Fed Judge Certifies Class Action Against Glenn O. Hawbaker, Inc.
Glenn O. Hawbaker, Inc., long known for providing stone quarries and asphalt plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio, also provides civil construction services for shale well sites. In August 2021, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced a plea deal with Hawbaker to pay back $20 million in alleged “stolen wages” from over 1,000 Hawbaker employees (see PA Construction Co. Glenn Hawbaker Pays $20M for “Stolen Wages”). According to Shapiro’s office, Hawbaker deposited retirement funds from one set of employees into a retirement fund account that benefits other employees, including Hawbaker management. Following the plea deal, three former Hawbaker employees filed a civil lawsuit against the company, asking a federal judge to convert their lawsuit into a class action (see Judge Asked to Certify Class Action Against Glenn O. Hawbaker, Inc.). On Tuesday, June 6, the judge granted their request.
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In March, environmental radical Pat McDonnell of PennFuture, the former Pennsylvania Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), along with his best friend THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum, sued McDonnell’s former agency over permits the DEP issued to Williams to build the Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project (see 
Although U.S. Senator Joe Manchin “absolutely thinks” that Congress will pass the debt ceiling bill negotiated by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, it’s still an open question as to whether or not it will pass. There are plenty of people on both ends of the political spectrum who are more than unhappy with the bill and plan to vote against it. At least, that’s what they say now. Today will be the acid test when a finalized bill appears and gets a vote in the House of Representatives. The billed, called the “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023,” contains language that forces the completion of the 303-mile Marcellus/Utica Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Manchin says if the bill passes, all currently open and pending lawsuits against MVP in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will be immediately dismissed.
Today’s lead story shares the good news that Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is finally getting a literal “act of Congress” to force its completion (see Biden-McCarthy Debt Ceiling Deal Includes Finishing MVP PDQ). One of the provisions in the “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023” (debt ceiling bill) removes jurisdiction to hear court cases brought against MVP away from the corrupt U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and gives it to the D.C. Circuit instead. Which may not be the panacea we were hoping for. On Friday, the D.C. Circuit ruled in a case concerning MVP that has the potential to delay the project further. So much for the D.C. Circuit being MVP’s savior…
After years of litigation, we finally have closure on what is and what is not considered “waters of the United States”–or WOTUS. Yesterday, SCOTUS ruled unanimously on WOTUS. The U.S. Supreme Court came down on the side of rationality and common sense. What a surprise, and a delight! However, we’re still not done with WOTUS. The Bidenistas (like the Obamadroids before them) have tried to rewrite and redefine WOTUS, and two court cases are still pending to deal with that. However, yesterday’s decision in a case called Sackett v. EPA goes a long way to overturning the Bidenistas’ new WOTUS rules.
Josh Shapiro promised he was a different kind of Democrat–that he would work with Republicans on important issues like the environment if elected Governor of Pennsylvania. In the end, Shapiro has turned out to be a dud–a do-nothing governor. We warned you during the campaign that should Shapiro get elected, he would (eventually) embrace the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax, even though he made statements during the campaign that he doesn’t support it (see 
Yesterday the six sitting justices of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (currently one vacancy due to the death of Chief Justice Max Baer last fall) heard oral arguments in a case about the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)–a carbon tax scheme aimed at shutting down coal- and natural gas-fired power plants in the state. As is often the case, this Supreme Court case is about a technicality in the law. A lower court (PA Commonwealth Court) blocked the state’s entrance into RGGI last year until a lawsuit challenging PA’s participation could play out (see 
Two weeks ago, the Bidenistas at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a hellscape of new regulations aimed at forcing coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to close (see 
In November 2021, the Bidenistas initiated a massive power grab to transfer the right of individual states to regulate local natural gas gathering pipelines to the federal government’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (see 
Yesterday two radicalized Big Green groups–the Environmental Integrity Project (based in D.C.) and the Clean Air Council (based in Philadelphia)–filed a lawsuit against the Shell Polymers Monaca Plant (ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA), claiming the plant has repeatedly violated federal air pollution limits. The lawsuit requests the court assess huge fines and force it close down unless it can operate without any further violations of the federal Clean Air Act (CAA) and the federal Air Pollution Control Act (APCA). In other words, the radicals seek to shut down the $10 billion plant and keep it shut down–throwing 600 permanent employees out of work. Nice people at the Environmental Integrity Project and Clean Air Council, eh?
Since 2015 we’ve reported on the case of Grant Township (Indiana County, PA), a town that passed an ordinance cooked up by the radical Big Green group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) to try and block a state-approved injection well proposed by Pennsylvania General Energy (
Last November, MDN told you about a lawsuit filed by a family in Washington County, PA, against Chevron (now EQT) for drilling and fracking done in 2011-2012 near the family’s home (see 
During yesterday’s quarterly phone call with analysts to discuss the 1Q23 performance of Equitrans Midstream, a big topic of conversation was the 94% completed (but stalled) Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Equitrans (builder of MVP) CEO Thomas Karam said, “The path to an MVP completion during 2023 is narrower but based on the diligent and comprehensive work being done by the staff at various state and federal agencies and the expected overall permitting timeline, we believe the possibility of commencing forward construction this summer still exists.” He also said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circuit) and their prospective rejection of new permits for the project is not “that dire of a position.” We 100% disagree.