New York

  • | | |

    Sandra Steingraber’s Irrational Hatred of Fossil Fuels Continues

    There is no middle ground, no compromise, no basis on which to have a rational, intelligent discussion with a person who refuses to acknowledge reality. The reality we’re talking about is the fundamental and necessary role of petrochemicals–i.e. fossil fuels–in every society on earth, save a few jungle tribes. If you live in any modern civilization on earth today, fossil fuels make it possible. From the clothes on your body to the shoes on your feet, the chair you sit in, the carpet you walk on, the walls and roof of the house or dormitory where you live, the vehicle you drive–the materials that compose it, manufacture it and and power it are based on fossil fuels. And yet there are so-called intelligent, learned people, like Ithaca College’s Sandra Steingraber, who insist we must adopt a tribe-like existence and dump all fossil fuels–now. Forever. One of Steingraber’s favorite methods in talking about fossil fuels (and fracking) is to wax “poetic.” Her latest discourse, recently delivered at Wells College in beautiful Cayuga County, NY (Finger Lakes region), is described this way: “Rather than dissect the dispute [about fracking] through science, charts and graphs, visiting speaker Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., instead probed the use of fossil fuels through anecdotes and imagery.” In other words, she just makes it up. She concocts erroneous analogies and stories, comparing fracking to things like smoking, and relies on her oratory skills to convince people that fracking, indeed fossil fuels in general, are from the devil himself. And young people at places like Wells College just lap it up…
    Read More “Sandra Steingraber’s Irrational Hatred of Fossil Fuels Continues”

  • | | | | | |

    New Bill Aims to Keep Drilling/Pipelines Out of Dela. River Basin

    A new bill aimed at restricting shale drilling and pipelines in the Delaware River Basin has just been re-introduced by a pair of Delaware Democrats in Congress. It flies under the name of the Delaware River Basin Conservation Act. This is the fifth time the bill has been introduced (in 2013 it was HR 644, click here for the full text of the bill). The bill would vest the already out-of-control U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with power and money to “identify and implement conservation activities” in the Delaware River Basin. The tipoff that this is anti-drilling is that it’s being promoted by the William Penn Foundation as well as the Delaware River Basin Commission. DRBC board members say the bill doesn’t step on their toes at all. In fact, DRBC welcomes the bill because it will help with “defending environmental quality in ways that are outside of its [DRBC’s] operations.” In other words, it’s one more tool to ensure shale drilling never happens in the Delaware River Basin…
    Read More “New Bill Aims to Keep Drilling/Pipelines Out of Dela. River Basin”

  • | | | |

    JLCNY Rally in NY to Support Defense of Property Rights Bill

    In January of this year, an upstate New York Congressman, Tom Reed (Corning, NY) introduced a bill that would, if adopted, provide relief to NY landowners who have been screwed over by Andrew Cuomo’s decision to ban fracking in the Empire State. The bill is called the Defense of Property Rights Act (DOPRA) and it changes “takings” laws in an important way–it changes the law to say if government action causes a landowner economic harm “in whole or in part” the landowner has a takings claim (see Federal Defense of Property Rights Act Explained; End of Frack Bans?). The “in part” language is the key because until now, the entire value had to be “taken” in order to bring a takings claim. As we pointed out back in January, this is an important law for all landowners everywhere, not just in NY–a law that prevents tyrannical politicians like Cuomo from overstepping their authority. The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) is holding a rally this Saturday in Painted Post, NY to support Congressman Reed and his legislation…
    Read More “JLCNY Rally in NY to Support Defense of Property Rights Bill”

  • | | | | | | |

    AP Takes Swipe at NED Pipeline over Export Issue, MDN Responds

    Once again the AP attempts to make a case against Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline project that would stretch from Pennsylvania through New York (following the Constitution Pipeline’s route) and into Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and back into Massachusetts near Boston. NED is a huge $6 billion project that will provide jobs for thousands (while it’s constructed) and abundant, cheap Marcellus Shale gas for New Englanders, saving them on the order of $1 billion per year on utility bills for decades to come. But irrational hatred of fossil fuels continues to rein in liberal New England, where many oppose the project (see Deerfield, MA Hoping Kinder Morgan Sues Them over Pipeline “Ban”). The AP has taken up the “most of the gas flowing through the pipeline will get exported” argument, in an effort to stop the pipeline (so much for unbiased “reporting”). Exported where and how? Via one of five planned LNG export facilities in Canada, four of them in Nova Scotia. Just one little problem there AP, it looks very doubtful that any of those plants will actually get built (see Moody’s: “Vast Majority” of LNG Export Projects Will be Canceled). That kind of takes the wind out of the “it’ll all get exported” argument, eh? But let’s assume at least one of those LNG export plants does get built…
    Read More “AP Takes Swipe at NED Pipeline over Export Issue, MDN Responds”

  • | | |

    Cuomo’s Response to Upstate on Fracking: Shut Up, New York

    New York Post yesterday takes direct aim at the folly of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s frack ban. It calls him out for promoting an “economic development” program that so far has spent $28 million on advertising and has created 78 jobs ($368,000 per job). Cuomo is an utter failure on so many levels. In talking about the frack ban, we loved this particular passage from the column (and you will too)…
    Read More “Cuomo’s Response to Upstate on Fracking: Shut Up, New York”

  • | | |

    Mike Bloomberg Gives Sierra Club $30M to Fight Coal, But Loves Gas

    Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is one conflicted dude. On the one hand he loves natural gas (a fossil fuel) and thinks we should have more of it, and on the other hand he hates coal. So get this… On Wednesday Bloomberg attended a big soiree where he handed a personal check for $30 million (part of a $110 million donation) to the nutters of the Sierra Club to further fund their “Beyond Coal” campaign. At the event he was asked if he would be supporting the Sierra Club’s Beyond Natural Gas campaign. He said no. He not only said no, he went on (later in the day) to devastate every argument the Sierra Club has against natural gas. Bloomberg, in a Wall Street Journal interview on Wednesday, took pot shots at Andrew Cuomo’s anti-fracking ban. Bloomberg loves gas but hates coal. Like we said, one conflicted dude…
    Read More “Mike Bloomberg Gives Sierra Club $30M to Fight Coal, But Loves Gas”

  • | | | |

    PA Health Expert to Address NY “Study” on Fracking Health Impacts

    In December, Dr. Theodore Them, MD, MS, PhD, MPH was a guest on the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) Good News Table Talk Radio program (see PA Public Health Expert Destroys NY Health Study, Frack Ban). We are excited to announce Dr. Them is returning for another session this coming Sunday evening at 7 pm on Binghamton radio station WNBF 1290 (listen online here). Dr. Them has reviewed the so-called health review peddled by New York State Acting Health Commission Howard Zucker and will share his findings about the MANY shortcomings in Zucker’s “review”…
    Read More “PA Health Expert to Address NY “Study” on Fracking Health Impacts”

  • | | | | | | |

    NY High Court Decision Creates Toxic Environment for O&G Companies

    court gavelA court case decided earlier this week by New York’s Court of Appeals (NY’s highest court), will, in our opinion, have a profoundly negative effect on oil and gas development in the state, forever. Or until another court case overturns it (which seems very unlikely). The case, as its core, is about the question of whether or not state action or inaction constitutes an extraordinary action, in essence an Act of God outside of the control of parties who sign a contract. Years ago landowners signed leases to allow oil and gas drilling, often for a few bucks and acre, long before Marcellus and fracking were common, household words. Then came delay after delay in New York–from the governor–and eventually a more or less semi-permanent ban on fracking. Energy companies argued that the leases they had signed could be extended until the day they are allowed to drill in the Marcellus because of “force majeure”–the concept that due to circumstances beyond our control we could not drill as we intended during the original term of the lease, usually five years. The NY Court of Appeals on Tuesday decided that the state preventing drilling does not qualify as force majeure after the original five-year period of a lease (full copy of the decision below). If the original lease was extended for some reason and then the driller was prevented from drilling during the extended time due to state laws preventing it, it’s not force majeure in the eyes of the “wise” justices in Albany…
    Read More “NY High Court Decision Creates Toxic Environment for O&G Companies”

  • | | | |

    Syracuse U Divests from Fossil Fuels, NYU Says “Irresponsible”

    Silly (and frankly stupid) “green” students at universities who apparently don’t have enough homework to keep them busy have lately been protesting and attempting to get the schools their parents pay so much money to, to divest from any stock holdings in evil, filthy, nasty fossil fuel companies. No, we’re not making this up. These idiots, who believe in global warming fairy tales, are demanding, like the petulant undisciplined children they are, that universities pull out a gun and just shoot themselves in the head financially. And you know what? Syracuse University has just done it. They’ve just committed financial suicide by bowing to pressure from children and divesting any fossil fuel stocks from their $1.2 billion endowment. Forcing Coach Jim Boeheim to retire, and now divesting from fossil fuels? We’re officially no longer Orange basketball fans. Meanwhile, the divest from fossil fuels issue was extensively studied by New York University–and they concluded to do such a thing is nuts…
    Read More “Syracuse U Divests from Fossil Fuels, NYU Says “Irresponsible””

  • | | | | | |

    Power Lines and Pipeline Corrosion – A Quick MDN Primer

    MDN told you yesterday about a story in the anti-drilling Albany Times Union newspaper that seeks to spread FUD–fear, uncertainty and doubt–about the proposed Kinder Morgan Northeast Extension Direct pipeline (see Albany Times Union Says Electric Lines will Corrode NED Pipeline). The meme trying to be spread by the TU is that if Kinder moves forward with a plan to co-locate the pipeline along miles and miles of high voltage power line corridors, the power lines will eat away the pipeline and turn it into a ticking time bomb that will one day explode. That’s our words, not the TU’s words, but that’s clearly the impression the TU reporter attempts to convey in the article. We poked fun at the notion that electric lines corrode pipelines. However, it does happen! No less than three sharp MDN readers, one of them from the federal government, emailed with information about the phenomenon of pipeline corrosion from AC power lines. The upshot is that a) this is a known issue, b) there are ways to safely mitigate any potential corrosion from AC power lines, and c) pipelines have been co-located along power line corridors for decades–safely…
    Read More “Power Lines and Pipeline Corrosion – A Quick MDN Primer”

  • | | | | | | |

    Albany Times Union Says Electric Lines will Corrode NED Pipeline

    In an effort to bend over backwards, forwards and in any direction that will help, Kinder Morgan continues to have multiple talks with multiple communities in an effort to build their $6 billion extension to the Tennessee Gas Pipeline, a project called Northeast Energy Direct (NED). The pipeline would stretch from New York State through Massachusetts into New Hampshire before re-entering Massachusetts and terminating near Boston. It aims to bring desperately needed natural gas to New England. Yesterday we told you about the gutsy move by a local gas utility in MA that said if the pipeline isn’t built, no gas new customers (and no new gas appliances for existing gas customers) would be allowed–indefinitely (see Guts: No New Pipeline in MA? Then No New Natgas for Utility Customers). One of the ways Kinder hopes to minimize the project’s impact is by running the pipeline through existing rights of way where electric power lines are run. But ninny nanny anti-drillers have a counter argument even for that. Get this (it’s really quite funny): The anti-drilling Albany Times Union is reporting that the presence of power lines way up in the air will corrode pipelines deep under ground–so say “numerous scientific studies.” The TU refers to just one such study, written for Israel (not even a North American study). We’d say the TU is diggin’ deep in their propaganda advocacy to prevent shale drilling and pipelines…
    Read More “Albany Times Union Says Electric Lines will Corrode NED Pipeline”

  • | | | | | | | | | | | |

    USGS Says There’s Plenty More Fossil Fuels to Come in Appalachia

    There were plenty of fossil fuels in the past 150 years in Appalachia–an area stretching from the northeast to the south–and there’s plenty more where those came from. That’s the conclusion from an updated series of papers collected together in a new U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper (#1708) called “Coal and Petroleum Resources in the Appalachian Basin: Distribution, Geologic Framework, and Geochemical Character” (free access, linked below). The USGS says, “Professional Paper 1708 is a modern, indepth collection of reports, cross sections, and maps that describe the geology of the Appalachian basin and its fossil fuel resources. This publication supplements and updates older USGS regional studies of Appalachian basin coal and petroleum resources.” Here’s an abstract/summary of what’s in the new report…
    Read More “USGS Says There’s Plenty More Fossil Fuels to Come in Appalachia”

  • | | | |

    Liberty Says “Non-Fracked” Trinidad Gas Better than Marcellus Gas

    For some time a controversy has been brewing in (where else?) New York State. But this controversy isn’t about fracking–at least not directly. Liberty Natural Gas filed a plan back in 2010, prior to the Marcellus Shale revolution, to construct an off-shore LNG import (not export) facility off the coast of New York and New Jersey–in the ocean. A floating LNG facility. A pipeline would run from the off-shore terminal to Jones Beach, NY and from there would connect to a Transco pipeline lateral. But something happened on the way to the forum–the Marcellus Shale boom. There is no longer a need for the terminal. Anti-drillers (anti-fossil fuelers, really) are dead set against it. The Marcellus revolution caught a lot of people by surprise, including Liberty. So did Liberty acknowledge the project is no longer needed? Nope. They’re trying to convince anti-drillers the project is still needed because it will bring in “non-fracked” gas from places like Trinidad. That is, they’re shooting the very industry they belong to right in the head, and attempting to appease the nutters on the other side that will never be appeased. Not a very smart move by Liberty…
    Read More “Liberty Says “Non-Fracked” Trinidad Gas Better than Marcellus Gas”

  • | | | | | | |

    Good News & Bad News with Constitution Pipeline in PA/NY

    The good news is that the Constitution Pipeline–a pipeline that will flow Marcellus Shale gas from the enormously productive gas fields in Susquehanna County, PA up into New York, all the way to Schoharie County–is getting built. Construction starts in the next three months. The bad news is that construction will cause pain for some of the 651 landowners along its route. Of those 651 landowners, 125 had refused to sign right-of-way agreements with Williams to install the pipeline (19% of the total). The pressure of eminent domain court action forced many of them to sign–really, they had no choice. For those who didn’t sign, the courts have determined compensation (and forced them to accept it) in all but four remaining cases–all of them in New York State. Those cases are now under review and will soon be resolved. It is a done deal and there’s no stopping it. Some of the cases of landowners who opposed the pipeline, highlighted in an AP article, are due to their anti-drilling philosophy. But there is one case that we find distressing–a farmer who didn’t reject the pipeline–he just wanted it moved to a different part of his farm to prevent disrupting future plans…
    Read More “Good News & Bad News with Constitution Pipeline in PA/NY”

  • | | | | |

    NFG Building Compressor Station in NY to Pump More PA Marcellus Gas

    In an effort to pump more cheap, abundant, clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas from Pennsylvania into frackless (and feckless) New York State, National Fuel Gas Company has announced they’re building a $42.5 million compressor station in Cattaraugus County, NY in the Town of Hinsdale (western part of the state). Amazingly the county wants it! And the county industrial development agency (IDA) has approved it. While construction is going on, some 100 workers will be employed earning close to $7 million…
    Read More “NFG Building Compressor Station in NY to Pump More PA Marcellus Gas”

  • | | | |

    Radio Program to Discuss the Junk Science Behind NY’s Frack Ban

    A shout-out to those who live in the Greater Binghamton area–and even those beyond our area–to listen in this Sunday evening from 7-8 pm to radio station WNBF AM-1290 in Binghamton to another edition of Table Talk with the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY). This week’s guest is Dr. Gilbert Ross, Medical Director of the American Council on Science and Health. Dr. Ross will discuss high volume hydraulic fracturing and the illegal and unscientific ban which stole away the mineral rights of upstate New York landowners. If you’re not in the Binghamton area, you can tune in live online at //wnbf.com (click the big orange LISTEN LIVE button). More on this weekend’s program…
    Read More “Radio Program to Discuss the Junk Science Behind NY’s Frack Ban”