Wow, have the standards at Harvard University slipped! It used to be that Harvard was known for academic rigor–thoroughness and accuracy. Those days are long gone. Now Harvard is controlled by leftists who succumb to groupthink and political ideology instead of the scientific method. Case in point: Harvard recently published a study in Environmental Science…
Anti-fossil fuel zealots in the Pittsburgh region, including Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, continue to attack the already-approved Plum Boro wastewater injection well project. We told you in January that antis, in a final, desperate attempt, tried to convince Pennsylvania’s leftist Governor, Tom Wolf, to illegally seize powers he doesn’t have to overrule a permit issued…
For the past week or so we’ve spotted stories in the Democrat press (i.e. mainstream news) about a so-called “research report” issued by a front organization for the Heinz Endowments called the Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI). The ORVI recently released a report that purports to show the fracking miracle in the Marcellus/Utica hasn’t actually…
We don’t know much about geothermal heating and heat pumps. We do know the technology is often touted by people like Andrew Cuomo as one of the solutions that will allow us to magically quit using fuel oil and gas for heating. We were intrigued as we began to read about an experiment Cornell University…
Anti-fossil fuel zealots sent a letter to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf two days ago asking him to use dictatorial powers to overturn a permit issued by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) that allows a wastewater injection well to be built in Penn Township. The radical group ProtectPT (funded by Heinz Endowments and Google’s former…
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: House Democrat Policy Committee hears testimony on oil & gas industry methane leakage; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Colorado property owners claim forced pooling law unconstitutional; NATIONAL: What the Covington story tells us about fractivists; FBI bomb technician says shutdown prevented meeting on pipeline safety; Peak oil theory’s no good terrible very bad week; Shale…
You can just imagine it. Maya van Rossum (THE Delaware Riverkeeper), Tony Ingraffea (former Cornell prof and member of Trout Unlimited), Sandra Steingraber (paid by Ithaca College to be a climate protester) and other far-out lefties sitting in a room hatching yet another plan to block new pipeline projects, all in a bid to stop…
As we reported in March, Empire Pipeline, the midstream (pipeline) subsidiary of National Fuel Gas Company, filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build two new compressor stations along the Empire Pipeline–one in Tioga County, PA, the other in Ontario County, NY (see Empire Pipe Plans 2 Compressors in PA &…
Last November we updated you on a lawsuit filed by a group of radical anti-fossil fuelers in Penn Township (Westmoreland County), PA (see Penn Twp Ninny Nannies File Lawsuit to Block Apex, H&H Wells). A group calling themselves Protect PT, backed with money and legal help from Big Green group PennFuture, filed a lawsuit to…
Last year a peer reviewed study published by researchers from the University of Maryland in the American Geological Union’s (AGU) Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres claimed methane was leaking from the Marcellus Shale at a rate of 3.9% based on three flight measurements in September and August 2015. That’s a lot. Using that rate of…
Methane (i.e. natural gas) is often made out to be a bogeyman by radical environmentalists. They’d have you believe a single molecule wafting into the air will cause global warming and make Mom Earth fry. It’s bunkum. However, the fairy tales we grow up with exert a strong control over us later in life. The…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: PA Act 13 impact fees fund $15.7M of enviro projects; 2 permits issued in Columbiana County, OH; conservancies are for conservation, not politics; Alaskan LNG made possible by China; American shale gas the “silver bullet” to take…
From time to time so-called experts will come out of the woodwork to proclaim that burning coal to produce electricity is better for the environment than burning natural gas. Cornell professors Robert Howarth and Anthony Ingraffea (now retired) attempted to make that case back in 2011 (see New Cornell University Study Says Shale Gas Extraction…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Mountain Valley Pipeline spending $811M in WV alone; PA keeps a slim lead in rigs over OH; EQT to add 2 new board members post-Rice merger; Hulk-sized fracking misinformation in Florida; ignitable natgas from compressor plant?; Vermont…
For years we’ve followed the story of Range Resources and their (former) wastewater impoundments in Washington County, PA. The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) fined Range a whopping $4.15 million for violations in September 2014 (see PA DEP Fines Range Resources $4.15M for Wastewater Impoundments). Some of the nearby neighbors claimed that Range’s leaky…
Big news broke Friday afternoon. Short history lesson for those who are new to MDN: There were 14 families along the Carter Road area of Dimock Township, PA (Susquehanna County) that reportedly experienced turbidity in their water from methane migrating, supposedly from Cabot’s drilling operations nearby. The state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) investigated in…