Natural Gas NOW Picks of the Week – July 21, 2018

Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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Natural Gas NOW readers pass along a lot of stuff every week about natural gas, fractivist antics, emissions, renewables, and other news relating to energy. As usual, emphasis is added.

What Do Climate Change Lawsuits Have In Common? Trial Lawyers!

Others are starting to notice what we observed some time ago; that trail lawyers are deeply involved in both climate change and fractivist political campaigns, the most auspicious being Fractivist Rasputin Jay Halfon, but also including Matt Pawa and several others. Here’s more from the Daily Caller:

The city of Baltimore announced Friday it sued more than two dozen oil and gas companies for damages allegedly brought about by man-made global warming.

It’s the 13th such lawsuit to be filed by state and local governments trying to sue fossil fuel companies over global warming. Baltimore, like the others, is trying to apply public nuisance lawsuits to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

But that’s not the only thing these suits have in common. Buried at the bottom of Baltimore’s press release on their new lawsuit is disclosure that the city will be “assisted by outside counsel from Sher Edling LLP.”

Sher Edling is one of several law firms behind the slew of climate lawsuits. Sher Edling is also working with six California cities and counties, as well as the state of Rhode Island, to sue fossil fuel companies over global warming…

However, Baltimore filed its lawsuit the day after a federal judge tossed out a similar climate lawsuit brought by New York City.

“Global warming and solutions thereto must be addressed by the two other branches of government,” U.S. District Judge John Keenan wrote in his opinion.

Keenan’s ruling echoes a ruling by a Northern California federal judge in June that struck down nearly identical lawsuits brought by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland against oil companies.

The beauty of these lawsuits is this; they are revealing the special interests behind fractism; greedy trial lawyers being prominent among them.

HuffPo’s Distortions and Wrongheadedness

The Huffington Post, in a recent article, up on an old theme we’ve frequently exposed here as charlatanism; the false claim that oil and gas outspends everyone else on lobbying. Our buddy Steve Heins nicely demolishes the latest such claim in a LinkedIn piece:

It’s harder and harder to find a trustworthy voice or balanced reporting these days. Like “global warming” itself, it all depends on who is choosing the words, the “relevant facts” and who is doing the math.

The HuffPo piece, “Fossil Fuels Industries Outspend Clean Energy Advocates on Climate Lobbying by 10 to 1,” basically suffers from cherry picking and manipulating annual information to match the climate change cliches, especially because the official lobbying spending does not include “mobilizing outside groups, getting op-eds published in media outlets, or directing public relations campaigns that may shape legislation.”

The worst distortion is Big Fossil Fuel spends “$2 Billion on lobbying,” when actually they spend approximately $130 million per year ($2 Billion divided by 15 years). On the other hand, Clean Energy reports spending only $13 million on lobbying annually (pie chart unclear), while the environmental NGO’s likely spend at least $2 Billion a year including their unreported lobbying efforts because of their not-for-profit status.

Ultimately, the best of intentions and the bad outcomes of wrong-headedness are not strangers to each other.

Well said, Steve! More here.

Sen. Lisa Baker Informs Maya She’s Wrong (About Pretty Much Information)

Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Povertkeeper a/k/a Riverkeeper recently wrote Pennsylvania State Senators to say Senator Lisa Bake’s bill to make the DRBC pay for any mineral rights it takes from Wayne County landowners via a fracking ban is both dangerous and uninformed. Baker was having none of it and responded with a wonderful letter to Maya setting her straight on several points. Here’s the whole thing:

Dear Ms. Van Rossum:

Contrary to the contentions contained in your recent letter to state Senators, the provisions of Senate Bill 1189 are neither dangerous” nor “uninformed.” It is striking that these accusatory words are used without illustration or substantiation. This proposal is the result of extensive research and consultation, and in my opinion, consistent with recent decisions on questions of eminent domain and with the grants of power to various entities.

As you point out, the focus of Senate Bill 1189 is appropriate and just compensation for landowners. However, I am afraid the ‘lack of correct interpretation” in this matter is on the part of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network.

To be clear, this is not a debate about whether or not the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) can make decisions impacting land use, water resources and property. Nor is it being suggested that the DRBC lacks the ability to enact regulations according to its established rules and processes.

Sen. Lisa Baker

Nowhere does this legislation restrict the DRBC’s ability to implement a ban on high volume hydraulic fracturing, or to take any action it deems warranted, with respect to water quality and quantity. The bill simply states that a ban is a taking. and appropriate and just compensation must be paid.

It is only fair to make this determination in advance of any final decision. If we wait and allow the courts to decide, the determination of a taking will almost certainly be made later — after a ban is instituted and landowners are harmed. It is the legislature’s right and duty to let citizens and the DRBC know now what the effect of the ban will be.

When there is a clash between competing public interests, it is appropriate for all branches of government to become involved in resolving them. While I commend efforts here and elsewhere to give greater meaning to the environmental rights amendment, its impact cannot be taken in isolation from other rights conferred upon citizens.

If my legislation does not succeed in the current dispute, litigation will almost surely commence raising the same issues. That will have the certain effect of increasing costs and extending the period of uncertainty. Your organization has every right to assert its interests and express its views. That you do so constantly is highly commendable. But I cannot agree with your assumptions and conclusions about the power and wisdom of the DRBC.

Sincerely.

Lisa Baker
Senator

Thank you, Lisa, for, once again, speaking up for justice on behalf of your constituents.

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