Newsletter - Full Edition - April 2016

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Toward a Clean Energy Future!
You may have noticed that Marcellus Outreach Butler (MOB) is not just an anti-fracking group; it is also a pro-clean energy group.  A few years ago MOB held an informal gathering to discuss our future directions.  One of the topics was how people were always telling us: "We need this gas."  How do we respond to that?  So we began focusing our efforts and research on renewable energy as well as the dangers of fracking... and today we can state with confidence: We don't need this gas...
 
As part of the lead-up to the March for a Clean Energy Revolution in Philadelphia on Sunday, July 24, MOB is currently focusing much of its energies and programs on the clean energy/climate change theme.  On Apr. 13, MOB co-sponsored a screening of Josh Fox's latest film, HOW TO LET GO OF THE WORLD AND LOVE ALL THE THINGS CLIMATE CAN'T CHANGE.  And on Apr. 23, MOB presented Power Up with the SUN in Butler County. (See editorial below.)  A bus from Butler County will be going to the March for a Clean Energy Revolution, and the Go Green Festival happens in September (see Upcoming Events for details).

MOB is part of the vanguard of efforts propelling the planet toward a clean energy future, and we welcome you to be a part of it, too!
Powering Up With The Sun In Butler County
On Apr. 23, MOB hosted a solar energy presentation at the Vagabond Banquet Hall in Lyndora PA. The presenters were regional solar experts Greg Winks of Clean Energy Resources, LLC  and Eric Casteel of SolarCast, LLC.  Both speakers focused on solar energy as a clean, renewable and viable energy choice for Butler County and western Pennsylvania.
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"But how can that be?" you may well ask. "Butler County/western Pennsylvania doesn't get nearly enough sunshine for solar power to work here."
In answer to that statement, we give you Germany, which receives much less annual sunshine  than does western Pennsylvania, and yet has mounted one of the most ambitious and successful solar-energy programs in the world, via a combination of public support and political will. In fact, on one day in June 2014, Germany was able to meet 50% of its energy demand using solar energy,  because of its stunning rate of solar installation throughout the country. A year later, on July 25, 2015, it was able to meet 78% of energy demand through a combination of renewable sources, including solar, wind and hydropower. And with the technology improving all the time (e.g., adding graphene layers to solar panels actually allows the panels to generate energy in the rain...) and the cost constantly becoming more affordable, there will soon be no good reason not to install solar energy systems anywhere on the planet.

The United States is woefully behind Germany and other European countries in the use of solar energy and other renewables to meet our energy needs. In 2014, solar energy accounted for 6.9% of Germany's energy production; renewables accounted for 31%. Figures for the United States are 0.4% and 13.4%, respectively.

In the 3-yr. period from 2010-2013, federal energy subsidies for electricity-related renewable energy increased 54 percent, from $8.6 billion to $13.2 billion. Solar led the various renewables with almost a 5-fold increase in subsidy (both electricity-related and non-electricity related) from $1.1 billion to $5.3 billion. Total fossil fuel subsidies declined by 15 percent, from $4.0 billion to $3.4 billion. So it looks like the United States is at least heading in the right direction in terms of solar energy development, right?

Not quite. While Congress voted in December to extend tax credits for wind and solar that were set to expire at the end of 2016 through the end of the decade, these extensions had to be fought for rigorously by the renewable energy industry's lobbyists. Definitely not a strong "political will" component among our nation's leaders regarding renewables. By contrast, fossil-fuel subsidies, though reduced, are renewed automatically every year, no fight necessary. Our nation continues to be "all in" on fossil fuels.

Historically, the federal government had subsidized traditional fossil fuel-based energy technologies for more than 60 years, from 1916 through the 1970's, before it began supporting renewable energy. In cumulative dollar amounts, over the lifetimes of their respective subsidies, the oil, coal, gas and nuclear industries have received approximately $630 billion in U.S. government subsidies, while wind, solar, biofuels and other renewable sectors have received a total of roughly $50 billion in government investments. Given that low-carbon technologies are still working with an infrastructure built for a world powered by fossil fuels, and that combatting climate change requires a rapid shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, these subsidies for renewables need to be extended indefinitely and renewed automatically each year in order to meet the expressed goals of greenhouse gas reduction. In other words, we need to have at least as much commitment to renewables as we've had to fossil fuels for the past 100 years if we're serious about combatting climate change.

It's not just the federal government that needs to do everything it can to make sure the transition from fossil fuels to clean renewable energy is thorough and swift. State and local governments need to make it easy for homeowners to make the switch to clean renewables like solar. According to Mr. Winks and Mr. Casteel, PA's tax credits are "negligible" compared to those of surrounding states like NJ and MD. (See current statistics for PA's solar tax credit and rebate programs here.) 
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One local municipality that is certainly not making it easy for homeowners to make the transition to clean solar energy is Butler Township. Last fall, Butler Township enacted a Solar Energy Systems ordinance that places numerous unnecessary hurdles in the path of township residents wishing to switch to solar. To begin with, the ordinance states that "building-mounted systems are permitted to face any rear or side yard." Solar systems facing one's front yard are obviously not permitted. And if the front of one's house or property faces south, the preferred direction for optimum solar installation efficiency, this ordinance prohibits one from installing a solar energy system where it makes the most sense to put it.

Even a "lucky" Butler Township resident whose back yard faces south has to navigate an array of angle and height restrictions that could seriously limit the effectiveness of the energy system. All of this is to address what the township admittedly considers to be the "aesthetics" of solar installation. This is laughable from a township whose shale-gas drilling ordinance allows drilling companies to stick a dirty, noisy, stinky, toxic, climate-disrupting Marcellus shale well pad just about anywhere in Butler Township where there's room to stick one, including areas that are zoned residential... But clean renewable solar energy systems are apparently considered "ugly..."
These are the sorts of attitudes that must change and that must be challenged if we are to be serious about confronting the ravages of climate change. Research has shown that the need for a fossil-fuel "bridge" to a clean renewable energy future is a myth. The technology and methodology exists, right now, to make the change. Scientists and researchers have laid out the blueprint; what is needed now is for governmental leaders to aggressively implement the plan, and for "we the people" to demand that they do so. "When the people lead, the leaders follow."

Here in western Pennsylvania we face the additional psychological impediment of having been an integral part of the "proud history" of the Age of Fossil Fuels. We are and have been a major component of the bedrock upon which modern civilization has been built. Unfortunately, it has been discovered, whether or not we acknowledge it, that the "bedrock" is toxic on many levels. Beneath its shining veneer, our civilization has been built upon and powered by toxic substances, toxic processes, toxic employment and increasingly toxic consequences. We have come to a place where blind pride in our past achievements and blind insistence on "the way its always been" will not see us safely into the future. We can no longer accept the toxic trade-off of air, water and soil contamination and the compromising of our health, our communities and our environment in exchange for energy. We must be willing to move beyond fossil fuels and the increasingly extreme and costly (in terms of both money and health) methods of extracting them, and turn all our considerable manpower and intellectual resources toward allowing the sun, the wind and the tides to propel us forward into a clean renewable energy future. 

(For more information on or to volunteer for the "solarization of Butler County," contact Greg Winks: greg@clean-energy-resources.com or 412-901-6766.)   


​PAF Opposes Clean Power Plan
Pennsylvanians Against Fracking (PAF), of which MOB is a member, has issued a statement opposing the Obama Administration's Clean Power Plan, saying that it not only lacks sufficiently aggressive measures for the "swift and just transition to 100% renewable energy," but it also "may well do far more harm than good," for the following reasons:
  1. It places natural gas in the "clean energy" category.  Methane is a short-lived but very powerful greenhouse gas. In the all-important 20-year time scale, it is 86 times more efficient at heating the atmosphere than is carbon dioxide. 
  2. The plan guarantees increased reliance on natural gas at a time when climate scientists are telling us to leave 80% of all fossil fuels in the ground.
  3. It doesn’t limit how much a state can rely on natural gas to meet its target.  A state choosing to meet its target by relying 100% on natural gas would not be out of compliance with the terms of the Clean Power Plan.
  4. The plan institutionalizes and enables pollution.  The public is absorbing the costs of harmful health impacts, disease, drinking water contamination, and environmental degradation that accompanies unconventional natural gas development.
  5. The Clean Power Plan means we can kiss all hope of a fracking moratorium or ban goodbye.  Converting from coal to natural gas will require unprecedented investment in natural gas infrastructure and regulatory oversight -- the kind of investment you don’t make in a "temporary bridge fuel."  If the Clean Power Plan is not changed to remove natural gas as an alternative to coal, we will continue to see more power plants, more pipelines, more compressor stations, and more wells. The thing we will never see is a moratorium or a ban on fracking.

​Fracking in the News 04-16

​As usual, our list of news items is extensive.  There is a LOT GOING ON!  Once again, take your time, peruse the categories, find those topics that most interest you and read them first.  Then take note of those you might want to come back to later.  The MOB newsletter is not meant to be read in one sitting!  But if you really want to, be our guest!!!

​Local/State/Regional Actions


Another pipeline tree-cutting travesty was in the news this past month, this time closer to home, in Huntingdon County, near Altoona.  A Huntingdon County family lost their battle to put off tree-clearing for Sunoco’s Mariner East 2 pipeline while their case was still on appeal. Huntingdon County Common Pleas Judge George Zanic ordered Ellen Gerhart to allow tree clearing on about three acres of her property to make way for two 24-inch natural gas liquids pipelines that will carry ethane, propane and butane from the Marcellus Shale fields in Ohio and Pennsylvania to Marcus Hook, Delaware County. Most of the ethane will be for export to make plastics. The tree-cutting began Tuesday morning, Mar. 29. Judge Zanic went so far as to threaten a potential six month prison sentence to anyone who disobeyed his order.  The Gerharts are among dozens of landowners across the state who are fighting eminent domain battles with Sunoco over the Mariner East 2. So far most have lost their cases at the county level.  The Gerharts say the pipeline will destroy their forested wetland, which, when they bought the land in 1982, they agreed to make a part of the state’s Forest Stewardship program, which gives tax breaks in exchange for not developing the land.  “It’s a horrible feeling to have people come in and act like they own the place and trample on places you’ve been trying to preserve your whole life,” said Elise Gerhart.

As the pipeline company's chainsaws approached, Elise Gerhart, 29, daughter of Stephen and Ellen Gerhart, said she didn’t know what else to do, so she climbed a tree to keep the crews away from at least one tree.  “We’ve been forced to do this because the government isn’t protecting us,” Gerhart said, wearing a helmet and sitting on a platform wedged between branches of the tree, 40 feet in the air. “These agencies aren’t doing their job to protect the people and the environment.”  Elise's mother, Ellen, was arrested as the tree-sit stretched into its third day.  "This is wrong, and you have to stand up to it,” she said.

State agencies are complicit with the pipeline tree-cutting travesty. The Public Utility Commission granted Sunoco the power of eminent domain without just compensation or public need. Another agency, the Department of Environmental Protection, has declined to intervene, even though Sunoco has not obtained water-crossing and soil erosion permits. A private consulting company hired by the Gerharts found that Sunoco reported just half the streams and only one-seventh of the wetlands on their property.

Elise Gerhart returned to her tree-platform on Apr. 7 when she heard the sounds of chainsaws on her property.  Sunoco's work crews had returned unannounced to finish their tree-cutting.  The work was to be completed by Mar. 31 by federal law in order to protect the endangered Indiana bat.  Sunoco secured an arrangement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to finish their tree-cutting after the deadline, but did not inform the Gerharts of their plans.  Meanwhile, according to StateImpact PA, Philadelphia-area politicians intent on making their city the "Houston of the East" are eager for these pipelines to be built.

Read Stephen Gerhart's letter to Judge George Zanic here.

Read Michael Bagdes-Canning's blog about pipelines, tree-cutting and eminent domain here.

​On Mar. 1, guarded by heavily armed U.S. marshals, a Constitution Pipeline tree crew began felling trees in the Holleran family’s maple sugaring stand Tuesday while upset landowners and protesters looked on.  On Mar. 11, after being in such a big hurry to destroy the Hollerans' maple sugaring business, even though the New York segment of the Constitution pipeline has yet to be approved, the Williams Companies responsible for the destruction decided to halt their tree-cutting activities for six months.  With a little common sense, the Hollerans' family business could have been spared for at least another year.  Pennsylvanians Against Fracking has sent a letter to Governor Wolf calling upon his administration to halt tree-cutting for unapproved pipelines. 

UPDATE: On Apr. 22, Earth Day,  New York's DEC officials rejected the permit application for the Constitution pipeline, citing damage the project would do to water supplies along the pipeline route.  
An interfaith group of religious organizations held a rally at the state Capitol Monday, calling on Governor Tom Wolf to halt natural gas development. About 50 people attended the event and asked the governor for what they called a “moral-torium” on unconventional gas development and related infrastructure, such as pipelines.  “We are calling on our legislators to listen to science and protect public health,” says Rev. Dr. Leah Schade of the United in Christ Lutheran Church in Lewisburg. “This is one area where science and religion are actually in agreement.”
The energy company that wants to build a natural gas-fired power plant in Elizabeth Township has called the proposed site a “vast area ... that is providing absolutely no benefit.” But Krissy Kasserman, the Youghiogheny Riverkeeper, claims the property does provide benefit: "It’s located adjacent to the Youghiogheny River, the Great Allegheny Passage and the Dravo Cemetery campground, which serves paddlers and cyclists. Portions are wooded, portions are open and grassy -- providing habitat and a quiet experience for residents and visitors..."
The fight over the fate of the Finger Lakes received national attention on Mar. 7 when best-selling author, environmentalist and founder of 350.org, Bill McKibben, joined the opposition. McKibben, 55, was arrested along with 56 area residents as part of an ongoing civil disobedience campaign against proposed gas storage in Seneca Lake’s abandoned salt caverns.
As this New York Times article notes, the Seneca Lake actions are part of a wave of actions across the nation that combines traditional not-in-my-backyard protests against fossil-fuel projects with an overarching concern about climate change.
Meanwhile, in Cleveland, Tish O'Dell, co-founder of the grass-roots organization MADION (Mothers Against Drilling in Our Neighborhoods), asks the poignant question: "Why is it that the only people working so hard to convince us fracking is safe are those who financially or politically benefit from fracking?"

National Actions

Pancakes Not Pipelines: Megan Holleran was arrested at the FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) building in Washington DC on March 24 after trees at her family's maple syrup farm were cut down for a pipeline that FERC approved (and after having served pancakes and maple syrup to employees of FERC...)
​A bill to study and regulate fracking in Florida is stalled and may be dead; the Senate Appropriations Committee voted down (10-9) the fracking bill Thursday after overwhelming public opposition.
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Members of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network and Movement Rights stand with Kandi Mossett (third from right) outside of a ‘man-camp’ in Williston, North Dakota. Photo credit: Emily Arasim
A story about the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network and their work in North Dakota.
An activist with Rising Tide Vermont recently sat suspended on a tree platform 30 feet above the ground, preventing the tree from being cut down and blocking the right of way for pipeline construction.
In a decision that stunned supporters and critics alike, federal regulators on Mar. 11 rejected plans for a massive liquefied natural gas export terminal in Coos Bay OR, saying applicants had not demonstrated any need for the facility.
Recently, a New Mexico community stood up to the fossil fuel industry – and won. 
A local timber-frame builder in Ashfield, Massachusetts, has constructed a replica of Henry David Thoreau's Walden Pond cabin directly in the path of a proposed Kinder Morgan fracked gas pipeline.
Kinder Morgan, the largest energy infrastructure company in North America, announced in late March that it has suspended construction of a $1 billion pipeline project that would pump gasoline and diesel fuel across the Southeastern United States. The decision is being hailed as a victory by an unlikely coalition of Republican legislators, private property owners and environmental organizations.  The announcement came the same day Georgia state lawmakers sent a bill to the state's governor that would place a moratorium on the 360-mile pipeline's construction until 2017.
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Defenders of Land, Water and Climate Take Over Federal Oil Lease Sale at the New Orleans Superdome. Photo by Indigenous Environmental Network
On March 23, hundreds of climate and social justice activists occupied the Superdome in New Orleans in a mass protest calling to halt the auctioning of 43 million acres of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico.  The auction still took place, but with a low turnout, likely portending a slowdown in the drilling business in the years ahead. 
In a move many are hailing as a "turning point" in the climate fight, 20 state Attorneys General on March 29 launched an unprecedented, multi-state effort to investigate and prosecute the "high-funded and morally vacant forces" that have stymied attempts to combat global warming, starting with holding ExxonMobil and other industry giants accountable for fraud and suppression of key climate science.

Global Actions
The Brazilian government had sold a large parcel of indigenous land in the Amazon’s Juruá Valley to oil and gas companies. But a court recently ruled against the sale citing social and environmental risks such as damage to local ecosystems and the daily life of communities. 

​Incidents & Accidents 

The air around Aliso Canyon has been declared safe. So why are families still suffering?
Another court victory for a landowner harmed by oil and gas in their backyard.
A third of all modern hydrocarbon tank accidents are associated with lightning. Ironically, the burning of fossil fuels that has led to anthropogenic climate change during this last century, might also increase the frequency of lightning storms.
On Apr. 6, Apache Oil experienced a natural gas leak at one of its operated wells near Mentone, TX. More than 200 people were evacuated from the man camp and a couple of homes nearby. 
Facing a six-year barrage of increasingly large earthquakes, Oklahoma regulators are effectively ordering the state’s powerful oil-and-gas industry to substantially cut back the underground disposal of industry wastes that have caused the tremors across the state.

 if a bill currently making its way through Colorado’s state legislature becomes reality, Coloradans harmed by quakes linked to fracking may be able to sue the frackers.

A groundbreaking study published Mar. 29 in Seismological Research Letters has demonstrated a link between, not just wastewater injection and earthquakes, but between hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) for oil/gas and earthquakes. 

​Climate Chaos

One of the world's biggest energy companies has been caught out in what may be the biggest ever climate scandal, writes Bill McKibben. Way back in the 1980s ExxonMobil knew of the 'potentially catastrophic' and 'irreversible' effects of increasing fossil fuel consumption, but chose to cover up the findings, spread misinformation on climate change, and go for high carbon energy sources.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has ruled Exxon Mobil Corp must include a climate change resolution on its annual shareholder proxy, a defeat for the world's largest publicly traded oil producer, which had argued it already provides adequate carbon disclosures.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have spiked more in the period from February 2015 to February 2016 than in any other comparable period dating back to 1959, according to a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth System Research Laboratory.

An influential group of scientists led by James Hansen, the former NASA scientist often credited with having drawn the first major attention to climate change in 1988 congressional testimony, has published a dire climate study that suggests the impact of global warming will be quicker and more catastrophic than generally envisioned.
Despite its clean-burning reputation, a study released last year suggests that fueling transport trucks with natural gas could actually worsen their climate impact. 

Global warming happens in constant, silent interactions in the atmosphere, where the molecular structure of certain gases traps heat that would otherwise radiate back out to space.  And molecule for molecule, unburned methane is much, much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.

A new study from scientists in the Environmental Defense Fund’s Oil and Gas program examined the most common sites for methane leaks at oil and gas pads nationwide.  A team of researchers partnered with Gas Leaks Inc., a company that uses infrared technology to inspect well pads, to fly a helicopter over thousands of pads in seven regions in the United States.  In total, the researchers flew over 8,000 pads in areas saturated by drilling, including North Dakota’s Bakken Shale and the Marcellus Shale in Southwestern Pennsylvania.  Results of the study, accepted Apr. 5 in the Environmental Science and Technology journal, show that 90 percent of leaks from nearly 500 sources sprung from the vents and hatches, or doors, on gas tanks.  The leaks were not a problem caused by old age, as emissions were more likely to be detected at newer wells. According to researchers, this is a clear indication that control systems already in place to prevent leaks are not up to par.  (NOTE: MOB promotes a ban on fracking, not better technology, inspections of or regulations for fracking.)
Two looming trade deals, if passed by Congress, would newly empower 45 of the world’s 50 largest corporate climate polluters to “sue” governments in private tribunals over policies that keep fossil fuels in the ground, thus undermining fights against fossil fuels from coast to coast.

If you dig deep enough into the Earth's climate change archives, you hear about the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM.  That was a time period, about 56 million years ago, when something mysterious happened — there are many ideas as to what — that suddenly caused concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to spike, far higher than they are right now.  New research suggests that even the drama of the PETM falls short of our current period in at least one key respect: We're putting carbon into the atmosphere at an even faster rate than happened back then.

​Shale Health

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At a news conference on Mar. 2, several speakers cited a new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives that indicates PA's state-required setbacks between hydraulically fractured gas wells and homes may leave residents, school children and the public vulnerable to explosions, heat, toxic gas clouds and air pollution.  The study concluded that larger setback distances and additional pollution controls on well operations are necessary to protect public health.

Health care professionals want to create a statewide registry to record risks they said are associated with hydraulic fracturing. The registry would document symptoms from those living near natural gas well pads and compressor stations.

A state registry and advisory panel to track health-related data out of the Marcellus Shale industry have all but tanked.

With regard to shale-gas drilling, a Peters Twp. physician asks: "What do we value more: health or money?"
Hundreds of residents in the Porter Ranch community of Los Angeles are reporting new illnesses after the Aliso Canyon gas leak was sealed and they were told it was safe to return.

A new study from the University of Missouri has reported high levels of endocrine disrupting chemicals in the surface water near a fracking wastewater disposal facility in West Virginia, raising concerns that similar cases may be occurring nationwide, given the country’s 36,000 fracking disposal sites.

Dr. Chris Kassotis discusses his recently published research demonstrating increased endocrine disrupting activity in surface and ground water near fracking wastewater spill sites, 

Volunteers say an equestrian centre, which borders the controversial Horse Hill drilling site near Horley, UK, has been "ruined,"  and they have growing fears for the health of animals there, as well as their own health.
The Labor Department plans to announce on Thursday new rules that sharply reduce workplace exposure to silica, a potentially deadly mineral found in materials commonly used in construction and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. (NOTE: Silica sand for fracking is currently being stored and transported to and from the railyard on the south side of Butler city, as well as various other locations throughout Butler County.)
Shale Research
In a single year, fracking wells across the country released at least 5.3 billion pounds of the potent greenhouse gas methane, as much global warming pollution as 22 coal-fired power plants.  The statistic is one of many in a new study by Environment America Research & Policy Center that quantifies the environmental harm caused by more 137,000 fracking wells permitted since 2005.

A case study by Stanford researchers in a small Wyoming town reveals that practices common in the fracking industry may have widespread impacts on drinking water resources.

Following recent news that California’s fracking industry will be “repurposing” its toxic wastewater to meet the needs of an agricultural industry driven desperate by the drought, a timely new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives reveals that fracking wastewater is not just a source of dangerous petrochemicals but also a highly toxic form of radioactive waste.
Shale Economics
On Mar. 23, descendants of John D. Rockefeller sold their Exxon Mobil Corp. stock and plan to dump all other fossil-fuel investments in the latest move against the industry that made their fortune.  The Rockefeller Family Fund concluded there’s “no sane rationale” for companies to explore for oil as governments contemplate cracking down on carbon emissions, and singled out Exxon for “morally reprehensible conduct” for keeping hidden its knowledge of fossil fuels and global warming for decades.
 
Last month, Rex Energy Corp. secured another joint venture to hold acreage in w. Pennsylvania and Ohio.
 
On Mar. 9, the first international-bound ethane shipment, 27.5 million cubic feet of ethane extracted from the Marcellus Shale in western Pennsylvania, headed to Europe.  Part of the ethane came from Range Resources Corp. shale gas and was transported to Marcus Hook via the Sunoco Logistics Mariner East pipeline.

For years, the pipeline partnerships that kept America’s shale oil and natural gas flowing were the darlings of the energy investment world, thanks to their high payouts and dependable, long-term contracts.  Not anymore.

Bond markets are no longer confident that even large oil and gas companies are creditworthy.

The oil sands are downsizing. Alberta's Big Oil CEOs are talking to environmentalists. And proposed oil pipelines are in serious trouble.  "At today's prices, the oil sands are not commercially viable." 
​Shale and the Law
U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin of the Federal District Court in Eugene, Oregon, has decided in favor of 21 young plaintiffs in their landmark constitutional climate change case against the federal government. Judge Coffin ruled on Apr. 8 against the motion to dismiss brought by the fossil fuel industry and federal government.

This is old news for those who follow these stories closely, but since our last newsletter, a little over a month ago, a Pennsylvania jury has handed down a $4.24 million verdict in a lawsuit centering on water contamination from negligent shale gas drilling by Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. in Dimock, PA.
A day later, the story broke that Cabot Oil and Gas was paying an $11,000 settlement to the Susquehanna River Basin Commission for commencing gas drilling operations before it received permission to do so. Last year the company paid a $50,000 to the commission for a similar infraction.

Last month, Delaware Riverkeeper sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), alleging bias and corruption in pipeline cases.

A Harrisburg Patriot-News article goes into more detail re: FERC, pipelines and the lawsuit.

The PA Supreme Court is hearing arguments on four remaining issues in the Act 13 Robinson Twp. v. Commonwealth case, one of which is the issue of eminent domain and the question of whether or not shale-gas drilling is a "public utility." "It's problematic if the end result benefits are private, not public," said Chief Justice Thomas Saylor.

The Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Justice are leading an investigation into natural gas processing practices conducted by MarkWest Liberty Midstream, LLC at an undisclosed location in Washington County, PA.
A new non-profit group launched last month in Alberta, Canada, is aiming to put oil sands workers back to work in the renewable energy sector and is calling on the Alberta government for support. 

Ideology, opportunity, and economics—a combination of factors pushing people out of extractive industries and into cleaner alternatives around the world.

A study published in February forecasts that sales of electric vehicles will hit 41 million by 2040, representing 35% of new light duty vehicle sales. 
 
Improved technology and falling costs are moving electric car sales into the fast lane.  China is leading the EV (electric vehicle)charge with its plans for 5 million plug-in vehicles by 2020. 

The main claim used to justify nuclear power is that it's the only low carbon power source that can supply "reliable, baseload electricity."  But not only can renewables supply baseload power, they can do something far more valuable: supply power flexibly according to demand.  

Tesla charging stations outnumber gas stations in Manhattan by almost 3-1.
Renewable energy investment set a new world record in 2015, with emerging economies led by China topping the investment of developed nations for the first time, according to a United Nations-backed report unveiled Mar. 24.

The Cochin International Airport in India that is now entirely powered by solar energy and pays nothing for electricity.

In Wisconsin, where state regulators and utilities have been resistant to renewable energy, rural cooperatives are making major investments in solar power.

Many U.S. cities have taken the lead on sustainability efforts, particularly when it comes to adopting renewable energy. Already, at least 13 U.S. cities—including San Diego; San Francisco; Burlington, Vermont; and Aspen, Colorado—have committed to 100 percent clean energy.

100% solar-powered buses have arrived in London.   The zero-carbon vehicle was designed and developed by China’s BYD company.  

Two recent federal government reports underscore not only the continued rapid growth of renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, wind) in the electric power sector but also the ongoing failure of government forecasts to accurately anticipate and predict that growth.
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What was once North America's largest coal-fired power plant is now to be re-purposed for a 44-MW solar farm as part of Canada's larger effort to replace coal with renewable sources

A growing worldwide shift to renewable energy has played a “critical role” in stalling global carbon emissions.

Meet Fiddler, the first smart-connected wind energy source for the modern home.  "It’s beautiful, modular, quiet, and ready to save people money with 100% clean energy.” 

Some world leaders, especially in developing countries like India, have long said it’s hard to reduce the emissions that are warming the planet because they need to use relatively inexpensive — but highly carbon-intensive — fuels like coal to keep energy affordable. That argument is losing its salience as the cost of renewable energy sources like wind and solar continues to fall.

Sixty-four major American cities are now home to almost as much solar capacity as the entire country had installed at the end of the 2010, according to a new analysis, which ranks America’s major cities for their solar power.  Cities outside the nation’s Sun Belt ranked in the top 20 include Newark, New Jersey, New York and Washington, DC.  "The polluters can’t change the fact that solar power makes sense for our climate, our health and our wallets.” ​

Upcoming Events

The March for a Clean Energy Revolution happens on Sunday, July 24 in Philadelphia, home of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, on the eve of the Democratic National Convention. The theme is to declare our independence from fossil fuels so we can be free to enjoy a healthy planet and healthy communities!  Come join the march!  MOB will have at least one bus leaving the Butler area early on the 24th for Philadelphia.  If you are interested, contact Meadow Meeder (724-816-4295) or Michael Bagdes-Canning (mbagdes@gmail.com) and ask for details.
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​Fossil-Free Energy Fair is now the Go Green Festival!  We've updated our name in an effort to share even more "green" living options.  Click here to go to the Go Green Festival website!  And make plans to attend the fourth annual Go Green Festival plus Electric Car Show and Cruise! -- Sept. 10, 2016!
Ongoing: Bird-dogging Governor Wolf!
Bird-dogging is a tactic that gets candidates and politicians listening and paying attention.  It has nothing to do with animals and everything to do with grassroots power in action. To bird-dog is to “observe, follow, monitor and/or seek out with persistent attention.”   When NY Gov Cuomo banned fracking, he came out of his office and a host of anti-frackers were there with Thank You signs.  Cuomo said to them: "Everywhere I went I heard you!"  This is what the PA movement needs to be doing. We can't allow Gov. Wolf to go anywhere without someone from the movement being there to demand that he Ban Fracking.  Information about Gov. Wolf's scheduled public appearances is usually posted on the PA Against Fracking website, or it can be found on the governor's website.  If you are interested in bird-dogging, contact MOB and ask to receive information re: bird-dogging events.  These can sometimes be fairly spur-of-the-moment, but definitely worth pursuing!  ​
The Woodlands
The people of Connoquenessing's Woodlands still need you.  Please donate what you can to help supply them with fresh water.
Please also consider a donation to
Marcellus Outreach Butler!