Harveys Lake citizens hear about drilling ordinance
Law would protect rights to fresh drinking water and preserve eco-systems from gas drilling.
HARVEYS LAKE – Residents of Harveys Lake borough, adjacent to the largest natural lake in Pennsylvania of the same name, met Saturday to hear about a possible self-governing ordinance which would protect the municipality from possible problems caused by natural gas drilling.
The ordinance, written by the Community Environment Legal Defense Fund was given to the borough council in late summer with the request for a public meeting to be held for an open discussion of the ordinance.
Last month, the request was left dangling with a tie vote and a mayor who did not offer to break the tie. Residents, visibly upset, arranged for their own meeting to get the information out and ask residents to help put pressure on the council to schedule and hold a special public meeting.
Ben Price, program director of the CELDF, came in to help answer questions from a packed audience.
“What can communities do, to use their local government to achieve the ends they want?” Price said. “To protect the community and to be sure they can preserve it and they can create the kind of community they want to live in and pass on to their children and grandchildren.”
With grim faces, residents listened when Price explained the gas industry has many exemptions in its favor including the Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act, the Superfund Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. These exemptions seem to override any laws local municipalities could enact to prohibit the gas industry, Price said.
The 1984 Gas Act basically said local municipalities have no control over what the corporations do, said Neil Turner, Harveys Lake resident and co-organizer of the meeting.
Price said the best municipalities can do is regulate gas drilling through zoning laws. He said zoning laws can limit certain activities in certain areas of a municipality, on the surface. But he said nothing regulates the horizontal drilling that gas companies are now performing.
“You are never allowed to say no, in the zoning laws, to a legal permitted use of land,” Price said. “How do you know it is legal? Because they issue permits. A permit is a license to engage in an activity. What activity? Hydrofracking. An activity which has been exempt from the protection of federal and state laws.”
The Harveys Lake community is in a good position, Turner said, as a nearby Noxen Township well came up dry and EnCana Oil and Gas U.S.A. pulled out of Luzerne County after exploration results at two wells did not yield large amounts of natural gas.
The ordinance Price presented would establish a Bill of Rights for borough residents banning “commercial extraction of Marcellus Shale natural gas with Harveys Lake borough because that extraction cannot be achieved without violating the rights of residents and communities or endangering their health, safety and welfare.”
The ordinance also nullifies state laws, permits, and other authorizations which interfere with the rights secured by the ordinance.
The four-page ordinance claims residents have inalienable and fundamental rights to access, consume and preserve water drawn from the natural water sources within the borough and protect the natural ecosystems of the community.
Harveys Lake is a large watershed area which feeds into the Ceasetown and Huntsville reservoirs, which provide drinking water to about 100,000 Wyoming Valley residents. Concern over contaminated water from upstream flowing into the lake was also addressed.
The ordinance states “corporations and persons using corporations to engage in natural gas extraction in a neighboring municipality, county, or state, shall be strictly liable for all harms caused to natural water sources, ecosystems, and natural communities within the borough.”
The ordinance also has an enforcement section, which states any person or corporation found in violation of the provisions of the ordinance will pay the maximum fine allowable under state law.
Price said the ordinance is designed to give residents their inalienable rights afforded under the First and Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. He told residents it is not an easy fight.
The ordinance is similar to the one recently passed in Pittsburgh and Licking Township, Turner said.
Price then opened the floor for questions. Residents had several concerns over the possibility of being sued by a gas company over the ordinance. Price responded people can sue each other over anything.
Price said his agency will offer free legal services in terms of drafting and explaining the ordinance, and arguments. More than 120 similar ordinances have been adopted and only about five lawsuits have occurred, he said.
EILEEN GODIN Times Leader Correspondent
Posted: February 13, 2011
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Harveys_Lake_citizens_hear_about_drilling_ordinance_02-13-2011.html
House Democrats push for severance tax
HARRISBURG – Facing an uphill political climb, a group of House Democratic lawmakers said Tuesday that a state government facing a $4 billion deficit can’t afford not to levy a state severance tax on natural gas production.
They gathered at a press conference to revive legislation that at one point appeared close to passage last year, but whose prospects have faded greatly with a Republican-controlled statehouse.
The measure sponsored by Rep. Greg Vitali, D-166, Havertown, would levy a tax at 5 percent of the value of each 1,000 cubic feet of gas produced, plus 4.6 cents per thousand cubic fee extracted. An estimated $245 million in first-year revenue would be distributed in one-third chunks to environmental programs, local governments and the state general fund.
The bill is supported by Reps. Sid Michaels Kavulich, D-114, Taylor, and Eddie Day Pashinski, D-121, Wilkes-Barre.
Republican Gov. Tom Corbett is opposed to a severance tax, while Senate GOP leaders have floated the idea of giving local governments authority to levy impact fees on natural gas firms to offset the cost of drilling activities on public infrastructure and the environment.
However, Rep. Dan Frankel, D-23, Pittsburgh, said it makes no sense given the deficit not to consider tapping revenue from a severance tax.
Kavulich said the revenue also could help alleviate some of the state budget cuts that are expected to be proposed by Corbett.
He criticized impact fees for creating new problems for local governments and a fragmented approach to dealing with drilling activities.
The natural gas industry has had two years to establish itself in Pennsylvania and now must pay its fair share, Pashinski said.
Senate Republican leader Joseph Scarnati, R-25, Jefferson County, is willing to support an impact fee as part of a package addressing a number of Marcellus Shale drilling issues, said Scarnati aide Drew Crompton.
While not commenting directly on the severance tax issue, the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry trade group, said it wants policies that encourage capital investment in the natural gas industry and create jobs.
By robert swift (Harrisburg Bureau Chief)
Published: February 12, 2011
http://standardspeaker.com/news/house-democrats-push-for-severance-tax-1.1103702
Gas co. may be liable for water quality
Federal judge rules in favor of Lenox Twp. families whose well pad was contaminated.
SCRANTON – For the time being, at least, a natural gas drilling company may be held strictly liable for drinking water contamination near one of its well sites, a federal district judge ruled Wednesday.
Lawyers for Southwestern Energy Production Co., Houston, Texas, moved to dismiss a count of strict liability in the civil lawsuit filed against the company by 13 Susquehanna County families in federal court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
The families filed a federal class-action lawsuit in September against the drilling company, saying that hydraulic fracturing at a Lenox Township well pad has contaminated drinking water and damaged the health and quality of life of area residents.
Southwestern maintains the alleged water contamination has no factual basis.
Judge A. Richard Caputo ruled Feb. 3 that though strict liability has not been found in analogous cases, the court will wait until after evidence has been presented in the trial’s discovery phase to determine Southwestern Energy’s liability.
Parties may be held to strict liability for damages caused to other persons, land or property when their activities are determined to be abnormally dangerous.
All but two of the plaintiffs live along state Route 92 in the township between 700 and 1,700 feet from the Price No. 1 Well Pad, which is operated by a wholly owned subsidiary of Southwestern Energy Production Co., Houston, Texas. Two other families do not live in the area but state in the suit that they regularly drank contaminated water at the residences of two other families listed as plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs claim their drinking water supplies were contaminated by improper or insufficient cement casings around the Price No. 1 well pad, which allowed industrial waste, including hydraulic fracturing fluid, to enter drinking water wells.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, fluid is the mixture of water, sediment and chemicals injected into the ground to create fissures and release the natural gas being extracted from Marcellus Shale.
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Gas_co__may_be_liable_for_water_quality_02-11-2011.html
MATT HUGHES mhughes@timesleader.com
Posted: February 12, 2011
Testimony given on frack water treatment plant
A standing-room-only crowd of 60 people attended a meeting Thursday of the Wyalusing Township supervisors, which was held to hear testimony on an application for a conditional use permit to construct three plants on a 26-acre site in the Browntown section of the township, including a plant to process the waste water from hydraulic fracturing of natural gas wells, a plant to manufacture asphalt for paving, and a plant to manufacture synthetic drilling mud.
The supervisors had their first meeting on the matter on Dec. 1, and they continued to take testimony related to the application at Thursday’s meeting.
The site would be served by the Lehigh Railway line, which runs along the Susquehanna River, but the applicants said there would be no discharge from any of their operations to the river.
Carl Bankert, an engineer with Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc., which would build the asphalt plant, said that for all three operations at the site combined, it is estimated that a total of 163 trucks would come to the site each day.
Ground/Water Treatment & Technology of Rockway, N.J., is proposing a plant for the site that would be able to treat 400,000 gallons per day of waste water from hydraulic fracturing, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Bob Kunzel, the executive vice-president for Ground/Water Treatment & Technology, said the treatment of the frack water would take place inside a building using a system of tanks.
Lime would be added to the waste water from hydraulic fracturing to precipitate out calcium, magnesium, barium and strontium as a sludge, Kunzel said.
The sludge would be de-watered before it was taken to the White Pine Landfill in the Wilkes-Barre area, he said.
After the frack water is treated at the plant, it would be returned to gas well sites for further hydraulic fracturing, he said.
The cycle of bringing waste water to the site, reinjecting the treated water into well bores for further hydraulic fracturing, and bringing the flow-back water from hydraulic fracturing to the plant, could be repeated indefinitely, Kunzel said.
There are no current plans to bring waste water from hydraulic fracturing to the site by rail, Kunzel said.
However, the other two operations at the site would use the rail line, the applicants said.
During the first 1 1/4 hours of the meeting, which began at 7 p.m., the supervisors asked questions of the applicants.
As of 8:15 p.m., the supervisors were continuing to ask questions of the applicants.
At the beginning of the meeting, 22 people said they wanted to speak at the meeting, but by 8:15 p.m. none of them had had a chance to speak yet.
At the meeting, Catherine Sherman represented Fluids Management, which is the company that is seeking to construct the facility for manufacturing synthetic drilling mud.
BY JAMES LOEWENSTEIN (STAFF WRITER)
Published: February 11, 2011James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.
http://thedailyreview.com/news/testimony-given-on-frack-water-treatment-plant-plans-for-the-26-acre-site-also-include-plants-to-manufacture-asphalt-and-drilling-mud-1.1103328
Md. lawmakers warned of natural gas drilling woes in Pa.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/green/bs-gr-marcellus-20110209,0,6104108.story
Md. lawmakers warned of natural gas drilling woes in Pa.
Former Pa state official cites spills, well contamination, urges caution
By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun
8:17 p.m. EST, February 9, 2011
A former top Pennsylvania official warned Maryland lawmakers to go slow in allowing drilling for natural gas in Marcellus shale deposits underlying the state’s western mountains or risk the environmental and social problems his state is now experiencing from a poorly regulated wave of energy exploration.
John Quigley, who until two months ago was secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, urged members of the House Environmental Matters Committee to “take a deep breath” and require more study of the immediate and long-term consequences of opening Western Maryland to drilling for natural gas using a controversial technique known as hydraulic fracturing. The method, also known as “fracking,” involves injecting water and lubricating chemicals thousands of feet underground to fracture rock layers and release gas trapped there.
“We have much to learn about the technique and ample reason for caution,” Quigley said during a briefing for lawmakers on Marcellus shale gas exploration in Western Maryland.
At least two bills dealing with hydraulic fracturing have been introduced in the General Assembly. One submitted by Western Maryland legislators would require the Maryland Department of the Environment to adopt new regulations by the end of the year governing fracking, to guard against spills and groundwater contamination. The other measure, offered by Montgomery County lawmakers, would bar such drilling until further study is done and new regulations adopted.
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Samson Resources of Tulsa, Okla., and Chief Oil & Gas of Dallas are seeking permits to drill a total of three wells in Western Maryland. But the two companies have signed leases granting them the rights to any gas found under 89,000 acres in Garrett and western Allegany counties, according to Robert M. Summers, Maryland’s acting secretary of the environment.
Officials from both companies say they intend to take every precaution in drilling in Maryland.
Summers told committee members that regulators are still reviewing the companies’ drilling requests and have no timeline for deciding whether to grant them and under what conditions. He said officials are considering requiring safeguards not currently mandated under state drilling regulations.
“If you have time to do additional studies up front, I would recommend it,” said Quigley, now a senior fellow with a Pennsylvania environmental group. The former manager of Pennsylvania’s state forests said his state has experienced major problems with contamination of drinking water wells, mainly from improperly drilled gas wells.
In one instance, Quigley said, a poorly drilled well caused natural gas to seep a mile underground and bubble up in the middle of the Susquehanna River. There also have been spills of diesel fuel and of the fluid used in fracking, he said.
While much of the fluid remains underground, some is pumped back out and must be treated because it is very salty and contains minerals and other contaminants from the shale, including radioactive substances.
Well blowouts, explosions and fires also have occurred, and groundwater has been tainted, Quigley said. The contamination stemmed from poor well construction and operations, he said, rather than directly from fracking. Quigley said experts haven’t been able to assure him that Pennsylvania’s groundwater will remain safe years from now, given the scale of drilling and the fluids being injected into the ground.
Quigley, who served under Democratic Gov. Edward G. Rendell, noted that his administration moved to hire more inspectors and adopted tough new regulations to address the problems. The new administration of Republican Gov. Tom Corbett is reviewing those rules, but Quigley said there are still gaps in Pennsylvania’s oversight, including a failure to levy a severance tax on natural gas extraction to help pay for its regulation and for remedying environmental problems it has caused.
Del. Maggie L. McIntosh, the Baltimore Democrat who chairs the Environmental Matters Committee, said lawmakers see great economic potential in exploitation of the Marcellus shale deposits, which some believe might hold the largest natural gas reserves in the country. The shale deposits cover 95,000 square miles, from New York through Pennsylvania and Western Maryland to West Virginia and Ohio.
But while the gas might be cleaner-burning than coal and may yield income to landowners who lease mineral rights, McIntosh said lawmakers want to be sure Maryland does not experience problems like those in Pennsylvania.
“If we’re going to do it,” she said, “we want to do it right.”
tim.wheeler@baltsun.com
House Democrats renew severance tax pitch
HARRISBURG – Facing an uphill political climb, a group of House Democrats said Tuesday that a state facing a $4 billion deficit can’t afford not to levy a severance tax on natural gas production.
They gathered at a press conference to revive legislation that at one point appeared close to passage last year, but whose prospects have faded greatly with a Republican-controlled statehouse. The measure sponsored by Rep. Greg Vitali, D-166, Havertown, would levy a tax at 5 percent of the value of each 1,000 cubic feet of gas produced, plus 4.6 cents per thousand cubic feet extracted. An estimated $245 million in first-year revenue would be distributed in one-third chunks to environmental programs, local governments and the state general fund.
Republican Gov. Tom Corbett is opposed to a severance tax, while Senate GOP leaders have floated the idea of giving local governments authority to levy impact fees on natural gas firms to offset the cost of drilling activities on public infrastructure and the environment.
However, Rep. Dan Frankel, D-23, Pittsburgh, said it makes no sense given the deficit not to consider tapping revenue from a severance tax.
“The revenue could also help alleviate some of the devastating state budget cuts that are expected to be proposed by Gov. Corbett,” said Sid Michaels Kavulich, D-114, Taylor.
Senate Republican leader Joseph Scarnati, R-25, Jefferson County, is willing to support an impact fee as part of a package addressing a number of Marcellus Shale drilling issues, said Scarnati aide Drew Crompton.
While not commenting directly on the severance tax issue, the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry trade group, said it wants policies that encourage capital investment in the natural gas industry and create jobs.
by robert swift (harrisburg bureau chief rswift@timesshamrock.com)
Published: February 9, 2011
http://republicanherald.com/news/house-democrats-renew-severance-tax-pitch-1.1102254
Who owns the natural gas?
Owning land doesn’t guarantee you own what lies hundreds or thousands of feet below the surface.
Mineral rights – ownership of coal, gas or other valuable resources – doesn’t automatically come with the deed.
“I never even gave that any thought,” Bonnie Minnich, 2225 E. Grand Ave., Porter Township, said Tuesday.
The Minnichs were one of nine households that received letters in December from Rausch Creek Land LP, a Valley View company that hopes to begin extracting up to 100,000 gallons of water each day from an abandoned strip mine pit in Porter Township. The company’s stated purpose would be “to supply water for drilling and hydrofracturing of proposed Marcellus Shale natural gas wells which are to be drilled and developed on property owned by Rausch Creek Land,” but many questions remain and the company has refused to speak about its plans.
J. Scott Roberts, former deputy secretary for mineral resources management at the state Department of Environmental Protection, said last week that the language surrounding mineral rights is often “bewildering” in estate records, wills, deeds and other documents.
“The amount of money that’s at stake here, the land owner may want to read it one way” and the drilling company another way, Roberts said.
Those differences in interpretation sometimes are not resolved until they reach a courtroom.
Further complicating matters, Ross Pifer, professor and director of the Agricultural Law Resource and Reference Center at Penn State Law, said Pennsylvania law does not always define natural gas as a “mineral.”
“In some respects, oil and natural gas are considered to be minerals and in some respects, they aren’t,” he said.
That could mean that if natural gas or oil were never mentioned in a deed – even one that addresses “mineral rights” – the original property could still hold the rights.
The nine households in Porter Township that received the letters regarding water usage border the land from which water may be extracted, if Rausch Creek Land’s plans are approved by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission.
Experts said last week they believe someone will eventually drill an exploratory well to see if Marcellus Shale reserves lie beneath Minnich’s home and others nearby.
Minnich knows her family does not own the rights to natural gas, coal or other minerals underground.
Paul Ruth, 56, of 1002 Colliery Ave., Tower City, who also got the letter, said he knows he doesn’t own the mineral rights, but is unsure who does.
Finding out who holds the mineral rights for a particular parcel can be an arduous process usually left to attorneys and title insurance companies.
“Very few people own their mineral rights (in Schuylkill County). You could be doing research for days” to find out, county Recorder of Deeds A. Matthew Dudish said Tuesday as he looked through decades of deed information.
That information sometimes raises more questions than it answers. For example, there are instances of an owner selling the surface property but reserving the rights to all minerals up to 500 feet below the surface. Such a clause was valuable in Schuylkill County because of the abundance of anthracite coal.
However, it may not spell out who owns substances farther down, such as shale gas, which can lie many thousands of feet underground. “It’s possible to sever the subsurface rights by substance, by depth or by geologic strata, which means it’s possible that you can have several parties claiming ownership of a mineral interest,” Pifer said. “It could put a land owner in a situation where it’s difficult to tell what he owns.”
During property transactions, land owners usually retain what they perceive to be valuable at the time. Therefore, Schuylkill County deeds may have extensive language on coal rights and not mention natural gas.
“That’s not uncommon. You have to presume when people bought their parcel, they were not putting any value in that. If it were that important, they would have gotten an answer” to who owns natural gas rights, Pifer said.
Drilling companies, Pifer said, will be dealing with the natural gas owner, not the surface property owner, unless it turns out the same person owns both. Pennsylvania case law also gives the owner of the subsurface the ability to undertake “reasonable use” of the surface property to get to the minerals – coal, gas or otherwise – contained underground, according to Pifer.
He said surface property owners are entitled to very little say in mineral extraction beneath their property.
Marcellus Shale drilling technology makes the surface property owner even less relevant.
“One of the big distinctions … is the horizontal drilling portion of it. Quite honestly, they can reach out a mile or more on either side of that well without disturbing that surface,” Roberts said.
Roberts is now an adviser for L.R. Kimball, an Ebensburg-based architecture, engineering and communications technology company.
“It (drilling technology) allows the well paths to be located on less sensitive areas. You can avoid environmental resources … and can still get the gas underneath it,” he said.
http://republicanherald.com/news/who-owns-the-natural-gas-1.1102282
BY BEN WOLFGANG (STAFF WRITER bwolfgang@republicanherald.com)
Published: February 9, 2011
Analysis of Marcellus Shale gas tax issues offered in Feb. 16 webinar
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An online seminar offered by Penn State Cooperative Extension at 1 p.m. on Feb. 16 will cover what Pennsylvania residents who benefit financially from natural-gas wells on their properties need to know about tax implications.
In his presentation, “Dealing with Gas Tax Issues: What You Need to Know,” Associate Professor of Forest Resources Mike Jacobson will address primarily landowners who want to understand the basic issues. However, he also will provide financial advisers, accountants and tax preparers with some useful information.
“Landowners who lease gas rights will receive an up-front bonus payment and then receive royalty payments when production begins,” Jacobson said. “Dealing with this new-found wealth requires careful financial and tax planning.
“The tax law surrounding gas leases and royalties is complex with its own specific rules,” he said. “By understanding these rules, landowners possibly can save money by avoiding unnecessary taxes.”
The webinar will address mainly the tax consequences of gas income, Jacobson noted. It will cover issues such as types of income, how to report income, depletion and expensing opportunities, wealth and family planning, and property and severance taxes.
The tax-issues webinar is part of an ongoing series of workshops and events addressing circumstances related to the state’s Marcellus Shale gas boom. Information about how to register for the webinar is available on the webinar page of Penn State Extension’s natural gas impacts website at http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas/webinars.
Another one-hour webinar, “Natural Gas Well Development and Emergency Response and Management,” will be held at 1 p.m. on March 17.
Previous webinars, publications and information on topics such as water use and quality, zoning, gas-leasing considerations for landowners and implications for local communities also are available on the Extension natural-gas impacts website (http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas).
For more information, contact John Turack, extension educator in Westmoreland County, at 724-837-1402 or jdt15@psu.edu.
http://live.psu.edu/story/51221#nw69
Friday, February 4, 2011
Heinz Endowments awards Marcellus Shale research grant to Penn State
University Park, Pa. — The Heinz Endowments recently awarded a team of Penn State researchers a $412,000, three-year, grant to identify and mitigate the effects of Marcellus Shale natural gas exploration and development on the forest ecosystem. The interdisciplinary research team, led by Margaret Brittingham, professor of wildlife resources, and Patrick Drohan, assistant professor of pedology, both faculty members in the College of Agricultural Sciences, also will develop land management practices and a monitoring program to reduce the Marcellus disturbance footprint.
Focusing on the north-central region of Pennsylvania, the research incorporates four broad components. First, researchers will use a database to evaluate landscape change as a result of gas exploration disturbances. Second, they will assess local and landscape-scale changes to the forest ecosystem utilizing birds, invasive plant species, and soils as indicators of broader environmental effects. The team will also develop an electronic field guide for onsite remediation and wildlife habitat enhancement at Marcellus drilling sites and pilot a long-term citizen-science based monitoring program to track changes to the physical landscape and biotic communities across the Marcellus shale formation in Pennsylvania.
“Exploration and development of natural gas within the Marcellus Shale formation is occurring at an accelerating rate across much of Pennsylvania and has the potential for large-scale ecological change,” said Brittingham. “There is a critical need among public and private landowners for information on how to develop drilling sites, and their associate infrastructure, in a way that minimizes ecological damage and that can restore sites to pre-drilling conditions.”
The project addresses a central goal of the endowments’ Environment Program, to support sustainable communities within a sustainable region by promoting environmentally responsible land use and by protecting and restoring terrestrial ecosystems.
“We are grateful to The Heinz Endowments for funding this research, which was initiated with a seed grant from the Penn State Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research (MCOR),” said Brittingham. “The funds from Heinz will enable us to begin to document and monitor how Marcellus-related exploration and development is changing the landscape of Pennsylvania and to develop mitigation and remediation strategies to minimize negative environmental impacts.”
The University has been at the forefront of research and outreach efforts since advances in horizontal drilling technology sparked interest in unconventional gas shales. Through MCOR, Penn State scholars and researchers are working on many of the most critical technical aspects of Marcellus Shale development, providing science-based programming on the Marcellus and other unconventional gas shales, and protecting the Commonwealth’s water and forest resources. Penn State researchers also are exploring community, family, health and population impacts of Marcellus development; effects on the transportation infrastructure; and labor issues such as the housing, job creation and training needed to develop and sustain a local workforce.
The Heinz Endowments’ mission is to promote progress in economic opportunity, arts and culture; education; children, youth and families; and the environment. The Endowments supports efforts to make southwestern Pennsylvania a premier place to live and work, a center for learning and educational excellence, and a region that embraces diversity and inclusion.
http://live.psu.edu/story/50857#nw69
Monday, January 31, 2011
Follow Pa.’s lead on gas drilling? No thanks
Kathryn Z. Klaber, Pennsylvanian and longtime gas industry spokesperson, now crosses the border to lecture New Yorkers on how dumb we are to hesitate joining the big gas blowout.
In her Jan. 17 Star-Gazette viewpoint (“Delaying drilling will hurt N.Y.”), Klaber berates new New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens for saying: “I see no reason to rush to judgment on a decision as monumental as hydrofracking.”
“The short-term economic case for harvesting clean energy resources from the Marcellus is … compelling,” Klaber responds.
Harvesting? You know, like corn and potatoes. Clean energy? Yes, right in there with oil and coal.
How could we not want to emulate Pennsylvania’s 1,610 DEP violations since 2008, 1,057 of which were judged likely to impact the environment?
How could we not envy the 3.6 million barrels of waste water sent to Pennsylvania treatment plants, and, according to DEP records, emptied into Pennsylvania rivers?
How could we not want Dimock’s drinking water? Or the industrialization of Pennsylvania’s Endless Mountains and of Williamsport’s Little League World Series? The gas companies are just licking their chops to do the same for Cooperstown and the Finger Lakes.
“Has there ever been a more important time to take advantage of these opportunities?” Klaber asks.
Yes — how about never?
Steve Coffman
January 26, 2011, 12:00 am
http://www.stargazette.com/article/20110126/VIEWPOINTS03/101260302/1121/Follow-Pa.-s-lead-on-gas-drilling?-No-thanks