Youngstown Antis Seek to Legalize Anarchy with 7th CELDF Petition
A nation without laws is not a nation. Virulent anti-drillers in Youngstown, OH have now tried six times to pass a so-called Community Bill of Rights ballot measure–and have failed all six times, the most recent last November (see Youngstown, OH Frack Ban Ballot Measure Defeated for 6th Time). The local yokels are pawns, useful idiots, for an ultra-radical group from Pennsylvania called the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). The CELDF is behind dozens of such efforts, none of which has been successful. The CELDF is also behind a number of bizarre lawsuits–like the one claiming that an ecosystem is a “person” with rights (see CELDF Loses Case to Represent Ecosystem – Turtles Disappointed). The CELDF has the local anti yokels in Youngstown amped up again–circulating a seventh petition for a ballot measure. But this time is different. In addition to the usual no fracking, no pipelines pablum, this petition has language that makes it legal to break the law. You read that right. If the ballot measure were to pass, and if an anti got it into her head to sit in front of a bulldozer that was about to clear ground for a wellpad, or dig a trench for a pipeline, the police would not be able to arrest and remove the anti. It would be within her rights to sit there and block legal, legitimate activity–all in the name of saving the planet. Apparently the brains of the locals are so fried, they don’t realize that if everyone just decides which laws they want to obey or disobey, you soon descend into Lord of the Flies. Mob rule. Anarchy…
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In late December 2011 a 4.0 earthquake hit the Youngstown, OH area. It was the latest in a string of quakes that began in March 2011, shortly after a wasterwater injection well went online–the Northstar #1 well. In March 2012 the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) made a determination that indeed, it was the Northstar well that caused the quake–due to its location over an active fault (see 
Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Exterran Corporation (with 5,400 employees) specializes in natural gas compression production equipment and processing facilities. They design, build and operate compressor stations and natural gas processing plants. In 2012 MDN reported on a contract Exterran won to build three natural gas processing plants in West Virginia (see 
One of the people behind the Big Green effort to pass a frack ban in Youngstown, OH (a measure that has now failed six times) has herself been arrested and has plead guilty to 13 felony charges of committing voter fraud. Rebecca Hammonds, a local organizer and employee of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, was sentenced to 180 days in jail this week after pleading guilty to 13 felony counts for false voter registration and election fraud in January. One of the charges had to do with her signing up dead people to vote. Do we need to say anything more about the dishonesty of the anti-drilling movement?…
Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Exterran Corporation (with 5,400 employees) specializes in natural gas compression production equipment and processing facilities. They design, build and operate compressor stations and natural gas processing plants. In 2012 MDN reported on a contract Exterran won to build three natural gas processing plants in West Virginia (see 
As MDN reported in June, anti-drilling zealots in Youngstown, OH filed a petition to place a frack ban resolution on the November ballot–for the 6th time (see 
Good news for Marcellus/Utica drillers. You now have access to a previously-shuttered wastewater injection well in the Youngstown, OH-area. You may recall the sad story of D&L Energy, a Youngstown, OH operator of several wastewater injection wells. D&L’s owner was Ben Lupo, who also owned sister company Hardrock Excavating, operating both companies under the D&L Energy Group umbrella. In September 2012, Lupo instructed a Hardrock employee to dump untreated frack wastewater down a sewer drain that emptied into the Mahoning River. Lupo and the driver were found out in early 2013 (see 
The longer we write MDN, the easier it gets–because the stories just keep repeating themselves. That’s how we felt when we spotted a story about the adults in Youngstown, OH pushing back against the temper tantrums of anti-fracking, childish nutters in the city who have, now for the sixth time, put a frack ban measure on the ballot for the November election. Five previous times the same group of rabid anti-fossil fuel haters have done this–and five times they have gone down to defeat (see 
Good news for Marcellus/Utica drillers. There are signs that a Youngstown, OH-area injection well that has been shuttered since 2013 will re-open. You may recall the sad story of D&L Energy, a Youngstown, OH operator of several wastewater injection wells. D&L’s owner was Ben Lupo, who also owned sister company Hardrock Excavating, operating both companies under the D&L Energy Group umbrella. In September 2012, Lupo instructed a Hardrock employee to dump untreated frack wastewater down a sewer drain that emptied into the Mahoning River. Lupo and the driver were found out in early 2013 (see 
A few days ago MDN told you about the fruitless efforts by anti-drilling zealots in Youngstown, OH in delivering a petition for a sixth vote on a frack ban measure for the November ballot (see 
How many times will the antis who pretend to be concerned about people’s health, but really are irrationally afraid of emitting carbon (although they do it with every breathe), demand a vote on a frack ban in Youngstown that nobody wants? So far the loons have managed to fabricate enough signatures to get a frack ban measure on the ballot five times, most recently in November 2015 (see 
An update on the notorious case of illegal frack wastewater dumping near Youngstown, OH that happened in 2012 and 2013. Ben Lupo, previous owner of D&L Energy and its associated company Hardrock Excavating, directed employees to dump frack wastwater hauled by Hardrock into a drain that emptied into a stream that emptied into the Mahoning River near Youngstown, OH (see 
Here’s something that should scare the #$%@ out of you this Halloween: the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). The CELDF, based in Pennsylvania, is attempting to interfere in other states like Ohio by fleecing local governments into believing they can pass so-called community bill of rights legislation (i.e. “home rule” laws). Problem is, the local communities who have tried it keep getting sued, and losing in court–and taxpayers end up paying tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees in an empty gesture to make a statement opposing shale energy. Our friends at Energy in Depth have put together a video for this Halloween that exposes the CELDF and should scare you to death, especially if you live in Youngstown, OH where a CELDF ballot initiative will be on the ballot this November (next week), for the FIFTH TIME…
It’s not often it happens, so we like to make a big deal out of it when it does–praise for a group of Democrats! Kudos to the Mahoning County Democrat Party for their stand AGAINST the no fracking ballot initiative on the November ballot–otherwise known as the Youngstown Community Bill of Rights initiative. As we’ve previously reported, this is the fifth time this idiotic ballot measure has come up for a vote in the City of Youngstown. The OH Supreme Court ruled it should be on the ballot in November (for a fifth time), even though the same Supreme Court ruled against such “home rule” laws earlier in the year (see 
Only in America, and only in Ohio (slowly shaking our heads). Last Thursday, the Ohio Supreme Court voted 7-0 to force an anti-fracking ballot measure that has been on the ballot in Youngstown, Ohio four times previously to be added to the ballot once again in November–for a fifth time. Even though (as the justices acknowledge) the ballot measure itself “may be” unconstitutional, as their own court recently found (see