Environmentalists & Government Collude in “Sue and Settle” Cases
There is a practice called “sue and settle” being used by our federal government–financed by us, by taxpayers–that will make your blood boil. It’s not new. It’s been going on for years and is now refined into an art form. MDN first heard about this practice at the Oil & Gas Awards in Oklahoma City last fall when Oklahoma’s excellent Attorney General Scott Pruitt gave the assembled crowd a rundown of how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is attempting to screw the oil and gas industry by using this tactic. Here’s how it works: a far-left radical environmental group like Earthjustice sues a government agency, like the EPA or USFWS to force the agency enact a new rule or regulation supposedly to comply with an existing law. The government agency actually WANTS the lawsuit (colluding with the extremist group to invite it), so they can get a court order “forcing” them to take a certain action. Earthjustice and the government agency, behind closed doors, work out what the action will be. At the conclusion of the lawsuit, the court awards the “winning” party compensation from the “losing” party to cover legal fees. Using that strategy, from 1995 to 2010, Earthjustice received $4,655,425 of taxpayer money. Question: Why hasn’t Earthjustice been exposed as frauds and shut down?…
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We finally have the final version of the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) from the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC). This is the document that would control where and how (and if) fracking is done in the Empire State. The Final SGEIS (or FSGEIS), a full copy embedded below, is more than 2,000 pages long. No, we’ve not yet read it. But what we do know is that if drillers can drill and frack a well using less than 300,000 gallons of water, it’s permitted under this FSGEIS. Is such a thing possible? Probably not–at least not economically. You won’t make any money, so it’s a moot point. The FSGEIS is not the final document that will be issued. The very last thing to come will be a “Findings statement” by DEC Commissioner (and anti-driller) Joe Martens. According to state law, Martens cannot issue the Findings statement before 10 days from issuing the FSGEIS. Martens knows he’s going to get his rear-end sued from now until he leaves office, so he’ll take his time before releasing the Findings statement, which will essentially say “we don’t have enough science to prove fracking doesn’t harm people or the environment, so the safe thing to do is disallow it for now.” The phraseology he uses will be scrutinized and will be the basis of what we predict is at least several, possibly many lawsuits. Pro-drillers are not going away. Our property rights have been unconstitutionally stripped away. We will fight until we win…
The mask has been ripped off fractivist liars peddling what they pretend is science–and it’s been ripped off by mainstream media outlets including the Associated Press, USA Today, the International Business Times and (yes) The New York Times. Let us explain. Last week MDN brought you a story about a new research study that was ostensibly authored by Penn State researchers which found, using “non-traditional” methods of research, that wastewater leaking from an above-ground impoundment had migrated up to a mile and a half away and had contaminated three private water wells in PA–five years ago (see