Judge Rules Seneca May Challenge Injection Well Ban in Elk County
There is a new development in the case of an illegal ban on injection wells passed by Highland Township in Elk County, PA. In 2013 the radical leftist PA-based group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) convinced enough ignoramuses in Highland Township to pass a so-called Community Bill of Rights. Seneca Resources, a driller with leases and an active drilling program in Elk, had planned to drill an injection well on their own property to dispose of their own flowback and produced water. The CELDF-inspired ordinance Highland Twp prevented it, and Seneca threatened to sue the town (see Seneca Resources Threatens to Sue PA Town over Injection Well). Seneca made good and filed to sue, but the town and CELDF tried to prevent the lawsuit. Last week U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Paradise Baxter ruled that Seneca has standing to sue and the lawsuit will now go forward. By the way, in October of 2015, Judge Baxter ruled in an almost identical case in Grant Township (located in nearby Indiana County) that the town’s injection well ban was illegal (see Fed Judge Overturns Grant Twp, PA Ban on Injection Wells). Even the dullards who enacted the ban in Highland should be able to see the writing on the wall. They’re about to lose. Taxpayers in Highland who are footing the bill (since the CELDF doesn’t pay for legal fees and judgments) are the biggest losers. They may want to remember that come election time…
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We don’t automatically believe every poll we read–especially polls by left-leaning pollsters like the Gallup organization. But their latest poll results have the ring of truth–and it’s disturbing. In 2014 and again in 2015 Gallup conducted a nationwide poll of the American public asking this question: “Do you favor or oppose hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” as a means of increasing the production of natural gas and oil in the U.S.?” In March 2014 opinion was evenly split–with 40% favoring and 40% opposing and another 19% clueless (i.e. no opinion). One year later, in March 2016, it breaks down thus: 36% support fracking, 51% oppose it and 13% remain clueless. The biggest swing against fracking has been among Republicans. The vast majority of Democrats have been against fracking–for years–and remain so. They are ideologically rigid in their hatred of fossil fuels. The change has come among Republicans. Folks, we’re losing the public relations war with fracking. Fortunately the founding fathers constructed our great country as a republic–not a simple majority “mob rule” democracy. Democratic principles of freedom to be sure–but with safeguards to protect the minority, which the founders realized was often right. We have to do more to win the American public to our side–to show them that fracking is not evil and does not harm the environment but is, instead, a modern day miracle…
Everybody loves a list. We do too! We spotted a ranking in a recent issue of the Pittsburgh Business Times that lists the top 37 shale gas producers in southwestern Pennsylvania, based on the amount of gas they produced in 2015. We pulled the names of the top 10, listed in order from most to least…