Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA Environmental Council Appoints New Leader, Ties to CSSD
March 17, 2014March 17, 2014

The mostly anti-drilling Pennsylvania Environmental Council has a new leader. We say “mostly” in deference to being corrected by the PEC a few years ago when we called them outright anti-drilling (see Pennsylvania Environmental Council Publishes New “Green Lease” Guide). On Friday the PEC named Davitt B. Woodwell to the position of president and chief executive officer, succeeding Paul M. King, who is retiring. The PEC is not dogmatically opposed to Marcellus drilling like many similar organizations in the environmentalist movement. The PEC at least allows there will be some drilling (they’re pragmatic). But make no mistake–they really wish there was no shale drilling in the state. They wouldn’t say that out loud in polite company–but that’s what they think and talk about behind closed doors.

The newly promoted Mr. Woodwell is a participant in the so-far underwhelming Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD)–an uneasy partnership between the shale drilling industry and environmentalists (see CSSD’s Andrew Place Talks About 3-Leg Approaches & Firehoses). Woodwell belongs to the Standards and Evaluation Committee of the CSSD. We’ll keep a close eye on the PEC and Mr. Woodwell for signs of Marcellus trouble-making. Meanwhile, here’s Friday’s announcement and brief bio (with lots of enviro-cred) for Mr. Woodwell:
Read More “PA Environmental Council Appoints New Leader, Ties to CSSD”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Meetings | Statewide VA | Virginia

Anti-Drillers Turn Out in VA to Disrupt Forum on Drilling
March 17, 2014March 17, 2014

Ignorant anti-drillers–typically old hippie retreads and hippie wannabes–seem to derive meaning from their miserable existence by turning up at meetings where drilling will be discussed so they can cause trouble. They don’t listen because their minds are closed. They simply want to be heard. Real communication takes place when there is both a sender and a receiver (Speech 101). Anti-drillers are simply stuck on “sender” mode–they never open up and receive.

A perfect example is a meeting held last week in Virginia. The Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF) sponsored a forum in Fredericksburg to look at the issue of whether oil and gas drilling should be allowed on land protected from other development by conservation easements. Shale drilling may soon come to land with easements–easements that otherwise prohibit development but allows drilling–in the Taylorsville Basin, along the eastern/central part of the state around Caroline County, VA (see Fracking Finally on the Way in Virginia? Maybe Yes, Maybe No). The VOF invited Mike Ward, executive director of the Virginia Petroleum Council, to speak and answer questions about potential drilling. In typical fashion, closed-minded anti-drillers turned out to pester Mr. Ward…
Read More “Anti-Drillers Turn Out in VA to Disrupt Forum on Drilling”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Butler County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Rex Energy

Earth to Mars (School District) – Time to Check into Funny Farm?
March 13, 2014March 13, 2014

We wonder what they teach at the Mars Area School District (Butler County, PA). One thing they don’t teach is logic and scientific inquiry. Probably too busy showing American Idol re-runs to the kiddies to bother with heftier education pursuits. How else can you explain a school board, and parents, who turn down $1 million+ to lease 175 acres of school land for shale drilling that would happen more than a mile below solid rock with no adverse affects and with no surface disturbances? We’d call it mass insanity (time to check into the local psychiatric hospital)–but that would be unkind.

Tuesday night the Mars Area School District school board voted 9-0 to reject an offer from Rex Energy to lease the school’s property, which sits next to private property Rex has already leased and will still drill on anyway. The Rex offer was $4,000 per acre up front as a signing bonus, and another $330,000 in advance royalties, for a grand total of $1 million. Drilling will go on all around the school, but those sharp-as-a-tack board members have now denied the children $1 million they could of had. Hey, it’s always for “the children,” right? Heartless board. The anti-drillers present for the vote were positively orgasmic that the school board voted it down unanimously. Go figure…
Read More “Earth to Mars (School District) – Time to Check into Funny Farm?”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | Taxation | West Virginia

Stupid Idea of the Year: Create Uniform Severance Tax in PA-OH-WV
March 11, 2014March 11, 2014

Socialists and hardened anti-drillers are trying a new approach. Adopt non-partisan sounding names, like the “Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center,” “Policy Matters Ohio,” and “West Virginia Center on Budget and Public Policy,” and use those names to try and pass a high severance tax across all three states–effectively killing drilling. Those groups are some of the most partisan in existence. If Socialist politicians like OH State Rep. Robert Hagan (Democrat anti-driller) of Youngstown, OH can’t stop drilling, they want to profit from it by “spreading the wealth around” in classic socialist fashion. Tax drilling at high rates, then redistribute the money to people who will continuously vote said politicians back into office over and over. That’s how it works. Enslave people on public welfare handouts and buy their votes. It’s sick, anti-American, and corrupt.

Various politicians like Hagan, flying under the banner of the groups named above, are now preening about advocating a “common sense” and “uniform” severance tax of 5% (minimum) across PA, OH and WV. Such a stupid idea would immediately tank the economic miracle happening in PA. You WANT states competing against each other for shale drilling–lowering and even eliminating taxes. Everyone wins when states compete–it keeps natural gas prices low for consumers, benefits landowners in that state, generates thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in local and state tax revenues. A high severance tax is not needed. So when you read about this so-called “fair” proposal, you know what it really is: a naked political power grab meant to empower corrupt politicians to retain their hold on power…
Read More “Stupid Idea of the Year: Create Uniform Severance Tax in PA-OH-WV”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Wildlife

PA Batman, Protected Species & Marcellus Drilling
March 10, 2014March 10, 2014

The anti-drilling media in Pennsylvania continually tries to oppress and stir up sentiment against drilling any way they can. One of their favorites is to christen a species as “protected” and then accuse the drilling industry of wanting to drill right where that protected species lives–heartless jerks. So when common-sense Republican lawmakers decide to modify the rules just a bit to make it easier to drill, or build, or farm where a “protected” bat is located, the howls of protest go up. No, the proposed change is not about drilling willy nilly and causing the extinction of a truly endangered species. These species are not on the federal endangered species list–they’re simply on the PA “protected” list.

This is about libs who want to use “protection” for wildlife as an excuse to control legitimate commercial activity–whether farming or drilling or building, or whatever. Right on cue, we have a story of precious, helpless little bats. A disease (miraculously not related to drilling) is wiping out certain species of bats in PA–and has been for years, long before shale drilling arrived in the state. Some want to use the bat protection issue as an excuse to restrict drilling and other activities…
Read More “PA Batman, Protected Species & Marcellus Drilling”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Anti-Drillers Turn Out to Oppose TGP Pipeline Expansion Across MA
March 7, 2014March 7, 2014

As you may recall, a few weeks ago MDN was a bit dumbfounded that residents of Massachusetts were being so reasonable about the prospect of Kinder Morgan expanding the Tennessee Gas Pipeline across the state to deliver critically needed new supplies of natural gas to New England (see Reaction to TGP’s Planned Pipeline Across Massachusetts). It’s Massachusetts for heaven’s sake! Home of some of the looniest of the loons, lefties of the left. And here they were, being all reasonable. The stars were out of alignment.

It took a little time, but true to expectations, here come the MA nutters out of the woodwork to oppose the pipeline. They’re spitting and sputtering and mouthily proclaiming Kinder Morgan has “no idea who they’re dealing with.” Now THAT’S more like the wacky MA residents we know and love. The stars are now realigned in the eco-nut firmament…
Read More “Anti-Drillers Turn Out to Oppose TGP Pipeline Expansion Across MA”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Decline/Depletion Rates | Industrywide Issues

Peak Oil Theorist Art Berman Says Shale Gas is Peaking Too
March 7, 2014March 7, 2014

What do you call it when your theories are completely, utterly discredited, and yet you continue to put them forward in an attempt to reclaim your notoriety? Determined? Valiant? Desperate? Pig-headed? Pathetic? Perhaps all of the above. Art Berman is famous for peddling the “peak oil” theory that says, dang, the world is almost out of that black gold and ya’ll better think about what’s next cause them fossil fuels are dryin’ up. Then the shale revolution happened. Whoops. That theory went out the door. But not for Art. He’s still a peak oil true believer–a peak oil evangelist. And now he’s back, peddling (don’t laugh)…peak shale gas. Yessiree, if it weren’t for that darned Marcellus, shale gas production would already be headin’ into the crapper, according to Art.

Here’s a sample of Art’s wild yarns, part of an interview with Art posted on the appropriately named Motley Fool website:
Read More “Peak Oil Theorist Art Berman Says Shale Gas is Peaking Too”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Ohio | Statewide OH | Supply Chain | Utica Shale

OH Anti-Drilling Nutters Prevent Safe Disposal of Drill Cuttings
March 5, 2014March 5, 2014

Score a win for the anti-drillers in Ohio. They have successfully blocked a promising new technology by lying about what it does and can do for the drilling industry. Last September MDN told you the story of an innovative new Ohio company–Ohio Soil Recycling (OSR)–that has figured out how to turn shale drill cuttings (leftover rock and dirt) into clean fill dirt–in 24 hours flat (see OH Company Turns Drill Cuttings into Clean Fill Dirt in 24 Hours). Because some drill cuttings (some, not all) contain very low levels of naturally occurring radioactivity, a fanatical group of nutters called Radioactive Waste Alert (RWA) went on a PR rampage using a big, lying billboard ad to try and suppress this promising new technology (see Radioactive Bilge Emanates from ‘Radioactive Waste Alert’ in OH).

Once again headlines and soundbites rule the day as RWA now claims they have successfully stopped OSR. It’s a sad day–the RWA has made everyone in Ohio less safe than they could have been. But such is the twisted worldview of anti-drilling nutters like those in the RWA. Here’s the “we’re crowing about screwing OSR” announcement from RWA:
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Washington County

Mt. Pleasant, PA Continues to Ride Range Over Water Ponds
March 5, 2014March 5, 2014

As we told you last week, when PA towns make up their own zoning laws for oil and gas drilling, chaos and confusion reigns, as is the case in Mt. Pleasant (Washington County), PA (see Mt Pleasant Twp Shenanigans re Range Request for Water Ponds). Mt. Pleasant, one of seven townships that successfully sued the state to overturn Act 13 effectively screwing every municipality in the state out of millions of dollars of impact fee money, continues their snit fit over Range using a few water ponds to drill new shale wells in non-Mt. Pleasant locations.

The board voted to uphold their zoning violations of four such ponds so Range has filed yet another lawsuit hoping they can find an impartial judge to set the matter straight. Here’s the latest…
Read More “Mt. Pleasant, PA Continues to Ride Range Over Water Ponds”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

OH Anti-Drillers Call for ODNR Chief’s Resignation Over PR Plan
March 4, 2014March 4, 2014

A few weeks ago we told you about the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources’ brilliant communications plan to counter the wackos in their state on the issue of drilling under (not on) one state forest and two state parks (see ODNR Ticks Off Anti-Drilling Sierra Club with Drilling PR Plan). We also told you that this issue won’t go away for a while, and that Gov. John “foreigner hunter” Kasich has already backed down (see The Disgusting PR Mess in Ohio – No One Smells Pretty). As we predicted, the wacko contingent in Ohio never lets a good manufactured crisis go to waste, and so now a group of the nuttiest of the nuts is calling for the resignation of ODNR chief James Zehringer.

The only problem is, Kasich & co seem to be so intimidated by these kooks, you have to wonder if he’ll cave and make Zehringer a sacrificial lamb on the green altar…
Read More “OH Anti-Drillers Call for ODNR Chief’s Resignation Over PR Plan”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNG/LNG | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Statewide MD

The Radicals Behind Efforts to Stop Cove Point, MD LNG Plant
March 3, 2014March 3, 2014

The group 350.org, a rabidly anti-drilling group that has adopted the same tactics used by the Ku Klux Klan complete with face masks and burning torches (see Wackadoodle 350.org protesters disappear their KKK moment), is behind the movement to stop the XL Keystone oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast. They are also behind an effort to stop the LNG (liquefied natural gas) export terminal in Cove Point, MD. The Chesapeake Climate Action Network has enlisted the help of 350.org in their effort to stop Cove Point. We wonder, are torches and bed sheets coming to Maryland now? Shame on the Climate Action Network for hooking up with these radicals–but then, perhaps they’re just as radical?

Here’s an update on the ongoing effort to stop what, frankly, can’t be stopped: the permitting of a new export facility in Cove Point that will liquefy and send some of our cheap, abundant Marcellus Shale gas to India and Japan where they need it badly…
Read More “The Radicals Behind Efforts to Stop Cove Point, MD LNG Plant”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Voting for the Lesser of the PA LibDem Loonies
March 3, 2014March 3, 2014

There’s at least a few prominent Democrats running in the primary for Lieutenant Governor that have departed from the Democrat Party’s lunatic demand to stop all Marcellus drilling in the state–precious few, but at least a few that don’t share that view. So if you’re a registered LibDem and you must (hold your nose and) swing the lever for a Dem, you might want to consider who should get your vote based on their loony rating.

Hint: Don’t vote for Brenda Alton or Brad Koplinksi, both support an immediate ban on further shale drilling…
Read More “Voting for the Lesser of the PA LibDem Loonies”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

Sandra Steingraber’s Big Gaffe at You Defend It Debate
February 28, 2014February 28, 2014

A few days ago we gave you our eyewitness account of a debate between John Holko, president of Lenape Resources and Sandra Steingraber, author, erstwhile biologist and Rachel Carson wannabe (see Fracking Debate at Binghamton U: Holko vs Steingraber). It was a good debate to illustrate the utter lack of credibility and facts used by anti-drillers like Steingraber. In writing up our review, we overlooked perhaps the most outrageous and silly thing Steingraber said Monday night. She was pressing home the point she believes it’s time, right now, for New York to flip the switch and end the use of all fossil fuels (yes, she’s that “out there”). Debate moderator Rob Kilmer was somewhat incredulous and asked her if/how we might accomplish such a feat. She responded there is historical precedence–that at one time in our country’s (evil, vile) history, we could not conceive of a national economy without slave labor–and in the same way we overcame that morally abhorrent practice, we can overcome using fossil fuels today–apparently something equally abhorrent for Steingraber. You read that right–she equated burning fossil fuels for energy (something every single person reading this does, including Steingraber) with the enslavement of Africans in our distant past. How twisted is that?

Our good friend Tom Shepstone from the must-read Natural Gas Now website brings us his view of the debate and recounts Steingraber’s “gilding of the lily” with her slavery comment…
Read More “Sandra Steingraber’s Big Gaffe at You Defend It Debate”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Pennsylvania | Taxation

PA’s “Coddling” of the Marcellus Industry & Economic Illiteracy
February 28, 2014February 28, 2014

It’s now clear that liberals and Democrats (usually the same) in PA are hellbent on imposing an extreme severance tax on the Marcellus drilling industry. Whether the seven townships that sued the state to overturn large portions of the Act 13 law (eventually winning) are part of the tax conspiracy–we don’t know. Whether intentional or not, the lawsuit by the towns has led to the current situation that a wise, circumspect and reasonable impact fee (instead of a tax that redistributes wealth to people who didn’t earn it) is now in jeopardy and likely a goner (see Happy Story Ends Badly Because of 7 PA Towns). So Libs and Dems, or LibDems, are now beating the drums: tax, tax, tax, tax. They’re actually happy that towns will lose out on millions of dollars of impact fee revenue because they want use it as a political issue–as an excuse to tax out the wazoo.

The sycophantic and slavish media has picked up the meme and LibDem editors are writing op-eds calling for a nosebleed severance tax–like the editors of the Scranton Times-Tribune. The TR editors say the PA state legislature, by not imposing a nosebleed severance tax, has been “coddling” the drilling industry. What they’ve been doing, sychophantic, slavish LibDem TR editors, is fostering an economic miracle happening in PA all around you–an economic miracle that’s the envy of the world! You’re now about to pee all over it and ruin it. Try boning up on an economics course sometime…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Attorney General Actively Works Against 70K NY Landowners
February 27, 2014February 27, 2014

As hard as it is to believe, New York’s Attorney General continues to work against his own constituents. We’ve known since his election that Democrat Eric Schneiderman is anti-drilling–what we didn’t know was was how much of an activist he would be, using his office to further his own distorted views on oil and gas drilling. He’s misused the power of the subpoena to go after drillers (see NY Attorney General Schneiderman Subpoenas Shale Drillers). He’s abused the power of his office to investigate town board members in towns that voted to “wait and see” (i.e. not ban) shale drilling (see NY Attorney General Investigates Towns Who Won’t Ban Fracking).

Now, unbelievably, he has asked the court (and succeeded) in delaying a lawsuit brought by 70,000 New York residents–the people he’s sworn to protect–against Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It seems that Cuomo is the only person in the state Schneiderman wants to protect. He’s Andy’s personal junk yard guard dog–on a not-so-short leash. The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) recently sued Cuomo with an Article 78 lawsuit, in essence asking the court to force Cuomo to do the job he won’t do and release new oil and gas drilling regulations (see D-Day: JLCNY Files Lawsuit Today Against Cuomo, Martens, Shah). Schneiderman has gotten the court to delay any action on the lawsuit from March 7 to April 4, to give Schneiderman and his lieutenants, what, more time after 5 1/2 years?…
Read More “NY Attorney General Actively Works Against 70K NY Landowners”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Mass. Anti-Drillers Finally Wake Up, Begin Opposing TGP Project
February 27, 2014February 27, 2014

About a month ago MDN noted, with some shock, that townships across Massachusetts were reacting to overtures by Kinder Morgan to expand the Tennessee Gas Pipeline across the state (to bring in more abundant, cheap Marcellus Shale gas) with reasonableness and an open mind (see Reaction to TGP’s Planned Pipeline Across Massachusetts). We always thought Massachusetts residents as a whole were slightly left of Vlad Putin. But we were (happily) wrong! We observed it’s funny how a 10x price jump in natural gas had turned New Englanders into a more reasoned, considered bunch.

However, some of the nutty bugs have now come crawling out of the woodwork to oppose the pipeline because it will bring that filthy, nasty “fracked” natural gas into the state. It just took them a little longer to come out of their fugue and get organized, but now they have–at least a small handful of them…
Read More “Mass. Anti-Drillers Finally Wake Up, Begin Opposing TGP Project”