Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Health Impacts | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA
PA Spending $3.9M on Flawed Studies to Link Fracking with Cancer
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a liberal Democrat who sometimes supports the shale gas industry (as long as he can tax it) has caved to demands from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to launch a “study” in a bid to “prove” cases of childhood cancer in southwestern PA can be tied to shale drilling in the region. A pair of studies, actually. The studies won’t be completed for three years, after Wolf is out of office, so he gets credit for caring, but he won’t be around for the fallout when it happens.
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Two weeks ago MDN told you about rumors (unconfirmed, but they seem legit) that the FBI is investigating the PA Gov. Tom Wolf administration over how permits came to be issued for the Mariner East 2 pipeline project (see 
Summit Midstream Partners, formed in 2009 and headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, operates natural gas, crude oil and produced water gathering (pipeline) systems in six unconventional resource basins, including the Marcellus and Utica. The company concentrates its time and money on four “core focus areas” including: the Utica, the Williston (i.e. Bakken), the DJ Basin and the Permian. The Marcellus is part of the company’s “legacy” systems that don’t get as much love (and money). Earlier this year we speculated that maybe the Summit’s Marcellus assets would be posted for sale (see 
We take no pleasure in pointing out the lies being pedaled by those who pretend to be evangelical Christians but have been co-opted by the radical environmental left to do their bidding instead. We’re talking about the outright, 100% lies we find in an op-ed appearing in the Harrisburg Patriot-News, written by the President/CEO of what’s called the Evangelical Environmental Network–a politically left organization that laughably says they’re “conservative.” Whoops–yet another 100% lie.
Three weeks ago MDN brought you an excellent column written by one of our favorite writers, Paul Driessen, who said: “Green New Dealers have convinced themselves that our planet faces an imminent, existential, manmade climate cataclysm – that can be prevented solely and simply by government edicts replacing fossil fuels with biofuel, wind, solar and battery energy. They achieve this state of absolute certainty largely by propagating constant scare stories, while ignoring and suppressing contradictory evidence and viewpoints” (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Community assists Trehab with annual food drive; Cuomo’s posturing on Long Island natural gas crisis is a real jobs killer; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: FERC green-lights Annova LNG project; NATIONAL: Futures markets signal lower natural gas prices in most U.S. regions in early 2020; U.S. Silica to lay off about 10% of total workforce; Chevron CEO plans major cost-cutting overhaul of production teams; E&P profits, cash flow slip again, but cost controls keep industry in the black; NYC faces tough 2nd Circ. in sweeping big oil climate case; INTERNATIONAL: Natural gas emerging as the world’s go-to fuel; Forget OPEC: China now moves the oil markets.
Gulfport Energy, one of the biggest drillers in the Ohio Utica Shale (210,000 acres), concentrates its drilling in the Ohio Utica and the Oklahoma SCOOP plays. Earlier this week the company made a major announcement: They are laying off 13% of the workforce, ending (for now) their stock share buy-back program, and “refreshing” the board with three new members (see 
In February 2015 Rex Energy announced it would sell its Keystone Clearwater Solutions subsidiary which provides water services for shale drillers in the Marcellus/Utica (see 
It seems like MDN has reported on the possibility that an ethane cracker plant would get built somewhere in West Virginia forever–at least back to 2013 when then-Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin went to Europe looking for a cracker (see 
Last week Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro sat down to talk with the editorial board/reporters of the Washington (PA) Observer-Reporter. He refused to confirm or deny he’s actively conducting a witch hunt of the PA Marcellus Shale industry, including trotting dozens of people before a grand jury–even though the media has been reporting on his grand jury fishing expedition since February (see 
We previously told you New York Gov. Andrew “man-child” Cuomo is getting desperate in his bid to deflect blame from himself for his own actions in blocking new natural gas supplies to the New York City/Long Island area. He’s so desperate he threatened utility company National Grid with kicking them out of the state and giving their franchise to another company (see 
In a speech delivered October 31 to the P4 Climate Action Summit in downtown Pittsburgh, Mayor Bill Peduto declared his hatred for the petrochemical industry. He doesn’t want any more Shell crackers junking up his regional backyard. The highly negative reaction to Peduto’s idiotic (and pandering) remarks was swift. What petchem company wants to build in a region where the mayor of its largest city is trash talking the industry? In a bid to counter Peduto’s economically damaging remarks, some 20 county officials from Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Lawrence, Mercer, Washington and Westmoreland counties issued a joint statement on Wednesday to show their support for the petrochemical and shale industries in the region.