Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel

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    Another Day, Another Sham Study on Marcellus Methane Leaks

    This one is rich. Apparently Cornell anti-drilling professor (and erstwhile stand-up comic) Tony Ingraffea’s name is so toxic when it comes to discredited research, that when he’s part of yet another sham “study” on methane (as in a new one released yesterday), his name doesn’t even come up in the official press release. Neither does his partner in crime Robert Howarth. Both have authored previous “studies” that were completely refuted as junk science. Their names are tucked away in the list of esteemed authors for a new study titled, “Toward a better understanding and quantification of methane emissions from shale gas development” (abstract below). This latest fiasco was published yesterday on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences website. In a nutshell, the “researchers” flew a plane over gas drilling operations in Pennsylvania to collect and analyze samples, looking for that evil fugitive from justice (and causer of global warming)–methane. The so-called study’s findings? There’s a whole lotta methane leakin’ out down they’a. But it gets better.

    You might think an evaluation of methane coming from rocks would include at least one geologist–you know, the scientists that study rocks? For this study, the two lead authors are a chemistry professor (from Purdue University) and an evolutionary biologist (from Cornell). Not one geologist in the entire list. We wonder–did these smarter-than-the-rest-of-us researchers take into account that herd of cattle grazing near the drill site? You do know that cows burping and farting produce more methane per year than oil and gas operations, according to our own federal EPA, right? (See: Biggest Producer of “Fugitive” Methane is… Cows?!). Did our eager beaver researchers take into account all those belching/flatulating bovines as they were flying around the PA countryside with loads of farms?…
    Read More “Another Day, Another Sham Study on Marcellus Methane Leaks”

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    CT May Pass Frack Wastewater Ban; Should PA Pass CT NatGas Ban?

    Even though there is no frackable shale under the ground in Connecticut, state legislators on Monday advanced a bill that will ban frack wastewater and (presumably) drill cuttings from states with fracking operations–like Pennsylvania. We’re reasonably certain no frack wastewater or drill cuttings have ever been hauled to Connecticut for disposal, so this bill seems to be yet another empty gesture. However, the bill does seem to be headed for passage by a May 7 deadline.

    So MDN would like to propose a new bill for PA legislators: How about a law that prohibits the sale of natural gas extracted by fracking to states like Connecticut that don’t want to help out with waste disposal? Seems fair to us. It’s not like Connecticut residents would have to go without natural gas–they can buy it from Russia’s Gazprom for oh, $100-$150 per thousand cubic feet (instead of purchasing PA’s Marcellus gas for $3-4 per Mcf). How about it PA? Let’s play a little hardball and see how those conceited New Englanders like a little taste of their own legislative medicine…
    Read More “CT May Pass Frack Wastewater Ban; Should PA Pass CT NatGas Ban?”

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    Anti-Drillers Win Minor Victory Against Muskingum Watershed Dist

    Last October MDN told you about a lawsuit filed by a Guernsey County, OH couple seeking to stop drilling and fracking under Seneca Lake (Ohio). The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) approved a $40.3 million lease with Antero Resources to allow drilling around and under 6,400 acres, including the Seneca Lake. It’s not surprising that the odious Food & Water Watch is behind the lawsuit (see Muskingum Watershed Taken to Court by Anti-Frackers (Yawn)). Last week a Franklin County judge ruled that the lawsuit brought by Leatra Harper and her husband Steven Janstro (strong anti-drillers) can move forward.

    Below is the story of their minor victory, a decision that simply means the lawsuit continues, for now. However, it brings up an important issue. Later this week the MWCD is due to sign another lease with Antero–this one for drilling around and under 6,700 at Piedmont Lake (see MWCD Close to Signing Utica Lease for Piedmont Lake, OH Property). Will this small victory at Seneca Lake embolden the odious Food & Water Watch to find sympathetic, fossil fuel-hating landowners around Piedmont to stir up yet another new lawsuit?…
    Read More “Anti-Drillers Win Minor Victory Against Muskingum Watershed Dist”

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    Marcellus/Utica Anti-Drilling Group Back with Impacts “Research”

    The Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative (MSSRC) attempts to pass itself off as a non-partisan, “just the facts ma’am” kind of organization dedicated to measuring the “impacts” of Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling. They are anything but. The organization is extremely partisan and anti-drilling, backed by the likes of the Heinz Endowments and Park Foundation, two organizations that back only anti-drillers when it comes to the issue of shale drilling (just ask Bobby Vagt, former president of the Heinz Endowments, Bobby Vagt Out as Pres of Heinz Endowments – Fracking Connection?).

    Last November the MSSRC issued a faux research “report” that said, “Nah, Marcellus/Utica doesn’t create all that many jobs after all” (see Anti-Drilling Cabal Issues Biased Report on Marcellus/Utica Jobs). The anti-drilling MSSRC is back with a series of four “case studies” on counties in the Marcellus/Utica and how they’ve fared with a number of metrics. As you might expect, the “study” found loads of negative impacts. It’s all crap, but we highlight it for you so you know that it’s crap and so you’re not taken in by their lame attempt at covering up who they really are and their insidious agenda…
    Read More “Marcellus/Utica Anti-Drilling Group Back with Impacts “Research””

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    Sierra Club Pumps Out More Yada Yada in Anti-Fossil Fuel “Report”

    yada yadaThe Sierra Club continues to marginalize itself as an extremist, out-of-touch, agenda-driven huckster of fascist idealism (we know how to run your life better than you do), as proven by their latest diatribe against the miracle of safe, clean hydraulic fracturing and all things fossil fuel. Yesterday the extremists at the Sierra Club vomitted out yet another so-called report called “Dirty Fuels, Clean Futures” (full copy embedded below) in which they espouse the same old same old yada yada yada. Solar is wonderful yada yada. Fracking is evil yada yada. Burning fossil fuels will fry the planet yada yada. Obama’s dictatorial ways are to be praised, Heil Barack! yada yada. Everything is “dirty” if it’s not on the Sierra Club’s approved list.

    And so it goes. Complete and utter refuse. (Please don’t EVER give the Sierra Club a dime of your money.) They even stoop so low as to profile Susquehanna County minor celebrity anti-driller Vera Scroggins in the report (page 23). Apparently Vera is a hero in the wacko world of enviro-extremists. Good–they can have her. We provide you with the so-called “press release” and a full copy of the so-called “report” below, simply because it’s a slow news day and we like to express our utter contempt and disgust with the lies pumped out daily by the odious Sierra Club…
    Read More “Sierra Club Pumps Out More Yada Yada in Anti-Fossil Fuel “Report””

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    Anti-Drilling Groups Want PA DEP to Investigate 2-Yr Old EQT Spill

    News flash: A bunch of virulently anti-drilling groups, including PennEnvironment, PennFuture, the [so-called] Responsible Drilling Alliance, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Clean Water Action, and the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper are asking the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to investigate a two-year old spill of frack water in Tioga County, PA by EQT. Further news flash: said virulently anti-drilling groups think EQT is an “irresponsible operator” in the Marcellus. Film at 11.

    Here’s the propaganda fundraiser (also called a press release) issued by said virulently anti-drilling groups:
    Read More “Anti-Drilling Groups Want PA DEP to Investigate 2-Yr Old EQT Spill”

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    Envrio-God Says Forget About Global Warming, It Can’t Be Stopped

    Saving the planet from global warming is beyond our ability. We’ve lost the battle. Time to give it up and instead get ready for anarchy–retreat to “climate controlled” cities and let everyone else fry. Oh, and someday down the road all organic life will probably be gone–humans will someday live on in digital form–our consciousness will be embedded in machines.

    No, the above is not the plot of a new dystopian Hollywood movie starting teenagers who will save the world from itself in The Hunger Games Meets Robocop. The above is the new theme being espoused by James Lovelock, an increasingly nutty (some might say senile) and former darling of the worldwide global warming movement. MDN highlighted Lovelock’s summer 2012 support for fracking (see Iconic Environmentalist James Lovelock Loves Fracking). His support for fracking got Lovelock thrown out of the Mother Earth Worshippers Club–also known as environmentalism. The crotchety old Lovelock, who’s always spoken his mind, says in a new book it’s all over with respect to global warming and we just need to admit it and instead try to control its effects in areas where we can, like select cities…
    Read More “Envrio-God Says Forget About Global Warming, It Can’t Be Stopped”

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    Exxon Mobil Shaken Down by NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli

    GoodFellasThe Comptroller of the State of New York, Thomas DiNapoli, is the sole person in charge of The New York State Common Retirement Fund–a fund with $160 billion in it. DiNapoli, or rather the NYS Common Retirement Fund, owns $1.02 billion of Exxon Mobil stock. Unfortunately, DiNapoli is an anti-drilling bully (see our list of MDN articles here). When someone like DiNapoli has you by the short hairs and is pulling, you ask him how high he wants you to jump. That’s what’s happening to Exxon Mobil.

    DiNapoli is forcing Exxon Mobil to write a cockamamie report on the so-called hazards of fracking, to be released this September on the Exxon website. So what if the report shows there are no (or very few) actual hazards in fracking? Yeah, right. They don’t call people like Tommy DiNapoli a goodfella for nuttin’. Exxon is getting shaken down by a bullying investor that holds a lot of stock. And not just any investor–but a government official to boot. It’s sleazy, it’s disgusting, and it’s New York politics. What do you think Exxon’s report on fracking will say?…
    Read More “Exxon Mobil Shaken Down by NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli”

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    Anti-Frackers Win Lawsuit Against Muskingum Watershed District

    Last October MDN told you the anti-drilling group calling themselves the FreshWater Accountability Project (FWAP), a front group for the Washington, D.C.-based (and odious) Food & Water Watch had thrown a snit fit and sued the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District’s (MWCD) to gain access to personal details (names, addresses, phone numbers) of people living in the watershed so FWAP and FWW could launch smear campaigns against the MWCD over their decision to sell a thimble full of water for fracking and lease some of their considerable acreage for shale drilling (see Muskingum Watershed Taken to Court by Anti-Frackers (Yawn)).

    Last week the liberal Fifth District Court of Appeals granted the anti-drillers their wish: access to MWCD records along with a fine for holding back the information. Let the smear campaigns begin!…
    Read More “Anti-Frackers Win Lawsuit Against Muskingum Watershed District”

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    0.0024 of Berks County Population Opposes New $1B GTL Plant

    Over the past several years MDN has told you about a number of gas-to-liquids (GTL) projects trying to get underway in the Marcellus and Utica Shale region. GTL converts cheap, abundant natural gas into motor oils and diesel fuel. Kind of like spinning gold from hay. One of those projects is a proposal by Canadian company EmberClear Corp. that wants to build such a plant in Berks County, PA–near Philadelphia. EmberClear proposes to spend upward of an eye-popping $1 billion to build a plant that will create 100 permanent jobs when it’s completed–to say nothing of the hundreds of temporary jobs needed to build it (see Another New Gas-to-Liquids Plant Coming in PA – Near Philly).

    As soon as you announce such a project, wacko anti-drillers pop up (like a game of Whack-a-Mole) to oppose it. Such a group has formed in Berks County. Called the South Heidelberg Community Association, the group has gotten 1,000 people to sign a petition against this $1 billion economic miracle that would exist in their area. Let’s see, 1,000 people of the Berks County population of 411,442–or 2/10ths of one percent. Will this infinitesimally small number of people ruin it for everyone?…
    Read More “0.0024 of Berks County Population Opposes New $1B GTL Plant”

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    Anti-Drillers Force 3rd Vote on Frack Ban in Youngstown

    Even the Democrat Mayor of Youngstown, OH knows that passing a fracking ban for the city would be a “job killer.” Too bad the nutters on his side of the political isle don’t listen to reason. In January MDN told you that the nutters had gathered enough signatures to force a third time-and-money-wasting vote on whether or not the city should outright ban fracking within its borders (see Third Time the Charm? Youngstown Anti-Drillers Try Again for Ban). Not that passing a ban would make a difference–there’s little chance of any active drilling in and around Youngstown. It would be a poke in the eye–spit in the face–of the drilling industry. The drilling industry notices such things and elects to take their business elsewhere when it happens. Hence Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally’s comments last week encouraging residents to reject the ban when they vote on May 6th.

    Along with Mayor McNally, local union reps from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Ohio Council 8 says three votes is enough and it’s time for this crap to stop…
    Read More “Anti-Drillers Force 3rd Vote on Frack Ban in Youngstown”

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    Lawyers Gutting Act 13 Law Claim PA DEP Covers Up Water Problems

    gutted deerThe Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), along with the Act 13 law, has come under heavy fire from anti-drillers and the seven selfish towns who want to overturn Act 13. Even though the DEP is dedicated to the health and safety of the people and environment in PA, they’re regularly (falsely) accused of colluding with “industry” and throwing both people and the environment under the metaphorical bus. The latest accusations against the DEP stem from the Act 13 lawsuit remanded by the PA Supreme Court back to a lower court. Anti-drillers are doing their best to gut the protections afforded in Act 13 because they want the chance to re-do it and “do it right” (meaning onerous new regulations). And so after the seven selfish towns pulled on one Act 13 thread (zoning) and won, their action now threatens to unravel the entire law (see Ongoing Fallout from PA Supreme Court’s Wrong Act 13 Decision).

    Lawyers for the seven selfish towns who are making an attempt to gut the entire Act 13 law in the lower court are accusing the DEP of intentionally suppressing information about contamination of private water wells due to drilling-related activity. The lawyers, along with a sycophantic media willing to regurgitate their claims, say that DEP regulators don’t keep files or issue violation notices to drillers in cases where the driller reaches a private settlement with a landowner. That is, they say it’s a government cover-up of enormous proportions. Which is, of course, preposterous. But it sure sells a lot of newspapers…
    Read More “Lawyers Gutting Act 13 Law Claim PA DEP Covers Up Water Problems”

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    Maryland Anti-Drillers Say Fracking Health Report Will Fall Short

    If you’re an objective scientist, you formulate a hypothesis (a “best guess”) and test it. And test it again. And again. The results of science are testable, repeatable and demonstrable. If the results don’t match your original hypothesis, you throw that hypothesis out and get a new one to see if the data fits. That’s how real science works. If you’re a political huckster, you engage in scientific insanity–testing and re-testing and when the outcome doesn’t match your twisted and preconceived notions of what it should be–you tell those doing the testing they’re doing it wrong and to do it again. In other words, you’ve already determined what you want the outcome to be–and anything short of that is not acceptable. It’s not real science but smearing scientific lipstick on an ideological pig. That’s how anti-drillers in Maryland are treating a so-called health study on potential Marcellus Shale drilling in the state.

    A group of ideological, anti-drilling hucksters, including the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE), Maryland Environment Health Network (MdEHN), Concerned Health Professionals of New York (CHPNY), the odious Food and Water Watch and Ann Bristow (a member of Gov. O’Malley’s fracking commission), have declared a study that’s not yet completed or released will fall short of their desired, predetermined outcome. That is, they’ve already prejudged the not-yet-finished report and found it lacking. Their erudite (and insane) solution? Delay it even more. Extend it. Test again. And again. And again. And keep testing and researching (and lying) until the report says what they want it to say–that which isn’t true: fracking has negative health impacts on “the public”…
    Read More “Maryland Anti-Drillers Say Fracking Health Report Will Fall Short”

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    Litigious OH Sierra Club Sues ODNR (Again) Over Fracking

    Once again, the ever-litigious, fundraising Ohio Sierra Club (an organization no one should ever support with their money) has sued the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources because the ODNR is not jumping to every Sierra Club demand to provide emails in triplicate on the topic of crafting new fracking regulations. The Sierra Club is on a fishing expedition. They think they can use language in ODNR emails in future fundraising appeals (See! See! The ODNR sent an email to Chesapeake Energy!) The ODNR is not playing along with their scam, and so the Sierra Club has launched yet another lawsuit (third time in two years). Hey, the lawyers are on staff so who cares, right?

    Here’s the latest fundraising press release from the OH Sierra Club:
    Read More “Litigious OH Sierra Club Sues ODNR (Again) Over Fracking”

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    Controversy Over Belmont County, OH Drill Cutting Processing Ctr

    Anti-drillers flying under the name Freshwater Accountability Project Ohio of Grand Rapids, Ohio (FWAPOH) are spinning wild tales of radioactivity and a rush job by the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) in permitting a new facility that will process drill cuttings in Belmont County, OH. Last month Belmont County Port Authority Director Larry Merry answered questions from local residents about the proposed site for EnerGreen 360’s new facility to be built at the Eastern Ohio Regional Industrial Park on State Route 800 North near Barnesville.

    Even though the only thing to be processed by the company is leftover rock and dirt from drilling holes in the ground, anti-drilling zealots are opposed because they hate fossil fuels. So they spin yarns about radioactivity and mass poisoning. Fortunately it seems that science and cooler heads will prevail and that EnerGreen’s proposed facility will be built…
    Read More “Controversy Over Belmont County, OH Drill Cutting Processing Ctr”

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    8 Servile Congressman Obey Anti-Fracking Masters, Sign Ltr to EPA

    Here we go again. Out of ideas and running out of money, a bunch of loony toon organizations like 350.org and the odious Food & Water Watch need a new fundraiser. What to do…what to do? We know! Get a few anti-drilling lackeys Congressman (every one of the a Democrat) on your political contribution payroll to sign a letter to the EPA asking them to re-open three cases both the EPA and state agencies have already investigated to death for years: Dimock (PA), Pavillion (WY) and Parker County (TX). Make some more wild claims that fracking pollutes water supplies–even though it doesn’t. And, voilà! A new fundraising campaign is born.

    And so the brain trust at Americans Against Fracking (AAF) has done just that. So worn out and bankrupt for new ideas, AAF has to pathetically, once again, attempt to make an issue of a dead issue. Here’s the latest fundraiser from enviro-snobs at AAF, along with the political patronage letter to the EPA obediently signed by eight servile Democrat Congressmen:
    Read More “8 Servile Congressman Obey Anti-Fracking Masters, Sign Ltr to EPA”