Yesterday Chesapeake settled a class action lawsuit challenging the company for improperly deducting post-production and transport fees from gas royalties. According to the Daily Review, Chesapeake has agreed to fork over $7.5 million. The lawsuit, filed electronically earlier in the day, named 14 plaintiffs from Pennsylvania and New York as representatives of the “class”. The plaintiffs claim that post-production fees were deducted from their royalty payments despite terms in their leases … [Read more...] about Chesapeake Settles over Royalty Dispute

The 4th of July is all about Freedom: the huge tea party in Boston Harbor that slaked nobody's thirst but instead got folks riled enough to say "enough!". And in small towns - at least here in upstate NY and the northern tier of PA - people take their 4th of July celebrations to heart. Just about every town has fireworks, a carnival down at the Legion field, and a parade down Main Street. Small town 4th of July parades are great fun. The parade committee chooses a theme and neighbors get … [Read more...] about No Freedom this Independence Day

  There seems to be a lot of tossing about of the T-word, lately... what with TransCanada trying to label protesters as terrorists. Now people who live in Tennessee and have water that comes out of their faucet looking like this (to the left: water from Horseheads, NY) Or like this (on right, Dimock, PA) might want to think twice before calling in a complaint to the the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC). Last month Sherwin Smith, deputy director ot … [Read more...] about Tennessee Environmental Official Equates Citizen Concerns about Water Quality to “Terrorism”

In an effort to halt protest against Keystone XL pipeline, TransCanada corporation has taken to labeling protesters as "terrorists". In particular, they are targeting Nebraska citizens who have conducted peaceful, nonviolent protests - going so far as to hold "educational" sessions with local law enforcement on what the foreign corporation perceives as "terrorist threats". Let me repeat: a foreign corporation, that has used eminent domain to take land from ranchers (in TX and other places) is … [Read more...] about TransCanada labels protesters “terrorists”

Can blood tests show the impacts of gas and oil drilling? That’s a question one Colorado doctor hopes to answer. Dr. John Hughes, of Aspen Integrative Medicine recently tested the blood of several Carbondale residents, according to a recent article in the Aspen Daily News. He tested ten people for a range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene – compounds found in air samples in many drilling areas. His preliminary results found low levels … [Read more...] about Colorado Doctor Uses Biomonitoring to Show Drilling Impacts

One thing you can be certain of if you're living next to a gas well: dust. The photo (provided from a resident of northeast PA) shows a fracking operation near a home. There's dust from trucks coming and going all hours of the day or night, dust from the drill rig, and dust from the frack job. Some of this is just plain old ground up soil, but frack sand is special. It's not dirt; it's tiny silica crystals - tiny sharp crystals just the right size for breathing in and lodging into the … [Read more...] about Frack Sand - coming to a railroad near you?

On March 18, twelve protesters were arrested for peacefully blockading Inergy's salt cavern natural gas/propane storage facility and compressor station in the tiny town of Reading, NY. Three of the protesters arraigned on April 18 - for charges of trespassing- refused to pay their fines and were sentenced to fifteen days in jail. One of those, Sandra Steingraber, made use of her time to write a series of missives, "Letters from the Chemung County Jail". Limited to scraps of paper and a pencil … [Read more...] about Sandra Steingraber’s “Letters from Chemung County Jail”

What happens when agriculture and drilling collide? Here's the links to a four-part series that examines some of the impacts. The original articles showed up in NOFA-NY's bi-monthly New York Organic News last year. Part 1: Shale Gas Drilling Divides Pennsylvania's Organic Community (and others) Part 2: Losing Dairy to Drilling. Part 3: Impacts on Crops. Part 4: Perception and Food Safety Turning our rural landscape into industrialized zones just to mine a few year's worth of dinosaur … [Read more...] about Don’t Frack the Farm