Statewide NY

A column in the New York Daily News by Bill Hammond points out the rank hypocrisy of “Chefs for the Marcellus”—a group of anti-fracking foodies who threw a big fundraiser and cooked up a storm for patrons willing to shell out $125. How did they cook all that delicious food? You guessed it—on stoves that use natural gas, much of it gas provided by hydraulic fracturing—the very thing they’re trying to ban.

Hammond’s excellent column starts this way:

Read More “Anti-Fracking Chefs Cook with NatGas for Fundraiser”

The anger-challenged actor Alec Baldwin writes an anti-fracking blog post for the Huffington Post. It’s meant to bring pressure on one person: NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The post is incoherent (and narcissistic), as is usual for Baldwin. MDN only mentions and links to it for entertainment value, since you know, Alec is an entertainer (the one job he’s good at—when he’s not in an out-of-control rage).

Read More “Alec Baldwin’s Anti-Fracking (and Entertaining) Blog Post”

Not long ago, Alec Baldwin went to visit his mom in Syracuse (as he often does, like a good boy), and while he was there, he lent his star power to promoting Josh Fox and his anti-fracking propaganda film Gasland at a local screening (see this MDN story).

Alec likes telling everyone else what they can do with their own private property. But what’s this? He doesn’t want to be told what to do with his private property? Hmmm.

It seems Alec wants to build a great big windmill at his home in the Hamptons on Long Island. Problem is, he needs a development permit to build the $100,000 windmill that may save him $2,000 in electric bills (this is how the mind of the liberal works folks). But he’s hit a snag with getting permission to build it. Anyone see the rank hypocrisy here? What’s good for thee is not what’s good for me, when it comes to anger-challenged Alec.

Read More “Alec Baldwin’s Rank Hypocrisy on NY Fracking”

Organized opposition to hydraulic fracturing in New York—mostly located in New York City—is getting desperate, and it shows in the shrill tenor of their rallies. They sense that the state Department of Environment Conservation (DEC) is about to release the final final final final version of New York’s drilling rules, called the SGEIS (Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement). And so to turn up the heat, they rally and protest.

Their latest target/tactic? Demand that Gov. Andrew Cuomo withdraw the SGEIS and send it to someone else for an “independent review.” Why?

Read More “NY Anti-Frackers are Getting Desperate, and it Shows”

The rabid, frothing-at-the-mouth frenzy to try and ban fracking by New York municipalities has now not only claimed possible future shale drilling, it’s also claimed casualties in traditional natural gas drilling. Collateral damage. Most New Yorkers are completely ignorant that fracking has been going on in New York for decades—fracking of vertical, conventional gas and oil wells. But they don’t (or won’t) bother to study the issue and try to understand it. It’s much easier to attend rallies and get worked up than it is to actually THINK.

And so the “wise leaders” of Avon Township in Livingston County, NY (western part of the state), against plenty of warning, passed a drilling ban on June 28 that includes not only shale gas horizontal drilling, but also includes conventional gas wells, pipelines and storage facilities. So a local driller has shut down their 16 gas wells in the township along with a pipeline, turning off low-cost gas that was flowing to the township itself. Way to go town board! Cut that nose off to spite your face. Dunderheads.

Read More “Fracking Ban in NY Town Closes Conventional Wells Too”