Prejudice in Washington, PA – Judge Says No Marcellus Boarding House
Discrimination and prejudice have finally won in Washington, PA–and a dilapidated eyesore will continue to exist because of it. We’re speaking about plans to renovate a former, run-down convent into a boarding house for Marcellus Shale workers in Washington, PA. We’ve previously chronicled City Council’s opposition to the project (see Washington, PA Votes to Reject Marcellus Boarding House). We’ve also chronicled the shameful opposition of Rev. William Feeney and the Immaculate Conception church across the street from their denomination’s abandoned convent–opposed to the plan because it might attract “transients” to the neighborhood (see Marcellus Prejudice on Display at Washington, PA Church). The reverend and parishioners may want to re-read Matthew 25:31-40. The developer looking to create Marcellus housing at the old convent, Robert Starr, took the matter to court. Yesterday he lost…
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For months now, since the announcements of who then Gov.-elect Tom Wolf would appoint in his new administration to head up environmental efforts at both the Dept. of Environmental Protection (John Quigley) and the Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (Cindy Dunn), MDN has called attention to the fact that both of those individuals are problematic based on their previous roles in the anti-drilling organization PennFuture. A third member of the Wolf administration is John Hanger, a previous Secretary at the DEP and an early member (supposedly founder) of PennFuture. All three once worked for Democrat Gov. Ed “Fast Eddie” Rendell and now are at the top of the power structure in Harrisburg working for Wolf. MDN friend and ace analyst Tom Shepstone rips the mask off PennFuture and exposes it for what it is in a new article published on his always excellent 
PennFuture, the anti-drilling organization that has produced three top lieutenants in the PA Gov. Tom Wolf administration (see Ripping the Face off PennFuture & It’s Former Employees), frequently uses the court system in its attempt to slow or stop the Marcellus industry. One such case was a lawsuit PennFuture filed against Ultra Resources in 2011. Ultra had eight compressor stations scattered across Tioga and Potter counties–all of them many miles apart from each other. PennFuture tried to make the legal argument that all of the compressor stations should be combined together and treated as a single entity for the purposes of the federal Clean Air Act, which would have resulted in either very expensive equipment to reduce each facility’s nitrgen oxide (NOx) output, or perhaps closed some of them down to make the combined total come in under a certain threshold. PennFuture tried to say the eight facilities are “adjacent” for the purpose of the Clean Air Act. Ultra argued adjacent means “next to,” as in sharing a border. It all boils down to what the definition of adjacent means. Earlier this week U.S. District Court for Pennsylvania’s Middle District ruled in favor of Ultra and against PennFuture…