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MA – Mothers Out Front Launches “Beyond Gas” Campaign Team And 2-Year Campaign

We started the Launch Meeting with a celebration of all that has been done in past years to limit the use of dangerous fracked gas, and to stop the build-out of gas infrastructure in Massachusetts. Attendees wrote our successes out on a timeline on the wall, and then added our visions for the future: the wins we hope to have in this two-year campaign. Members were hopeful that we would stop the Weymouth Compressor Station, join the fight in Western Mass.

Gas Wells Not Allowed On Land Zoned For Homes Or Farms, High Court Rules

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided Friday that drilling and operating multiple Marcellus Shale gas wells in a section of Fairfield Township, Lycoming County, that is zoned for residential and agricultural would not be a compatible land use. The case, Gorsline v. Board of Supervisors of Fairfield Township v. Inflection Energy, is important because of its potential application to, and influence on, shale gas development in non-industrially zoned areas throughout the state. “The decision means that shale gas development has to be recognized as an industrial land use that has impacts and must be located with other uses with which it is compatible,” said George Jugovic Jr., chief counsel for PennFuture who represented the four Fairfield Township residents that brought the case.

Tractor Blockade Shuts Down Clear-Cutting At Dominion Compressor Site

A Maryland woman parked a tractor at the gate of the proposed site of a compressor station in Charles County and locked herself to the steering wheel before dawn Monday morning, preventing workers from entering. Kelly Canavan–with assistance from her sister, her son, a local resident and two environmental activists equipped with protest signs–attempted to delay clear-cutting of trees on the Dominion-owned site before a crucial permit hearing the following day. It was the fourth day of tree-felling to clear a total of 13 acres. The blockade started at 6:30 am with the tractor rumbling down the narrow road, turning around and re-positioning in the short driveway in the midst of a bucolic setting of trees, gurgling stream and pink-tinted dawn. Canavan slipped her arms into a lockbox device with tight sleeves which secured her to the tractor. At least a dozen officers and nine vehicles were dispatched from the Charles County Sheriff’s Department.

The South’s Pipe Dreams

The largest gas field in the world lies deep below the shimmering Persian Gulf, surrounded on all sides by wealthy OPEC nations. The second-largest sits largely beneath rural Appalachia. And as political opposition to fracking and pipelines builds in the Northeast, that gas glut is increasingly heading one direction: south. Once fueled by the nearby mountain coal mines, the South is set to become one of the biggest benefactors of America's natural gas boom. But first, the region will have to build the pipelines to transport it. "If you look at the numbers this whole (Appalachian) region would be the second-largest gas producing country in the world," says Akos Losz, a research analyst at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy. "One way or another, gas has to find a way out of this region and the Southeast is one of the natural destination markets."

West Virginia Gas Companies Wined And Dined Lawmakers Before Scoring Favorable Fracking Legislation

A country club luncheon. A $130 steak dinner. A whiskey tasting. Dinner at an historic neo-Georgian mansion. These are just a few examples of the many occasions last year when oil and gas lobbyists wined and dined West Virginia state lawmakers on key committees that craft fossil fuel legislation. Lobbyists representing industry players including natural gas giant EQT, Antero Resources, TransCanada, and multiple oil and gas trade associations wooed state lawmakers with thousands of dollars’ worth of food and drink throughout 2017, according to lobbying records obtained by DeSmog. In early 2018, just months after some of these fancy gatherings took place, most oil and gas companies got something they wanted: A “co-tenancy” bill, HB 4268, that allows these companies to drill for natural gas on private land with the consent of only 75 percent of the landowners.

The West Virginia Teachers’ Strike Takes Aim At Coal And Gas

Earlier in the week, Republican Governor Jim Justice and the unions’ state leads had come up with a compromise bill, HB 4145, that raised teacher pay by 5 percent. But it did not create a permanent fix for the Public Employee Insurance Agency, which is meant to provide all public employees with affordable health insurance but has effectively been cutting funding every year. As I previously reported, some teachers distrusted the deal when it was first announced on Wednesday. A letter that day from Justice to state employees announcing the formation of a PEIA task force did not mollify many of them. On Wednesday night, the bill passed the state House. On Thursday, Senate Republicans voted against taking it up. Shortly afterwards, news of further teacher walkouts began rolling across social media.

Water Warriors, Puyallup Tribe & Tacoma Residents Seek To Pass Resolution Opposing Fracked Gas Plant

Currently, Puget Sound Energy, the company building the plant, has been building a massive fracked gas storage facility at the Port of Tacoma without obtaining all of its permits for construction and have not engaged in consultation, nor received consent, from the Puyallup Tribe whose lands the facility is being built upon. PSE, who is owned by Canadian and Australian investors, wants to build a 140 foot, 8 million gallon LNG storage tank with production capability of 500,000 gallons LNG per day. LNG is fracked natural gas in a liquid state. To reach the liquid state, the fracked gas is cooled to -260 degrees Fahrenheit (°F). The fracked gas LNG plant has been subject to intense protest for the past year and a half.

US Bank Declares End To Oil And Gas Pipeline Loans

For months, the bank had been under fire for financing the Dakota Access pipeline by providing over a quarter billion dollars worth of funding to its builder, Energy Transfer Partners (ETP). Environmentalists famously dropped a banner calling on U.S. Bank to divest from DAPL at the New Years 2017 Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears football game. The language of the bank's new policy seemed blunt. “The company does not provide project financing for the construction of oil or natural gas pipelines,” U.S. Bancorp, parent company of U.S. Bank, wrote in its April 2017 Environmental Responsibility Policy. Divestment advocates cheered. “We applaud this progressive decision from U.S. Bank,” an Honor the Earth representative said in a statement, as the bank's new policy made headlines.

Enbridge Suspends Access Northeast Natural Gas Pipeline Plan

By Mary C. Serreze for Mass Live - For lack of policies that support project financing, another New England natural gas pipeline proposal has been put on ice. The Houston-based Enbridge on Thursday suspended federal permitting for its $3.2 billion Access Northeast, which would upgrade 125 miles of the Algonquin pipeline system to serve around 60 percent of the New England power sector. Enbridge had partnered with Eversource Energy and National Grid to advance the project through Algonquin Gas Transmission, LLC. It is "no longer in the interest of stakeholders" to continue federal review of the project, a lawyer for Algonquin told public officials in a June 29 email. Inconsistent energy policies across the Northeast states are to blame, wrote Atty. Jon N. Bonsall of the Boston-based Keegan Werlin. Natural gas pipeline developers have been seeking a mechanism for cost recovery in the New England states, such as a tariff on ratepayers. While an increasing number of power generators burn natural gas, they are reluctant to commit to binding contracts for the fuel, in the way that local gas distributors do. An alternative finance mechanism where electric ratepayers would foot the bill for pipeline capacity on behalf of power generators was shot down last year by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Dozens Return To Rally At State House For Safety Study

By Staff of We Are Cove Point - On Monday July 3, 2017, a few dozen people gathered again outside the State House in Annapolis to urge Governor Hogan not to turn his back on the people of Southern Maryland. A week and a half ago, Governor Hogan’s office finally responded to our request for a safety study, known formally as a Quantitative Risk Assessment or QRA, for the gas refinery, power plant and export terminal being built by Virginia-based Dominion Energy in the neighborhood of Cove Point with a resounding, “No.” The news has been a great disappointment to say the least, but We Are Cove Point and allies are not giving up the fight. Given the gas explosion yesterday in Lancaster, PA that shredded an entire house beyond recognition, killing one man and injuring three people, anxiety levels ran high at the rally today. If one small gas pipe can destroy a house, damage surrounding homes and be felt miles away, the thought of what a 410,000 gallon tank of propane and other large tanks of chemicals to be stored in Cove Point could do is terrifying. A group of five, including Jeff Dixon who lives close to the facility, Craig Stevens, an anti-fracking activist from Pennsylvania and Dr. Margaret Flowers of Baltimore, a resident of Annapolis and a resident of North Beach, went into the State House to deliver a letter to the Governor asking that he reconsider his refusal to order a safety study.

Dakota Pipeline Builder Rebuffed By Feds In Bid To Restart Work On Troubled Ohio Gas Project

By Zahra Hirji for Inside Climate News - The builder of the controversial Dakota Access pipeline was told by federal regulators Thursday that it cannot resume construction on new sections of its other major project, the troubled Rover gas pipeline in Ohio, following a massive spill and a series of violations. In mid-April, Energy Transfer Partners spilled several million gallons of thick construction mud into some of Ohio's highest-quality wetlands, smothering vegetation and aquatic wildlife in an area that helps filter water between farmland and nearby waterways. New data reveals the amount of mud released may be more than double the initial estimate of about 2 million gallons. Fully restoring the wetlands could take decades, Ohio environmental officials have said. Officials at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ordered Energy Transfer Partners to halt construction there on May 10. At the time, FERC told the company it could continue work at the rest of its construction sites, but it could not start new operations. The order identified eight future work locations to be temporarily off limits.

Fearing More Pipeline Spills, Groups Demand Halt To Gas Project

By Zahra Hirji for Inside Climate News - More than 100 local and environmental groups are demanding federal regulators immediately halt all construction on Energy Transfer Partners' Rover gas pipeline after a series of environmental violations, including a massive spill that fouled sensitive wetlands in Ohio with several million gallons of construction mud. The groups' concerns go beyond the Rover pipeline. They also urged federal officials to "initiate an immediate review of horizontal drilling plans and procedures on all open pipeline dockets." "We think that FERC's review process has been delinquent so far and not thorough enough, both on this issue with respect to the horizontal drilling practices and other construction processes, but also on broader environmental issues, as well such as the climate impacts of the pipelines like Rover," said David Turnbull, campaigns director for the research and advocacy group Oil Change International, one of 114 groups that signed a letter sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday. FERC last week ordered Energy Transfer Partners to not start construction at any new sites along the pipeline route following the spill

Utility Survey: Trump Will Not Stop the Clean Energy Transition

By Gavin Bade for Utility Dive. Today, President Trump is poised to release a long-anticipated executive order to roll back the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration’s signature climate initiative. The order is expected to be accompanied by directives to lift a moratorium on federal land coal leases and to cease the use of the social cost of carbon — all part of a broad campaign to dismantle environmental regulations on the power sector that Trump blames for the decline of the coal economy in the United States. But while rescinding the rules could help slow coal power’s decline in the short term, analysts say it is unlikely to reverse its long-term downturn, mostly due to the economics of natural gas and renewables. That attitude is shared not just by market observers, but by electric utilities themselves.

Trump, Putin & The Pipelines To Nowhere

By Alex Steffen for Medium. It is not hyperbole to say that swelling the Carbon Bubble is not only not in the interests of the United States, it increases threats to our economy and national security, puts Americans at risk, undermines our prosperity and weakens our nation. It’s hard to call defending high carbon interests anything but unpatriotic. People who are looking to understand what the Trump gang is up to would do well to consider his gang’s actions through the lens of the Carbon Bubble. Understand that the amounts of money at stake are vast, nearly inconceivable to most of us, and highly concentrated in the hands of the people in Trump’s cabinet and their close friends and business allies. We need to focus: The most serious political fight on the planet — the need to end use of coal, oil and gas — is at the center of America’s current political crisis.

Gas Industry Execs Get A Very Bumpy Tour Of Cove Point

By Staff of We Are Cove Point - Activists made an impact on both sides of a tour of Dominion’s export terminal at Cove Point this morning, with a lockdown onto the tour bus as it tried to leave Washington, DC, and local residents greeting it with a large banner as it came into Cove Point, Maryland. Kiewit, the lead contractor in the construction of Dominion’s $3,8 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal at Cove Point, scheduled a tour of the Cove Point facility as the closing activity of the North American Gas Forum in Washington, DC.

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