DEP Board Votes to “Not Endorse” Sec. Quigley’s New Drilling Regs
In a big metaphorical slap across the face, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection’s Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board (TAB) has voted to not endorse re-worked drilling regulations proposed by the PennFuture Sec. of the DEP, John Quigley. We told you two days ago the DEP was meeting with TAB to get the group’s rubber stamp of approval (see New Drilling Rules for PA Take One Big Step Closer to Reality). Looks like Quigley’s hand-picked new board members are not yes men (and women) after all. This is the second DEP advisory group packed with Quigley appointees that has rejected his onerous proposed re-worked regulations. Previously the Conventional Oil and Gas Advisory Committee (COGAC) also told Quigley nyet (see PA DEP Sec Quigley’s Own Committee Appointees Turn Against Him). Which means both conventional and now unconventional drilling advisors, appointed by Quigley himself, don’t believe Quigley’s rejiggered regulations are good. Do we see a pattern developing here? Seeing that two boards of experts are telling him there’s a problem, does that mean Quigley will pause and reflect and perhaps consider changing his proposed rules? Are you kidding! Don’t make us laugh. Oh no no no. Quigley plans to ramrod these new regs through as fast as he can regardless…
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Wow. We didn’t think it possible. The PennFuture Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), John Quigley himself, is sticking up for the honor and reputation of his agency. Last week the Democrat-run Harrisburg Patriot-News ran an attack series against shale energy. We told you about it by reprinting Tom Shepstone’s excellent critique (see 
About 20 hippie retreads showed up in Harrisburg, PA on Wednesday to protest outside of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) regional office in Harrisburg to protest the fourth meeting of Gov. Tom Wolf’s Pipeline Infrastructure Taskforce. In May Gov. Wolf announced he was forming a taskforce to study and make recommendations on how the state can better work with (i.e. control) where local gathering pipelines are installed (see 
Shortly after assuming the office of Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley (who formerly worked for the anti-drilling Big Green group PennFuture) mass-fired a very important group at the DEP called the Oil & Gas Technical Advisory Board, or TAB (see 
A gang of Big Green groups are tickled pink–or is it tickled “green”–that their continuous frivolous lawsuits against the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have once again yield the desired result. Radical leftist “green” groups like Earthworks, Environmental Integrity Project, THE Delaware Riverkeeper, and yes, PennFuture (where PA’s current Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley, used to work), had previously sued the federal EPA to force onerous new reporting rules on natural gas processing plants, using lies about the kinds of air pollutants released by the plants. The EPA cooperates with these sleazy organizations in a “sue and settle” scam. “Hey, you sue us for this, a liberal judge will ‘make us’ do it–then we can bypass Congress and everyone else and set up our own laws outside of that stupid old Constitution.” That’s how these groups collude with the EPA (see 
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…
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