Posts Tagged ‘Commitment’

Pittsburgh, Pa.– Today, the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) leadership and Gov. Tom Ridge, an MSC strategic advisor, formally unveiled a sweeping set of principles by which the industry will live by “each and every day” and “embrace.” These principles were first rolled out last night at the MSC’s annual members meeting in Pittsburgh.

“We have an unprecedented opportunity with the Marcellus Shale – the second largest natural gas field in the entire world. Of course though, we need to be smart – and responsible – at every step of the way as this tremendous opportunity is realized. And we are, and will continue to be,” said Gov. Tom Ridge. “We will protect our environment while creating tens of thousands of family-sustaining jobs. We will continue to work to strengthen local communities and see to their needs while we work to create sustainable, long-term economic and energy security benefits for every Pennsylvanian. We will focus on developing new demand for natural gas while we improve our efforts to conserve energy. And our guiding principles reinforce this commitment.”

“The responsible development of the Marcellus Shale formation’s abundant, job-creating and clean-burning natural gas reserves represents a historic opportunity to strengthen the region’s economy and workforce, and holds the promise to dramatically bolster the nation’s energy security and put America on a path toward a cleaner energy economy,” said Kathryn Klaber, MSC president and executive direction. “The MSC’s ‘Commitment to the Community’ underscores the industry’s steadfastness to ensuring that this generational opportunity ‘is done right,’ so that the nearly 12 million Pennsylvanians, and beyond, realize its overwhelmingly benefits.”

“As a coalition it’s our responsibility to develop this resource the right way. Our core values include the safety of our employees, our landowners and the communities where we work, environmental stewardship, transparency, and a commitment to best practices. Most importantly, while this is complex technology, we need to keep things simple – we must, and are committed to doing things right,” said Ray N. Walker, Jr., senior vice president of Range Resources and chairman of the MSC. “Our ‘Commitment to the Community’ will help make certain that we will deliver on what is looking more like maybe the greatest economic opportunity this Commonwealth has seen in generations. We will continue to strive to set the standard for the rest of the world and ensure that not only will we create jobs, economic opportunities, and cleaner, cheaper energy, but the communities where we work will be far better off because of us. We have a great opportunity and with that comes an even greater responsibility.”

The MSC’s “Commitment to the Community” Guiding Principles are as follows and are available on-line HERE:

We, the members of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, embrace and operate by the following guiding principles:

• We provide the safest possible workplace for our employees, with our contractors, and in the communities in which we operate;
• We implement state-of-the-art environmental protection across our operations;
• We continuously improve our practices and seek transparency in our operations;
• We strive to attract and retain a talented and engaged local workforce;
• We are committed to being responsible members of the communities in which we work;
• We encourage spirited public dialogue and fact-based education about responsible shale gas development; and
• We conduct our business in a manner that will provide sustainable and broad-based economic and energy-security benefits for all.

We recognize that to succeed in business, we not only embrace these principles, we live by them each and every day. This will be our legacy.