Dela. Riverkeeper Leidy Lawsuit Costing Williams $125K per Day
The clock is ticking. As we told you on Monday, THE Delaware Riverkeeper–Maya van Rossum–is using her bags of money from the William Penn Foundation to try and stop the FERC-approved expansion of the Transco pipeline in northeastern Pennsylvania (see Dela. Riverkeeper Halts Transco Pipeline Upgrade with Lawsuit). The project, known as the Leidy Southeast expansion project, would add new pipeline next to existing pipeline–called looping. Williams (owner of the Transco) can only cut trees down along the path it needs to clear until April 1st. After that, they must wait until Nov. 1st to begin cutting again in order to avoid cutting down trees that may (or may not) become roosting spots for the endangered Indiana bat. van Rossum & company have gotten a sympathetic judge in D.C. to halt the tree cutting while he reviews her latest frivolous lawsuit. She’s trying to run the clock down. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals was supposed to rule earlier this week. They didn’t. Every day they delay is costing Williams $125,000. We sincerely hope Williams sends that bill to van Rossum once the tree cutting begins again…
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This is not an easy story to write. It’s about employment in the Marcellus Shale industry–and about age discrimination. Until late last year, by all accounts the Marcellus Shale industry was, from a jobs perspective, going great guns. Yes, sometimes it was/is necessary to import workers from other states to handle specialized jobs. But increasingly the jobs have been going to local workers and not out-of-staters. Yesterday we received a heartfelt letter (below) from an MDN subscriber. This gentleman is a mechanical engineer with degrees from Penn State and Lafayette College. He has loads of experience in a variety of areas–engineering, contracting, even running a small business. He wants to get involved with the greatest industry on the planet–the Marcellus Shale energy industry. He can paper every room in his house with the number of resumes and job applications he’s filled out. He’s applied for everything from technician to field hand to roustabout (he’s physically fit). In the last five years that he’s been trying, he hasn’t been called for a single interview. Not one. He’s now 52 years old. We don’t like calling attention to stories like this one, but MDN doesn’t shy away from sharing the “bad news” about our beloved industry along with the overwhelming good news…
THE Delaware Riverkeeper (Maya van Rossum) and the Clean Air Council, both located in the orbit of Philadelphia, have gone all the way to the opposite side of the state to meddle and cause mischief (see 
Rats fleeing a sinking ship? (Oops…Did we just say that with our out-loud voice??) It seems PA’s anti-drilling and law-breaking Attorney General Kathleen Kane can’t keep a press secretary. Kane, you may recall, is using Lanny Davis, lawyer for Bill “BJ in the Oval Office” Clinton who lied under oath (called perjury, a crime) to defend her. Davis was able to help Clinton keep his job as president, largely by smearing the special prosecutor in the case, Ken Starr. Kane figures Davis may be able to help her keep her job as PA’s AG, even though a grand jury found her to have broken the law and violated the oath of her office (see