'What legacy will we leave?'
Gas industry groups have defended Cabot. They argue that shallow methane is a naturally occurring phenomenon in Pennsylvania, a pre-existing condition that shouldn't be laid at the feet of a new industry.
In Pennsylvania, unlike in New York, there are legal limits to actions a regulator can take to stop a company from operating. Hanger has asked the Legislature for clear authority to withhold new permits for companies that repeatedly violate rules.
Hanger's DEP has hired more inspectors this year. With the support of environmental groups and some gas companies, the DEP also pushed for water quality regulatory reforms that a few weeks ago received the go-ahead from an independent review board in Pennsylvania. The new rules require gas producers to treat wastewater to the same quality as drinking water before dumping it into a stream. That means ensuring TDS levels don't exceed 500 milligrams per liter. The new rules also establish buffer zones for drilling around critical waterways.
On Tuesday, Gov. Rendell signed a $28 billion state budget that, as part of an agreement among legislative leaders, includes a pledge to develop a severance tax on gas production by Oct. 1. It has been among the stickiest issues for lawmakers. Few in Harrisburg said they wanted to slow the economic growth, but in recent months, broad support grew for crafting a tax to help pay for environmental cleanup and local costs incurred because of the drilling.
Rendell, who tends to emphasize both the economic opportunity and the environmental hazards, gave Hanger and another member of the governor's inner circle, John Quigley, secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the green light this year to sharpen their tone against the gas industry.
The three have kept the pressure on with regard to the tax on gas. "It is difficult for me to swallow the argument that an industry led by the likes of Exxon, one of the largest companies in the world, is in fact an infant industry," Quigley said at a conference in Pittsburgh in May. "To suggest we should wait to tax the industry strains credulity."
The Marcellus Shale Coalition, which represents the major Marcellus gas producers, has opposed the tax, arguing that saddling producers with a tax on production of anywhere from 4 to 8 percent could stifle development in the early stages.
The group's president, Kathryn Klaber, has crisscrossed the state to press the industry's case. "If you tax something, you get less," she says. "Not everyone takes this economic argument to heart."
More than 7 million Pennsylvania acres is now under lease for gas exploration, about one-quarter of the state's landmass. At a conference in Pittsburgh in May, Quigley called on citizens groups to protest proposals to expand leasing in state parks. "There are those who would ignore the questions of balance and sustainability, who would look to the public lands to balance the budget without regard to consequence," he told the packed room at Duquesne University. "What legacy will we leave? Will we continue to burn the furniture to heat the house?"
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13 Comments
Add CommentHow long before potable water is more precious than methane?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen potent GHG gas from distribution leakage is added in Natural Gas actually produces more GHG's than coal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.greenleft.org.au/node/44113
These deadly disasters in oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear, and the sacrificing of our childrens' health and lives are just small acceptable risks in producing a hand-full of dirty filthy jobs and balancing the local red budget brought on by stupid politicians who pay hundreds of times more for products than what they are worth. For good jobs and keeping the electricity on, you got to make sacrifices; what better to sacrifice than a renewable product like our children...you CAN'T create new jobs, but you can create new worker children to fill the vacancies created by company mistakes and accidents.... At least that is the reasoning in West Virginia where we lead the nation in chronic childhood diseases caused by coal and natural gas pollutions in our air, water, and land. But Hay! You got to keep the electricity on!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI grew up in coal country in PA, and I now live above the Marcellus and Utica Shales in NY. I have spent the last two years learning all that I can about shale gas extraction. The number of potential problems is truly amazing: air pollution due to heavy truck traffic, water pollution from chemical spills, explosive & flammable drinking water, significant greenhouse gas contributions from the extraction and production of shale gas, possible long-term damage to aquifers from fracturing chemicals, huge volumes of waste water and no safe way to dispose of same, loss of green space, short- and long-term public health threats from toxic fracturing chemicals, habitat fragmentation, the possibility of gas well fires and blowouts in populated regions, introduction of invasive species to forest areas and aquatic environments, devaluation of residential property near gas wells and pipelines, extensive damage to the landscape, dangerous pollutants (like heavy metals & naturally occurring radioactive materials) dredged up from the depths of the earth in drill cuttings and in the flowback fluid that comes out of the wells, extensive damage to roads, leakage of VOCs from gas wells and compressor stations, extremely high noise levels that continue around the clock for years--the list goes on and on and on. And those are just the predictable problems. The inevitable "surprises" are sure to occur as well.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs this really the best this nation can do? We have before us the horrible example of the ever-growing BP nightmare. Before we create still more gas/coal/oil nightmares all across the country in a last-ditch scramble for fossil fuel, wouldn't it make a great deal of sense for us all to start acting like responsible adults by cutting subsidies to fossil fuel industries, getting deeply serious about energy conservation, and making an all-out effort to get more and more and more of our energy from clean, safe, renewable sources????
There are proponents of natural gas drilling who like to argue that "crossing the street isn't safe, but nothing is 100% safe and the drilling opponents are simply obstructionists and extremists."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'd submit to them that crossing the street while defiantly closing your eyes and not looking both ways and waiting for traffic to stop is a lot dumber than waiting until it is safer.
It's a matter of degree, of how myopic you intend to be.
At this point, the level of safety for high-volume horizontal fracturing is unreasonably low.
The "America needs the energy" ploy is also a red-herring. There is a glut of natural gas on the market now. Why not wait to drill more when the technology is mature, and the people and processes that decide if we will use it are more mature? Won't America still need the energy then?
Expediency is the mother of disaster.
"Sweeney", now you're just talking nonsense. You know that the gas companies are not fracking you every time you turn around. So, go ahead and pick up that bar of soap. The time and money we have spent trying to get these thoughtless gas, coal, nuclear, and oil companies to adhere to the rules, this country could be enjoying a clean-never-ending energy source of power...geothermal. There are 14 states in the U.S. that use clean, renewable geothermal power and they have not had not one accident or earthquake - and, they are not polluting their environment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGreedy and stupid people are the only ones who want to continue with fossil fuels and claim that they are clean, safe, non-polluting, and never-ending. They also claim that our scientists are so stupid that they do not know how to build a battery for electric cars that can get you any further than your neighbors driveway and it will take you eight hours to recharge it if you are able to get to your neighbors driveway. Is America really that stupid or is it just the people who has more money than brains that is that stupid?
OtegoNY - Yeah, the smart money's on the 57th floor, betting on whether you'll get hit crossing the street...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf everyone knew the toxicity of these fracturing chemicals that the fossil fuel industry is using to extract deeper and increasingly difficult fossil fuels, the public would be in a huge uproar and campaign against the entire industry.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs it worth destroying all of our aquifers providing drinking water, just to extract fossil fuels to burn, which in turn are destroying our atmosphere at an alarming rate?
sweeny says, "Is this really the best this nation can do?....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBefore we create still more gas/coal/oil nightmares all across the country in a last-ditch scramble for fossil fuel, wouldn't it make a great deal of sense for us all to start acting like responsible adults by cutting subsidies to fossil fuel industries, getting deeply serious about energy conservation, and making an all-out effort to get more and more and more of our energy from clean, safe, renewable sources?"
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Certainly makes you wonder how we got into this one-sided energy predicament, until you total the massive and record profits of the fossil fuel industry, and the hordes of lobbyists they have to keep the status quo.
Yes, I certainly agree that we need to immediately cut all subsidies to the well-entrenched fossil fuel industry, get serious with energy conservation and efficiency since we use much more energy per capita than anywhere else in the world, and begin a 21st century energy policy that moves us totally away from finite fossil fuels while embracing clean renewables and 4th generation nuclear energy.
Anything short of that is just not acceptable.
Are you referring to renewable energy such as wind turbines that require 2 tons or rare earth elements (REE) to make? Where are you going to get the REEs? China has the monopoly and will not sell REE containing semi-finished components after 2012. And the manner in which China mines and refines REEs is extremely toxic to the air and in the waste that flows into the Pacific. REEs also are required for electric cars, hybrids, PV cells, fiber optics, lasers, etc. WHAT clean technology do you think has no adverse environmental effect???
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo understand why green technology is held hostage by China, read: Chinas Rare Earth Elements Industry: What Can the West Learn, a report by the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) www.iags.org/rareeartIAGSh0310hurst.pdf.
This sounds so similar to what is happening in Queensland's(Australia) Darling Downs. Is anyone doing a comparison?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI remember the original Battlestar Galactica where "frack" was a very dirty word. It seems the new meaning isn't very different. With advances in solar and wind technology the eco-footprint is decreasing and the out put is increasing. My guess is that within a decade these two will be able to compete evenly with fossil fuels. I guess we will see if we are still around by then.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthe only reason we all use petroleum is because it is cheap and convenient...Period! Not cause of conspiracy topics and subsidies etc. Come on grow up.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe reason it is cheap and convenient is because it is found in large deposits making collection and distribution easier and cheaper. Plus you don't have to grow it just process it. It is cool stuff. Sure if there is cleaner and cheaper stuff then bring it on...but the market, not subsidies have said they want cheap energy.