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Ohio Keeps Oil Train Shipment Timing Secret – Media Complains

Last week MDN told you that eight so-called environmental groups are attempting to use a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to force New York State to divulge when large shipments of oil are crossing the state by railroad–making a perfect target for terrorists (see NY Enviro Groups Seek to Use Oil Trains to Their Advantage). A number of other states are facing the same issue–whether or not to divulge the timing of rail shipments of Bakken light crude oil. One of those states is Ohio, and fortunately for Ohioans, the state has decided to keep the timing of oil shipments secret, to avoid (as MDN has pointed out) making shipments an easy target for terrorists…
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ODNR Ticks Off Anti-Drilling Sierra Club with Drilling PR Plan

memoIn August of 2012 staffers at the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) made a boo-boo. They put into writing (in the form of a 13-page memo, embedded below) a draft plan to promote Utica Shale drilling under (not on) Sunfish Creek State Forest (in Monroe County), under (not on) Barkcamp State Park (in Belmont County), and under (not on) Wolf Run State Park (Noble County). The memo begins by saying there will be a communications problem to solve: “An initiative to proactively open state park and forest land to horizontal drilling/hydraulic fracturing will be met with zealous resistance by environmental activist opponents, who are skilled propagandists. Neutral parties in particular — such as ordinary citizens concerned about their families’ health — will be vulnerable to messaging by opponents that the initiative represents dangerous and radical state policy by Gov. Kasich.” (emphasis original) The memo states later on that, “Anti-fracking activists will attempt to legally and physically disrupt or halt the drilling projects, including staging dangerous protests on state lands. (This will require sustained legal countermeasures and crisis readiness by ODNR.)”

May we translate? Groups like the Sierra Club lie to people about the drilling issue–and they sometimes engage in bullying (and violent) behavior. Of course the Sierra Club liars are just a bit miffed at being called out as liars and bullies–by no less than a state agency charged with regulating oil and gas. So they are on the offensive. The first thing the Sierra Club and similar groups will do (are doing) is to get their buddies in the slavishly devoted mainstream media to pick up their “ODNR are scumbags” meme and run with it. The second thing is they will use the ODNR memo in fundraising letters, which is really what the shale drilling issue is for them–a big, fat fundraiser…
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PA Marcellus Drilling Site Vandal Gets Probation, Told “Grow Up”

In what can only be called an act of utter stupidity, a 21-year-old man from Trout Run, PA, vandalized and damaged a bunch of expensive equipment and the environment last August at a drill site in Lycoming County, PA. Was he drunk? An anti-drilling crusader? Showing off for his girlfriend? We don’t know the details or his motivation—but at a sentencing hearing yesterday (where he got probation), the judge told him to “grow up.”

The punch line? “He recently got work with another natural gas company, court records state.” Let’s name names:

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Farmer Does Jail Time After Confrontation with Pipeline Co

A western PA cattle farmer claims workers from Williams/Laurel Mountain Midstream pumped acid mine drainage onto his farm and damaged his fences while drilling a ditch for a pipeline across his property. The farmer was ordered to stay away from the workers last month after confronting them about damage done to his fences. He violated a court order and confronted them a second time when he saw what he thought was acid mine drainage being pumped onto his land from the ditches being dug. This time he got four days in the local clink.

Here’s what we know of the story:

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Protesters Illegally Shut Down Drilling Rig in Central PA

breaking the lawProtesters have illegally shut down an EQT drilling rig in Moshannon State Forest in central Pennsylvania. The rig was in the process of being commissioned (just getting started) and protesters blocked the road trucks were using to access the rig.

In addition to blocking the road, two protesters sat 75 feet up on a tree platform connected to a cable stretched across the road. If a truck cut through or snagged the cable, it would cause the demented protesters to fall out of the tree platform. That’s how sick these people are.

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