Author Archives: Tom Shepstone

National Grid Shows Some Backbone in Fighting New York Energy Insanity

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Tom Shepstone
Natural Gas NOW

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National Grid doesn’t seem to fit the New York model. It is not surrendering to political correctness and pandering to the governor. It is fighting back.

That New York’s brain is infected with green political correctness that amounts to energy insanity is beyond doubt. The state government under the leadership of Governor Corruptocrat has chosen to deny pipeline after pipeline to claim the king of the hill spot in green virtue signaling, while companies such as National Grid and Con-Ed have been forced into moratoriums. Cuomo is playing a very dangerous game, in fact, depending on the Feds at FERC and in the courts to overrule him so he can claim the gold for global warming activism, while still getting the gas. But, he’s played too close to the edge. Real people are hurting and National Grid is fighting back, which isn’t polite under New York rules.

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Denial Is the Natural Order of Things in the Empire State

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Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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New York State is in a state of denial regarding its dependence on natural gas, refusing to admit the facts of life and committed to preaching its virtues.

Watching what’s happening in Lynbrook, New York reveals the Empire State’s most critical problem; its absolute denial of reality. Here’s what I mean, from a CBS News story Friday:

Forty business districts throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties are impacted by a National Grid moratorium on new gas hookups…

CBS2 demanded answers from the state and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and got action.

National Grid, which declared a moratorium on gas hook ups because an application for a new gas pipeline was rejected by the state in May, is now under the microscope. The state Department of Public Service is using the complaints to expand an investigation of the utility.

There, in a few words, are captured the essence of the foolishness that is New York. Don’t do anything meaningful to address the problem; initiate an exercise in denial by investigating one of the victims of your own short-sighted policies intended to demonstrate your superior virtues.

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Wall Street Journal Ignores the Relevant Facts on Methane Leaks

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Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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The Wall Street Journal just delivered what could be considered a hit piece on natural gas for methane leaks. It ignored both basic facts and progress made.

I stopped reading the Wall Street Journal long ago. It is, of course, a purely establishment news outlet. What most people don’t realize, though, is that its news pages are also reliably progressive (and I don’t mean that as a compliment) it their outlook. The editorial pages are thought to be conservative but any reader cannot but notice, over time, they’re only conservative with respect to extolling the positions of the up and coming gentry class.

And, the up and coming gentry class hates natural gas because they hope to get really, really rich on green eggs and scam. That’s how we get hit pieces such as the one the Wall Street Journal just ran saying methane leaks “Threaten the Clean Image of Natural Gas.”

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Dimock Pigs to Rigs Lawyers Lose Control of Dimock Client?

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Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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The Dimock pigs to rigs lawsuit continues to move backward for the attorneys who brought it. Ray Kemble, their supposed client, claims ignorance. Whoa!

“Curiouser and curiouser.” Ray Kemble, rough-cut hero, it often seems, of the fractivist movement everywhere but Susquehanna County, is now “basically placing all the blame” for the pigs to rigs lawsuit on hog farm suer Charlie Speer’s law firm, which represented Kemble in bringing it against Cabot after a settlement had already been made. That lawsuit was withdrawn on Speer’s own motion, of course, which ought to say something to anyone paying attention, but it was too late. Cabot said enough is enough and sued back. The result has been a scramble by Speer to find a way out of this pigpen he created. Ray Kemble may have just closed another gate, though.

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Already Operating Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline Prevails Again in Court

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Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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The Atlantic Sunrise pipeline just prevailed again in Federal court over a very well funded Sierra Club attempt to thwart future pipeline development.

The Atlantic Sunrise has been operating for months but its owners just won an academic case in Federal court that was orchestrated by the Sierra Club, which was trying to use the Atlantic Sunrise as leverage to stop future oil and gas development. The decision, which came from the D.C. District Court of Appeals (second-most important court in the land) was important on its merits, but the identity of defeated petitioners may be what was most interesting.

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Marcellus Shale Impact Fees Being Used to Save Lives

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Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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Marcellus Shale Impact Fees (Act 13 funds) are being used to train emergency service providers to save lives in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania.

Susquehanna County is using its Marcellus Shale Impact Fees to save lives. It’s investing some of the Act 13 money its received from gas drilling in the county to fund a First Responders Training Program. It’s a fabulous initiative; one designed to directly address the critical shortage of fire and ambulance volunteers that plagues so many rural areas.

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Society of Environmental Journalists Is About Anything But Journalism

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Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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The Society of Environmental Journalists isn’t about journalism. It’s about spreading the Green Gospel and achieving earthly salvation for the gentry class.

What is an environmental journalist? A journalist who writes about the environment? Or, an environmentalist peddling an environmental viewpoint? According to the Society of Environmental Journalists, the mission is “to strengthen the quality, reach and viability of journalism across all media to advance public understanding of environmental issues.” I think we can fairly conclude from this statement that it is the latter, which means it isn’t journalism at all. It is evangelization, which is just fine, but don’t call it journalism. Continue reading →

DRBC Water Dependence Was Greatly Exaggerated All Along!

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Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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DRBC water dependence claims have ranged from 15 to 22 million people over the years but the real number was always much lower and the DRBC has admitted it.

When the Delaware River Basin Commission was formed in 1961, the legislators creating it said this about dependence on DRBC water:

Whereas some twenty-two million people of the United States at present live and work in the region of the Delaware River Basin and its environs, and the government, employment, industry, and economic development of the entire region and the health, safety, and general welfare of its population are and will continue to be vitally affected by the use, conservation, management, and control of the water and related resources of the Delaware River Basin…

Some 57 years later and slightly less than a year ago the NRDC claimed it was “over 17 million people” for whom DRBC water was a vital source. And, six years ago, when I wrote here that it was closer to 12 million, the DRBC was still saying it DRBC water was relied upon by 15 million people. Now, we know they were lying all along; the Commission itself says DRBC water is used by only 13.3 million, some 39% of which is diverted to the New Jersey and New York water thieves outside the basin.

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