I
wanted to let you know that our FrackNation Facebook page has been attacked by
activists leading to two posts being removed and the page being locked for 24
hours.
As
you know I've been covering the Dimock Water Trial that is finally revealing
the truth about this scam - where two families are claiming an oil and gas
company have polluted their water. Well - their case is collapsing because they
have no evidence and in fact the evidence is emerging that the case is nothing
but an anti-fracking multi-million dollar bogus lawsuit.
I've
been the only reporter to be in the courtroom all through the trial and
revealing, on the FrackNation Facebook page, the ludicrous lies at the heart of
this case. This has infuriated anti-fracking activists who have started up a
concerted campaign flagging up my posts as "inappropriate".
This
has led Facebook to delete two damning posts that shows the fraud at the heart
of the lawsuit but most damagingly of all it has led to Facebook suspending the
account for 24 hours over the weekend. This meant I was prevented from posting
onto the page so you could not learn more about the case.
This
is serious - there is so much that needs to be known about this case that has
only emerged under oath in the courtroom.
I've
reported on the parent who alleged the gas company poisoned his children but
never bothered to take them to the doctor (but did find time to take them to
the media and trial lawyers for a lucrative lawsuit).
I've
also revealed how Dr Tony Ingraffea - the favorite scientist of the
anti-fracking movement - was caught lying about not being an activist and was
forced to admit under oath that he had no proof that Dimock's water was
polluted but fracking. Watch him run and hide behind a woman as I ask some
tough questions.
And
even better I was able to report that the plaintiffs' own lawyer admitted they
had "no scientific evidence" that fracking fluids had ever polluted
Dimock's water.
This
is why they have tried to shut down the FrackNation page and this is why I need
your help. I need you to go to the page and like and share every post about the
Dimock water trial and then I need you to forward the links to all your friends
so we build up a massive number of supporters for the page. This should help
balance the organized attack by anti-fracking activists against the page.
If
we don't fight back - they could succeed in having the page permanently
suspended and prevent me from letting the world know the truth about fracking
as the trial enters its final week.
So
please go to the FrackNation page and like and share the posts about the trail.
With your help the censorship stops here.
Thanks
Phelim
...
"The
study, published late last month, is entirely based on the debunked idea that
proximity to oil and gas development is negatively impacting public health.
It’s lead author, Dr. Anne Epstein, acknowledges she has been paid to give
anti-fracking lectures."
...
IMPORTANT:
Activists Are Trying to Stop this Page from Reporting the Truth about Fracking
I
need your help. As you can see, anti-fracking activists have targetted my
reports on the Dimock Water Trial and Facebook removed a recent report because
activists falsely claimed it "violated community standards." I was
even locked out of the FrackNation Facebook page for awhile.
I
am the only journalist reporting in detail about the Dimock Water lawsuit and
the misrepresentations and exaggerations of the plaintiffs. Finally, eight
years after the lies about Dimock started, the story is completely unravelling
when people are forced to testify under oath.
This
is infuriating. We can't allow the anti-fracking activists and Facebook to
censor the truth. So I need your help. Please like and comment and share my
reports on this page. Your actions will allow the Facebook algorithm to see
that the public wants / needs articles and videos such as these. Your
engagement will help protect the page from being closed down.
So
please, if you want the truth about fracking to reach the public and you want
to fight this bullying censorship, spread the word about the Dimock Water Trial
by sharing these articles.
Thanks
for your help.
-
Phelim
...
BREAKING
NEWS: Judge in Dimock Water Trial Says He Has “Grave” & “Significant"
Concerns About Key Aspects of the Case
Plaintiffs
in the Dimock Water Trial--two families alleging a gas company polluted their
water through fracking--suffered a major setback after the judge presiding over
the case expressed significant doubts about the veracity of some of the claims.
Judge
Martin Carlson made the comments after the plaintiffs rested their case
following six days of evidence. The Ely and Hubert families in Dimock,
Pennsylvania are suing Cabot Oil and Gas in a case that has become a cause
célèbre for anti-fracking activists. The alleged pollution in Dimock has been
described as the “Ground Zero” for fracking pollution. However, the case
suffered an early blow when the plaintiffs’ lawyer admitted in opening
arguments that they had no scientific proof of fracking fluids in the families’
water.
The
most serious blow came today when Cabot asked Judge Carlson to dismiss the case
and not send it to the jury, due to lack of evidence. After submissions,
Carlson, without the jury present, said he would defer a decision on the
dismissal, awaiting further information, but warned the plaintiffs’ lawyer he
had “grave concerns” about the veracity of claim that the Elys had suffered a
loss of value to their property, and he had “significant concerns” about claims
that any damage to their water could have been caused by gas drilling.
Judge
Carlson did not give any indication when he would give a final ruling on the
Cabot motion.
...
Tony
Ingraffea, Retired Cornell Professor and anti-fracking advocate tells court he
has "no proof" Dimock water polluted by oil and gas company.
In
an important development Ingraffea - the plaintiffs key witness in the high
profile trial has admitted there is no evidence to back up his theory.
Retired
professor Tony Ingraffea made the admission during a trial where the Ely and
Hubert families of Dimock Pennsylvania are suing Cabot oil and gas for
allegedly contaminating their water. The Dimock case is important because
activists say it is ground zero for fracking contamination and the area has
featured in the Gasland documentaries and hundreds of other activist events and
pieces of journalism.
Under
cross examination by a lawyer for Cabit Oil and Gas Professor Ingraffea was
asked:
"If
we follow your theory, the Gesford 3 S well is the leaking well and the well
gas migrates out of it over into the other well which is as you said, is
speculation - you don't have any direct proof of that - right?"
To
which Professor Ingraffea replied:
"Yes".
Ingraffea's
admission of no proof is the latest in a series of setbacks for the plaintiffs
in the case.
The
trial continues in Scranton Federal Courthouse
...
5
Reasons Dimock Plaintiff Scott Ely Is Probably Lying about His Water Being
Contaminated by Fracking
FRACKNATION·WEDNESDAY,
FEBRUARY 24, 2016
By
Phelim McAleer
The
Ely family in Dimock, Pennsylvania is suing an oil and gas company alleging
they contaminated their water well through fracking. Dimock has become a focal
point for anti-fracking activists with many calling it “Ground zero” for
pollution. Dimock and the Ely's have been featured in national and
international news reports and documentaries. Celebrities such as Mark Ruffalo,
Yoko Ono, and Susan Sarandon have visited the tiny community to sympathize.
But
yesterday in the first day of the trial, facts started to emerge that show the
truth is much different from the previously reported stories. Questioned under
oath, Scott Ely's claims look a lot less certain and he looks a lot less
credible. Below are five facts that emerged during the first day that show
Scott Ely may have been lying about his water being contaminated by fracking.
1.
What the Frack?
It's
bad when your own lawyer admits that there is no scientific evidence to backup
a central allegation of your case, but that’s what happened on the first day of
the trial. Scott Ely's lawyer stated
clearly:
“This
is not a case....about toxic materials ending up in the water. We do not have
proof of that. We don't have proof of that. This is not about fracking fluid
appearing in the water. Hydraulic fracturing materials, we don't have proof of
that.”
2.
Dirty All the Time
Instead
Scott Ely is claiming that Cabot Oil and Gas has made his beautiful, pure,
pristine Pennsylvania water undrinkable. He said they polluted it with methane
and made it dirty, brown, smelly, and
completely unusable when they started drilling in 2008. Except under cross
examination Mr Ely had to admit that prior to getting his new well drilled he
got his water from a spring at the house that was so dirty none of his family
would drink it. In fact he was forced to admit that it was so dirty that his
wife would only use bottled water for cooking. It was so bad he used bottled
water up until 2003.
3.
No Case(ing)
But
then Scott Ely got a water well drilled in 2003. The idea that this well
supplied pristine water until it was polluted by the evil oil and gas company
very quickly withered away under a few pointed questions. It turns out that
Ely's water well is 300 ft deep but is only lined for 40ft. After that it is
open to the earth, allowing clay and animals and anything else that comes out
of the ground to fall into the water. It seems he has no case and no casing on
his well.
4. Million Dollar Listing - PA
Mr.
Ely does not behave as if his water has been polluted and the health of his
wife and children put in peril. He told the jury that it has been a “nightmare”
having to travel 17 miles to a nearby town in a water tanker to bring drinkable
and usable water to his house. They were always short of water, he complained.
The family even had to share bathwater, he said. Most of us faced with such
hardship--unusable, undrinkable water that’s damaging our children’s health and
happiness--might give up. But not Scott Ely. Instead he and his wife decided to
build a $1m, 7000 sq ft, twenty-two bedroom house on the lot despite claiming
it had unusable, dirty, dangerous water. In short, their behavior was not the
behavior of people who believed their water was polluted.
5.
Dimock Time Machine
Scott
Ely told three different people that they started to notice the water smelling
and tasting bad in August 2008--and these were not just casual conversation.
Ely confirmed this start date in a hand written declaration to his lawyer, and
he repeated the claim to a hydro-geologist investigating the water. He even
told a doctor that the problems with his water started in July 2008. The
problem for his case is that Cabot did not start drilling the gas well he says
polluted his water until late Sept/early October 2008. So unless there was a
Dimock time warp, Scott Ely's water problems started before the fracking for
gas.
And
that’s just day one of the trial. Scott Ely's cross examination continues
today.
...
Filmmaker
Phelim McAleer has been using the FrackNation page to report on the Dimock
water trial – in which two families from smalltown Pennsylvania are trying to
sue an oil and gas company for millions of dollars, alleging that it polluted
their water with fracking fluid.
Thanks
to the families’ allegations – eagerly, unquestioningly repeated in the green
propaganda movies Gasland and Gasland 2 and frequently cited by activists like
Mark Ruffalo and Yoko Ono – Dimock is now synonymous with environmental
disaster. Not only have its faucets (taps to UK readers) been on shown on
screen to burst into flames when you set a match to them but aggrieved locals
have attested to the sickness the allegedly contaminated water has caused them,
even to the point where they “won’t even shower in it.”
Now
the case has finally come to trial, however, it is proving absolutely
disastrous to the fracktivists’ cause: none of the claims by the two families –
the Ely and the Hubert family – appear to be standing up.
Despite
claiming to have suffered neurological, gastrointestinal, and dermatological
damage from drinking the water, the families have had to admit they can produce
no evidence of this. Indeed, they never even visited a doctor, not even when
their children had supposedly been poisoned.
The
Ely family were so oddly unperturbed by the deadly toxic water beneath them
that they built a $1 million mansion on top of it.
Scott
Ely has not proved to be the most credible of witnesses:
Scott
had told three different people–a doctor, a hydrologist, and in a handwritten
statement to his own lawyer–that the water problems started in August 2008.
However, his lawyer has also told the court that they all accept drilling did
not start on nearby gas wells until late September/October 2008. So on the witness
stand, Scott suddenly remembered–eight years after the case started–that in
June/July 2008 he remembered a massive gas leak at a gas well that he was
claiming must have affected his water.
Nor
has Monica Ely:
She
testified that she tried “not to involve our kids with this.” Then the Cabot
lawyers pointed out and produced photos (see above) that showed far from
sheltering her children Ms Ely had in fact “brought them to press conferences,
rallies with people like [actor] Mark Ruffalo, taken them to the Tribeca Film
festival,” and had allowed them to be featured in the highly contentious
documentary Gasland. Monica Ely: no time to take her children to the doctor
even though she thought they were poisoned but plenty of time to take them to
rallies with actors and activists.
And
the expert witnesses haven’t been of much help either.
Under
skillful cross-examination, Professor Ingraffea was forced to admit that he’s
an anti-fracking and anti-fossil fuel “advocate.” He denied being an activist,
but his face fell when lawyers for Cabot asked to show the jury photographs of
him speaking in front of anti-fracking signs and participating in an Artists
Against Fracking press conference alongside Ruffalo, Lennon, and Ono.
Even
the lawyer for the families, Leslie Lewis, blurted out in open court that she
“wasn’t thrilled” that the photos existed.
Nor
has the judge been persuaded by the case that the fracking in Dimock has
damaged their property values. That’s because, since drilling started, their
property value has increased.
All
of this has naturally infuriated the powerful and well-funded, celebrity-backed
anti-fracking lobby which marshalled its forces over the weekend to try to get
the FrackNation page closed down. It did this by repeatedly flagging up
McAleer’s posts as “inappropriate.” Facebook responded by imposing a 24 hour
ban on the account.
In
response McAleer is now asking defenders of the truth to go to his Facebook
page and like and share his posts.
Every
time you do so, it is almost guaranteed that Yoko Ono will caterwaul like a
tortured Siamese, that Mark Ruffalo will burst his sphincter and Leo DiCaprio
will become so discombobulated he will wander forlornly into the woods in the
hope of being raped chastisingly by one of Mother Gaia’s grizzly bears.
Read
More Stories About:
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Government, Breitbart London, Tech, Mark Ruffalo, Phelim McAleer,
Pa.,FrackNation, Dimock, Ingraffea
