DRBC Adopts Meaningless Prohibition on Shale Wastewater Disposal
The leftists of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) voted yesterday to approve a final rule prohibiting the discharge of wastewater from high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) to water or land in the Delaware River Basin. The final rule also “clarifies” the circumstances in which water, including wastewater, may be exported from or imported into the Basin. The bottom line from yesterday’s action is that nothing has materially changed. Fracking is currently banned in the Basin under a previous action by the Commission. And nobody discharges frack wastewater on the ground or in streams and rivers anywhere, including in the Delaware River Basin. So what did the vote accomplish for the rabid left? Just more virtue signaling.
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Most New Yorkers are clueless about a law passed in 2019 called the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (or “Climate Act”), which limits carbon dioxide emissions to zero (an impossibility) by 2050 (see 
In April, the New York State Assembly passed Assembly Bill A7389C. In June, the New York State Senate passed the same bill, sending it to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk for a signature (see 
Politics is fascinating for us (in case you couldn’t tell when reading MDN). This site often features articles about the intersection of politics and energy. Living in New York State, editor Jim Willis has long advocated for shale drilling. Fracking in NY was the reason Jim started this blog/news site! MDN began in 2009 when shale drilling in NY seemed about to take off. And then, a series of unfortunate events led to the profoundly corrupt Andrew Cuomo becoming governor, seizing power in the Empire State. Cuomo not only temporarily blocked fracking in NY, he ultimately signed a bill into law permanently banning it (see 
In September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that the state senators who represent Pennsylvania landowners living in the Delaware River Basin, primarily in Wayne and Pike counties in the northeastern corner of Pennsylvania, don’t have “standing” to sue the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to overturn its ban on fracking (see 
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Candidate for governor of New York State running on the Republican line, Lee Zeldin, is pushing to reverse the now-permanent ban on fracking in the state. The frack ban was enacted into law as part of a sneaky budget bill Andrew Cuomo signed in 2020 while everyone was distracted with COVID (see 
Two days ago, MDN mused over the issue of whether or not there will EVER be fracking in New York State (see 
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