Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Washington County

PPG Tries to Prop Up Discredited/Shamed PA Rep Jesse White
October 8, 2014October 8, 2014

You know that anti-drilling State Rep. Jesse White (Cecil, Washington County, PA) is in trouble when the Democrat editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette takes time to author an entire editorial to make excuses for his deranged behavior in attacking his own constituents by using fake online identities–pretending to be some of his own pro-drilling constituents and posting comments as them to make them look bad (see How the Mighty Have Fallen: PA Rep White Admits Guilt, Not Sorry). It’s sick, it’s unpardonable, and at a minimum unethical–perhaps even illegal. He should have been tossed out of office a year ago when it was exposed–but there you go. Behaving badly is a resume enhancer in the PA Democrat Party and now White’s fellow Dems on the editorial board of the PPG have to hold their noses and try to keep him in office with their lame “approval” of him…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crime | Industrywide Issues

Anti-Drillers Don’t Like Being “Spied On” While They Do Bad Things
October 8, 2014October 8, 2014

When anti-drillers cross the line and trespass on private property, and then get called out for it, the squeal like a stuck pig (see NE PA Anti-Driller Slapped with Trespassing Injunction). Sometimes anti-drillers are more than loony, they’re dangerous to themselves and others (see Protesters Shut Down Anadarko Drill Site in Lycoming County, PA). Sometimes anti-drillers cross the line and engage in what we would call terrorist acts (see Protesters Get Violent, Shut Down OH Frack Water Plant). Is it any wonder that drillers and pipeline companies have to keep a sharp eye out for those who would do them–and their employees–harm? Is it much of a stretch that drillers and pipeline companies might pass along information to the authorities if they’re concerned? And how do anti-drillers respond? By claiming they’re being “spied on” and that the state police are colluding with drillers to hush up the so-called protesters…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Wheeling Water Warriors Take on Drilling Under Ohio River in WV
October 7, 2014October 7, 2014

With blue capes unfurled and their Spandex tights removed from deep in the back of the closet (and it’s not even Halloween for another three weeks), the ~~aging hippies known as the~~ Wheeling Water Warriors have found a new purpose (since GreenHunter still hasn’t built a barging facility in Wheeling, WV, confounding their life’s mission). That new purpose? To oppose fossil fuel extraction in the state–wherever it happens. Right now it’s a righteous cause to prevent drilling under the Ohio River. The Warriors are circulating petitions to try and stop the imminent deal West Virginia is set to make to allow one or more drillers to set up rigs at least a mile from the river, but allow them to extra oil and gas from beneath the river (more than a mile down) with horizontal drilling…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Summit County | Wastewater

Anti-Drillers Protest 2 RINO Governors at Fundraiser in OH
October 7, 2014October 7, 2014

So two RINO governors walk into a fundraiser…. It may sound like the setup for a political joke, but there was no joking when Ohio Gov. John Kasich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie both attended the Summit County, OH GOP fundraising dinner on Sept. 29th. Protesters met the RINOs as they walked in–to complain about (yes) shale drilling and using fossil fuels. Agitated and backed by the odious Food & Water Watch, along with the Network for Oil and Gas Accountability and Protection (NEOGAP) and FaCT (Faith Communities Together for fracking awareness), the protesters on that day were specifically complaining about frack wastewater and Class II injection wells…
Read More “Anti-Drillers Protest 2 RINO Governors at Fundraiser in OH”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

DEP to DePasquale: Problems Fixed Years Ago, Where Have You Been?
October 6, 2014October 29, 2024

The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is, once again, defending itself from baseless allegations from PA’s pro-wind (and anti-natural-gas) Auditor General, Eugene DePasquale (Democrat). As MDN readers know, DePasquale, upon taking office, set out to castigate and denigrate the fine men and women of the DEP by conducting a years long study of the department’s ancient history and then claiming the DEP wasn’t ready to handle the sudden onslaught of Marcellus drilling in the state–as if any department could have foreseen it (see Anti-Drilling PA Auditor General Criticizes DEP in “Report”). Immediately, former DEP secretary, Michael Krancer, identified gaping holes and inaccuracies in DePasquale’s “report” (see Former DEP Sec. Krancer Skewers Auditor General “Report”). Last week DePasquale participated in more Democrat theater designed to shake public confidence in a solid and professional organization, the DEP (see Sleazy: PA Dem Senators Use Unpublished “Study” to Smear Shale Drilling). The DEP said “enough” and called out DePasquale and his continued lies…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA DEP Sec. Chris Abruzzo Resigns Following Porn Email Scandal
October 3, 2014October 3, 2014

We warned you about Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane when she was elected (see Will New PA AG Go After the Marcellus Drilling Industry?). It wasn’t long before she started trolling years-old cases to see what she could turn into big headlines, attempting to damage the Marcellus industry (see PA AG Abuses Her Authority, Files Criminal Charges Against XTO). She not only went after the big players like XTO, she’s done her best to shut down smaller players too (see Minuteman Enviro Says PA AG Office “Terrorized” Family Members, Filing Lawsuit). Now her latest scalp. She went digging through five year-old computer records and found a couple of emails received and sent that contained porn on the computer of PA state employee Chris Abruzzo, back in 2009, when Abruzzo worked for then-Attorney General (and current Governor) Tom Corbett–long before Abruzzo was appointed as Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). A week after she started airing her charges to left-leaning media outlets, Abruzzo resigned…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Health Impacts | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Sleazy: PA Dem Senators Use Unpublished “Study” to Smear Shale Drilling
October 2, 2014October 2, 2014

A group of PA Democrat Senators are, once again, denigrating the miracle of Marcellus Shale drilling in their state. Only this time it’s even sleazier and lower than usual. This time they’re hinting that results from a so-called “study” not released to the public supposedly show that in two Marcellus Shale counties the average number of hospitalizations among the population has gone up versus a single, cherry-picked county with no Marcellus drilling. What is outrageous is that the senators leaked that tiny little bit of information at a hearing, but have not provided any of the details–nor have they provided the study itself. So our hall of shame goes to state Sen. John Yudichak, D-Plymouth Township, state Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Bethlehem Township, and state Sen. John Wozniak, D-Johnstown who ran a Dem hearing yesterday to attack shale drilling. Also in the hall of shame is Trevor M. Penning, professor of pharmacology and director of University of Pennsylvania’s Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology for testifying (colluding) at that hearing providing only partial information. Penning was the Dem senators’ stooge in an attempt to bad mouth shale drilling. Also making a cameo appearance was PA’s anti-drilling Auditor General, Eugene DePasquale…
Read More “Sleazy: PA Dem Senators Use Unpublished “Study” to Smear Shale Drilling”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA AG Casts Doubt on DEP’s Response to Water Complaints in New ‘Guide’
October 1, 2014October 1, 2014

As MDN reported in July, Pennsylvania’s sleazy Auditor General, Eugene DePasquale (Democrat) went on a two-year witch hunt to find any little dust bunny he could to denigrate another state agency, the Dept. of Environmental Protection (see Anti-Drilling PA Auditor General Criticizes DEP in “Report”). As we stated at the time, many of the things he criticized the DEP about occurred under the watch of Democrat Gov. Ed Rendel and then-Sec. of the DEP John Hanger. But that doesn’t stop anti-drilling “reporters” like the PBS smearmeisters at StateImpact Pennsylvania from using the report to knock the DEP one more time. DePasquale is back with another a so-called “Citizen’s Guide” to shale gas development (copy below). In the latest anti-drilling propaganda issued by DePasquale using taxpayer’s money and on Auditor General letterhead, DePasquale outrageously implies that the DEP is untrustworthy and that the DEP website may contain information that’s not accurate…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Processing Plants | Statewide MD

FWW Bleats About “Sacrificing” Residents Near Cove Point LNG Plant
October 1, 2014October 1, 2014

The odious and misnamed Food & Water Watch, a virulently anti-drilling group, is none-to-pleased with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval of the Cove Point, MD LNG export facility (see Dominion Gets Final Fed Approval to Build Cove Point LNG Plant). The wacko environmentalists at FWW (childlike, really) threw a press release temper tantrum yesterday, declaring FERC has chosen to “sacrifice” the rural residents who live a mile away from the proposed plant in favor of fat corporate profits for Dominion. So predictable…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

NY Anti-Drillers Offer Cuomo a Tour of PA Fracking
September 30, 2014September 30, 2014

This one is really funny. The bizarre people who run New Yorkers Against Fracking, namely Sandra Steingraber, who gets paid by Ithaca College to travel around trash talking fracking, and a few others from virulent anti-fossil fuel groups, have dogged New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo everywhere he goes for the past two years. They pester him so much that when one of their nutty number isn’t at one of his public events, Cuomo’s daughter wonders if the stars are out of alignment (see NY Gov Cuomo Comments on Fracking, Hounding by Protesters). Those same ever-present protesters recently sent a letter to Cuomo offering to take him on a tour of Pennsylvania’s gas drilling areas. Are they just temporarily nuts? Or permanently insane? Do they really think he would ever, in this life, accept such an offer?…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide VA | Virginia

Sierra Clubbers Call on Virginia to Not Frack Until More “Study”
September 26, 2014September 26, 2014

Must be anti-drillers all use the same playbook. Maybe they all read Saul Alinsky’s book “Rules for Radicals” (Saul Alinksy is the same guy who heavily influenced Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton). The anti-drilling playbook goes like this: When you think fracking may actually, finally start to happen, call for more studies to ensure it’s “safe.” New York has done this to get effect–so other locales think they can borrow the same tactic. The corollary is: If drilling is already happening, say it’s unsafe and should be suspended pending further studies. Study study study. That’s the mantra. Even though there have already been plenty of studies and mountains of data and proof that fracking is safe. All you have to do, if you’re a radical environmental group, is issue a press release and call for a study to plant the seed that the industry is hiding something. So it was no surprise to learn that the Virginia Sierra Club wants (surprise!) a study before shale drilling is allowed in the Old Dominion…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Washington County

SkyTruth Uses Anti-Drilling Volunteers to Count Impoundments
September 23, 2014September 23, 2014

It seems that impoundment hysteria is the newest rage among anti-drillers. An impoundment is nothing more than a pond. As it relates to the drilling industry, the pond (or impoundment) may hold freshwater or it may hold frack wastewater, depending on what kind of impoundment it is. Range Resources was fined last week for leaking impoundments in Washington County (see PA DEP Fines Range Resources $4.15M for Wastewater Impoundments). What better time for an anti-fracking organization like the so-called “SkyTruth” to poke its head up and claim to be mapping impoundments in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. To hear SkyTruth tell it, there’s impoundments hiding just about everywhere…
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Albany County | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Research | Statewide NY

Albany Times Union’s Continued Obtuseness on Fracking
September 22, 2014September 22, 2014

Last week MDN highlighted two new studies out that prove fracking doesn’t pollute water supplies (see New Study Finds Well Casings, Not Fracking, Cause Methane Migration and Federal NETL Study: Fracking Doesn’t Contaminate Water Supplies). Objective science proving that fracking is A-OK is anathema to liberal editors at publications like the Albany Times Union. What to do? Ah yes, write an editorial acknowledging those studies (because you can’t hide the news forever), and then lie about those studies by saying people still have “polluted” water…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Statewide MD

20 People Crash FERC Meeting, Complain about Cove Point LNG
September 22, 2014September 22, 2014

Some 20 citizens out of the 88,737 that live in Calvert County, Maryland–where the Dominion Cove Point LNG export facility is to be built–crashed a recent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) meeting to express their displeasure with the government’s approval of the Cove Point plant. What really ticked them off was that FERC didn’t send the top brass out to Calvert but instead used lower level reps. So 0.0002 of the population of Calvert County performed what they called “an unannounced intervention,” which is another way of saying they threw a snit fit. More behaving badly in public–like they always do. Here’s a glittering example of “how to win friends and influence people” at FERC brought to you by the anti-drilling folks of Calvert County, all 20 of them:
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Dela. Riverkeeper Opposes New Electric Line Because of…Fracking?
September 19, 2014September 19, 2014

So screwed up are the fossil fuel haters that they’ve taken to opposing a proposed new regional electric power line that would run from Pennsylvania to points in New Jersey, New York and Maryland because (follow this twisted logic)–it runs through Marcellus Shale regions and the new power line will be an incentive for power plants to locate in that region to tap into cheap, abundant and clean-burning natural gas to generate electricity at a cheaper cost than can be generated in other places. And even though fracking has been proven not to contaminate water (see Federal NETL Study: Fracking Doesn’t Contaminate Water Supplies), apparently the word hasn’t yet reached THE Delaware River Keeper herself (Maya van Rossum) because she says the power line will be an incentive for more fracking and fracking is evil ’cause fossil fuels are evil and la la la la don’t tell me otherwise I’m-not-listening…
Read More “Dela. Riverkeeper Opposes New Electric Line Because of…Fracking?”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Scientific American Reporter Admits Real Reason He Hates Fracking
September 18, 2014September 18, 2014

For years MDN has made the case that so-called environmental groups and individuals highly placed in the environmental movement are not opposed to shale drilling because “fracking contaminates water supplies” and all of the other arguments they frequently throw out as red herrings to confuse and obfuscate. Recent studies by the federal government and researchers at top universities are proving the converse–that fracking and shale drilling doesn’t contaminate water, the environment, etc. Our observation and contention (for years) has been these people have had a philosophical snap–a mental breakdown–and they now irrationally hate all fossil fuels as a source of energy. Maybe they overdosed on Frosted Flakes and Captain Planet cartoons on Saturday mornings as children…who knows? What is indisputable is their abject hatred of oil and gas simply because it comes from the ground (“extractive”) and it’s based on carbon–the same element their own bodies are based on. How utterly stupid is that? We have yet more proof that these nutters infest even storied publications like Scientific American…
Read More “Scientific American Reporter Admits Real Reason He Hates Fracking”