PA Senators File to Join Case Against DRBC Fracking Moratorium
In May MDN told you about a group of brave landowners in Wayne County, PA who have had their property rights stolen by the Delaware River Basin Commission (see Wayne County, PA Landowner Sues DRBC Over Fracking Ban). They filed a lawsuit against the DRBC asking a judge to declare the DRBC does not have jurisdiction to prevent construction of a natural gas well. Several northeastern PA counties (unfortunately) are located in the Delaware River Basin and the DRBC has steadfastly refused to allow them to drill any shale wells, citing concerns that the Delaware River supplies fresh water to millions downstream–even though they can’t explain how that water might get contaminated. A few months later, the DRBC’s best friend and patron, THE Delaware Riverkeeper, sued to join the lawsuit to help defend the inept DRBC (see Delaware Riverkeeper “Intervenes” to Protect its Patsy – the DRBC). Last week three PA senators filed to join the lawsuit on behalf of the landowners that they represent. Predictably, THE Delaware Riverkeeper wants to prevent the senators from joining the lawsuit…
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In May MDN reported the great news that the Wayne Land and Mineral Group has filed a lawsuit against the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to contest the DRBC’s ongoing blockade of shale drilling in Wayne (and Pike) counties in Pennsylvania (see 
Last week Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) filed their official, full application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) seeking approval for their Orion Project. The project will cost $143 million and construct 13 miles of “looping” pipeline in Pike and Wayne counties, Pennsylvania. The project will boost capacity on the TGP by another 135 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d), allowing TGP to pump more Marcellus Shale gas to Mid-Atlantic and New England states. If all goes according to plan, the TGP Orion upgrade will be complete and in-service by June 2018…
If you’re a Big Green group, like THE Delaware Riverkeeper, you have millions of dollars to a) launch lawsuits against the natural gas industry, and b) buy yourself research studies that support your twisted viewpoints. It is the latter that happened yesterday. CNA, a not-for-profit organization once called the Center for Naval Analyses, sells itself to the highest bidder (the oldest profession in the world). Most recently they sold themselves to THE Delaware Riverkeeper (we certainly hope they used protection). CNA and THE Delaware Riverkeeper held a press briefing yesterday to release a “study” by CNA titled “The Potential Environmental Impacts of Fracking in the Delaware River Basin” (full copy below). What did the “researchers” at CNA, which is based in Arlington, VA just outside the DC orbit, find? If the moratorium is lifted and shale drilling is allowed in the Delaware River Basin–essentially Wayne and Pike counties in Pennsylvania–CNA says it will lead to “land cover disturbance” in “core forest areas”, extreme water withdrawals from poor little creeks and streams, nasty wastewater polluting everything, erosion everywhere, multiple compressor stations and untold ill health impacts for 75,000 people who live close to all of this mess. See what $320,444 (the actual cost of this study) can buy you? We hope it felt good for Riverkeeper…
A new research study appearing in an online “journal” with very low standards, PLOS ONE, claims that hydraulic fracturing leads to an increase in hospitalization rates in the Marcellus Shale region. The research study, titled “Unconventional Gas and Oil Drilling Is Associated with Increased Hospital Utilization Rates” (full copy embedded below) on the surface appears to contain damning evidence. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University looked at hospitalization records for three northeastern Pennsylvania counties from 2007-2011–Bradford, Susquehanna and Wayne. Both Bradford and Susquehanna counties have seen a huge amount of shale drilling over that period. Wayne County, on the other hand, has seen no shale drilling because of the intransigence of the Delaware River Basin Commission and their ongoing frack ban. The researchers say that people in Bradford and Susquehanna counties go to the hospital for serious heart conditions at a rate 27% higher than those in Wayne County. Ergo, there is a connection between fracking and health issues. We are fully in favor of rigorous academic research into issues like this one. But a few things bother us about this latest “fracking kills” study…
It is the end of an ignominious era. Carol Collier, whose own anti-drilling views have stopped any forward progress on potential Marcellus Shale drilling in the Delaware River Basin, will tomorrow leave the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) that she has headed for 15 years. Last September when she announced she would retire this March, we predicted her platitudes about finalizing draft shale drilling plans would go nowhere. We were right (see