EC July 2012

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Fwd: Energize West Virginia Town Hall Meeting Thursday
by James Kotcon 09 Jul '12

09 Jul '12

In a message dated 7/8/2012 4:32:51 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, stombond(a)hughes.net writes: Natural Gas Industry to Hold Town Hall Meeting in Morgantown . . July 5, 2012, WBOY, Clarksburg, WV Natural gas industry officials from Energize West Virginia ( http://www.energizewv.com/ ) and America's Natural Gas Alliance ( http://www.anga.us/ ) are hosting a town hall-style community meeting, in Morgantown, to discuss the "latest developments and activities" in the industry, in the state. The meeting will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m., on Tuesday, July 10 at the Ramada Inn ( http://www.ramada.com/hotels/west-virginia/morgantown/ramada-conference-cen… ), on Scott Avenue in Morgantown. It will include a panel of industry professionals and a presentation on hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling, job creation and economic impact from Marcellus Shale in West Virginia. The meeting is free and open to the public.

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Earth First Shuts Down Drilling Site in Moshannon State Forest | StateImpact Pennsylvania
by Duane 08 Jul '12

08 Jul '12

http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2012/07/08/earth-first-blocks-frack… "Earth First" Shuts Down Drilling Site in Moshannon State Forest A group calling itself Marcellus Earth First! has set up a blockade in Moshannon State Forest, preventing the natural gas company EQT from operating a well. A report on an Earth First! website says the blockade on a gravel road began before 9:30 Sunday morning with about 40 protestors who successfully prevented a truck from entering the drill site. EQT spokesperson Natalie Cox says the drilling operations have shut down due to safety concerns for the company’s employees, contractors, police and protesters. Cox says activities at the well pad were in the early stages. EQT is one of the top ten largest drillers in Pennsylvania, with about 300 active wells in the western part of the state. For more information on EQT’s drilling operations, visit our Shale Map App. Pike County resident Alex Lotorto, who says he’s not a member of Marcellus Earth First!, but joined the rally, says two people have climbed trees and strung cables across an access road in such a way that cutting them would cause the tree climbers to fall and face serious injury or even death. Lotorto says state police are on the scene. “Police interaction has been courteous and respectful,” says Lotorto. “We want to make this safe as possible.” A state police officer reached by phone at the Dubois, Pa. office would not provide any information. The Moshannon State Forest spans three counties, but the protest is in the Clearfield County section of the forest. Lotoro said a group of protestors had dragged logs and branches from the forest to build blockades across the access road the night before the protest. A sign hanging from the site reads “Marcellus Earth First, no fracking no compromise.” Earth First! is an environmental activist group that uses direct action and is primarily known for protesting logging in forests along the West Coast. The group often employs the tactic of climbing into trees to stop industrial activity and call attention to their cause. Janis Copenhaver lives near Big Run, Jefferson County, not too far from the drill site. Reached by phone, Copenhaver said she didn’t know anything about the action until she overheard others in her town talking about it. “I wish I had the time and gumption to do this,” said Copenhaver. “But I have to have a fulltime job, pay a mortgage, and take care of my animals. I appreciate it when someone else is trying to defend the earth and the life I love living.” Copenhaver said it took her two hours to find the protesters on a remote access road in the forest. She says she plans to bring food and water up the mountain. “I can’t be up there hanging from a tree,” said Copenhaver, “but I’ll do what I can.” Copenhaver says she worries about gas drilling’s impact on her water. She says another drill rig sits about 600 yards from her drinking water well and she gets her water tested every two weeks. Lately, she says the salinity, and the amount of total dissolved solids have increased. “It’s just too frightening, so I started buying bottled water yesterday,” said Copenhaver. Drilling for natural gas in state forests is controversial. Although the state has leased out mineral rights in state forests since 1947, the Marcellus Shale boom has meant a rapid expansion of industrial activity on state land. More than 700,000 acres of forest land have already been leased – about twenty percent of that for Marcellus pads. The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources predicts more than 1,000 drilling rigs may dot the forests, once production is at full capacity. Many feared Governor Corbett would expand drilling in the forests, but his 2012–2013 budget did not include any plans to lease out additional state forest land for natural gas drilling. Submitted by Duane Nichols, www.FrackCheckWV.net

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Sierra Club used as a corporate tool?
by James Kotcon 07 Jul '12

07 Jul '12

The line below caught my attention. Who is the "National Center for Public Policy Research", and is it worth dignifying the charge with a response? Jim Kotcon “Since the Sierra Club has been used as a corporate tool in the past, there is no reason to believe that it isn’t being used as one now, so we call upon it to fully disclose who is underwriting Beyond Natural Gas. If the Sierra Club won’t say who is funding its anti-natural gas campaign, we probably can assume there is a conflict of interest in there somewhere.” >>> "Donald C. Strimbeck" dcsoinks(a)comcast.net> 7/6/2012 3:57 AM >> ( mailto:dcsoinks@comcast.net ) McClendon: Chesapeake done with Sierra Club ( http://blog.newsok.com/energy/2012/06/08/mcclendon-chesapeake-done-with-sie… ) Posted by Jay F. Marks ( http://blog.newsok.com/energy/author/jay-marks/ ) on June 8, 2012M at 5:46 pm Chesapeake Energy Corp. is done with the Sierra Club. CEO Aubrey McClendon was questioned by the president of the National Center for Public Policy Research ( http://www.nationalcenter.org/ ) about the company’s past donations totaling $26 million to the environmental group at Friday’s annual meeting. Center President David Ridenour said he was concerned the Sierra Club would use those funds in its new “Beyond Natural Gas” ( http://content.sierraclub.org/naturalgas/ ) campaign. McClendon said he has no regrets about working with the Sierra Club to go after the coal industry. “We’re in a market share struggle with coal,” McClendon said. “As a result of that campaign, 150 new coal plants were not built. That demand will go to natural gas.” The Sierra Club distanced itself ( http://newsok.com/sierra-club-moving-away-from-natural-gas-chesapeake-cash/… ) from Chesapeake earlier this year after new executive director Michael Brune ( http://sierraclub.typepad.com/michaelbrune/2012/02/the-sierra-club-and-natu… ) rewrote the group’s gift acceptance policy and began to campaign for tougher regulation of the natural gas industry. On Friday, McClendon said Chesapeake is no longer associated with the Sierra Club. “Our relationship with them is a little different today than it was a few years ago,” he said. Ridenour said he was not satisfied to McClendon’s response to his question at Friday’s meeting. “Mr. McClendon largely ignored my question, ‘By funding Beyond Coal, did you not unnecessarily pick a fight with another fossil fuel industry that now will have every incentive to fund Beyond Natural Gas? It would be darkly amusing if the coal industry did turn out to be funding Beyond Natural Gas, and did have a stipulation in its grant contract limiting the use of the gift to fighting Mr. McClendon’s industry.” “Since the Sierra Club has been used as a corporate tool in the past, there is no reason to believe that it isn’t being used as one now, so we call upon it to fully disclose who is underwriting Beyond Natural Gas. If the Sierra Club won’t say who is funding its anti-natural gas campaign, we probably can assume there is a conflict of interest in there somewhere.” “As a representative of a Chesapeake shareholder and an employee of another shareholder, I’m not thrilled that Mr. McClendon gave money to an activist group dedicated to the company’s destruction, but I’m even less happy as an American. Energy independence is important to national security, and low-cost energy is important to American jobs and prosperity. We shouldn’t be fighting things that are good for us.” Ridenour said he still hopes to find out where Chesapeake’s donations to the Sierra Club went, while letting such groups know that people are watching those types of charitable contributions

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More on the Coal Ash vote from Center for Media and Democracy. Check out the video on Perry County
by Paul Wilson 01 Jul '12

01 Jul '12

House to Vote on Effort to Preempt EPA Regulation of Coal Ash [image: Environmental Protection Agency logo]The U.S. House of Representatives will vote Thursday on a measure to urge the Transportation Conference Committee to strip the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the ability to designate toxic coal ash as a hazardous waste. This spring, the House approved H.R. 4348, the Surface and Transportation Extension Act of 2012. In this bill the House included an amendment by West Virginia Republican Representative David McKinley, that would prohibit the EPA from ever setting federally enforceable safeguards for the disposal of toxic coal ash. Now McKinley and the coal lobby are fighting to keep his amendment from being stripped out during House-Senate conference committee negotiations. Read more<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=AuVBv3Kn6KsxDPRK6DVe…> -- Paul Wilson Sierra Club 504 Jefferson Ave Charles Town, WV 25414-1130 Phone: 304-725-4360 Cell: 304-279-1361 "There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" ~ Aristotle

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EC July 2012