07/29/24 - 107 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/7k7dpu47
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Opinion- Another View on Moratoriums And Marcellus Leasing On State Forest Land
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By Rick Carlson, Former Director, DCNR Office Of Policy
Immediately after the election, Governor-elect Tom Corbett was criticized for his views of the Rendell moratorium for gas leasing on State Forest Lands.
Gov. Corbett's initial comments indicated that he was against a moratorium that would prohibit the development of gas activities where the leases were held by individuals currently getting the needed approvals and permits to proceed with drilling.
Gov. Corbett's instincts here were right on target and represented a fair and reasonable reply. The fact that he didn't know the moratorium only applied to new leases when he made these comments may be more indicative that he needs to demand better and more accurate briefings from staff.
His subsequent comments intended to clarify his thinking about rescinding the Rendell administration's moratorium. In summary, then Governor-elect Corbett said that he would be open to more leasing of state-owned land, that there is no timetable for doing so, but only after it was determined to be environmentally safe. This achieves the same end as a moratorium.
Essentially, a moratorium is a pause to give you time to look at your future options, assess the potential impacts of your actions, and determine whether or not they will be harmful...and in the case of our State Forest land, there is the added burden of determining whether the Commonwealth is upholding its Constitutional responsibilities to manage these lands in trust for all the people.
If we take him at his word, there may be new Marcellus gas leasing on public lands under Gov. Corbett, but only after his team determines it is environmentally safe...this is essentially a Corbett moratorium. The much larger and more important question is the nature of the evaluation his team will conduct (including the public's involvement) to determine whether new leasing, in Gov. Corbett's words, is environmentally safe.
During the Corbett moratorium, this is what he will find. The areas having the greatest potential for leasing without harm to the environment have already been leased. Gov. Rendell has already placed the most financially lucrative lands on the block. T
he development of the Gov. Rendell leases will result in thousands of wells on State Forest land. The needed staffing for DCNR's oversight and DEP's enforcement activities is grossly inadequate now and the workload keeps expanding.
To date, we still don't have a comprehensive assessment of the potential impacts we are likely to see from the full development of the existing gas leases on State Forest land. Its long past the time for this evaluation to be completed.
DCNR's screening process was able to avoid the most sensitive lands but failed to deal with the likely impacts from existing leases... well pad construction, fracking, road and bridge development, collection and transmission lines, compression facilities, treatment plants, waste disposal, water withdrawal, and DCNR's screening didn't include the expected impacts likely to occur off State Forest land and impact communities and private landowners.
In short, Gov. Corbett had best be prepared to find a big mess on his hands.
As Governor, Tom. Corbett would be well advised to keep his moratorium in place for a while...at least while he pursues the more responsible course of thoroughly understanding the problems we are and will be facing, and then committing the needed resources to assure that our State Forest lands are being protected before opening another acre for new leasing.
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2/14/2011 |
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