud on the Center for Sustainable Shale Development and the four companies that have endorsed the CSSD’s strict operating standards…
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