Maryland Dems Introduce Liability Bill in Attempt to Ban Fracking
Maryland’s anti-drillers aren’t going down without a fight. On his way out of office, Maryland Democrat Martin O’Malley set the wheels in motion to allow fracking in the state (see Maryland Gets Ready to Frack! Gov O’Malley Files New Regulations). Almost immediately a Maryland Democrat in the House of Delegates, from a Washington, DC suburb, introduced a moratorium bill (see Maryland Delegate Introduces Moratorium, Before Fracking Begins). That bill isn’t getting any traction, so the Dems have returned to a favorite tactic used by totalitarian governments around the world: you’re guilty until you prove you’re innocent. It’s the exact opposite of the jurisprudence philosophy that underpins the greatest country on earth–ours. In the USA, you’re innocent until proven guilty. But a new bill just introduced in the Maryland legislature, actually supported by Maryland’s Democrat attorney general, would flip that around and presume drillers are at fault if there’s the least little change in water quality, air quality, etc. Under this bill, you’re guilty and YOU WILL PAY until you prove otherwise. In other words, this bill is a ban on drilling flying under a different name…
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Looks like we owe an apology to Maryland. For years we’ve laughed and poked fun at Maryland and said it is the only state more dysfunctional than New York when it comes to allowing fracking. Yesterday, the special Maryland commission, set up 3 1/2 years ago by the outgoing, leadership-deficient Democrat Gov. Martin O’Malley, released it’s final report with recommendations for how fracking can go forward in the state (full copy below). Incoming Republican Gov. Larry Hogan has promised swift action on the fracking issue. Meanwhile, NY sits on its hands and does nothing. Mind you, the proposed Maryland regulations are so off-the-charts restrictive that even the nutty, far-left Chesapeake Climate Action Network is singing its praises (a big red flag). But hey, the ability to drill half a dozen wells in Maryland is better that what NY has! Let’s start with a summary of the new regulations put forward by the commission…
In our political coverage yesterday, we overlooked one very important race–perhaps the biggest shocker of all: For only the second time in the past 50+ years a Republican won the governorship in Maryland. Which is astounding when you consider Republican Larry Hogan (pictured on the left) is an older businessman who was outspent 4 times by his younger opponent, Anthony Brown (pictured on the right), who was/is the sitting Lt. Governor in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one. It was an utter repudiation of the last eight years of ever-higher taxes and a bungled roll-out of the Obamacare health exchange in Maryland. Oh, and did we mention that new incoming Gov. Hogan is pro-drilling?!…
It was only Wednesday night of this week (Oct. 29) at the Oil & Gas Awards dinner in Oklahoma City, OK that a fellow attendee (from Eagle Rock) asked me at dinner when Dominion would break ground on the Cove Point LNG plant. I told him I had not heard they’ve yet broken ground, but it should be any day now. Little did I know how prophetic those words would be! Yesterday Dominion announced that they have now officially broken ground on the Cove Point LNG export plant, a project that will inject between $3.4 and $3.8 billion in Calvert County, Maryland and pump upward of 1.8 billion cubic feet per day of cheap, abundant Marcellus and Utica Shale gas…
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