Dealing with the anti- natural gas crowd reminds me of the game Wac-A-Mole.  They pop up to cry wolf about the latest misinformation spreading on the internet, and when the facts come out the little Josh Fox emulators drop back in the hole only to resurface with the latest battle cry or self-perceived ‘eureka’ moment.  With Dimock’s water deemed safe multiple times by the EPA, DEP, etc., the facts contradicting their other claims against natural gas, and all the great benefits realized…

The Town Board of the Town of Callicoon, New York, Sullivan County held a public hearing last week on their draft Town of Callicoon Comprehensive Plan.  We’ve seen a few comprehensive plans recently that were meant to do little more than lay the groundwork for zoning out natural gas development, leading to unintended consequences, but this draft plan, while it hardly gives a carte blanche approval of it, is actually open to natural gas exploration in Callicoon.  Unsurprisingly, the…

A few weeks back my wife called to say a helicopter had earlier landed in our neighbor’s backyard. This would have been unusual anywhere, of course — but especially so in a residential area of Honesdale. Being nosy neighbors, we crossed the street to find out what happened.

As it turns out, according to our neighbor, his unexpected drop-in guests were from Duke University, of all places — and were apparently in the area to do some “research” on natural gas. My neighbor, who is…

Sue Mickley says she gets annoyed when people say they don’t want their drinking water ruined by natural gas development even though there has never been a documented case of drinking water contamination due to hydraulic fracturing. Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator, in fact has said “In no case have we made a definitive determination that the fracking process has caused chemicals to enter groundwater.”

They also don’t seem to understand the aquifer is not one body of water underground,…

No one ever accused Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secreatary Mike Kancer of being a cuddly fuzz-ball, but he’s hardly someone you’d expect a Senior Attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), where they spend nearly $100 million annually fighting everybody, to run away from, either. Yet, the mere compilation by Krancer, of a set of compelling facts disputing an NRDC report, caused NRDC’s Kate Sindling, normally a firebrand given to all sorts of…