Strange: DEP Fines Range Resouces $1.75M for Water Withdrawals
A strange announcement from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Friday says that Range Resources has agreed to pay $1.75 million to the state for failure to keep track of water withdrawals made by the company (takes a lot of water to frack, much of which comes from creeks and rivers), and for exceeding the amount of water withdrawn according to the plan they have on file with the DEP. What’s strange about the announcement is that a) you can’t find it on the DEP website itself, b) Range was making withdrawals and not recording/tracking the withdrawals from 2009 to 2014–five years–but apparently the DEP didn’t notice or didn’t care, and c) $950,000 of the $1.75 million “fine” (more than half) will go to fix up and operate the Hamilton Abandoned Mine Treatment System in Findlay Township, Allegheny County…
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If there’s one thing you NEVER do, it’s get between an anti-driller and a camera/microphone. Elected town leaders in Ligonier Township (Westmoreland County), PA found that out the hard way Tuesday night. At the regular town board meeting there was a 45-minute section of the meeting, out of a much longer meeting, devoted to discussion of new zoning regulations for Marcellus Shale drilling in the township. The new zoning regs are, according to town leaders, a “work in progress.” About 100 people showed up at the meeting, 50 of whom wanted to talk about this “work in progress.” It was a regular town board meeting and not the time to devote the 3-4 hours necessary for anti-drillers to preen before the cameras and spew their same old same old. Ligonier supervisors kept to the 45-minute time limit and shut down the freak show at that point. That enraged a handful of mouthy anti-drillers and, according to witnesses, the meeting got “out of control”…
It’s interesting to MDN that several of the seven Pennsylvania towns that sued the state over the Act 13 law and its zoning provisions–presumably because they didn’t want any Marcellus drilling in their borders–have done a 180 degree turnabout. It happened first in Robinson Township (Washington County), PA–the very township whose name is forever (shamefully) emblazoned on the case, which is called “Robinson v Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.” Voters in Robinson tossed their anti-drilling leaders out of office (see 
In a huge disappointment, Gov.-elect Tom Wolf has tapped two members of the same anti-drilling “environmental” organization–PennFuture–to head up the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). Both also once worked for Gov. Ed Rendell (Wolf is acting more like Fast Eddie every day). Wolf is tapping John Quigley, who was Secretary of DCNR under Gov. Ed Rendell, to be Secretary at the DEP. Lately, Quigley has hung his hat at PennFuture as its government relations manager. His boss at PennFuture, Cindy Dunn (president of that organization), will become the Secretary of DCNR for Wolf. She served as deputy secretary of the DCNR under Rendell. It’s all kind of incestuous, isn’t it? PennFuture has a history of opposing the Marcellus industry–and now these two Rendell retreads are put in charge of managing the Marcellus industry. Unfortunately, we take that has an bad harbinger of what Wolf plans for Marcellus drilling in the Keystone State. His true colors are starting to show…
It seems no one IS above the law, including Pennsylvania’s Attorney General, Kathleen Kane. She is, you may recall, anti-drilling and has targeted both large and small companies related to the Marcellus industry. She abused her office by filing criminal charges against XTO Energy for an accidental spill that occurred two years before she took office (see