How Does NY Frack Ban Affect Wayne & Pike Counties in PA?
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s political decision to ban shale drilling in the Empire State continues to reverberate and affect the states around it–particularly Pennsylvania. Now that New York will disallow shale drilling for the foreseeable future, how does that affect Pike and Wayne counties in PA? Those two counties have the misfortune to sit in the jurisdiction of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC). The DRBC, under former anti-drilling director Carol Collier, had a temporary ban in place for all of the territory under their purview. Collier “retired” last year and is now busy advising Gov.-elect Tom Wolf (shows you the kind of people he has around him). It was hoped that when a new director was appointed, Steve Tambini from the Pennsylvania America Water company, things would change. The director does not have the power to either authorize or ban fracking–that falls to the voting members from NY, PA, NJ, DE and the federal government. However, the director has a lot of influence. So with NY’s decision to ban fracking, is there any hope that fracking might still be allowed in the DRBC in Pike and Wayne counties? So far the DRBC is mum, and staying that way…
Read More “How Does NY Frack Ban Affect Wayne & Pike Counties in PA?”
Not much to report on this, thankfully. MDN has told you in the past one of the most under-appreciated stories we know of is that the only Proctor & Gamble manufacturing plant out of their 150 plants worldwide that is 100% energy self-sufficient is a plant in Wyoming County, PA–near Wilkes-Barre in northeast Pennsylvania (see 
It’s a wrap. MDN predicts one day we’ll look back on January 5 and the pro-drilling rally hosted by the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York as the date when landowners and those of us who support shale drilling fully committed ourselves to ending Andrew Cuomo’s frack ban in New York State. We will one day look back and say, “It all started there, on that date–our eventual victory.” Landowners now understand they cannot be silent, they cannot depend on lawsuits alone, to change the situation in New York. Landowners, union members and even those without land but who support drilling were at the rally in huge numbers, they were mad and they expressed their willingness to fight to protect our Constitutional property rights. Make no mistake, it will be a fight. MDN previously wrote up our impressions of the meeting (see 
The cavalry has just arrived! Very good news: U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe, Republican from the great state of Oklahoma, will be the new chairman of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW). Top on Inhofe’s agenda is to reign in an out-of-control Environmental Protection Agency, and clamp down on the nonsense and abuse of the Endangered Species Act. Both of those things, plus others (like beating back an effort to redefine “waters of the United States” to include everything but mud puddles), will benefit the shale drilling industry in the northeast and beyond. At MDN HQ we’re doing the happy dance that Inhofe is at the helm of the EPW! Here’s the announcement, which sets out Inhofe’s focus and agenda…