At a hearing of Pennsylvania's
Oil & Gas Technical Advisory Board (TAB) on March 20 to discuss proposed
revisions to the state's oil and gas regulations, natural gas industry
lobbyists said that "public interests" should not be among the "considerations"
when weighing new drilling standards. We're not kidding -- they really said that, and it was picked up in a story by Laura Legere of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Dave Conti at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review also weighed in.
These lobbyists would just
as soon dismiss the over 24,000 public comments submitted to the
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection on the proposed rules,
which will cover everything from how to handle fracking wastewater -- to keep
it from leaching into our drinking water -- to surface activities at well sites
including contamination of our air and land as well as noise and light
pollution.
Pennsylvania's oil and gas law,
Act 13, was passed in 2012. Since then, industry has been dragging out and
delaying the process for common sense rules of the road that will help ensure
public health and the environment are protected, a standard requested by Gov. Tom Wolf more than once on the campaign trail and since he took office.
Specific proposals include centralized wastewater impoundments; the placement of well pads near public resources that could include schools, parks and playgrounds; and restoring contaminated drinking water supplies to pre-drilling conditions. Similarly, we will need to address methane emissions -- a potent greenhouse gas -- with strong rules as voluntary measures are not working.
It's outrageous that natural gas interests believe the public interest should be dismissed. The impacts of natural gas drilling, an inherently industrial activity, affect our children and families today and may well into the future. We have a right to be heard, and the TAB has the responsibility of recommending standards that will protect the public interest.
Elaine Labalme is director of communications for PennFuture and is based in Pittsburgh.
