Posts Tagged ‘Ed Rendell’

The order against EOG Resources Inc. will remain in place until DEP can finish its investigation.

MARC LEVY Associated Press Writer

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania regulators halted work Monday at dozens of unfinished natural gas wells being drilled by the company whose out-of-control well spewed out explosive gas and polluted water for 16 hours last week.

The order against Houston-based EOG Resources Inc. will remain in place until the Department of Environmental Protection can finish its investigation and until after the company makes whatever changes may be needed, Gov. Ed Rendell said.

The order stops EOG from drilling and hydraulically fracturing wells. It affects about 70 unfinished EOG wells into the gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation.

Another concern was the apparently bungled attempts to notify the right emergency-response officials about the accident. Fines are likely, said Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger.

Nobody was hurt in Thursday’s blowout in a heavily forested section of north-central Pennsylvania.

The accident shot highly pressurized gas and wastewater as high as 75 feet. The gas never caught fire, but state officials had worried about an explosion and ordered electrical service to the area cut before specialists secured the well at about noon Friday.

About 35,000 gallons of wastewater have been pumped into holding tanks so far, the company said.

Monitors in a nearby spring show signs of pollution, although Hanger said the spring is in such a rural area that it is not viewed as a public health hazard. Officials say they have detected no pollution in larger waterways that feed public water supplies.

The state says the company is cooperating and is supportive of the stop-work order.

Gary L. Smith, vice president and general manager of EOG’s Pittsburgh office, said the company regrets the accident and would continue to work with Pennsylvania officials.

“After the investigations are complete, we will carefully review the findings with the goal of enhancing our practices,” Smith said.

“When all outstanding issues are resolved, we look forward to resuming full operations in Pennsylvania,” Smith added.

DEP officials said the well’s blowout preventer failed, and they were investigating whether the failed equipment was the primary cause.

A blowout preventer is a series of valves that sit atop a well and allow workers to control the pressure inside.

Hanger and EOG said the blowout preventer had been tested successfully by the company on Wednesday morning.

Copyright: Times Leader

PSU report touts job growth, increased taxes; planned severance tax a concern. Others say study inflates benefits.

STEVE MOCARSKY smocarsky@timesleader.com

Development of the Marcellus Shale has the potential to create more than 200,000 jobs in Pennsylvania during the next 10 years, according to an update to a Penn State University study released on Monday.

The report warned, however, that imposing a state severance tax on the natural gas industry, as Gov. Ed Rendell has proposed, could induce energy companies to redirect their investments to other shale “plays” in the United States. Plays refers to natural gas development in other shale developments.

If that happened, any revenues gained from a severance tax could be offset by losses in sales taxes and income taxes resulting from lower drilling activity and natural gas production as producers shift their capital spending to other shale plays.

Some, however, have expressed doubt about the impact of a severance tax and claims and assumptions about economic benefits and job growth in the report.

The update, commissioned by the Marcellus Shale Coalition, was conducted by professors with the university’s Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering. It supplements a study the department released last July.

The updated study also states that during just the next 18 months, gas drilling activities are expected to create more than $1.8 billion in state and local tax revenues.

“At a time when more than half-a-million people in Pennsylvania are currently out of work, the release of this updated report from Penn State … confirms the critical role that responsible energy development in the commonwealth can play in substantially, perhaps even permanently, reversing that trend,” Kathryn Klaber, president and executive director of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, said in a press release.

“Last year alone, Marcellus producers paid more than $1.7 billion to landowners across the state, and spent more than $4.5 billion total to make these resources available. By the end of this year, that number is expected to double, and millions of Pennsylvanians will find themselves the direct beneficiaries of that growth,” Klaber said.

The updated study finds that Marcellus development will create more than 111,000 new jobs by 2011, a result of an increase in the number of wells developed from the roughly 1,400 in operation today to 2,200 expected during the next 18 months.

All told, by 2011, this work is expected to deliver nearly $1 billion in annual tax revenue to state and local governments.

In addition to generating tax revenue, natural gas development stimulates the economy in two major ways: business-to-business spending and payments to land owners, the study states.

Exploring, drilling, processing and transporting natural gas requires goods and services from many sectors of the economy, such as construction, trucking, steelmaking and engineering services. Gas companies also pay lease and royalty payments to land owners, who also spend and pay taxes on this income.

In 2009, Marcellus gas producers spent a total of $4.5 billion to develop Marcellus Shale gas resources, drilling 710 wells that year. The writers estimate that this spending added $3.9 billion in value to the economy and generated $389 million in state and local tax revenues, and more than 44,000 jobs.

Based on energy company plans to drill 1,743 wells this year, value-added dollars, tax revenue and jobs creation are expected to approximately double for 2010, according to the report. And by 2015, the numbers are expected to nearly double from this year.

Some question PSU report

While the report paints a rosy economic picture for the state, assuming that no severance tax is imposed, some are leery of assumptions and claims made in the report.

Dick Martin, coordinator of the Pennsylvania Forest Coalition, an alliance of outdoor enthusiasts, landowners, churches and conservation groups, first notes a disclaimer in the study, that Penn State does not guarantee the accuracy or usefulness of the information.

Martin said the study contains some flaws.

While the study states that development costs are higher in the Marcellus Shale than in other shale plays, “the industry itself tells its shareholders that the Marcellus is a low-cost gas deposit,” he said.

“Chesapeake Energy has told its shareholders that it can make a 10 percent return when gas prices are at only $2.59 per thousand cubic feet. Gas price today is $4.08,” Martin said.

Martin also said the study relies on data and assumptions supplied by the gas industry and that it looks only at benefits and not at costs to communities, infrastructure, environment and regulators.

He said the study does not look at data from other states that either imposed or raised severance taxes. He said there is no evidence that severance taxes affect either production or investment in states that impose or raise severance taxes.

Martin pointed to a review by the state Budget and Policy Center of the study Penn State released in July, saying the review is still valid because the update is based on the 2009 report and used the same methodology.

The review claims that the 2009 Penn State report “overplays the positive impacts of increased natural gas production, while minimizing the negative.”

Among other flaws, the report “exaggerates the impact a severance tax would have on development of the Marcellus Shale and overstates what taxes the industry now pays, going so far as to count fishing and hunting license fees paid by those who benefit from the industry as a tax due to industry activity,” the review states.

Also according to the review, the report acknowledges that many drillers will avoid corporate taxes, paying the much lower personal income tax or avoiding taxes altogether through deductions.

The report also “inflates the economic impact of expanded gas production in Pennsylvania to puff up the industry’s economic promise,” the review states.

Steve Mocarsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7311.

Copyright: Times Leader

Citing crime rise, truck-damaged roads, Rendell eyes fee. Drillers argue economic benefits ignored.

STEVE MOCARSKY smocarsky@timesleader.com

Pennsylvania’s state police commissioner on Monday raised concerns about an increase in crime associated with the natural gas industry, including the failure of some sex offenders employed by drilling companies to properly register in the state.

 Gov. Ed Rendell’s office cited those crime problems as well as road damage caused by overweight and unsafe trucks serving the natural gas industry as just two reasons a state severance tax should be imposed on the industry.

In a press release from Rendell’s office in Harrisburg, state police Commissioner Frank Pawlowski reported more arrests and incidents involving drugs, assaults and illegal weapons in northern Pennsylvania, where much of the drilling into the Marcellus Shale is taking place in the state.

“More and more, it seems the police reports coming out of the northern tier include arrests because of drug use and trafficking, fights involving rig workers, DUIs and weapons being brought into the state and not registered properly,” Pawlowski said.

“We’ve even encountered situations where drilling company employees who have been convicted of a sexual assault in another state come here to work and do not register with our Megan’s Law website. Each of these issues is unacceptable and places an even greater burden on our law enforcement and local social programs meant to help those in need,” he said.

Another aspect providing additional challenges to troopers working in the northern tier are overweight and unsafe trucks, Pawlowski said.

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Secretary Allen D. Biehler said hundreds of miles of secondary roads in the northern tier have been damaged or made impassable because of heavy truck traffic associated with drilling activities. And while drilling companies have committed to repairing roads they use, Biehler said, their efforts have not kept pace with the damage in a number of cases.

“In a few cases, such as in Bradford and Tioga counties, we’ve had to close roads and revoke a drilling company’s permit to use those roads because repairs were not made in a timely manner. The condition of some of these roads has made travel a safety concern,” Biehler said.

PennDOT has ordered drilling companies to post bonds for 1,711 miles of roads, and that number is expected to double this year. Drilling companies have posted $16.1 million in security for bonded roads.

Pawlowski attributed much of the road damage to overweight trucks serving the gas industry. He cited a Feb. 9 enforcement effort in Susquehanna County that found 56 percent of 194 trucks checked were found to be over the weight limit. Fifty percent of those trucks were also cited for safety violations.

“These trucks are large and heavy, so for the sake of those drivers sharing the road with them, it’s important that they follow the law,” Pawlowski said. “We’re monitoring these roads closely and targeting areas where we know drilling-related traffic is heaviest, but it’s still important that anyone witnessing unsafe behavior on the part of drilling companies or their drivers report it to the state police.”

Pawlowski and Biehler both said the state and local governments need additional resources to address the problems that have accompanied the arrival of drilling companies.

Rendell has proposed a severance tax, which he says will ensure that the industry “pays its fair share and helps support the programs and services the state, counties and municipalities must provide to accommodate their presence.”

Under Rendell’s plan, the state would take in about $1.8 billion during the next five years, with $180 million of that being shared directly with local governments in areas where there is drilling activity. Local governments could then use those funds to repair roads and other infrastructure, bolster local law enforcement efforts or provide programs to help those in need.

A representative of Energy in Depth – an organization representing natural gas and oil producers – says state officials are ignoring the economic benefits of the industry when considering the severance tax issue.

“There used to be a time, and it probably wasn’t too long ago, when states were thankful for industries that found a way to create tens of thousands of new jobs and billions in annual revenue – especially during a deep recession,” Chris Tucker, a spokesman for Energy In Depth, said in an e-mailed response.

“If this is the way that state administrators show their thanks for bringing enormous economic opportunities to the Commonwealth, they sure have a funny way of showing it,” Tucker said.

Tucker also believes Pawlowski is using too broad a brush to paint an unfair picture of natural gas industry workers.

“The explicit suggestion by the state police that all natural gas workers in the state are a bunch of common criminals is especially reproachable and should be retracted and apologized for immediately,” Tucker said.

Copyright The Times Leader

That situation could shift, says co-author of study of political donations.

By Andrew M. Sederaseder@timesleader.com
Times Leader Staff Writer

While natural gas companies and their related political action committees have given millions of dollars to elected officials throughout Pennsylvania since 2001, the donations have not flowed as heavily into the coffers of politicians serving Luzerne County.

One of the authors of a report that looked at the correlation of campaign contributions and legislation related to the natural gas drilling industry predicted they soon will.

A study released this week by the non-profit organization Pennsylvania Common Cause, takes a look at the link between gas firms and political donations and finds that since 2001, the industry has contributed $2.8 million to political candidates in Pennsylvania.

The study, titled “Deep Drilling, Deep Pockets” also reports that since 2007 the industry has spent $4.2 million to lobby members of the state legislature and the Rendell administration.

“I think part of the industry’s success is cultivating people at the very top,” said James Browning, director of development for Pennsylvania Common Cause and one of two men who put the report together.

The report includes a list of the top 25 recipients of the funding from Jan. 1, 2001 through April of 2010. At the top of the list is state Attorney General Tom Corbett, a Republican candidate for governor. He received $361,207, according to the report. Two previous gubernatorial candidates also made the list – Mike Fisher, who lost his bid in 2002, accepted $98,386, and Lynn Swan, who lost his bid in 2006, took in $351,263. Both men are Republicans.

Gov. Ed Rendell is sixth on the list. The Democrat from Philadelphia has accepted $84,100 in campaign contributions over the past nine and a third years. Current Democratic candidates for governor Dan Onorato, $59,300 and Jack Wagner, $44,550, ranked seventh and 10th respectively.

Others on the list include current and former judges, a former lieutenant governor, a candidate this year for that same post, a former candidate for the state House and numerous current members of the General Assembly.

Not one of the seven state House members or four state senators who represent Luzerne County made the top 25 list. In fact, according to records on the Department of State website and those provided by Pennsylvania Common Cause, campaigns for four of the seven House members did not receive one dime from the gas companies. The four are: Jim Wansacz, D-Old Forge; Phyllis Mundy, D-Kingston; Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Wilkes-Barre; and Mike Carroll, D-Avoca.

Rep. Karen Boback, R-Harveys Lake, accepted $250 from Chesapeake Energy Corp. Fed PAC on Oct. 9, 2009. Boback said that money was accepted by mistake and returned two months later. She said it is her policy “not to solicit or accept contributions from oil or gas companies.”

Rep. John Yudichak, D-Plymouth Twp., accepted $250 on April 10, 2008, from the PAC affiliated with Dominion Energy. Rep. Todd A. Eachus, D-Butler Township, accepted $500 from EQT Corp. PAC on July 2, 2009; $500 from EXCO Resources PAC on Oct. 20, 2008; and $250 from Equitable Resources, Inc. PAC on Sept. 30, 2008.

Of the four senators who represent a portion of Luzerne County, Bob Mellow, D-Peckville, took in the most at $3,000. That encompasses eight total donations, four from the Equitable Resources, Inc. Political Involvement Committee totaling $1,750 and four from the NFG PA PAC, affiliated with Seneca Resources, totaling $1,250. He declined comment through a spokeswoman, saying that he had not yet seen the report.

Sen. John Gordner, R-Berwick, accepted three donations of $500 from Dominion PAC. One came in 2004, another in 2006 and the third in 2008. His term does not expire for another two years.

Sen. Ray Musto, D-Pittston Township, accepted $500 from the Marathon Oil Co. Employees PAC on Oct. 20, 2008. Earlier this year, the veteran lawmaker announced he was retiring and not seeking another term in Harrisburg.

Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township, accepted three donations at $500 apiece. One came from Cabot Oil and Gas on April 22, 2009; another was from EXCO Resources PAC on Nov. 19, 2008; and on April, 22, 2009, she accepted one from NFG PA PAC.

Browning said that as pressure from the public is placed on officials to tax the industry and approve more regulations, the elected officials at all levels of government, even those in non-leadership positions, will begin to see the money.

“I will predict that as there are more votes and as drilling expands, the money will come,” Browning said.

It will not head to Baker anymore.

The senator, who is seeking her second term in office this year, said, “Because of the sensitivity of the issues revolving around gas drilling, I am not asking for contributions from the gas drilling interests, nor am I accepting them.”

Barry Kauffman, executive director for Pennsylvania Common Cause, said the report illustrates the “power of political money in the governing process.” He said that as discussions about securing access to state forest land for drilling and severance taxes on natural gas production have popped up the past two years, lobbyist and campaign contribution spending have increased. The results have been no taxes have been approved and the state leased state land for drillers.

Baker said that she votes in response to her constituents, not her contributors.

“My legislative decision-making takes into account a variety of factors, but campaign contributions are never one of them. If anyone who contributes believes they are gaining special access or assuring a result, they will be sorely disappointed. That no-connection principle applies irrespective of the size of the contribution,” Baker said.

Andrew M. Seder, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 570-829-7269.

Coyright: Times Leader

Governor’s office announced this week a plan to allow Anadarko Petroleum to access 32,896 acres.

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

Some state representatives are concerned about Gov. Ed Rendell’s decision to lease nearly 33,000 acres of state forest land to an energy company for natural gas exploration.

Rendell’s office on Tuesday announced that Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has paid the commonwealth $120 million to access 32,896 acres of state forest through a natural gas lease agreement with the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Prior to a presentation on the state Department of Environmental Protection’s role in regulating natural gas drilling that she attended Tuesday at Misericordia University, state Rep. Phyllis Mundy said she was disappointed to learn of the lease transaction.

“The areas that could responsibly be leased in state forests are already under lease. Why don’t they go ahead and drill there? We don’t need additional drilling, certainly not until we look into whether this is the really sensitive habitat that DCNR said it was when we discussed it,” Mundy, D-Kingston, said.

But Mundy later qualified her comments, saying they were dependent on whether leasing that acreage was previously factored as revenue in this year’s state budget. “I’m really not clear on what 32,000 acres that was,” she said.

Rendell’s press release on Tuesday did not clearly specify whether revenue from this most recent lease agreement had previously been factored into the state budget. DCNR had leased about 32,000 acres of state forest land to Anadarko in January for $128 million.

Mundy co-sponsored legislation to impose a moratorium on leasing state forest land for natural gas exploration. House Bill 2235 passed in the House and is before the state Senate.

State Rep. Karen Boback, R-Harveys Lake, who also attended the presentation at Misericordia and voted in favor of the moratorium, said she too had a problem with the lease if the revenue had not been previously included in the state budget.

Both representatives have been outspoken in their concern about potentially harmful effects of natural gas drilling on the environment and have been advocating for stronger laws and regulations to protect public heath and safety and drinking water supplies from potential contamination from gas drilling accidents.

DCNR Press Secretary Chris Novak said Wednesday the specific amount of acreage wasn’t included in this year’s budget or specified in Rendell’s 2010-11 proposal, but legislators had agreed during negotiations for this year’s budget that $180 million for the 2010-11 budget would come from oil and gas leases.

Novak said Rendell had a target of $60 million in revenue from leasing out the 32,000 acres of forest in January, but realized $128 million. That extra $68 million would be applied to the 2010-11 budget, she said.

DCNR also leased 74,000 acres of forest for natural gas exploration in September 2008. A total of 725,000 acres of the state’s 2.2 million acres of forest land has been leased for gas drilling, Novak said.

In addition to the up-front lease payments, which are considered rent for the first year of the leases, the state will receive 18 percent royalties on all natural gas produced on the land for the leases signed this month and in January. The royalty for the September 2008 lease is 16 percent.

Rent for the second through fifth years drops to $20 per acre and then increases to $35 per acre for year six and beyond, Novak said.

Novak said DCNR looked at whether important habitat for rare or endangered species and recreational use would be impacted when designing the leases. She said leases for each of the 11 tracts specify areas that cannot be disturbed by drilling.

She estimated that because of new horizontal drilling techniques and the fact that the newly leased land is surrounded by land that had been leased previously, only a minimal amount of newly leased land – probably about 300 acres total – will be impacted by drilling activities.

Anadarko spokesman Matt Carmichael would not estimate how much land would be disturbed because it was too early in the development phase.

“It’s our hope and desire to disturb as little surface area as possible,” Carmichael said.

Anadarko has drilled about 15 wells on state forest land to date, he said.

Novak said that prior to drilling activities and after the drilling is complete and wellheads are installed, the public will have full access to the leased land.

Mundy and Boback were not available for comment Wednesday after Novak responded to questions related to state budget revenue and the disturbance of sensitive state forest habitat.

Copyright: Times Leader

MARC LEVY Associated Press Writer

HARRISBURG — Gov. Ed Rendell says the cash-strapped state government is leasing more public forest land to a company that wants to drill for natural gas in the vast Marcellus Shale reserve.

As a result, Rendell said Tuesday he will support legislation to temporarily halt additional leasing of state forest land for gas drilling.

Rendell says Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has agreed to pay Pennsylvania $120 million for the right to drill on 33,000 acres in northcentral Pennsylvania.

The company owns the rights to surrounding tracts. The additional land is considered “disturbed” because it has been leased for shallow gas drilling in previous decades, although no drilling is actively occurring.

Still, a bill to halt new leasing of state forest land for drilling appears unlikely to pass the Senate.

Copyright: Times Leader

HARRISBURG – As a bill calling for a moratorium on leasing state forest land for natural gas exploration languishes in the Senate, Gov. Ed Rendell announced today that the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources finalized a lease agreement with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. for 32,896 acres of forest land in Centre, Wyoming and Bradford counties.

In a press release, Rendell said the “responsible natural gas lease agreement” will allow Pennsylvania to meet its need for revenue while fulfilling its obligation to protect Pennsylvania’s natural resources.

Under the agreement, Anadarko has paid the commonwealth $120 million to access 32,896 acres that are surrounded by tracts of land for which drilling companies already hold lease agreements. Because these newly leased tracts can largely be accessed by gas operations on the adjacent tracts, the amount of new state forest surface area that must be disturbed is minimized, according to the press release.

Other than the agreement, the commonwealth will not have to make any additional state forest land available to reach its revenue goals for natural gas drilling in the 2010-11 fiscal year.

“This is a responsible approach that meets our revenue targets and limits the impact of additional natural gas exploration in our state forests,” Rendell said.

“We do not need to expand our drilling footprint in state forest lands to meet our revenue goals, because these parcels are already surrounded by other leased acres,” Governor Rendell said. “They also are within areas leased in the 1970s and 1980s by DCNR, but not all the acreage was drilled because technology wasn’t available to exploit Marcellus Shale deposits.

“In order to develop the acreage, DCNR and Anadarko have agreed to certain provisions to make certain there is minimal impact on the surface. Horizontal drilling technologies allow Anadarko access to most of this acreage from already disturbed areas on their adjoining leased lands.”

The newly leased acres cover 11 tracts in the Moshannon, Sproul and Tiadaghton state forests where Centre, Clinton and Lycoming counties meet.

For 27,185 acres on 10 tracts, Anadarko agreed to pay $4,000 per acre, consistent with the average price paid during DCNR’s January 2010 competitive lease sale. For the remaining 5,711 acres on one tract, the commonwealth will receive $2,000 per acre because the geology underneath is not as promising for gas production.

The lease of the 11 tracts totals about $120 million. DCNR’s January 2010 lease sale generated $128 million-$60 million of that went toward this year’s General Fund budget and the additional $68 million will be applied to a target of $180 million to help balance state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2010.

“With this agreement negotiated and the money in the bank, we can safely be on board with the moratorium which passed the House and is now in the Senate. If the Senate passes the legislation and it comes to my desk, I will sign it,” Rendell said.

Read more in The Times Leader on Wednesday.

Copyright: Times Leader

Industry may pay to upgrade plants that handle waste water from process.

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

The state is contending with a multibillion-dollar water-treatment problem, and the growing gas-drilling industry might be part of the solution.

A roughly $7.2 billion deficit exists for repairing or upgrading waste-water treatment facilities in the state, according to a task force created by Gov. Ed Rendell to solve water-infrastructure issues. Gas companies might help defray that cost as more wells are drilled because the companies will need treatment facilities for waste water.

The process to drill gas and oil wells, called hydraulic fracturing or simply “fracing,” involves shooting sand and water down a well to fracture the rock containing the oil or gas.

The contaminated water is separated out and can be stored and reused, but must eventually be treated. The state Department of Environmental Protection categorizes it as industrial waste, agency spokesman Mark Carmon said.

In western Pennsylvania, where many shallow wells exist, privately operated treatment facilities handle such waste, but none has so far in the northeast area, said Stephen Rhoads, president of the Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Association.

Exploring the Marcellus Shale, which runs from upstate New York into Virginia, including the northern edge of Luzerne County, generally requires far more water than shallow wells because the wells can be 8,000 feet deep

Companies working in this region have reused the water in multiple wells and then shipped it to the facilities out west, Rhoads said, but “obviously, moving it across the state with the fuel prices the way they are, is not economically” viable. The water can also be injected deep into the ground, but no one has sought such a permit in this region, Carmon said.

That leaves sending the water to public facilities, but since many of them are already near or at capacity, the industry is considering paying to upgrade plants. About 30 of the largest regional treatment facilities have been notified by DEP that they might be approached with the idea and that they’d first need to modify their liquid discharge permits and receive approval from the agency, Carmon said.

The idea hasn’t escaped the gas companies.

“We’ve talked about that in various areas throughout the state,” said Rodney Waller, of Range Resources Corp. “We’re investigating that, but … there’s nothing on the horizon.”

Upcoming events

• 10:30 a.m. today the state Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, Susquehanna and Delaware river basin commissions, and county conservation districts are meeting in Harrisburg with industry members to discuss environmental regulations.

• 7 p.m. June 23 the Penn State Cooperative Extension is holding a gas-lease workshop for landowners at the Lake-Lehman High School.

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

Copyright: Times Leader

Elected official who held hearing in area last week on natural gas drilling says he was responding to pro-energy group attack.

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

A state representative says he was unfairly attacked in a press release by a pro-energy group after holding a public hearing in the Back Mountain last week.

State Rep. Camille “Bud” George, majority chair of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, issued a rebuttal Friday, saying that “money and misinformation are the hallmarks of a gas industry attack titled, ‘Rep. George’s Fact-Free Fact-Finding Mission.’”

Energy In Depth sent the press release to media outlets on Thursday, a day after George convened a committee hearing at 1 p.m. in the Lehman Township Municipal Building to hear testimony on the impact of Marcellus Shale drilling and proposed legislation that would put more environmental safeguards in place.

State Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Kingston, invited George to have a hearing in her district, where EnCana Gas & Oil USA plans to drill the first natural gas exploratory well in Luzerne County in May or June. The well will be drilled in Lehman Township.

Area residents and lawmakers are concerned for many reasons, including the fact that the drill site would be less than two miles from the Huntsville and Ceaseville reservoirs, which supply drinking water to nearly 100,000 area residents.

Energy In Depth’s press release classified the hearing as a “pep rally staged by anti-energy activists and like-minded public officials in Northeast Pennsylvania.”

“Characterized as a ‘field hearing’ by … George, who held the event as far away as he could from his home in Clearfield County, the forum included representatives from the Sierra Club and Clean Water Action league, as well as testimony from a local podiatrist and someone describing himself as a ‘naturalopathic’ physician. The only thing missing? Anyone in possession of real, genuine facts related to responsible gas exploration in the Commonwealth,” the release stated.

In response, George said the most troubling aspect of “the attack by Energy In Depth, whose members include the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association, is its slur of concerned lawmakers and citizens of Northeastern Pennsylvania as anti-energy activists.”

George noted that the committee had a hearing on Feb. 18 in Clearfield County, where the president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition and executives from some of the leading gas companies in Pennsylvania, including Range Resources and Chesapeake Energy, testified. He also participated two weeks ago in a House Democratic Policy Committee hearing in Ebensburg that included testimony from Chief Oil & Gas and Chesapeake. Ebensburg is in the Altoona area.

“The industry has not been an unwanted stranger at hearings,” George said.

Energy In Depth’s press release then listed quotes – pulled from a story in The Times Leader – of people who testified and rebutted them with quotes from gas industry representatives, a state Department of Environmental Protection fact sheet and Gov. Ed Rendell.

Energy In Depth pointed to testimony from Mundy in which she said she supports House Bill 2213 “which would among other things … require full disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing.”

The organization then pointed to a DEP fact sheet which states that drilling companies “must disclose the names of all chemicals to be used and stored at a drilling site … that must be submitted to DEP as part of the permit application process. These plans contain copies of material safety data sheets for all chemicals … This information is on file with DEP and available to landowners, local governments and emergency responders.”

But George said that “full disclosure of the chemicals – not just the trade names – and how they are used is not (now) required.”

“The precise chemical identities and concentrations and how and when they are employed can be crucial to emergency responders and remediation efforts after spills, and is at the crux of efforts to remove the infamous ‘Halliburton Loophole’ that exempts the industry from oversight by the Environmental Protection Agency,” George said.

“The gas industry can bloat campaign coffers with money, buy discredited and ridiculed studies and poison the debate by taking statements out of context. However, its ‘best management practices’ should never be taken at face value to be the best for Pennsylvania,” George said.

Steve Mocarsky, a Times leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7311.

Copyright: Times Leader

The Associated Press

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania will join other major natural-gas states in requiring the prompt disclosure of production results.

State senators unanimously approved the measure Tuesday, six days after the House did the same. Gov. Ed Rendell is expected to sign it.

State legislators are peeling back the cloak of secrecy just as exploration companies are flocking to Pennsylvania in pursuit of natural gas in the sprawling Marcellus Shale formation.

The measure will require the disclosure of well-specific production data every six months. Currently, a 25-year-old state law requires state regulators to keep oil and gas production data confidential for five years.

Supporters say faster disclosure will help companies harvest the gas and let landowners see whether they are getting the royalties they are owed.

Copyright: Times Leader