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PEC: Business As Usual Not Acceptable In Dealing With Marcellus Shale Issues
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Jack Ubinger, senior vice president of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, testified this week before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works in Washington, D.C. on Marcellus Shale Development in Pennsylvania. "There is widespread agreement that "business as usual" in Marcellus Shale natural gas operations, as well as its current regulatory oversight, is not equal to the scale and scope of this development, and that simply applying conventional solutions to these significant challenges will result in adverse consequences to all stakeholders in the process," said Ubinger.
"Our fundamental position is that development of the Marcellus Shale need not produce winners and losers," said Ubinger. "If done right, the industry, the people of Pennsylvania, and the environment can all benefit from the combined effects of government regulation that is equal to the task at hand and the enforcement of best management practices in an industry that has already demonstrated its capabilities in this regard."
Ubinger said a fundamental change in the permitting process is required because the existing process does not provide for the acquisition of sufficient information to make well-informed well pad siting decisions.
Later this month PEC will present a package of proposed amendments to the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Act, which will include a section that will fundamentally alter the existing permit application process. The revised application process is designed to gather more information on site conditions and focus more attention on the siting of well pads and associated infrastructure.
PEC will advocate that the permit application process for unconventional wells involving development by high volume hydraulic fracturing be split into two distinct phases.
The first phase will be limited to the identification and assessment of site conditions for the purpose of determining whether a well pad should be authorized and, if so, the siting conditions that must be taken into account for selecting the precise location of the well pad and ancillary infrastructure.
The second phase will focus on construction authorization of the well pad and the drilling, casing and development of the wells.
A copy of the testimony is available online. A copy of PEC's "Developing The Marcellus Shale" policy paper is also available online. |
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4/18/2011 |
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