That's what Dr. Tom Junta told about 150 people who attended a meeting at Misericordia University about Marcellus Shale gas drilling on Saturday. I think that should be the rallying cry for the people opposed to the drilling. Moratorium Now! addresses the policy concerns but it just doesn't click. Dr. Junta is a member of the Gas Drilling A
wareness Coalition.
Michelle Boice of Harveys Lake warned that "the war my grandchildren will be fighting will be over water."
Most of the people who attended the forum with Congressman and US Senate candidate Joe Sestak wanted to stop the drilling now until the safety concerns could be addressed. Some wanted to stop the drilling, period.
Sestak favors a moratorium on drilling and is a co-sponsor of the FRAC ACT to close the Halibrton Loophole which exempts hydraulic fracturing from to the Safe Drinking Water Act. That exemption was included as part of the 1995 Energy Bill. I know my Republican friends don't want to look to the recent past as a source of our troubles today but the deregulation and the ignoring the regulations already on the books has caused the mess on Wall Street, the Gulf oil spill and just may poison our drinking water in NEPA.
The government of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has the primary responsibility for really blowing this one. This is from the front page of the PA Dept of Environmental Protection website:
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is not involved in regulating lease agreements between mineral property owners and producers, except that minimum royalty payment is prescribed by law. Lease agreements are contractual matters between private parties. DEP does not audit payments, read or calibrate meters or tanks, or otherwise get involved in lease matters.
It's incredible that the first thing you read is a disclaimer.
The state is looking for more revenue but doesn't tax this activity but wants to raise taxes on just about everything else. The drillers came in with promises of riches without mentioning the downside and people signed up for a monthly check. Some are now suing for a bigger monthly check.
Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center has a ticker tracking the lost revenue by not enacting a severance tax, $58 million to date .
wareness Coalition.Michelle Boice of Harveys Lake warned that "the war my grandchildren will be fighting will be over water."
Most of the people who attended the forum with Congressman and US Senate candidate Joe Sestak wanted to stop the drilling now until the safety concerns could be addressed. Some wanted to stop the drilling, period.
Sestak favors a moratorium on drilling and is a co-sponsor of the FRAC ACT to close the Halibrton Loophole which exempts hydraulic fracturing from to the Safe Drinking Water Act. That exemption was included as part of the 1995 Energy Bill. I know my Republican friends don't want to look to the recent past as a source of our troubles today but the deregulation and the ignoring the regulations already on the books has caused the mess on Wall Street, the Gulf oil spill and just may poison our drinking water in NEPA.
The government of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has the primary responsibility for really blowing this one. This is from the front page of the PA Dept of Environmental Protection website:
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is not involved in regulating lease agreements between mineral property owners and producers, except that minimum royalty payment is prescribed by law. Lease agreements are contractual matters between private parties. DEP does not audit payments, read or calibrate meters or tanks, or otherwise get involved in lease matters.
It's incredible that the first thing you read is a disclaimer.
The state is looking for more revenue but doesn't tax this activity but wants to raise taxes on just about everything else. The drillers came in with promises of riches without mentioning the downside and people signed up for a monthly check. Some are now suing for a bigger monthly check.
Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center has a ticker tracking the lost revenue by not enacting a severance tax, $58 million to date .
Rapid Edward has made sure that we can blow our money in a casino with a fraction of the taxes collected going to property tax relief, less than half and pretty soon a casino will be the only place that you can legally light up a cigarette. His Department of Enviormental Protection has just layed down and let the gas companies do whatever they want. How is DEP allowing drilling near water supplies? I know the EPA lacks authority in this area but the state should be able to to say no to drilling near water drinking water. Governor Edward Rendell needs to take charge of this situation.
In the CV yesterday Elizabeth Skrapits wrote a story about how the rich get richer off this drilling and their ancestors got rich off of coal mining.
Let me see, we search for progress in our devastated area in the manner of gambling establishments in which the very people they are built to serve/entertain cannot even afford a box of their favourite Kraft Mac and CHeese. Yet, when a fully viable alternative is proposed in the form of gas drilling, which by the way, would make NEPA a boomtown, it is scoffed at. STudents, it is very difficult to be an intellectual amongst an asylum full of ingrates. Class dismissed!!!!
ReplyDeleteSo how does the state justify its "hands off" approach to these matters? Have they simply sold out entirely to the gas drillers, and promised to look the other way as long as nothing too blatant happens?
ReplyDelete