Corbett Opens State Forests to More Drilling

     

As anticipated, the wholesale rape of PA's natural resources by Team Tom-Tom continues.

Read about it here.

  

Paradise Lost

 

I spent Sunday in the eye of the Marcellus Maelstrom in northeastern PA. For all you media-types, I'd highly recommend you do the same. I put over 330 miles on my car, and have over 200 new pics and quite a bit of video footage. For now, I'll post just the pictures taken on Paradise Road, Terry Township, Bradford County, PA and a few other locations. More in the days and weeks ahead.

All below are on Paradise Road unless otherwise noted.

The road is unpaved.

The house next door. Both wells have been rendered useless, thanks to the Welles family, the SRBC, and Chesapeake Appalachia.

The closest drilling site ~1/4 mile down the road.

That's it for Paradise (Lost) Road. Here are a few more:

Truck traffic was noticably heavier than my last visit on a Sunday. I stopped counting at 100 water tankers.

New drillpads are visible from Rte. 6. There were two homes within a few hundred yards of this one.

A closer look.

Wonder what all this truck traffic is doing to the roads?

Even the train traffic has increased significantly since my last visit.

The mighty, ancient Susquehanna River @ Wysox, PA

My friends, we are teetering on the brink of an environmental tragedy and travesty that will haunt us for far more than seven generations. IMHO, far too many people are sitting this one out.

My expedited saw-sharpening hiatus is almost over. Thanks to everyone who took the time to meet with me yesterday.

Stay tuned.

     

Chesapeake, Chief & Cabot Dump on Dunmore

  
Through a Right to Know request, the Sunday Times has discovered that several companies are dumping their natural gas drilling waste in a Dunmore PA landfill owned by businessman Louis DeNaples. Read more about it here. Good job, Times-Tribune!

Reminder: In a previous post, in reviewing PA Senate Bill 447, I discovered that Senators Gene Yaw and Mary Jo White want to exempt certain drilling-related transactions from the Right to Know Law.

My friends, why would they want to do that? What might they be hiding?


P.S. In the end, all of this may be for naught. According to this guy...we've all only got about three months left!

Enjoy your last February 20th!

    

Clueless in La-Lazerne County PA

  
If I hadn't read about a similar tour of a natural gas compressor station being given recently while the facility was mysteriously not operating for some inane reason, I would have probably let this one pass. But I did, so I won't.

Read the details about Chief's recent dog & pony show here.

For the record, I believe the compressor station was intentionally idle so those on the tour would not be exposed to the incredible noise and the, ummmmm, pungent aromas wafting within and downwind from this industrial complex.

I truly hope those on the tour DEMAND a return inspection while the compressor station is running at full throttle. And I'd further recommend checking out what the Mayor of Dish, TX has to say about being located next to a compressor station. 

And you've gotta check out this video of another natural gas compressor station in western PA. Sore throats. Nose bleeds? Nahhh, no connection whatsoever.....

Have a good weekend, folks.
 

Hiatus: Time to Sharpen the Saw

  

As most folks know, blogging is done on our own time & dime. Unlike the sleazebags in Harrisburg, our junkets are fueled by our passions and our pocketbooks. No free rides here: just getting up extra early or shortchanging something else to peck away at the keyboard. And in many ways, that does take its toll.

I recognize it's time to sharpen the saw...recharge my batteries a little. Actually, a lot.

Over the next few weeks, that's what I'll be doing. Until then, any posts will be short and sweet.

Something big is brewing, and I want to be ready.

I'll be back.

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All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.  - Thomas Jefferson

  

Williams Energy: Savage on Bats

    
Hey, if nothing else, Mr. Ryan Savage is honest. Could he be the first in that industry?

Anyway, read what he has to say about local bats:

“A very specific size and type of tree have been identified as those which bats like to nest in,” Savage said, “and we want to cull those trees before the bat population returns to the region in April so we’re not dealing with an environmental issue.”

And for all you river advocates out there:

Savage said the pipeline will go underneath the Tunkhannock Creek near Shadowbrook Resort along U.S. Rt. 6 and under the Susquehanna River near the village of Osterhout.

Check out the rest of the story here. And while you're at it, check out the Rocket Courier's excellent coverage of a meeting last week about a proposed frackwater treatment plant on the north branch of the Susquehanna River. When it comes to coverage of the whole Marcellus Madness gripping Bradford and surrounding counties, the folks at the Rocket are simply blowing their local competition away. Kudos!

Back to the bats. In the end, companies like Williams, Chesapeake, Range Resources and Cabot only care about one thing: profits. Period. I can't make it any simpler than that. Having worked for some of the largest financial services firms in the world over the last 30+ years, including Citibank, Bank of America and Prudential, I understand that mentality down to the DNA level.  Been there, done that.

However, the people that work in "BIG OIL" and related industries not only appear to have a ruthlessness anomaly permanently chiseled into their genetic blueprints, they also have shown a propensity for lying and/or manipulating data to serve their purposes while intentionally ignoring information that doesn't.

To hear someone from "BIG OIL" like Ryan Savage come right out and say - more or less - that any "environmental issues", be it trees or bats in this case, will simply be eliminated is refreshing. Very disturbing, but refreshing. Wanna bet a cup of coffee or two that Mr. Savage gets a phone call today from someone in OK?

A little clarification is definitely required here. Will the trees be culled and removed...or protected? The basic definition of the word could cause one to interpret Mr. Savage's comments either way.

Which is it?

Hmmm. I wonder what will happen when bloggers become too much of an "issue"?

Who's watching who?

        

Super Bowl XXX: True Confessions

                 
I admit it. It is truly unfair of me to jump on the bandwagon with all the folks criticizing PA Senator Joe Scarnati for taking an all expenses paid trip to Super Bowl XLV on the dime of a natural gas company.

After all, in 1996, I went on an all expenses paid trip to Super Bowl XXX. Even took my wife along as part of the deal. On top of that...I left my three children - ages 5, 7 and 9 behind!

What a terrible father I am!

I'll tell the rest of the story in the next day or two and issue...right here for all to see...a public apology to the good Senator Scarnati.

  

Lest We Forget...

      Three years ago, on Valentine's Day, we shut down the pet-project/dream/nightmare of damming the Susquehanna River in the Wyoming Valley. Championed by a now-retired 12-term U.S. Congressman, "people who knew people" thought it was a done deal, i.e. the proposed inflatable dam had too much political backing to be stopped.

Guess what? We didn't listen, and the debatable inflatable dam has been buried for three years and counting.

Today, the task before us is daunting, but not impossible. I truly believe that. Folks, it's time to start barking at the moon. 

Be back in a few...I have to get a note from my Mom.

+ + +

P.S. - Senate Bill 447 is worse than I thought. Ponder this gem from this piece of crap legislation:

§ 3492. Trade secrets.

(a) Right to privacy. Confidential proprietary information or trade secrets submitted by parties during proceedings under this chapter may not be disclosed by the commission or any other parties privy to such information or secrets. The information may be submitted under seal for review by the administrative law judge only and shall be exempt from the act of February 14, 2008 (P.L.6, No.3), known as the Right-to-Know Law.

 
Hey...who needs to know what's going on in Harrisburg?
  
       

SB Bill 447 - Republican Rape of PA: Round 2

              
This bill, introduced by Senator Gene Yaw (R) on 2/11/2011,  is 25 pages long, so it'll take a while to study this latest piece of garbage legislation proposed by another shill of the natural gas industry.

This language on page 3 should give you an early indication of what is being proposed here:

(1) To promote the development of unconventional oil and gas resources of this Commonwealth in accordance with the best principles and practices of oil and gas conservation while reasonably protecting the correlative rights of the person affected.

(2) To provide for the protection of the environment.

Reasonably protecting the correlative rights of the person affected? Provide for the protection of the environment? Check out the rest here.
 
Before I forget; it's so nice to see that Senators Yaw and Mary Jo White (R) decided to recruit a token Democrat ( Wayne D. Fontana ) to introduce this legislation. Now it's escalated to a bi-partisan rape of Pennsylvania's natural resources and property owner's rights. Very smart move on your part. Very smart...
 
Based upon my initial scan of the 25 pages, this looks like a combination of forced-pooling and eminent domain - which supports the natural gas industry - wrapped up in a thinly-veiled assault on a property-owner's rights if they do not want their land to be subject to natural gas drilling (hydrofracturing).
 
So here we are, less than a month into Team Tom-Tom's reign, and we have another piece of pro-industry legislation being crammed down our gullets...or elsewhere.
 
Happy Valentine's Day, Pennsylvania.
 
 

    

Geologist Warns...

  

This headline caught my attention as I was doing my pre-sunrise Marcellus sweep this morning:

Geologist warns of fracking water

This headline was brought to my attention by one of my co-workers:

In the article above, potential 2012 presidential candidate Newt Gingrich calls for abolishing the EPA.

Hey...who needs clean water, clean air, and clean land? 

The answer: We ALL do.

Anyone following events in Egypt? Rest assured, our elected leaders are. Think it can't happen here?

In the weeks and months ahead, as Team Tom-Tom's true agenda is revealed for all to see, it is inevitable that the huddled and clueless majority will finally wake-up.

To borrow a closing line from another blog:

Tick tock...