Posts Tagged ‘Gov. Ed Rendell’

U.S. Senate candidate Joe Sestak holds a meeting at Misericordia University.

By Sherry Long slong@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

Published on June 13, 2010

DALLAS TWP. – Property owners concerned about the effects of Marcellus Shale drilling on water reservoirs made their views clearly known Saturday afternoon during a packed town hall meeting at Misericordia University’s library.

They wanted a moratorium enacted immediately on all gas drilling throughout the state until more is known on how to safely drill natural gas wells without using dangerous chemicals in the hydrofracturing process. The process uses between 1 million to 1.5 million of gallons of water per well laced with chemicals and dirt under high pressure to force the ground open to release natural gas, geologist Patrick Considine said.

Considine and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Joe Sestak, whose campaign organized the town hall forum, said that during President George W. Bush’s administration, requirements on oil and gas companies were dramatically lifted. Considine, president of Considine Associates and forum panel member, explained that federal and state officials are not entitled to know what mixtures of chemicals each gas drilling company uses because it is considered a trade secret formula.

He warned that the federal and state governments need more officials to oversee the drilling processes, so the companies are not tempted to cut corners when disposing of the water after the fracking.

“Oil and gas companies need to be held to the same standards as other companies. We don’t need more regulations; we need to find ways to enforce the regulations we have,” Considine said.

People wanting the moratorium drowned out the drilling supporters, including business owner, economist and farmer Joe Grace of Morris in Lycoming County, who sees this industry being one of the biggest Pennsylvania has ever experienced by bringing 88,000 jobs to the state just this year and generating millions in revenue.

Worried about the environment and safety of area water systems, local podiatrist Dr. Thomas Jiunta adamantly disagreed with Grace, pointing to the recent gas well drilling incident in Clearfield County and a gas pipeline accident that killed one worker in Texas.

“This is not a safe activity as we know how to do it right now. We need to stop it first. We are putting the cart before the horse when you are talking about economic boom. You can’t drink gas,” said Jiunta of Dallas, a Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition founding member.

Jiunta added more focus should be put jobs that will support and grow green and renewable energy sources.

Sestak told people he sees gas drilling as an economic boon to the state, yet it needs to be done in a responsible way.

“I think this would be a good way to yes, exploit our resources, but not our communities. Business has to pause. Harrisburg has to stop until we get it right,” Sestak said, adding that he supports enacting a 5 percent severance tax on the drilling companies. He said is in favor of a moratorium

No representatives from the campaign of Sestak’s opponent, former U.S. rep. Pat Toomey, attended the forum.

A statement from the Republican candidate’s campaign staff said Sestak’s plan for taxing the drilling will backfire by pushing those companies to focus on other states.

“Marcellus Shale has the potential to provide Pennsylvania with over 200,000 new jobs and millions of dollars in added revenue, but Joe Sestak’s plan to tax natural gas extraction will chase these jobs out of Pennsylvania. A recent study warned that a tax on Marcellus natural gas output would very likely divert investment to other states like Colorado and Texas. This is further proof that Joe Sestak’s ‘more government, less jobs’ approach is bad for Pennsylvania,” Toomey’s Deputy Communications Director Kristin Anderson said.

State Rep. Karen Boback, R-Harveys Lake, did not attend the forum, but issued a statement Friday stating she was working to develop legislation to protect drinking water from gas drilling practices. Knowing that will take time to become law, she is urging Gov. Ed Rendell to issue an executive order implementing four additional rules before permits can be issued.

Her opponent, Richard Shermanski, a Democrat, attended the meeting, telling people he would not support any form of drilling if he knows it will damage water reservoirs.

Many attending the forum reside in Luzerne County, but some people, including Leslie Avakian of Greenfield Township in northern Lackawanna County, drove an hour to voice their views.

She believes the state’s Department of Environmental Protection needs to be spilt up into two separate agencies because DEP currently issues the permits and regulates the gas companies.

Lynn Hesscease of Dallas told her story of how she became deathly sick after three years of oil leaking in her cellar from a rusted pipe.

She explained how she can’t use any type of products made from petroleum – polyester clothing, petroleum jelly or use plastic cups.

“We have to be very careful it is not near our drinking water and we are not exposed to the chemicals or fumes because if we are, people will get sick,” Hesscease said.

Sherry Long, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7159.

Copyright: The Times Leader

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: June 7, 2010

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania regulators are halting work at dozens of unfinished natural gas wells being drilled by the company whose well spewed out explosive gas and polluted water for 16 hours last week.

Gov. Ed Rendell said Monday the order against EOG Resources Inc. will remain in place until the Department of Environmental Protection can finish its investigation and until after the company implements whatever changes may be needed.

The order stops EOG from drilling and fracking operations. It affects about 70 EOG unfinished wells into the gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation.

A blow-out of an EOG well in north-central Pennsylvania on Thursday sent gas and at least 35,000 gallons of wastewater into the environment.

The state says the company is cooperating and is supportive of the order.

Copyright:  The New York Times

Citing crime rise, truck-damaged roads, Rendell eyes fee. Drillers argue economic benefits ignored.

STEVE MOCARSKY smocarsky@timesleader.com

Pennsylvania’s state police commissioner on Monday raised concerns about an increase in crime associated with the natural gas industry, including the failure of some sex offenders employed by drilling companies to properly register in the state.

 Gov. Ed Rendell’s office cited those crime problems as well as road damage caused by overweight and unsafe trucks serving the natural gas industry as just two reasons a state severance tax should be imposed on the industry.

In a press release from Rendell’s office in Harrisburg, state police Commissioner Frank Pawlowski reported more arrests and incidents involving drugs, assaults and illegal weapons in northern Pennsylvania, where much of the drilling into the Marcellus Shale is taking place in the state.

“More and more, it seems the police reports coming out of the northern tier include arrests because of drug use and trafficking, fights involving rig workers, DUIs and weapons being brought into the state and not registered properly,” Pawlowski said.

“We’ve even encountered situations where drilling company employees who have been convicted of a sexual assault in another state come here to work and do not register with our Megan’s Law website. Each of these issues is unacceptable and places an even greater burden on our law enforcement and local social programs meant to help those in need,” he said.

Another aspect providing additional challenges to troopers working in the northern tier are overweight and unsafe trucks, Pawlowski said.

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Secretary Allen D. Biehler said hundreds of miles of secondary roads in the northern tier have been damaged or made impassable because of heavy truck traffic associated with drilling activities. And while drilling companies have committed to repairing roads they use, Biehler said, their efforts have not kept pace with the damage in a number of cases.

“In a few cases, such as in Bradford and Tioga counties, we’ve had to close roads and revoke a drilling company’s permit to use those roads because repairs were not made in a timely manner. The condition of some of these roads has made travel a safety concern,” Biehler said.

PennDOT has ordered drilling companies to post bonds for 1,711 miles of roads, and that number is expected to double this year. Drilling companies have posted $16.1 million in security for bonded roads.

Pawlowski attributed much of the road damage to overweight trucks serving the gas industry. He cited a Feb. 9 enforcement effort in Susquehanna County that found 56 percent of 194 trucks checked were found to be over the weight limit. Fifty percent of those trucks were also cited for safety violations.

“These trucks are large and heavy, so for the sake of those drivers sharing the road with them, it’s important that they follow the law,” Pawlowski said. “We’re monitoring these roads closely and targeting areas where we know drilling-related traffic is heaviest, but it’s still important that anyone witnessing unsafe behavior on the part of drilling companies or their drivers report it to the state police.”

Pawlowski and Biehler both said the state and local governments need additional resources to address the problems that have accompanied the arrival of drilling companies.

Rendell has proposed a severance tax, which he says will ensure that the industry “pays its fair share and helps support the programs and services the state, counties and municipalities must provide to accommodate their presence.”

Under Rendell’s plan, the state would take in about $1.8 billion during the next five years, with $180 million of that being shared directly with local governments in areas where there is drilling activity. Local governments could then use those funds to repair roads and other infrastructure, bolster local law enforcement efforts or provide programs to help those in need.

A representative of Energy in Depth – an organization representing natural gas and oil producers – says state officials are ignoring the economic benefits of the industry when considering the severance tax issue.

“There used to be a time, and it probably wasn’t too long ago, when states were thankful for industries that found a way to create tens of thousands of new jobs and billions in annual revenue – especially during a deep recession,” Chris Tucker, a spokesman for Energy In Depth, said in an e-mailed response.

“If this is the way that state administrators show their thanks for bringing enormous economic opportunities to the Commonwealth, they sure have a funny way of showing it,” Tucker said.

Tucker also believes Pawlowski is using too broad a brush to paint an unfair picture of natural gas industry workers.

“The explicit suggestion by the state police that all natural gas workers in the state are a bunch of common criminals is especially reproachable and should be retracted and apologized for immediately,” Tucker said.

Copyright The Times Leader

By DONALD GILLILAND, The Patriot-News

March 28, 2010, 7:38PM

CHRISTINE BAKER, The Patriot-News, 2009A towering gas-drilling rig stood on the Susquehanna County property of Jim Grimsley. Dimock Twp. farmers in Susquehanna County are signing leases with natural gas companies like Cabot Oil & Gas to drill into Marcellus Shale so they can pump out gas.

Pennsylvania lawmakers should learn from history and from Dr. Seuss, said Robert F. Davey
Jr., a retired forester with 38 years of experience in Penn’s Woods.

The state’s forests were decimated by rampant logging in the 19th century and a number of its streams were polluted by unrestricted mining, Davey said. He compared those scenarios to “The Lorax” by Seuss, the tale of a species of trees being nearly wiped out, with only one seed remaining.

Davey said lawmakers should be careful when profiting from the Marcellus gas boom “so that future generations won’t be saddled with mistakes we made because of a myopic view of natural-resource limitations or outright greed.”

He was one of several conservation leaders who testified this month before the state House Majority Policy Committee in support of a five-year moratorium on additional leasing of state forest land for drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

The moratorium, proposed by Rep. Greg Vitali, D-Delaware County, would also require studies of the impact of drilling on public lands. The bill, House Bill 2235, was voted out of committee Wednesday morning with two Republicans supporting it.

With the state facing another budget crisis, money lies at the heart of the debate over leasing more public land.

Advocates, including Gov. Ed Rendell, want to repeat last year’s profitable lease offer, which generated $128 million, twice what officials had hoped. Opponents said the state is moving too fast for a quick buck without fully weighing the implications.

“It’s become apparent that this administration intends to press for new oil and gas leasing to bankroll their spending priorities,” said Rick Carlson, a former policy director for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

“I’m not real crazy about how we’re making these decisions,” said Rep. Garth Everett, R-Lycoming County, one of the two Republicans voting for the moratorium bill Wednesday. “These are long-term, far-reaching decisions, and we make them as knee-jerk budget reactions.”

Everett said he thinks a five-year moratorium is too long, “but I think we need to move this discussion forward.”

Many of his fellow Republicans emphasize the economic value of the Marcellus boom to depressed areas of the state.

“Another word for moratorium is delay, and in our part of the state, we need the jobs,” said Rep. Martin Causer, R-McKean County, whose district includes Cameron and Potter counties, where more than half of the land is owned by the state.

“I recognize the issues,” Causer said. “But I think we can do it properly.”

Some Democrats prefer a moratorium on leasing and a new tax on the gas extracted.

“The alternative to leasing more state forest land is simple: Raise new revenues elsewhere,” said John Quigley, the acting secretary of conservation and natural resources.

Rendell has said he supports an extraction tax on Marcellus gas, but Senate Republicans have said they oppose it.

The budget passed by the House last week includes $112 million in projected revenue from new gas leases next year but does not include an extraction tax.

Nine Marcellus wells have been drilled on state forest land thus far, but some lawmakers predict the number could rise into the thousands.

Everett said he’d “like to see us take a little bit of a timeout and have the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee do a study of the financial and environmental impacts of all the land we’re leasing already.”

Nearly 700,000 acres of state forest land is leased for drilling, according to the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. And there’s not much left that would be appropriate to open up, Quigley said.

Quigley testified last week that all of the remaining land is “environmentally sensitive,” including wild areas, old-growth forest, wetlands, areas with endangered species and land with high tourism value.

“There may be pockets here and there” that might be available, said Chris Novak, a department spokeswoman.

Seneca Resources Corp., the highest bidder for two of the most recent leases, would be “likely to participate” in another, said Nancy Taylor, a company spokeswoman.

Seneca Resources and other gas companies oppose the moratorium.

But the issue may be more significant to legislators and conservationists than it is to the gas industry. The companies are aware there is little remaining land that the state is willing to offer; some of the best was included in the last offering, and a moratorium on state leases would have no impact on drilling on private land, which accounts for about 90 percent of Marcellus activity.

There may be bigger issues there.

Matthew B. Royer, a staff lawyer for the Pennsylvania office of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, blasted the Department of Environmental Protection’s “expedited review process,” which stripped authority from local conservation districts, saying it now “consists simply of making sure all the paperwork is in the permit application.”

Last September, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation appealed three permits approved by the DEP under the new process, alleging no technical review of plans was conducted, plans went through wetlands with no effort to avoid impacts, and permits were approved within two to four days.

The DEP subsequently revoked the permits, noting technical deficiencies.

“It should not take the efforts of a third-party conservation organization to track weekly Pennsylvania Bulletin notices, travel to Williamsport to review permit files, and file notices of appeal before the Environmental Hearing Board just to ensure that careful environmental review of Marcellus Shale permits is happening,” Royer said.

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