Crime

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    Cove Point Protester Sentenced to Jail, Lied About Police Assault

    jail cellWhen did it become “vindictive” to prosecute criminals? That’s what we’re supposed to believe about the prosecution of a radicalized, anti-fossil fuel environmentalist who was just, after nearly one and a half years, sentenced to serve 15 days in jail for lying, falsely claiming local police assaulted her. In February 2015 Heather Doyle, a radical “activist” climbed a crane at the Dominion Cove Point LNG export facility to hang a banner that said, “Dominion get out. Don’t frack Maryland. No gas exports. Save Cove Point.” It’s bad enough that she endangered herself along with another activist who aided her. She also endangered rescue workers and police who had to remove her from the crane. Then Doyle lied to the police and claimed Calvert County Sheriff’s Office deputies assaulted her as they were removing her from the crane SHE climbed up. That’s a very serious charge–especially in this day and age. The police investigated and discovered she was lying, so the District Attorney pressed charges. And it took this long for the case to play out. On May 27, Judge Marjorie Clagett of the Calvert County Circuit Court sentenced Doyle to three months in jail, with all but 15 days suspended, 240 hours of community service, two years of supervised probation, and $165 in court costs. It ain’t much, but it’s a little bit of justice against radicals who frequently break the law in a misguided attempt to protest fossil fuels…
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    Anti-Drillers Rush Stage at NY Power Event, Threaten FERC Chairman

    Norman Bay, Chairman of FERC
    Norman Bay, Chairman of FERC

    Once again anti-drillers have engaged in childish, petulant behavior in an attempt to call attention to themselves. Yesterday Norman Bay, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)–the agency charged with reviewing and approving or denying pipeline projects–spoke at a conference organized by the Independent Power Producers of New York (IPPNY) near Albany, NY. As he was speaking, a half dozen radical “keep it in the ground” protesters “rushed the stage” hollering at Bay, who had to make a quick exit–concerned he would be assaulted by the out-of-control protesters. The conference organizer said the protesters were “aggressive” and “disruptive” and “out of line.” It was a private event. The group’s ring leader seems to have been Igor Vamos, a media professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Vamos is the founder of “Yes Men,” a radical protest group that has staged fake press conferences on so-called climate change. Their display shows how precariously close these unbalanced people are. Watch the video below…
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    Anti Arrested for Terrorist Threats, Waves Gun at PennEast Workers

    handcuffsYet another anti has crossed the line into terrorism–and no, we don’t use that word lightly. Three surveyors working on the PennEast Pipeline in Holland Township (Hunterdon Township), New Jersey were approached by a man with a rifle. The man asked them if they were there working on the PennEast. When the 3-man crew responded “yes,” the man waved the gun in the air, shouting at them that he would stop the pipeline. It was a clearly a menancing threat to the men who were doing nothing more than a survey. Holland Township Police later arrested Lester Kinney Jr., charging him with “making terroristic threats and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.” The Sierra Club was quick to respond and distance itself from Kinney, making us wonder if Kinney is a member…
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    Sunoco Tricks Radicalized Protester – Returns and Cuts More Trees

    Last week MDN told you about the daughter of a Huntingdon County, PA landowner radicalized by Big Green groups–as evidenced by her association with well known protesters previously arrested–who took to a tree on her mom’s property in order to illegally stop crews working on tree clearing for the Mariner East 2 pipeline (see PA Anti Literally Goes Up a Tree to Stop Mariner East 2 Pipeline). Even though she was breaking the law–and a judge’s order–local law enforcement couldn’t be bothered with climbing the tree to arrest her (see ‘Wackos in the Trees’ Protest Continues in Huntingdon County, PA). Nor, does it seem, did they arrest her after she came down on April 1. She stayed up a tree until April 1 because crews can no longer clear trees for fear of harming the threatened Indiana bat species that sometimes hangs out in those trees. Or at least, that’s what we thought. In a very clever move, tree clearing crews returned to the property this week, after April 1, and cleared more trees previously inhabited by the nutty landowner’s daughter. Don’t worry, they got permission…
    Read More “Sunoco Tricks Radicalized Protester – Returns and Cuts More Trees”

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    ‘Wackos in the Trees’ Protest Continues in Huntingdon County, PA

    Yesterday we told you about a Big Green effort to stop tree clearing for the Mariner East 2 pipeline in Huntingdon County, PA–about a young woman who climbed 40 feet up a tree to sit in a tree house so crews could not cut down the trees around her (see PA Anti Literally Goes Up a Tree to Stop Mariner East 2 Pipeline). She’s still “up a tree.” Looks like her publicity stunt worked because starting today crews can’t legally cut any more trees for fear of hurting an Indiana bat. (We say it’s more than bats that are batty in Huntingdon County.) The young woman’s mother, who happens to own the property and the trees, was arrested approaching the cutting crews (after being told by a judge to stay away) because, she says, she feared they would cut a tree close to her blithering idiot daughter and hurt her. There’s also another nutter up a tree on the property. Even though the tree climbers prevented harvesting of a few trees, Sunoco Logistics, the builder of the pipeline, says it’s no big deal–they got almost all of the trees cut they needed to and come fall it won’t take long to nip the last few. Here’s how anti-drilling PBS (funded in part with taxpayer dollars) reported the ongoing “tree-sit,” as they call it…
    Read More “‘Wackos in the Trees’ Protest Continues in Huntingdon County, PA”

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    PA Anti Literally Goes Up a Tree to Stop Mariner East 2 Pipeline

    handcuffsAnother environmentalist has tipped over the edge. The daughter of a landowner in Huntingdon County, PA scampered up a tree and planted herself there to prevent that tree and others near it from being cut down by crews clearing a path for the Mariner East 2 pipeline. Just two days ago we told you that Huntingdon County Common Pleas Judge George Zanic previously issued an order to Ellen Gerhart to allow tree clearing on three acres of her property (see Court Grants Mariner East 2 Right to Clear Trees in Huntingdon, PA). Gerhart’s daughter Elise literally “went up a tree” yesterday to a platform pre-built there, between two trees, and says she’ll stay there until the end of the week when tree-clearing season is over. You can’t clear trees after March 31st for fear of killing a threatened bat species. No word on when/if authorities will climb the tree and forcibly remove her. Thing is, she’s not alone. Radical environmentalists are behind Gerhart’s stunt. Two well-known anti-drilling radicals were arrested for blocking work at the site–and bail was set at $100,000 each. Yes, it’s time to get serious with these repeat lawbreakers. It’s also time to go up the tree and extricate Ms. Gerhart and put her in jail with them…
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    EPA Officials Illegally Use Private Email Servers for EPA Business

    Recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for correspondence to and from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) prove out what we’ve been yelling for years: The EPA is a lawless organization, out of control and drunk on its own power. This latest FOIA request, made by the Energy & Environment Legal Institute, finds that EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy is guilty of the same federal crimes as Hillary Clinton is–using a private email server for government business in order to avoid having to disclose secret communication back and forth with (in the case of McCarthy) Big Green groups. McCarthy should be indicted–immediately–and removed from office…
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    Marcellus/Utica Frack Waste Illegally Dumped in Kentucky Landfill

    illegalSeems to us like folks in Kentucky swing more to the liberal side of the isle when it comes to opposing natural gas drilling and pipelines. Just our observation over time. We think they overreact to anything related to fracking and gas drilling. However, in this case, we don’t think they’re overreacting. It appears that 47 dumpsters full of concentrated frack waste from OH, PA and WV was illegally dumped in a Kentucky landfill in Estill County, KY. They were buried between last July and November, near as anyone can tell. And the landfill sits across the road from a school. Normal frack waste has extremely low (usually no) kind of radioactivity. But when drill cuttings are further processed and concentrated, as was the case with this series of loads, the naturally occurring radiation present can become more concentrated. There’s no indication of a problem at the landfill…no indication that it’s leaking radioactivity into the water table, etc. Radiation levels are being monitored and do not show anything above normal background levels. But still, somebody somewhere should have known this was happening. Local residents have a right to be up in arms over not being told…
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    Criminals Arrested Blocking Crestwood Seneca Lake Facility

    We Are Seneca Lake
    We Are Seneca Lake criminals being carted off in a paddy wagon

    When someone organizes and repeatedly shuts down a legal, functioning business with so-called “civil disobedience,” it’s not civil and it’s not an act of disobedience–it’s a crime. If you show up with a bunch of nutters to block the entrance to a facility once and the cameras are there to record it–you’ve made your point. Anti fossil-fuel radicals opposed to creating an underground propane storage facility in a depleted salt mine along the shore of Seneca Lake (in upstate New York) have recently stepped up their so-called civil disobedience at the facility–staging weekly blockades at the site three weeks in a row. One of those instances was on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, when Sandra Steingraber, so-called scholar in residence at Ithaca College (where she’s paid to agitate and never teaches a class) invoked the name of Dr. King attempting to tie the great civil rights struggle with anti-fossil fuel nuttery. It’s offensive. Below is a rundown, with the names of the latest criminals who have colluded to try and shut down a legal business, Crestwood Midstream, from operating the facility they own at Seneca Lake…
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    Canadian Antis Turn Criminal in Quest to Stop Fossil Fuels

    When radical environmentalists use lock cutters to break into an oil pipeline pumping station and turn the values–off or on or anything but what they are supposed to be–that’s a serious crime. It’s not cute. It’s not funny. It’s not “a statement”. It’s a hate crime–hatred of fossil fuels, which is driving some enviros criminally insane. And it’s happening in Canada where lunatic anti-fossil fuelers are attempting to disrupt, on a regular basis, the free flow of crude oil by pipeline throughout the country. We hope these criminals are caught and thrown in jail–for a long time…
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    7 Antis Arrested at Final PA Pipeline Task Force Meeting

    Yesterday we reported on the very last Pennsylvania Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force meeting, held in Harrisburg on Wednesday (see PA Pipeline Task Force Wraps Up – Did We Worry for Nothing?). Once again anti-fossil fuelers disrupted the meeting, which is nothing new. Last October a group of 20 or so antis showed up and behaved badly (see PA DEP Sec. Quigley Calls Pipeline Protesters “Badly Misinformed”). At Wednesday’s final Task Force meeting, seven protesters behaved badly enough that they got themselves arrested. To their credit, the Democrat-run PBS StateImpact Pennsylvania is the only “media” outlet that covered the news of the arrests…
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    NY Fractivists Block Seneca Lake Facility, Santa & Grinch Dance

    We’ve written many stories over the past few years about anti-drilling zealots who oppose the plan to convert a depleted salt cavern owned by Crestwood Equity Partners (nee Crestwood Midstream) along the shore of Seneca Lake, in Schuyler County, NY, to store liquefied petroleum gas (i.e. propane). The protests are typically a dozen people or less and often organized by Sandra Steingraber, a minor celebrity in fractivist circles. Steingraber is a so-called “scholar in residence” at Ithaca College. They pay her to do nothing but trot around making anti-fracking speeches, no doubt funded with money from the Park Foundation. A group of antis once again assembled in front of the Crestwood facility a few days before Christmas in an illegal blockade of the facility. What’s interesting about this latest infraction is that they no longer even pretend the facility would somehow be unsafe for Seneca Lake or nearby residents–a common lie they use in an attempt to scare the general public. No, this time the mask came off and their message was loud and clear: they oppose the facility because it would store a fossil fuel and in their irrational minds, all fossil fuels are evil. Or as their Christmas-themed sign said, fossil fues are “dirty energy” and that equals “naughty.” So-called renewable energy sources, like solar, are “clean” and “nice.” These nutters believe their “superior” intellect should dictate which energy sources *you* use, and they won’t stop insisting on your energy source until they’re either in jail, or in a retirement home (many of these old hippies are nearing that age)…
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    Actor James Cromwell Arrested Protesting NY Power Plant Site

    James Cromwell as Zefram Cochrane
    James Cromwell as Zefram Cochrane

    Hollywood actor James Cromwell was born in Manhattan (NYC) and maintains a summer home in upstate–in Orange County, NY. Cromwell played Zefram Cochrane (mythical creator of the warp engine) in the 1996 movie Star Trek: First Contact (one of our favs). It was distressing to learn that Cromwell is the latest Hollywood know-nothing to oppose natural gas. Cromwell opposes a clean-burning natural gas-fired electric plant being built near his summer home in Orange County, because, well, because it’s being built near his summer home (see Star Trek Actor with Upstate NY Home Speaks Against Power Plant). In September Cromwell and other area anti-fossil fuelers sued to stop the Competitive Power Ventures $900 million project–perhaps they prefer dilithium crystals to natgas? The frivolous lawsuit was tossed out (see Orange County, NY Marcellus-Fired Electric Plant OK’d by Judge). Well, what’s a spoiled rich kid from Manhattan who wants to keep upstate pristine as his own private playground going to do? Get a bunch of easily-impressed neighbors to stage a sit-in and illegally block construction at the site. That’s what Cromwell and some of his homies did last Friday–they got arrested and carted away to the klink…
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    EPA’s Use of Social Media Propaganda to Support WOTUS was Illegal

    EPA-logo.jpgThe politicization of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)–a government agency that should be, by law, devoid of politics–has caught up with the Obama Administration. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that the EPA, in using social media to urge the public to back Obama’s aggressive new redefinition for Waters of the United States (or WOTUS), was in fact illegal. We previously wrote about this draconian new “rule” ginned up by the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers (see EPA Power Grab: Redefines Waters of the U.S. to Include Everything). The EPA broke the law by engaging in overt politicking–pushing “propaganda” (the word used by the GAO) to support the WOTUS rule. The GAO has just released a sweeping opinion (full copy below) that details chapter and verse just how the EPA broke the law with their propagandizing on social media. The question we have is this: If somebody broke the law, will somebody go to jail? Fat chance. None other than the New York Times was forced to cover the EPA propaganda story–something distasteful and a bit beneath the erudite reporters at the Times…
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    Former XTO Marcellus Landman Gets 5+ Years in Prison for Fraud

    prisonIn a somewhat complicated scam, a former landman for XTO Energy, Steven E. Fisackerly (33 years old) defrauded XTO out of more than $1 million with fake lease deals in the West Virginia Marcellus Shale region. He cooked up bogus documents and passed them off as real, pocketing commissions. He even worked with a supposed/fake mineral rights owner to pocket kickbacks from lease payments sent to the fake rights owner. It was elaborate and convoluted–and ultimately stupid. Fisackerly plead guilty in May and will enter prison on January 4. His sentence? Pay back more than $1 million he defrauded from XTO, and serve 63 months (over 5 years) in federal prison…
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    PA Senate Committee Votes to Recommend AG Kane’s Removal

    Last Wednesday, the Pennsylvania State Senate committee investigating PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane recommended to the full Senate that she be removed from office. Now. Before any more damage is done to the office of the AG. We’ve long covered the scandal that is about to bring down Kathleen Kane (see our Kane stories here). The scandal bringing her down has nothing to do with the Marcellus Shale, other than it will rid us of a liberal Democrat who illegally targets the drilling industry. No–she has herself to thank when she finally walks (or is dragged) through the exit door. She is a mean, vindictive person who sought to discredit a political enemy by leaking privileged grand jury testimony to a reporter (a felony), and then lying under oath about it (which is perjury, another felony). In fact she’s been indicted on a number of crimes. Last week the PA Senate said “enough is enough, it’s time for her to go.” And what did Kane do? Once again, like a broken record, she said a bunch of dirty old men who work for the state and who swapped porn using their state email accounts are out to get her because she discovered their dirty little secret…
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