South Fayette, PA Obstinately Passes Defacto Drilling Ban, Again
South Fayette (Washington County), PA is one of seven selfish PA towns that sued the state after the Act 13 law was enacted in 2012 (see Lawsuit Filed: PA Towns Sue State over Marcellus Act 13 Law). Ultimately South Fayette and the other towns won their case at the PA Supreme Court level, winning the right for all PA towns and municipalities to enact their own ordinances with respect to oil and gas drilling. So last year South Fayette enacted a new defacto ban, calling it a zoning ordinance. A judge tossed it out in May because South Fayette didn’t follow proper protocol and procedure (see South Fayette, PA Restrictive Drilling Ordinance Tossed by Judge). But the obstinate anti-drillers who sit on the Board of Commissioners brought it back, held a public hearing, and last night voted to adopt the same, exact defacto frack ban…
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A study funded entirely by the National Science Foundation (no Big Green money involved, no oil and gas money involved) has found that fracking operations in Colorado have not led to an increase in methane migration into groundwater supplies. The study, titled “Groundwater methane in relation to oil and gas development and shallow coal seams in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of Colorado” (full copy below) was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and is significant. The research examined methane levels going back 25 years, long before any horizontal fracking took place in the state. It focuses on an area of Colorado where there has been a great deal of drilling and fracking over the past 16 years. In looking at levels of dissolved methane in groundwater both before and after fracking began, the researchers found, “The rate [of groundwater methane] did not change after the introduction of horizontal drilling combined with high-volume hydraulic fracturing in 2010.” We predict you’ll hear crickets in mainstream media–with no coverage of this very important finding…
We can not be more crystal clear on this: a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote to end the use of fossil fuels, and a vote to plunge our great nation into economic depression. Over the weekend the Democrat Party hashed out its official party platform–the tenants by which the party, if it should be so lucky as to hold on to power, will live by for the coming four years. The Dems are composed of radical idiots of all stripes, but some are more radical than others. The official platform calls for a tax on carbon (the stuff you breathe out with every breath) to tackle so-called (and non-existent) “climate change.” The platform also calls for a “phase down” of drilling on public lands. What the platform does not call for, however, is a total ban on all fracking. And that lack of a total ban in the official platform has set off some of the craziest of the crazies in the party. A group of them, spurred on by the odious and misnamed Food and Watch Watch, are making the rounds in Philadelphia. Near the convention center are several dozen donkey statutes, placed there in honor of the upcoming Dem convention in two weeks. So what are the FWW crazies doing? Placing piles of papier-mâché poop under the business end of the donkeys and spray painting “No ban on fracking, the Dem platform is crap.” Hilarious! We’re finally seeing the Dem party crack up and self-implode, thanks to anti-frackers…
In May 2015 MDN brought you news of a then-newly released “study” from “scientists” at Oregon State University and the University of Cincinnati that reportedly found people living near fracking sites in Ohio were being exposed to “deadly” air pollution (see 
Boom. The trigger was pulled and the depressed mental patient–in this case the Friendsville Town Council, has committed fracking suicide. MDN told you in March that the unfriendly people of Friendsville, Maryland were contemplating fracking suicide (see 
As MDN reported two days ago, the Maryland Dept. of the Environment (MDE) held a public hearing in Baltimore to elicit feedback on changes to the state’s proposed fracking regulations–already the tightest, harshest such regulations in the country (see 
Normally polsters, when releasing a high level summary of a poll’s results, also release the “crosstabs”–the details of the poll. But apparently not if the poll is good news for the fracking industry. Rasmussen recently conducted a poll in a series of polls they’ve been conduction (for years) to gage the nation’s attitude about fracking. The poll finds 49% of American’s support fracking, while 34% oppose it. Quick fact: Fracking of conventional or vertical-only wells has been going on for more than 40 years in this country. The high level results were reported by Rasmussen, but no crosstabs which might tell us fracking is supported by a majority of Democrats. That kind of truth-telling is lethal to the politicians running the party. Here’s the (precious little) sum total of what Rasmussen did share about the latest fracking poll…
Don’t worry, you stupid farmers in Belmont County, OH. A really really smart liberal from Yale University (who believes in the fairy tale of man-made global warming) has arrived in your midst and is willing to pay you big money–$20 (yes, twenty dollars)–to participate in a “study” with a pre-determined outcome that you’re being poisoned by fracking. The latest laughable “research study” by a small group of Yale “researchers” is underway in Belmont. The researchers are looking for 100 local yokels who are willing to tell them how they’ve been harmed by fracking, so the researchers can plaster the Yale name on yet another fraudulent study funded by Big Green organizations. We’ve seen this movie before. In 2014 Yale researchers released a similar study of 180 people in Washington County, PA, funded by Heinz Foundation and other Big Green funders (see 
Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME) wants an independent, third-party review of proposed natural gas drilling regulations in the state. The last time such regulations was reviewed was in 2004, over a decade ago. A lot has changed since then. At that time, a group called the State Review of Oil and Natural Gas Environmental Regulations (STRONGER) performed the review. It’s only natural that the same group do the new review–so the DMME hired STRONGER to do it. And that has anti-drilling nutjobs in a tizzy. Eight radical anti-drilling groups say STRONGER has industry backing and will not be fair and impartial in their review. In other words, STRONGER won’t recommend rules so strict as to ban fracking, which is what the radicals want. Here’s the thing: STRONGER has members of Big Green groups as part of the organization–including Earthworks and Trout Unlimited. STRONGER receives funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Dept. of Energy (DOE). So how do the nutters figure STRONGER isn’t objective or unduly influenced? If anything, STRONGER is influenced toward being too cozy with Big Green causes…
Big news to report with an effort to beat back President Obama’s wild and mad grab at executive power. Earlier this week a federal judge in Wyoming–appointed by Obama himself–ruled that the Dept. of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) fracking rules are an illegal power grab and has struck them down. MDN has written about this issue since the new rules were proposed in 2012 (see 
Maryland is actively looking at revising draft regulations that would allow fracking with an eye to adopting the new rules later this year, and letting fracking begin in the state in October 2017. The antis are, of course, apoplectic that fracking might happen in the liberal paradise of Maryland. However, the oil and gas industry is not all that thrilled with the proposed changes coming from the Maryland Department of Environment (MDE) either. We’ve been critical of new Gov. Larry Hogan and his lack of spine on the fracking issue (see 
Last December we asked the question: