Environmental activists opposed to natural gas development and the innovative extraction techniques that make it possible fired their first salvo against President-elect Trump.
On Saturday, Nov. 19, the Delaware Riverkeeper network, a nonprofit group based in Bristol, Pa., joined forces with several allied organizations in New Jersey to stage a protest on the Calhoun Street bridge, which runs across the Delaware River from Trenton, N.J. to Morrisville, Pa. Other participating organizations included Environment New Jersey, the New Jersey Sierra Club and Clean Water Action.
The protest was organized in response to the election results and to Trump’s pledge to roll back environmental regulations, according to a news release from the Delaware River Keeper. The March to Defend the Delaware River was merely the “first action in a new campaign” to protect the Delaware River “from the threatened rollbacks of environmental protection laws promised by a Trump Administration and the newly elected House and senate leadership and to urge the moratorium on fracking be transformed into a permanent ban in order to prevent its removal.”
Tom Shepstone, who operates the Natural Gas Now blog, described the protest as a “fake parade” that attracted between 50 and 100 activists. The Delaware Riverkeeper markets itself as an organization devoted to maintaining a clean and healthy environment in and around the Delaware River Watershed, which runs along Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
In 2015, the the group received a $914,000 grant from the Philadelphia-based William Penn Foundation.
“We are coming together to defend our Delaware River from rollbacks that jeopardize its beauty and health, including ensuring the moratorium against fracking is forever protected by demanding that the [Delaware River Basin Commission] take immediate action to transform it into a permanent ban,” Maya van Rossum, the Riverkeeper’s leader, said in the release. “We are here today to make clear that we will not tolerate reduced environmental protections and will do what we have to [to] Defend Our Delaware River.”
While the demonstration on the bridge was focused on the perceived threats to Delaware River, Shepstone suspects that the Riverkeeper’s real goal is to put an end to natural gas development and the use of hydraulic fracturing (or fracking), a energy extraction technique that makes it possible to access natural gas deposits in the Marcellus Shale, a formation that runs through West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. The extraction process involves the injection of water, sand and other additives into rock formations to create small perforations that allow the natural gas to be released. A detailed description of the process from beginning to end is available at Live Science.
“The Delaware Riverkeeper is focused on preventing natural gas development anywhere and everywhere,” Shepstone said in a recent post.
The Riverkeeper has made every effort to block the proposed PennEast Pipeline, which would transport natural gas from Luzerne County, Pa., to Mercer County, N.J. Construction on the 36-inch-wide, 120-mile pipeline could begin in spring 2017 if the project gains approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
“This pipeline will not have even the slightest impact on the Delaware River,” Shepstone said in an interview. “This is really about stopping natural gas in the Marcellus from being brought to market. That’s the real goal.”
FERC has reportedly set a deadline of March 16, 2017, for a decision on authorizing the pipeline. Proponents of the project point to studies that show the pipeline would result in substantial savings for energy consumers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania while also creating new jobs.
“The Delaware Riverkeeper would not exist without the William Penn Foundation,” Shepstone says. “That $914,000 is spread out over a two-year period and it’s a lot of money. As a private charity, the William Penn Foundation should not be politicking, but it’s giving money to the Delaware Riverkeeper to do its bidding.”
In addition to the Haas family, which runs the William Penn Foundation, Shepstone also identified Rockefeller family foundations and Heinz Endowments as key players in the ongoing efforts to scuttle natural gas development.
“The people on that bridge are taking direction from left-wing coastal elites,” he says. “You are basically talking about three wealthy families that are driving all this.”
Kevin Mooney is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is an investigative reporter in Washington, D.C. who writes for several national publications. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
