Regulation

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Elk County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Seneca Resources | Wastewater

It Speaks! An “Ecosystem” has Filed to Join a Lawsuit in PA
August 14, 2015August 14, 2015

Better be careful, the water table running under your property may decide to sue you for sinking a water well into it and withdrawing water for drinking, showers, etc. What…Absurd? Funny? Foolish? We’re not kidding. It seems that water tables and rock and dirt are now considered “ecosystems” and, if a lawsuit is allowed to stand in a Pennsylvania court, such an “ecosystem” has the right, under law, to sue. A motion has been filed by the radical leftist PA-based group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) on behalf of an ecosystem to intervene in a federal lawsuit to defend its own “right” to exist and flourish. Background: In 2013 the CELDF convinced enough ignoramuses in Highland Township in Elk County, PA to pass a so-called Community Bill of Rights. Essentially it’s a way to prevent wastewater injection wells from being drilled in the township. Seneca Resources filed a lawsuit to overturn the illegal law. Highland Twp taxpayers are now defending their illegal action with $upport from the deep pockets of Big Green groups (i.e. the CELDF). In an attempt to bully Seneca into backing down from the lawsuit, the CELDF claims to speak for the ecosystem and has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the ecosystem. It’s utter bull crap of the highest order–but a dangerous precedent if allowed. We can see your dog suing you, the trees that ring your property suing you, wrongful death lawsuits for killing a snake…you get the idea. An ecosystem filing a lawsuit would be funny, if it weren’t such a tragically vicious attack against the fabric of this country and the HUMANS that live in it (the only living things with “rights” under our Constitutional form of law)…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Meigs County | Ohio | Regulation | Wastewater

CELDF Tries to Shut Down GreenHunter’s OH Injection Wells
August 14, 2015August 14, 2015

The radical leftist PA-based group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is making mischief in neighboring Ohio. The CELDF is using some of its millions of Big Green dollars to file a lawsuit against Meigs County, OH Commissioners because the commissioners refuse to put an illegal ballot measure up for a vote in November. The CELDF pressured the citizens of Highland Township in Elk County, PA in 2013 to pass a so-called Community Bill of Rights–the same kind of law they want Meigs County to adopt (see today’s companion story about the ecosystem that speaks). Meigs County already has two injection wells recently brought online by GreenHunter Resources, with plans to bring another two online in the near future (see GreenHunter Brings 2 New Injection Wells Online in Meigs County, OH). GreenHunter has built out a barge terminal along the Ohio River in Meigs County where they plan to unload barged brine for disposal (see GreenHunter Resources 1Q15: Bets the Ranch on OH Injection Wells). The CELDF so-called Community Bill of Rights would stop GreenHunter’s injection wells and the barge terminal from operating. Can you imagine the lawsuits and the amount of money Meigs County residents would have to pay out if that happened? It would likely bankrupt the county. Meigs County commissioners rightly seek to protect the citizens they were elected to represent from this horrific economic apocalypse. And so now, the CELDF is suing Meigs commissioners because they won’t allow the ballot measure to proceed…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation | Summit County

Stark County, OH Judge Orders Sheriff to Assist NEXUS with Surveys
August 14, 2015August 14, 2015

In Summit County, OH, a county judge has denied NEXUS Pipeline’s request to force recalcitrant landowners to allow surveyors on their property (see Summit County, OH Judge Denies NEXUS Request to Survey Properties). In neighboring Stark County, it’s the reverse. A judge in Stark County granted NEXUS a court order allowing them to survey properties where the pipeline may potentially run. And whereas in Wayne County (borders both Summit and Stark) the Wayne County Sheriff won’t let his deputies work as off-duty security guards for NEXUS (see today’s story questioning the legality of the Sheriff’s action), the judge in Stark County has ORDERED the sheriff there to enforce NEXUS’ right to enter properties to survey them. The Stark County sheriff is telling his on-duty deputies to accompany surveyors to protect them. Is your head spinning yet?…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA DEP Finalizes Onerous New Drilling Regs, Industry Opposes
August 13, 2015August 13, 2015

Major changes are on the way for Pennsylvania’s conventional (vertical) and unconventional (shale/horizontal) drillers. In 2011 PA began a process that’s gone on way too long, to update certain regulations that apply to oil and gas drillers known as Chapter 78 of the 1984 Oil and Gas Act. Along the way the PA legislature decided there should be separate rules governing conventional and unconventional drilling–so Chapter 78 has become Chapter 78 (conventional) and 78a (unconventional). PA was close to adopting the new rules at the end of the Tom Corbett administration but then he lost his bid for re-election, throwing the process into turmoil once again with newly elected Tom Wolf and his PennFuture buddies wanting to put their own stamp on drilling regulations in the Keystone State (see PA DEP Sec Quigley Pulls a Fast One, Changes Drilling Rules). Yesterday the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) released the final draft version for both Chapter 78 and 78a (copy below). Last week the group that will consider this new draft for conventional drilling, the Conventional Oil and Gas Advisory Committee (COGAC), preemptively said they would vote against adopting the draft (see PA DEP Sec Quigley’s Own Committee Appointees Turn Against Him). PennFuture DEP Sec. Quigley said, “COGAC’s opposition will not hinder the progress of the final rule, and I hope when they meet in August that they are prepared to engage with us as we finalize the rule.” In other words: “Screw you, I’ll do what I want to do anyway.” We predict fireworks at the COGAC meeting on August 27 in Harrisburg…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Regulation | Summit County

Summit County, OH Judge Denies NEXUS Request to Survey Properties
August 13, 2015August 13, 2015

Last week NEXUS Pipeline filed court cases against landowners in Summit County to force them to allow NEXUS surveyors access to their property (see NEXUS Pipeline Files Lawsuits for Survey Access in Summit County). The City of Green and other municipalities have stirred up so much resentment against NEXUS that the pipeline company is forced to send armed security guards out with their surveyors, fearing for their safety (see NEXUS Pipeline Sends Armed Guards with Surveyors to Protect Them). Although NEXUS needs access to survey so they can complete their application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a Summit County judge yesterday denied the request by NEXUS, setting up a court battle in October…
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Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Paul Driessan: Obama’s Clean Power Plan Will Kill Us, Literally
August 11, 2015August 11, 2015

Paul Driessen, senior policy adviser for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) which sponsors the All Pain No Gain petition against global-warming hype, and a senior policy adviser to the Congress of Racial Equality and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power – Black Death, has penned a brilliant analysis of the Obama Clean Power Plan released last week. In black and white numbers, Driessen lays out how, if Obama’s plan is implemented, electricity rates will skyrocket. And when they do, everything we make, grow, ship, eat and do will also skyrocket in cost. The end result: “It will impair our livelihoods, living standards, liberties and life spans.” This is not hyperbole, folks. Driessen speaks the truth. Give his column a read below…
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Accidents | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Tioga County (PA)

EPA Causes Environmental Disaster in CO; Connection to Marcellus?
August 11, 2015August 11, 2015

We’ve watched, with some interest, the unfolding story that began last week in Colorado when the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) caused an environmental disaster of incalculable proportions. EPA workers were fiddling around with, what, testing?, at the now abandoned Gold King Mine, an old gold mine where millions of gallons of wastewater used during mining was stored. During their testing (or whatever they were doing) at the site, they accidentally unplugged the wastewater storage pond and millions (originally said to be 1 million, now disclosed as 3 million) gallons of very nasty wastewater with lead, arsenic and other heavy metals flowed into the the Animas River north of Silverton, CO, turning the water “an opaque orange color reminiscent of boxed mac and cheese.” Stick with us–we’re about to make a connection to the Marcellus Shale…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY | Tioga County (NY)

NY Heroes: More Details on NY Propane Fracking Proposal
August 10, 2015August 10, 2015

Some more details about the brilliant move by some average farmers in Tioga County, NY who plan to use propane to frack a Utica Shale well, bypassing the existing ban on fracking in New York because the existing ban only disallows high volume water-based fracking…
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Air Quality | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Beaver County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Shell

Big Green Groups File to Block Shell Cracker Air Quality Permit
August 7, 2015August 7, 2015

Simply amazing. Two Big Green environmental groups–the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council and the Washington, DC-based Environmental Integrity Project–are trying to scuttle the Shell ethane cracker in the Pittsburgh area that would bring thousands of new jobs and eventually pump something like $20 billion into the regional economy, with a ripple effect of jobs and prosperity for the entire tri-state region. The two groups have just filed an appeal with state regulators saying the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) erred when granting an air quality permit that will allow the plant to operate (see Shell Receives Air Quality Permit from PA DEP for Cracker Plant). These two litigious Big Green groups hope to tie the whole matter up in court and “encourage” (scare) Shell away from its investment. It’s hard to put into words the depth of depravity of people who do disgusting things like this…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

The Hill: Obama’s “Love Affair” with Natural Gas is Over
August 6, 2015August 6, 2015

Further analysis of President Obama’s draconian new EPA Clean Power Plan rule that, if allowed to stand, will gut natural-gas fired electric generating plants in this country. The analysis comes from the left-leaning DC newspaper The Hill, which characterizes it this way: “President Obama’s love affair with natural gas is over.” They also note that the natural gas industry is “furious” at Obama’s betrayal. We have to ask: Were you really that dumb? Did you really believe Obama’s lying words when he said he (somewhat) supported natural gas like it was “the other white meat”? We never believed it–not for a minute. Here’s a cold splash of reality for those who still have a hard time believing that yes, Obama has just thrown natural gas under the bus…
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Gov Wolf Salutes Obama, Eagerly Buys into Clean Power Plan
August 5, 2015August 5, 2015

On Monday President Obama and his rogue Environmental Protection Agency made another power grab, infringing on our freedom and liberty, with the release of a so-called Clean Power Plan (see Obama Stabs Natural Gas Electric Plants in Clean Power Plan). As we pointed out, natural gas use in electric generating plants is one of the casualties in Obama’s latest “brilliant” strategy, much to the consternation of those in the oil and gas industry. But two very important people in Pennsylvania love Obama’s overreach–America’s most liberal governor, Gov. Tom Wolf, and his minion PennFuture Sec. of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley. They think Obama’s Clean Power Plan is just dandy–and they intend to plunge Pennsylvania down the same rat hole Obama is taking the rest of the country…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA DEP Sec Quigley’s Own Committee Appointees Turn Against Him
August 4, 2015August 4, 2015

Looks like the PennFuture Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley, didn’t get exactly what he wanted with new appointments to the new Conventional Oil and Gas Advisory Committee (COGAC). You may recall that Quigley, in an unprecedented move, fired all of the members of the Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board (TAB) and in its place created a new TAB and a second, new group–COGAC (see Why did PA DEP Acting Sec Quigley Mass Fire Gas Advisory Board?). We speculated he was packing both boards with yes men and women–but it turns out the members of COGAC aren’t saluting the chief. The purpose in having two boards is to represent the different interests of shale drillers (TAB) and traditional, much smaller “mom and pop” conventional drillers (COGAC). New drilling regulations are about to be imposed on both conventional and unconventional (shale) drillers. Conventional drillers have said, for years, that many of the rules applied to shale drillers should not apply to them because it is a vastly different extraction process. The voting members of the new COGAC have weighed in and told Quigley, in a letter, that they will not support the rules he intends to release in late August. In fact, they outright oppose those rules as applied to conventional drillers. Quigley has said, as he typically does, “screw you” in so many words…
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Obama Stabs Natural Gas Electric Plants in Clean Power Plan
August 4, 2015August 4, 2015

Yesterday our glorious Dear Leader, Barack Hussein Obama, made his final push for total (clean) dictatorial power. And since Republicans in Congress have lost their courage and their way, he’s likely to achieve it. Yesterday the Obama administration unveiled its Communist Clean Power Plan, a plan that illegally violates just about every Constitutional freedom we have left in this country. You see, our Dear Leader believes in the fairy tale of man-made global warming–even though it doesn’t exist. And he’s using that belief to not only screw the coal industry, he’s also using it to screw the shale energy industry too. Surprised? We aren’t. We’ve told you for years that Obama’s actions speak much louder than his words when it comes to shale energy–of his lack of support for shale energy. Now his words are matching his actions. Obama abandoned his words of support for natural gas in unveiling his so-called Clean Power Plan that will result in not only coal powered electric generating plants closing in large numbers–but will also put natural gas fired plants on the endangered list too. Lord Obama now touts so-called renewable energy only. No more talk about using natural gas as a bridge fuel. That’s verboten. Instead of letting the free market choose which power source it wants for energy, Lord Obama has made the decision for us. Sieg heil, Obama!…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Regulation | Transco

Antis Use Their Own Children as Cheap Props at FERC Hearing in NH
August 4, 2015August 5, 2015

A picture truly is worth a thousand words, as the old saying goes. So let’s show you a picture and see what you think (view it below). It is a picture of young children tricked out in “Stop the Pipeline” yellow shirts and red Stop the Pipeline hats–sitting on the floor playing with toys at a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) hearing in southern New Hampshire last week. Two hearings were held to gather public comments on Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct natural gas pipeline. As they usually do, anti-fossil fuelers turned the hearings into freak shows–using (we’d call it abusing) children as props. We ask: Who would do something like that to their own children? Why would you brazenly use your own child as a cheap prop in a sleazy attempt to gain attention and sympathy for a political viewpoint? How low can you go?…
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Carbon County | Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | PennEast Pipeline | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation

PennEast Changes Route Where it Crosses Appalachian Trail
July 31, 2015July 31, 2015

This story is cool on many levels. Score another PR victory, and another clever re-route, for the PennEast Pipeline. PennEast, you may recall, is a $1 billion, 110-mile, 36-inch diameter natural gas pipeline that will run from Luzerne County, PA to Mercer County, NJ. It is vigorously opposed by Big Green groups like the nutty Sierra Clubbers and THE Delaware Riverkeeper. Some who oppose it have threatened violence (see today’s companion story). Why? Because the PennEast will flow that evil, nasty fossil fuel called natural gas. Can’t have that, you know. PennEast has made a course correction that is sure to cut down on the time it requires to get approved. The course correction is where the PennEast will cross the Appalachian Trail in Carbon County, PA. The course correction also lets the PennEast deliver cheap Marcellus Shale gas to a new electric generating plant being built by the Blue Mountain Ski Resort…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY | Tioga County (NY)

NY Antis Now Want LPG Fracking Banned Too, Letter to DEC
July 29, 2015July 29, 2015

At the risk of sounding pedantic and endlessly repeating what we’ve said many times before–the frack ban in New York is not about water quality concerns or any of the other myriad so-called “problems” that come from using water to hydraulically fracture an oil or gas well. This is how we know. If you remove water from the equation, which is the major concern and why the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has decided to ban fracking (supposedly), anti-drillers still object to fracking. A group of virulent, hardened, and frankly nutty anti-drillers from the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Earthjustice and Frack Action have just sent a letter to the NY DEC asking the DEC to ban ALL fracking, including LPG (propane) fracking that a group of landowners in Tioga County, NY plan to use (see NY Landowners File to Frack Horizontal Well w/Waterless Tech). What has anti-drillers so terrified of LPG fracking? If LPG fracking is used in NY, it will prove that fracking can be done safely in NY–and once that happens, it’s game over for those who object to fracking. Anti-drillers’ call to ban LPG fracking points out what we’ve said for years: these people object to fracking because they irrationally, psychotically, hate fossil fuels–not because fracking pollutes water supplies, because it doesn’t…
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