While Pennsylvania's Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board (TAB) said YES on October 27 to moving proposed revisions to the state's oil and gas rules on to the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB), it wasn't before asking for even more time to review a suite of standards that has been in the works for almost five years and already been subject to two public comment periods that generated over 30,000 comments.
The five voting members of the TAB, several of whom have ties to the oil and gas industry, floated a resolution after an exhaustive, five-hour briefing on the proposed rules by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The resolution would allow TAB to present a report to the EQB on the proposed rules at a later date, a report which will not incorporate comments from the TAB's four non-voting members, who represent community and environmental groups and other non-industry constituencies.
Are you keeping up? We can't blame you if you're not as the process to revise the state's oil and gas rules has been fraught with the threat of industry-backed lawsuits, needless delays, and the flat-out dismissal of the public interest by oil and gas industry lobbyists -- this despite strong public support for updated rules to cover everything from leaky centralized wastewater impoundments to the proximity of drilling activity to public resources that would include schools and playgrounds.
Oh yeah, did we say that these rules need to be finalized by March 2016 or the whole MULTI-YEAR-LONG process starts all over again?
The oil and gas industry, and those who are enabling its misguided efforts around these rules in Pennsylvania, need to stop delaying what has been a thorough and exhaustive process and move forward in support of updated standards that will help ensure clean air and water for Pennsylvanians while helping to protect public health and the environment.
Elaine Labalme is strategic campaigns director for PennFuture and is based in Pittsburgh.
Showing posts with label TAB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TAB. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Natural gas lobbyists want to silence "public interests."
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.
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.
