Posts Tagged ‘Sierra Club’

The pursuit of natural gas on county land could endanger area water supplies, one leader says.

RALPH NARDONE Times Leader Correspondent

Opposition to local natural gas drilling continues to boil over. On Saturday, about 100 people gathered to voice their concerns about possible drilling at Moon Lake Park. The 650-acre park had been kicked around as a site with the blessing of county officials who were seeking a way to cash in on the local boom.

Organizers originally intended to conduct a nine hour “rally” there that included food vendors, family activities, music and more but could only meet briefly due to a lack of proper insurance coverage.

Janine Dymond from Harding, member of the Friends of Moon Lake and bike trail enthusiast said the county required by policy $1 million worth of insurance coverage for any large scale event on county property. She said when the group learned about the insurance they decided the estimated $1,300 in premiums to be cost prohibitive.

Still, they gathered to support each other, displaying signs of protest for the prospective drilling plans, and spit vitriol at Commissioner Steve Urban who supports gas drilling there.

Dymond said she personally gathered about 600 signatures on an anti-drilling petition.

“It’s hard not to get involved,” Dymond said.

Dr. Tom Jiunta from Lehman Township, one of the founders of the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition, said the environmental cons of park drilling far outweigh the economic pros. Because of its proximity to the Ceasetown Dam, the fact most residences use well water and the recent issues concerning ground water pollution, drilling is too risky.

In addition, the amount of diesel fuel exhaust from the truck traffic and drilling machinery belched from a 24-hour industrial project is significant, he said. He spoke to people who have respiratory issues they attribute to drilling.

He said the gas industry often misleads about the actual economic value of drilling to Northeastern Pennsylvania. Most of the jobs produced will be for workers who come from out-of-state, he said. The gas taken locally will be sold in the global market to countries such as China, he added.

When talking about Moon Lake, Jiunta said the beauty of the park should be preserved as well as the health and safety of the residents.

Jean Whitesell from Hunlock Creek and Kathy Hopkins from Ashley, co-workers who visit Moon Lake on a regular basis, expressed their fears the park will become a drilling site. They were fishing with their children.

Whitesell said she was “upset” when she first heard about the drilling plans.

She said she is not opposed to gas drilling as long as it is done where it won’t “hurt anybody.”

Dymond said the Friends of Moon Lake thanked the Sierra Club for its help in fighting the drilling project. She said the group intends to organize a rally sometime in the near future.

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

County officials had been negotiating with EnCana Oil & Gas USA Inc. of Denver.

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

An energy company that plans to drill for natural gas in the Back Mountain has advised Luzerne County officials that the company will not pursue a lease for natural gas drilling at Moon Lake Park.

County officials had been negotiating with EnCana Oil & Gas USA Inc. of Denver to drill at the park and tap lake water needed to help fracture rock to release gas.

“The county informed us of their interest in entering into a lease for the development of natural gas resources on the Moon Lake property,” EnCana spokeswoman Wendy Weidenbeck said in an e-mail.

Weidenbeck said that as with any business opportunity, companies must evaluate multiple factors to help guide their decisions.

“We carefully considered the potential needs of our business and concerns over the development of natural gas resources on recreational property. After careful consideration, we have decided that we will not pursue a lease to drill for natural gas resources on the Moon Lake property,” she said.

Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla said she has been out of the office after knee surgery and had not yet been briefed on the issue.

Commissioner Thomas Cooney said he had not talked with EnCana officials and that Gibbons had alerted him to the news on Friday.

Cooney said other energy companies might be interested in exploration at the county-owned park and the development of a request for proposals was not out of the question. However, “there has been no conversation leading that way right now,” he said.

Cooney said he did not know how far along talks about selling water from the lake at Moon Lake Park have come. But if the county were to negotiate the sale of water, there would have to be appraisals and bidding and permits would have to be secured, he said.

The park’s 48-acre, spring-fed lake holds millions of gallons of water and is 13.5 feet in its deepest spot, county officials have said. All park water drainage pipes also feed into the lake.

Cooney said he thinks the reaction of the Sierra Club to drilling at Moon Lake probably influenced EnCana’s decision.

An official with the Sierra Club’s Northeastern Pennsylvania chapter said in February that county commissioners didn’t have legal authority to allow natural gas drilling at the park, which is located in Plymouth Township.

Frank Muraca, who sits on the organization’s executive committee, had said much of the park land was purchased with state and federal funds in the 1960s through a program known as the Project 70 Land Acquisition and Borrowing Act.

Lands acquired through the act must be used for recreation, conservation and historical purposes unless approval is granted by the General Assembly, the governor and the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Muraca had said he also found other legal and zoning stumbling blocks that would have to be met to allow drilling.

Muraca had initially presented the information to Commissioner Stephen A. Urban, who has said he couldn’t comment on Muraca’s assertions until he did his own research. He has said he is supportive of “responsible” drilling on county property to generate needed revenue.

Urban did not return a message seeking comment for this story.

The park officially closed Jan. 28 because commissioners stripped funding for staff and other expenses from the 2010 budget, saying that they could not justify non-essential expenses with a property tax increase.

Petrilla has said she is willing to consider any offer to generate revenue, as long as the park’s recreational atmosphere is not compromised. She also has said she would not support any offers that would drain or pollute the lake.

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

Copyright: Times Leader

Environmental Resources and Energy hearing Wednesday at Kingston Township building.

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

KINGSTON TWP. – Several people with concerns about natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania – and especially in the Back Mountain – are scheduled to testify Wednesday at a public hearing before a state House of Representatives committee.

State Rep. Phyllis Mundy requested and is hosting a hearing of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee at the Kingston Township Municipal Building from 1 to 3 p.m.

Mundy, D-Kingston, said she has “grave concerns” that there are inadequate protections in place to protect the environment from drilling associated with the Marcellus Shale formation.

“I don’t think we’re going to be able to stop Marcellus Shale drilling, but we need to make sure it doesn’t leave a legacy like that of coal. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” Mundy said on Monday.

She said she believes a proposed drilling site in Lehman Township is “much too close” to the Huntsville and Ceasetown reservoirs, which provide drinking water to many of her constituents.

Committee Majority Chairman Camille “Bud” George notes in a press release that the state Department of Environmental Protection issued more than 1,300 drilling permits in 2009 and more are expected in coming years, yet no study exists on the environmental or human health impacts of gas development in Pennsylvania.

Testimony will be presented about mitigating environmental risks and House Bill 2213 – the Land and Water protection Act introduced by George, D-Clearfield County.

The bill would:

• Require state inspections of wells during each drilling phase.

• Extend to 2,500 feet the presumed liability of a well polluting a water supply; the current radius is 1,000 feet.

• Require full disclosure of chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing of the gas.

• Update bonding requirements to cover the costs of decommissioning a well. Current regulations call for a $2,500 bond, but the cost to cap a well could range from $12,000 to $150,000 for a deep well, according to George.

Scheduled to testify are Dr. Thomas Jiunta, a local podiatric physician active in environmental causes; Dr. Gere Reisinger, a physician whose 200-acre farm in Wyoming County has been affected by drilling; Victoria Switzer, whose water at her home in Dimock, Susquehanna County, was contaminated after nearby drilling; Brady Russell, eastern Pennsylvania director, Clean Water Action; and Jeff Schmidt, senior director, Sierra Club, Pennsylvania Chapter.

Copyright: Times Leader

Natural gas captured from organic shale formations is not new to the oil and gas industry; shale gas has been produced since the early 1800s (DOE, 2009).  Most shale gas formations have historically been deemed economically impractical to drill due to the available technology and relative abundance of domestic conventional natural gas sources.  However, recent technological advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing along with increasing demand for natural gas and recent price trends for natural gas, have allowed previously inaccessible reserves to become technologically feasible and economically efficient to recover (DOE, 2009).

The Annual Energy Outlook for 2009, recently released by the United States’ Energy Information Administration, projects an increase of 0.5% total primary energy consumption annually through 2030 (EIA, 2009).  The majority of this demand increase will come from the residential sector’s demand for additional electricity (EIA, 2009).  Currently, coal-fired electricity generation dominates the electricity generation sector at approximately 49% of total U.S. domestic generation capacity (EIA, 2009).  However, due to emerging concerns and public policy developments regarding greenhouse gases and renewable portfolio standards for a sustainable energy supply, lower carbon energy sources needed for electricity generation are expected to gain marketplace demand (EIA, 2009).  Unfortunately, conversion from a fossil fuel-dependent energy economy to a low-carbon energy economy will take time and significant capital investment for infrastructure development (DOE, 2009).  A recent Wall Street Journal article cites Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club as viewing natural gas as a “bridge fuel” from carbon-intensive fossil fuels, such as coal and petroleum, to cleaner future fuel sources (Casselman, 2009).

In order to meet the expected increased demand for natural gas without increasing dependence on foreign imports, development of domestic unconventional natural gas sources will need to grow rapidly.  Production from unconventional natural gas sources, namely organic shales, tight sand formations, and coal-bed methane, currently account for approximately 50% of the total domestic natural gas production (DOE, 2009), this total production from unconventional resources was estimated at 8.9 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) per year in 2007 (ALL, 2008c).  Of the 8.9 Tcf of unconventional natural gas produced in the United States in 2007, 1.2 Tcf was from shale formations; however, shale gas production is expected to grow to 4.2 Tcf by 2030, accounting for an estimated 18% of the total U.S. gas production in 2030.  Unconventional sources combined are predicted to grow to nearly 56% of total U.S. domestic natural gas production (EIA, 2009).  To date, four evolving shale gas plays (Haynesville, Marcellus, Fayetteville and Woodford) are estimated to have over 550 Tcf of total recoverable gas resources, these formatiosn are expected to be capable of providing sustainable production of 2-4 Tcf of natural gas annually for decades (DOE, 2009).  Of these four, the Haynesville Shale and Marcellus Shale may have the most significant additions to domestic reserves of natural gas in recent decades.

Copyright: GoMarcellusshale.com

The Associated Press
HARRISBURG — Despite opposition from environmentalists, the Rendell administration will give exploration companies thirsty to capitalize on sky-high natural gas prices new territory to drill in Pennsylvania’s state forests.

Read more Natural Gas Leases – Marcellus Shale articles

The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources said it is ending a five-year-old moratorium on allowing new shallow wells, and that it will auction the rights to drill on an additional 75,000 acres of state forest land for the first time since 2002.

If successful in the bidding that will take place later this year, the exploration companies will be able to take a shot at two deep gas reservoirs, the Marcellus Shale formation, about 6,000 to 8,000 feet underground, and the Trenton-Black River, which is more than 10,000 feet deep.

Both are thought to contain large quantities of natural gas, and have drawn the interest of exploration companies from Texas to Canada that have asked for access to all of Pennsylvania’s 2.1 million acres of state forests.

Much of the land to be leased is in north-central Pennsylvania, and department officials argue that the deeper wells, spaced farther apart, inflict less forest damage than shallow wells, which are typically drilled closer together.

New shallow wells may only be drilled if gas is found during the development of deeper gas fields, officials said.

“We’re very excited about the opportunity,” said Stephen W. Rhoads, the president of the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association, “We just wish it were larger; 75,000 acres is not a whole lot of land.”

Jeff Schmidt, who directs the Pennsylvania chapter of the Sierra Club, said the department gave in to pressure from oil and gas company lobbyists, as well as legislators sympathetic to the industry.

“These are publicly owned lands and we don’t believe the average citizen supports turning over these lands to the oil and gas industry,” Schmidt said.

“We just wish it were larger; 75,000 acres is not a whole lot of land.”

Stephen W. Rhoads
Pa. Oil and Gas Association

Copyright: Times Leader