PennFuture responds to DCNR drilling report

The following is a statement from PennFuture's CEO Cindy Dunn on the just-released Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) Marcellus monitoring report. The 265-page report is the first in an ongoing effort to track the impact of gas development on public forests. 

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“We are pleased to finally see the Marcellus monitoring report and applaud the effort of agency staffers tasked with its release. At a glance, the report raises more questions than it answers. When will DCNR release the raw data analyzed in the report? Was the report peer-reviewed by outside experts? How will the general public and scientific professionals be able to provide input on an ongoing basis? What changes has DCNR made, or will it make, based on the analysis and conclusions in the report? How many forest acres have been indirectly and cumulatively impacted by the 1,486 acres converted to gas infrastructure?

“We remain unequivocally opposed to additional leasing of our state parks and forests for natural gas drilling. It's time we put the brakes on runaway drilling – the gas is under our land and it's not going anywhere. We owe it to the citizens of the Commonwealth to more fully understand the impacts of natural gas drilling before we turn special places into industrial zones. The suggestion that this industrial activity can be 'carefully managed' provides scant comfort to Pennsylvanians who frequent Penn's Woods. Carefully-managed industrialization is still industrialization, so the need for a moratorium on leasing of state forests and parks to drillers remains.

“PennFuture is collaborating with environmental and conservation organizations in the state to review this report in the interest of a larger, public conversation on drilling of public lands.”