Manufactured Controversy over Drilling in Loyalsock State Forest
A new manufactured “controversy” is being ginned up by PA Democrat officials and anti-drillers over Anadarko Petroleum’s plan to drill on land they legally own the mineral rights to—25,000 acres in Loyalsock State Forest that covers parts of Lycoming, Sullivan and Bradford counties in PA. Here’s the first time we’ve heard this phrase: The forest contains a “critical bird nursery.” I mean, who could possibly drill in a nursery? Drilling will also happen underneath part of the Old Logger’s Path—not the New Logger’s Path, not the Plain and Simple Logger’s path, but the Old Logger’s Path. And drilling may include portions of the exceptional value stream known as Rock Run. We wonder, are other streams unexceptional? And (OMG!) it may include the lumber ghost town of Masten. DO NOT disturb ghosts—they don’t like it.
Isn’t language in an anti-drilling demagogue’s hands a marvel to behold?…
[Please see an update/note at the end of this article.]
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A group of at least 20 farmers from upstate New York who made the long trip to New York City and the Tribeca Film Festival with tickets to Sunday’s premier of Gasland 2 were denied entrance after having the temerity to shout questions to Gasland director Josh Fox and Yoko Ono as they sauntered down the red carpet. Such big hearts, such open tents those liberal anti-drillers have, don’t they?
This is the glorious day and age of the Internet when you can start a group and call it something like, oh, The Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Water and Air (PACWA), and claim it’s a large group when in fact it’s one person (or a few people), launch a website with a catchy slogan, and pretend to be a grassroots “movement.” Such is the case with PACWA and their so-called “The List of the Harmed”—those who claim to have been harmed by hydraulic fracturing, supposedly in Pennsylvania (although many anti-drilling New Yorkers, where there is no fracking, also appear on the list).
Just a few days after MDN editor Jim Willis visited Pittsburgh, a small group of 15 anti-drillers made fools of themselves in front of EQT Plaza in downtown Pittsburgh. Their (latest) cause? They don’t like the new Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD) and EQT’s participation in it. They believe the CSSD legitimizes "dirty" fossil fuels, like clean-burning natural gas, and since they (irrationally) hate all fossil fuels, any effort at ensuring mining of those fuels is done safely is tantamount to killing Mother Earth. Wackos.