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Charges Against 2 PA Anti-Drillers Dismissed on Technicality

Yesterday MDN told you about two Pennsylvania anti-drilling protesters who, among six others, were arrested in January for disorderly conduct at the inauguration ceremony of Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf. The two appealed their conviction (see Anti Protesters Who Disrupted Wolf Inauguration Appeal Conviction). There was a hearing yesterday in Dauphin County Court and, unfortunately, the Dauphin County District Attorney’s office failed to produce witnesses to finger the two as lawbreakers. So the judge (whom we presume is anti-drilling) used that as an excuse to dismiss the charges against the pair of hippies, er, ah, protesters…
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Dominion Selects PA Company to Manufacture 540 Miles of Pipe

Keepin’ it in the family. Love it. Dominion plans to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline–a 550-mile, $5 billion natural gas pipeline that will flow, cheap, abundant, clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas from West Virginia into Virginia and North Carolina (see Dominion Commits to Major New Marcellus/Utica Pipeline Project). Provided the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approves it, construction will begin in 2016. Yesterday, Dominion announced that a Pennsylvania company near Harrisburg–Dura-Bond–has been selected to manufacture 540 of the 550 miles of the pipe needed for the project. It is, according to Dura-Bond, the largest order in the company’s history. The announcement doesn’t disclose the terms of the deal, but we do know it will generate 150 new jobs at Dura-Bond and inject a huge amount of money into the Harrisburg-area economy starting later this year. American/Pennsylvanian jobs, American/Pennsylvanian company. All in the heart of the Marcellus…
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Anti-Fracking Protesters Spoil PA Governor Inauguration Ceremony

Yesterday, Democrat anti-drilling protesters spoiled the inauguration of one of their own–Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (Democrat, wants to tax the shale drilling industry into oblivion). There were “more than 100” very loud demonstrators outside of the inauguration according to the AP, which in partisan liberal math translates into “several hundred” protesters for PBS’s StateImpact Pennsylvania. Eight of these ill-behaved children adults were were so loud and obnoxious Pennsylvania State Police arrested and removed them. Two of them stood up during the inauguration speech hollering “ban fracking now” and were removed by State Police. The “ban fracking now” chant could be heard throughout the inauguration–spoiling the ceremony for everyone. According to those who organized this shameful performance, they were emboldened by New York’s recent ban–hoping if they can make enough noise and throw enough temper tantrums, they’ll get PA to ban it too. (Hey, it worked for them when they were children, why wouldn’t it work now?)…
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First-Hand Account of History-Making PA Energy Rally

PA Energy Rally - Tom Shepstone picAlthough MDN editor Jim Willis literally missed the bus and could not attend the PA Energy, PA Jobs rally in Harrisburg, PA on Tuesday (see PA Energy Rally Huge Success with Thousands Marching to Capitol), our good friend Tom Shepstone was there. He performs a miracle with his coverage–he captures the tone and essence of the event in written word (and pictures and a video). Tom is a real gem, staunchly pro-drilling, wicked smart–and a superb writer. If MDN could be anyone else, we would be Tom!

Forthwith, here is Tom’s report (from his always excellent Natural Gas Now website) in its entirety–well worth your time to read, especially if you could not attend…
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PA Energy Rally Huge Success with Thousands Marching to Capitol

I Missed the BusA (not so funny) thing happened on the way to the forum, er PA Energy Rally yesterday. MDN editor Jim Willis showed up at the appointed bus stop at 6:45 am with 15 minutes to spare–and as he pulled in, the bus was pulling out onto Interstate 81. Jim missed the bus! The Marcellus Shale Coalition has been very apologetic (and very upset with the bus company–the contract clearly states don’t leave until 7 am). So after inviting you to the rally, and with intentions of having a first-hand account report, Jim missed it. He was equal parts sad and angry–but that’s life.

But don’t despair. By all accounts it was a great day with anywhere from 2,500-3,000 people marching to the Capitol steps in Harrisburg. By the way, when was the last time you heard about 3,000 anti-drillers marching in Harrisburg? Yeah, us neither. There were, however, anti-drillers who tried to rain on the parade–something like 6 to 8 anti-drillers. You read that right–single digits for the loonies who turned out to hold up a sign against shale drilling in their big, huge “counter protest.” The only people who even noticed them were reporters sticking cameras in their faces. At one point a single anti-driller tried to shout something. A few pro-drillers noticed–and laughed. Silly fools.

Below we have a couple of media accounts of the rally. Strangely, the AP article is about the most fair and balanced we found. The reliably anti-drilling StateImpact Pennsylvania covered it too, with their reliably anti-drilling slant. We also have a funny sour grapes comment from the anti-drilling Jan Jarrett, former president/CEO of the anti-drilling environmentalist group PennFuture…
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Latest Hypocritical Protest of PA’s State Forest Drilling Plan

A handful of anti-drilling nutters–mostly washed up hippies from the 60s–held a protest rally in Harrisburg at the PA State Capitol yesterday to object to the very thing one of their icons, Ed Rendell (and his DEP Secretary John Hanger) themselves did: allow a little bit of drilling under (not on) state forests for natural gas. The hypocrisy was on full display as a small group, inflated by media reports as some sort of huge, massive movement thing, gathered to get their photo op before retiring to the nearest Starbucks to sip coffee created by machines operating on natural gas in a shop heated with natural gas to discuss how great it feels to relive the good ole days of protesting.

Here’s how the reliably anti-drilling StateImpact Pennsylvania reported the so-called “rally”…
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Chief Oil & Gas Drilling Wells in Dauphin and Somerset Counties, PA

Chief Oil & Gas (based in Dallas), is in the process of drilling wells in Jefferson Township in Dauphin County, and Addison Township in Somerset County, both in Pennsylvania. According to a Chief spokesman, if those wells do well, it “could lead to large-scale development in the region.” Chief owns the rights to 580,000 acres across the entire Marcellus Shale area.

For more details on Chief and a recent meeting they held for area residents, see:
Somerset Daily American (Mar 11) – Gas reps seek community support