EPA Requires New Greenhouse Gas Reports from Frackers/Midstreamers
Once more the Obama Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) violates the U.S. Constitution by creating an unlegislated law and declaring it in effect for the oil and gas industry–thereby regulating oil and gas, even though according to the U.S. Constitution the individual states are the ones with power to regulate the oil and gas industry. And barely a peep. Everyone just lays down and takes it. No push-back. What a shame. Last week the EPA published a final rule in the Federal Register amending reporting on mythical greenhouse gases that will now be required by oil and gas drillers–particularly those who use horizontal hydraulic fracturing (i.e. fracking). Not to be left out–if you build and maintain pipelines to gather natural gas and oil, you’re affected by the new rules too. Another massive federal power grab which goes into effect on January 1st. One more freedom dies under Barack Hussein Obama…
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The Keystone Sanitary Landfill is Pennsylvania’s third busiest landfill–located on the outskirts of Scranton. The Keystone Landfill accepts drill cuttings from Marcellus drilling. Last year Keystone applied for a permit to expand the landfill once again–but instead of outward, they want to expand it upward, making it higher, to gain more capacity. At present about 10% of the incoming waste stream at the landfill is shale waste. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) had, as of last summer, delayed granting the expansion request pending more study (see 
In August our Dear Leader, Barack Hussein Obama, introduced his latest edict called the Clean Power Plan. The plan uses the federal Environmental Protection Agency to completely eliminate coal-fired electric plants, and greatly diminish natural gas-fired electric plants (see 
It’s not often it happens, so we like to make a big deal out of it when it does–praise for a group of Democrats! Kudos to the Mahoning County Democrat Party for their stand AGAINST the no fracking ballot initiative on the November ballot–otherwise known as the Youngstown Community Bill of Rights initiative. As we’ve previously reported, this is the fifth time this idiotic ballot measure has come up for a vote in the City of Youngstown. The OH Supreme Court ruled it should be on the ballot in November (for a fifth time), even though the same Supreme Court ruled against such “home rule” laws earlier in the year (see 
Enough is enough. It’s become quite obvious that NY Gov. Cuomo is up to his old tricks–delay and then deny. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) long ago approved the Williams Constitution Pipeline (see 
The legal beagles at energy law firm Babst Calland are raising the alert that another “sue and settle” lawsuit has been filed against the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by seven radical environmental groups. This is the latest attempt at forcing the EPA to comply with a lawsuit that they intentionally lose. What? Yes, they intentionally lose the lawsuit and then tell Congress that they “have to” comply with a court order “forcing” them to enact certain unlegislated rules and regulations in order to comply with a judge’s order–in effect giving them one more weapon in their arsenal to illegally regulate the oil and gas industry. Regulation of oil and gas is Constitutionally left up to the individual states. The EPA, especially under Obama, has been innovating ways to circumvent the Constitution and Congress and cease regulation authority. So-called “sue and settle” lawsuits are one of the ways they do it. Here comes another one. This time radical environmental groups (which should be sued themselves) have sued the EPA to force them to regular oil and gas drilling wastes under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Here’s a summary of what’s happening…
There are some 408 parks that are part of the National Park System in the United States. The National Park Service (NPS) is the government agency charged with managing those parks. The NPS has just put everyone on notice that new regulations for oil and gas drilling on and under those parks is coming. In some cases mineral rights are not owned by the government and drilling does happen on or under the parks. Oil and gas drilling currently happens in 12 of the 408 parks, including drilling operations in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park between Akron and Cleveland in Northeast Ohio. Just over half of the drilling operations happening in those 12 National Parks is exempt from NPS regulations. In an annoucement (below), the NPS said (1) we’re about to make drilling regs more strict, and (2) the new regs will apply to all drilling in all National Parks, including the places where it’s currently exempt from NPS rules–even if the mineral rights are not owned by the NPS. It is another power grab by the federal government. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) tried this tactic with non-park federal lands–a move that landed it in court (see 
In a sit-down in September with the editors of the Washington Observer-Reporter (near Pittsburgh), the PennFuture Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley, was reported to have said the following: “He [Quigley] is proposing to create an office of environmental justice within the department and hire “the right individual” to advise him on policy” (see 
In December President Obama will travel to Paris to sign a climate treaty that forfeits the sovereignty of the United States of America–the country he swore to protect. The Paris climate treaty is another in a long line of attempts (like Kyoto) to convince stupid Americans to give up the right to control their own country and destiny–to sell ourselves out and let non-American, un-elected socialists from other countries determine how we will live in the future. They use the bogeyman myth of global warming to do it. They are all aiming to commit mass energy suicide by outlawing fossil fuels–but it won’t work if we don’t play along. We pray Congress stops this madness, but now we despair. You see, big business is in bed with big government and funds the political ruling class in Washington and in return the politicians pass laws favorable to them. Some 81 of the biggest big businesses (who contribute heavily to Congress and receive preferential treatment in return) have signed on to a pact to support Obama’s climate madness. They actually want him to sign the treaty that gives up our national sovereignty. Without these 81 big businesses (full list below) you literally could not live–from Walmart to Hershey to Nike to Apple to Google to Kellogg’s to American Express…the list goes on. Sadly, even some in our own industry have signed on, including Invenergy. Shame on them. If we were to boycott them (as should happen) we’d have to live like hermits in the wilderness. No one can live without the goods and services provided by this list of 81 mega corporations. And each and every one of them have sold us out. It’s truly a sad and depressing day…
A deadline is fast approaching in New York State. Next Tuesday, Oct. 27, the natural gas industry must file an “Article 78” lawsuit or lose its opportunity to do so. Last December NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo made a non-science, political decision to ban fracking in the state (see 
MDN has been highlighting stories and writing about potential water well contamination by Range Resources at their Yeager well and wastewater impoundment site in Amwell Township (Washington County), PA since 2012 (see MDN’s list of 
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) seems to have a grudge against EQT. Last October the DEP levied a $4.5 million fine against EQT over a leaky wastewater impoundment in Tioga County, PA (see 
Two days ago MDN told you that the U.S. Coast Guard has approved of a project off the coast of New York and New Jersey that would import natural gas from Trinidad (see