It's time to investigate Gov Corbett on the Sandusky Scandel

It's time to investigate Gov Corbett on the Sandusky Scandel

The repercussions of the Jerry Sandusky crimes keep adding up.

• Thankfully, Jerry Sandusky was found guilty and will never be free to rape children again.
• The Freeh Report revealed the culpability of the leadership at Penn State where some have lost their jobs and others are facing criminal prosecution for their roles in the cover-up.
• Earlier this week the Penn State football program received unprecedented penalties by the NCAA.

Help us get to 10,000!
We already have almost 9,000 signatures since Friday. That's amazing, but we need even more. The media will be looking at our numbers and it will be really impressive if we have at least 10,000 signatures. We can do it if you:

1) Forward the email below the line to everyone you know;
2) Post it on Facebook with the following simple message, "It's time to investigate Tom Corbett's role in the Sandusky scandal. Sign the petition at www.InvestigateCorbett.com."
3) Post it on Twitter, "Investigate Corbett's role in the #Sandusky scandal. Sign petition www.InvestigateCorbett.com"

We can argue the appropriateness of the level of punishment, but at least people are finally being held accountable for their roles in the Sandusky rapes and cover-up.

But one person has not held accountable—Tom Corbett. In both his role as Pennsylvania’s Attorney General and as Governor, Corbett apparently had numerous opportunities to stop Sandusky that he didn’t take. I say apparently, because he refuses to answer questions about what he did or didn’t do. When a reporter has the audacity to raise questions, Corbett indignantly blusters and threateningly chastises the questioner.

That is probably why no one has called for an investigation into Corbett’s role—until now.

Since Corbett has not been forthcoming, Keystone Progress is requesting that PA Attorney General Linda Kelly, Senate President Pro tem Joseph Scarnati and Speaker of the House Samuel Smith begin a formal investigation into Corbett’s role in the Sandusky scandal.

The major question that needs to be answered is why did Corbett wait years to get Sandusky off the street? I’ve talked to four prosecutors and asked them when they would have arrested Sandusky. Each of them said they would have arrested him immediately after hearing the testimony of an eye witness. Each of them said the first priority is to stop the rape of children by getting him off the street. The investigation can continue after he’s locked up. None of them could understand why Corbett waited years to have Sandusky arrested.

That still begs the question. Why did Corbett wait so long?

Chris Freind, one of the most conservative columnists in Pennsylvania, summarizes it this way:

“One of two things seems to be true, as there is no third option. Either A) you were an incompetent attorney general, which virtually no one believes, or B) the investigation was deliberately understaffed and drawn out because you did not wish to be the gubernatorial candidate who took down fabled Penn State - with its massive and intensely loyal alumni network - and the beloved Joe Paterno. Since doing so would have presented difficult campaign challenges, many are asking if politics was placed above children’s safety.”[i]

Friend is right. Those are the only two options. If Corbett is simply a bumbling Governor and Attorney General, the people will take care of that in 2014.

If, however, Corbett intentionally kept a child rapist on the street to further his political career, it is morally reprehensible and probably criminal.

That’s why we’re calling on Pennsylvania’s law enforcement and legislative leaders to conduct an independent investigation into Corbett’s role as Attorney General and Governor.

We are under no illusions about asking Republicans to investigate Corbett. There’s not much chance they will put politics aside and do the right thing. But we have to hope that they will do just that. In a state dominated by one party we have no other choice. If they don’t respond, we’ll try other avenues.

Please sign our petition by clicking here. Then spread the word to friends and family.

It’s time to get answers and only public pressure can get them.

Michael Morrill
Executive Director, Keystone Progress

EXPOSED: PA Act 13 Overturned! Originally an ALEC Model Bill

EXPOSED: PA Act 13 Overturned!
Originally an ALEC Model Bill

http://www.nationofchange.org/exposed-pennsylvania-act-13-overturned-supreme-court-originally-alec-model-bill-1343483456

Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled PA Act 13 unconstitutional. The bill would have stripped away local zoning laws, eliminated the legal concept of a Home Rule Charter, limited private property rights, and in the process, completely disempowered town, city, municipal and county governments, particularly when it comes to shale gas development.

The Court ruled that Act 13 "…violates substantive due process because it does not protect the interests of neighboring property owners from harm, alters the character of neighborhoods and makes irrational classifications – irrational because it requires municipalities to allow all zones, drilling operations and impoundments, gas compressor stations, storage and use of explosives in all zoning districts, and applies industrial criteria to restrictions on height of structures, screening and fencing, lighting and noise."

Act 13 — pejoratively referred to as "the Nation's Worst Corporate Giveaway" by AlterNet reporter Steven Rosenfeld — would have ended local democracy as we know it in Pennsylvania.

"It’s absolutely crushing of local self-government," Ben Price, project director for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), told Rosenfeld. "It’s a complete capitulation of the rights of the people and their right to self-government. They are handing it over to the industry to let them govern us. It is the corporate state. That is how we look at it."

Where could the idea for such a bill come from in the first place? Rosenfeld pointed to the oil and gas industry in his piece.

That's half of the answer. Pennsylvania is the epicenter of the ongoing fracking boom in the United States, and by and large, is a state seemingly bought off by the oil and gas industry.

The other half of the question left unanswered, though, is who do oil and gas industry lobbyists feed anti-democratic, state-level legislation to?

The answer, in a word: ALEC.

PA Act 13, Originally an ALEC Model Bill

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is in the midst of hosting its 39th Annual Meeting this week in Salt Lake City, Utah. ALEC is appropriately described as an ideologically conservative, Republican Party-centric "corporate bill mill" by the Center for Media and Democracy, the overseer of the ALEC Exposed project. 98 percent of ALEC's funding comes from corporations, according to CMD**.

ALEC's meetings bring together corporate lobbyists and state legislators to schmooze, and then vote on what it calls "model bills." Lobbyists have a "voice and a vote in shaping policy," CMD explains. They have de facto veto power over whether their prospective bills become "models" that will be distributed to the offices of politicians in statehouses nationwide.

A close examination suggests that an ALEC model bill is quite similar to the recently overturned Act 13.

It is likely modeled after and inspired by an ALEC bill titled, "An Act Granting the Authority of Rural Counties to Transition to Decentralized Land Use Regulation." This Act was passed byALEC's Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force at its Annual Meeting in August 2010 in San Diego, CA.

The model bill opens by saying that "…the planning and zoning authority granted to rural counties may encourage land use regulation which is overly centralized, intrusive and politicized." The model bill's central purpose is to "grant rural counties the legal authority to abandon their planning and zoning authority in order to transition to decentralized land use regulation…"

The key legal substance of the bill reads, "The local law shall require the county to repeal or modify any land use restriction stemming from the county’s exercise of its planning or zoning authority, which prohibits or conditionally restricts the peaceful or highest and best uses of private property…"

In short, like Act 13, this ALEC model bill turns local democratic protections on their head. Act 13, to be fair, is a far meatier bill, running 174 pages in length. What likely happened: Pennsylvania legislators and the oil and gas industry lobbyists they serve took the key concepts found in ALEC's bill, ran with them, and made an even more extreme and specific piece of legislation to strip away Pennsylvania citizens' rights.

There were many shale gas industry lobbyists and those affiliated with like-minded think-tanks in the house for the Dec. 2010 San Diego Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force Meeting where this prospective ALEC model bill became an official ALEC model bill. They included Daren Bakst of the John Locke Foundation (heavily funded by the Kochs), Russel Harding of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy (also heavily funded by the Koch Family Fortune), Kathleen Hartnett White of the Texas Public Policy Foundation (again, heavily funded by the Kochs), Mike McGraw of Occidental Petroleum, and Todd Myers of the Washington Policy Center (a think tank that sits under the umbrella of the Koch Foundation-funded State Policy Network).

A Model That's Been Passed and Proposed Elsewhere

The Act Granting the Authority of Rural Counties to Transition to Decentralized Land Use Regulation model bill has made a tour to statehouses nationwide, popping up in Ohio, Idaho, Colorado, and Texas. The model passed in some states, while failing to pass in others.Here is a rundown of similar bills that DeSmogBlog has identified so far:

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Ohio HB 278

Long before the ALEC model bill was enacted in 2010, Ohio passed a similar bill in 2004, HB 278, which gives exclusive well-permitting, zoning, and regulatory authority to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). Ohio is home to the Utica Shale basin.

Mirroring ALEC's model, HB 278 gives the "…Division of Mineral Resources Management in the Department of Natural Resources…exclusive authority to regulate the permitting, location, and spacing of oil and gas wells in the state.."

Could it be that the ALEC model bill was actually inspired by HB 278? It's very possible, based on recent history.

As was the case with ALEC's hydraulic fracturing chemical fluid "disclosure" model bill (actually rife with loopholes ensuring chemicals will never be disclosed), ALEC adopted legislation passed in the Texas state legislature as its own at its December 2011 conference.

Idaho HB 464

Idaho's House of Representatives passed HB 464 in February 2012 in a 54-13-3 roll call vote. A month later, the bill passed in the Senate in a 24-10-1 roll call vote. Days later, Republican Gov. Butch Otter signed the bill into law.

Key language from HB 464 reads,

It is declared to be in the public interest…to provide for uniformity and consistency in the regulation of the production of oil and gas throughout the state of Idaho…[,] to authorize and to provide for the operations and development of oil and gas properties in such a manner that a greater ultimate recovery of oil and gas may be obtained. (Snip)

It is the intent of the legislature to occupy the field of the regulation of oil and gas exploration and production with the limited exception of the exercise of planning and zoning authority granted cities and counties…

The Democratic Party State Senate Minority Office was outraged about the bill's passage.

"[HB] 464 establishes Idaho law governing oil and gas exploration and development including limits to local control over the location of wells, drilling processes, water rights and the injection of waste materials into the ground," reads a press release by the Idaho State Senate Minority Office. "[HB 464] preempts local land-use planning statute dating back to 1975. Counties will have little input in the permitting process whereby well sites are selected (or restricted) and no role in planning and zoning."

Sound familiar? Like PA Act 13 and the ALEC model? It should.

Full-scale fracking has yet to take place in Idaho, though the race is on, with Idahoans signing more and more leases with each passing day. Thanks to gas industry lobbyists' use of ALEC's model bill process, the industry will have far fewer hurdles to clear in the state when the race begins.

Colorado SB 88

The Democratic Party-controlled Colorado State Senate struck down an ALEC copycat bill, SB 88, in February 2012.

The Bill Summary portion of SB 88 explains the bill concisely, mirroring, once again, PA Act 13 and the ALEC Model Bill: "…the Colorado oil and gas conservation commission has exclusive jurisdiction to regulate oil and gas operations, and local regulation of oil and gas operations is preempted by state law."

Colorado sits atop the Niobrara Shale basin. Like Pennsylvania, it has seen many cities successfully move to ban fracking, making the goal of a bill of this nature all the more obvious.

“From Colorado Springs to Boulder County, cities and counties across Colorado have passed measures against fracking,” Sam Schabacker of Food and Water Watch told the Colorado Independent at the time SB 88 was struck down. “This bill is an attempt by the oil and gas industry to strip local governments of what little power they have to protect their citizens and water resources from the harms posed by fracking.”

Far from a completed debate, as covered in a June 2012 follow-up story by the Colorado Independent, things are just getting underway on this one in The Centennial State.

“I don’t know where it goes from here. I suspect there is a happy medium and there is a compromise that can be reached,” Democratic Party State Senate President Brandon Shaffer told the Independent. “I also suspect next year additional legislation will come forward on both sides of the spectrum. Ultimately I think the determination will be made based on the composition of each of the chambers. If the Democrats are in control of the House and Senate, there will be more emphasis on local control.”

Former Sen. Mike Kopp (R) was one of the public sector attendees at the Dec. 2010 Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force Meeting where the ALEC model bill passed.

Texas HB 3105 and SB 875

In May 2011, TX SB 875 passed almost unanimously. The bill essentially calls for the elimination, in one fell swoop, of the common law of private nuisance in Texas.

SB 875's key operative paragraph explains,

[Entities] subject to an administrative, civil, or criminal action brought under this chapter for nuisance or trespass arising from greenhouse gas emissions [have] an affirmative defense to that action if the person's actions that resulted in the alleged nuisance or trespass were authorized by a rule, permit, order, license, certificate, registration, approval, or other form of authorization issued by the commission or the federal government or an agency of the federal government…

Texas — home to the Barnett Shale basin and the Eagle Ford Shale basin — played a dirty trick here, but what else would one expect from the government of a Petro State?

The ALEC model bill calls for a transition from centralized power by local governments to individual property rights under the common law of private nuisance, a civil suit that allows those whose private property has been damaged to file a legal complaint with proper authorities. Now, under the dictates of SB 875, even these rights have been eviscerated.

Perhaps Texas exemplifies a realization of the oil and gas industries' ideal world: legal rights for no one except themselves.

"This [bill allows] the willful trespass onto private property of chemicals and or nuisances, thus destroying the peaceful enjoyment of private property, which someone may have put their life savings into," Calvin Tillman, former Mayor of Dish, Texas and one of the stars of Josh Fox's Academy Award-nominated documentary film, "Gasland," wrote in a letter. "Therefore, private citizens would have no protection for their private property if this amendment was added."

HB 3105's key language, meanwhile, makes the following illicit (emphases mine):

…the adoption or issuance of an ordinance, rule, regulatory requirement, resolution, policy, guideline, or similar measure…by a municipality that..has effect in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the municipality, excluding annexation, and that enacts or enforces an ordinance, rule, regulation, or plan that does not impose identical requirements or restrictions in the entire extraterritorial jurisdiction of the municipality…or damages, destroys, impairs, or prohibits development of a mineral interest…

This bill, unlike SB 875, never passed, though if it did, it would do basically the same thing as PA Act 13 and the ALEC model. If it ever does pass, however, it would mean that Texans would have literally no legal standing to sue the oil and gas industry for wrongdoing in their state.

ALEC's Bifurcated Attack: Erode Local Democracy, Strip Federal Regs,

Coming full circle, though PA Act 13 was struck down, for now, as constitutional, that doesn't necessarily mean ALEC copycat versions like it won't start popping up in other statehouses nationwide.

Sleep on this for awhile. There's more to come.

Part two of DeSmog's investigation on ALEC's dirty energy agenda will show that, along with pushing for the erosion of local democracy as we know it today, ALEC has also succeeded in promulgating legislation that would eliminate Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions - another Big Business giveaway of epic proportions.

If anything is clear, it's this: statehouses have become a favorite clearinghouse for polluters to install the "Corporate Playbook" in place of democracy.

The Woodlands by Rich Waters from Jackson Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania

The Woodlands by Rich Waters from Jackson Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcUyuFjx0IU

Residents in Jackson Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania share their fracking experience. Film shared courtesy of Nature Abounds' friend Rich Waters, a local photographer and videographer who is documenting how fracking is changing the lives of his neighbors in Southwest Pennsylvania.

Energy-In-Depth: Connecting The "Dots"

Energy-In-Depth: The "Dots"

http://fracktoids.blogspot.com/2012/07/energy-in-depth-dots.html?showComment=1341985781003#c6398972496987750421

Gas, Lies & Videotape

Gas, Lies & Videotape

Wanna see a gas industry executive lying like a dirty rug to an understandably concerned citizen at public Zoning Board meeting in Pennsylvania? Watch.
“Shouldn’t have any in it,” drones Chief Gathering’s expert witness, an employee whose name is not readily apparent, in response to questions about specific toxins from a resident concerned about the air impacts of a newly permitted Glycol Dehydration Unit near her home in Monroe Township. She wanted to know if Chief’s new unit would emit benzene, toluene or formaldehyde. He said the station will emit only methane. She also asked if the emissions would affect her children’s asthma. She was told, simply, “I don’t believe it does.“
Something smelled off to Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition Luzerne County, who picked up on Chief’s misinformation right away. They submitted data, along with the gas guy’s testimony, to two highly regarded experts seeking their take on this brand of bullshit from industry boots on the ground. GDACLucerne then posted the responses with the video on YouTube. It’s footage like this that makes the gas industry wince, and want to ban citizens from videotaping public township meetings.
From GDACLuzerne: This sounded wrong considering the research I’ve done on these facilities, so I did a file review (which the DEP wants to do away with) and sent the information to two experts. Here’s what they told me in regards to the expert testimony of the Chief employee under oath:
Matt Walker, Clean Air Council mwalker@cleanair.org
“These are some photos that Scott took at DEP’s office — the tables show that not only methane would be emitted from the facility. This was a lie. This facility would emit quite a bit less than a compressor station would (which also usually include dehydrators), but keep in mind that recent research shows that low-level exposure to VOCs can be more damaging than higher levels, and that all emissions from this type of equipment add up fast. This is one facility among many that already exist or are projected for the area.”
Wilma Subra SubraCom@aol.com
I reviewed the information you provided. The permit limit allows VOC in the amount to 2 grams per bhp per hour. The overall permit limit for VOC (Volatile Organic Chemicals) in the permit is 10 tons per year. This is from the glycol dehydrators. The VOCs consist of benzene, toluene, xylene, ethylbenzene, as well as a large number of other volatile compounds. The VOC emissions are described as total uncontrolled potential emissions rate of VOC must not exceed 10 tons/year.
The statement that no benzene or toluene will be present in the emissions is not correct. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilma_Subra
No NIMBYs Allowed!
“Haven’t we become so stupid that we watch the commercial and think, huh, they wouldn’t lie to us. Haven’t we dumbed ourselves down to that point?“ asks Mike Papantonio of RingofFireRadio.com, concluding his dense interview with Mike Ludwig of TruthOut.org on a lighter note.

Uploaded by golefttv: The fracking industry is one of the most secretive and deceptive industries in the country. They’ve managed to operate with little to no oversight from the federal government, and they’ve kept their secret fracking formulas from being revealed to the public, even though the chemicals they’re using are leaching into groundwater supplies and poisoning men, women, and children. Mike Papantonio talks about how the fracking industry is accomplishing all of this with Mike Ludwig, a reporter for TruthOut.org. Papantonio is a guest host on MSNBC’s The Ed Schultz Show.
Want to learn more? Gasland Director Josh Fox on His New Film, Gas Industry Lies and Government Collusion by Christine Shearer, also on TruthOut.org, tells the story of one PR Firm’s ability to dupe the general public about shale gas extraction, much as they did for the cigarette industry decades ago.

http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/drilling/counties/

*Click on the county, click on the well, and see all the current data... including violations and fines.

Pennsylvania Counties With Active Wells

prev1/2next 20 40 60 80

County	Operators	Violations	Wells
Allegheny	3	2	21
Armstrong	10	42	153
Beaver	3	0	15
Bedford	1	1	2
Blair	1	14	8
Bradford	8	613	1,749
Butler	11	17	228
Cambria	4	2	14
Cameron	3	50	30
Centre	5	42	80
Clarion	9	13	45
Clearfield	13	57	214
Clinton	4	71	121
Columbia	2	6	11
Elk	7	21	128
Fayette	10	36	267
Forest	4	10	6
Greene	14	55	562
Huntingdon	1	2	1
Indiana	12	9	66

Top Counties by Wells

Bradford	1,749 wells
Tioga	1,076
Washington	740
Lycoming	667
Susquehanna	592
Greene	562
Fayette	267
Westmoreland	245
Butler	228
Clearfield	214

Top Counties by Violations

Bradford	613 violations
Susquehanna	476
Lycoming	474
Tioga	425
Potter	134
Washington	109
Wyoming	86
Clinton	71
Clearfield	57
Greene	55

Corbett signs ethane cracker tax bill

Before you read this, it's important to understand that the state has no money, save for tax dollars. Therefore, Corbett is giving away our money in the form of a 'state grant/tax break' to the tune of $1.7 billion. It also needs to be pointed out, that there was originally a 'cap' on that tax credit which somehow was removed from the bill just prior to the house vote. The house democrats received this 39 page bill at the very last minute and most didn't have time to even read it, let alone understand it. When State Rep Vitalli asked what happened to the 'cap' on the tax credit, he could not even get a yes/no answer on it. -Citizen Sane 

Corbett signs ethane cracker tax bill

Shell Chemicals announced this spring that the Horsehead Plant shown here in Potter and Center Township, Beaver County was chosen as a potential location for a cracker plant. File photo

About Brad Bumsted

Tribune-Review State Capitol reporter Brad Bumsted can be reached via e-mail or at 717-787-1405.

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By Brad Bumsted

Published: Saturday, June 30, 2012, 10:56 p.m.Updated 12 hours ago

HARRISBURG - Gov. Tom Corbett signed legislation late Saturday establishing an unlimited tax credit to encourage petrochemical companies to move to Pennsylvania in hopes that it will create a "new industrial revolution" in the state.
Corbett, who asked the Legislature for the measure, is negotiating with Royal Dutch Shell plc to build a plant in Beaver County on the Center-Potter line near the Beaver Valley Expressway.
The House approved the bill, part of a broader tax code legislation, by a 140-56 margin Saturday night. It won Senate approval Friday night.
"My goal, our goal, is to transform Pennsylvania, so we're not only a supplier of natural gas, but also a processor and manufacturer," Corbett said.
"This credit will work to keep the industry and our resources here in Pennsylvania, grow jobs, and grow our economy.
"Simply put: We will usher in a new industrial revolution in Pennsylvania," the governor said.
"While creating jobs, this new industry will help us recover and clean up former brownfields as new facilities are built."

Rep. Jim Christiana, who sponsored a tax credit bill, called it a "historic opportunity" to bring a thriving industry to Pennsylvania.
It's an industry that would utilize natural gas reserves in the Marcellus shale formation. The so-called ethane cracker would produce ethylene, used in the manufacture of various plastics.
Christiana, R-Beaver County, said the proposed Shell facility would be the first cracker plant built nationwide in 10 years, and would be the first in the Appalachian region.
"There's an opportunity here to have several crackers," Christiana said. "There's enough ethane here to power two or three crackers."
There's been debate over the job predictions, but the Corbett administration stands by the estimate of 10,000 construction jobs: several hundred at the plant, and up to 10,000 more in spinoff industries.
Corbett had proposed a $66 million a year tax credit. That number was removed in the Senate.
"There is no minimum or maximum," Christiana said.
"There's no cap," he said in response to an interrogation by Rep. Greg Vitali, D-Delaware County.
Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, who supported it, called it a "game changer" for Western Pennsylvania's economy.
The tax credit was inserted into the 2012-13 state tax code bill that accompanied the budget even though the tax credit won't be available until 2017.
The legislation requires a minimum $1 million plant investment and creation of 2,500 jobs to qualify for the tax credit.
There's no guarantee that the jobs will go to Pennsylvanians, said Rep. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster. "One could live in Ohio or West Virginia and drive to Pennsylvania every day," Sturla said.
Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Luzerne County, said an estimated $1.6 billion is going to a multi-national corporation that bought property already in a tax-free zone. Shell can "sell the tax credits without the guarantee of hiring Pennsylvanians," Pashinski said.
"There's going to be Pennsylvania jobs," said House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Bradford Woods.
Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Montgomery County, said there was little time to review the complex tax bill, which also included an expansion of tax credits for student scholarships to private schools.
The tax credit language wasn't publicly available until Friday afternoon, hours before the Senate voted on it Friday night.

Krancer-Cawley Exemption Bill

Krancer-Cawley Exemption Bill

In a late afternoon session on Saturday June 30, 2012, the Pennsylvania legislature passed Fiscal Code bill (SB 1263) with a 124-74 vote.

I call your attention to the following special provision:

SECTION 1607-E. OIL AND GAS OPERATIONS IN THE SOUTH NEWARK BASIN, specifically (3) THE UNIQUE GEOLOGIC AND GEOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOUTH NEWARK BASIN EVALUATED IN THE REPORT UNDER PARAGRAPH (1) HAVE NOT BEEN ADEQUATELY EVALUATED BY THE COMMONWEALTH AND ARE DESERVING OF FURTHER STUDY

and

(B) WELL PERMITS. THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION MAY NOT ISSUE WELL PERMITS UNDER 58 PA.C.S. CH. 32 (RELATING TO DEVELOPMENT) TO ENGAGE IN OIL AND GAS OPERATIONS WITHIN THE GEOGRAPHIC BOUNDARIES OF THE SOUTH NEWARK BASIN, AS DEFINED BY THE REPORT UNDER SUBSECTION (A), UNTIL ALL OF THE FOLLOWING HAS OCCURRED:

(1) A STUDY IS COMPLETED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES, IN CONSULTATION WITH THE MUNICIPALITIES LOCATED IN THE SOUTH NEWARK BASIN, EVALUATING THE PRACTICAL RESOURCE RECOVERY IMPLICATIONS OF THE REPORT UNDER SUBSECTION (A) AND THE FISCAL IMPACT OF OIL AND GAS OPERATIONS ON THE SOUTH NEWARK BASIN.

Add caption

The Newark Basin is a sediment-filled rift basin located mainly in northern New Jersey but also stretching into south-eastern Pennsylvania and southern New York. It is part of the system of Eastern North America Rift Basins.

In Pennsylvania it includes Bucks County, Montgomery County and parts of Lehigh, Berks and Chester counties.

A USGS geological map of New Jersey and the surrounding region. The Newark Basin is outlined in white.

Kooky Coincidence?

The moratorium would last until 2018, which coincides with the end of Corbett’s term should he be re-elected in 2014.

DEP Secretary Michael Krancer has political and professional ties to Montgomery County, and makes his home in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

Lt. GovernorJames “Jim” Cawley also has political and professional ties to Bucks County as well as calling it home.

CorporateHeadquarters for Aqua America is in Bryn Mawr, Aqua America formed, Aqua-PVR, a joint subsidiary with Penn-Virginia Resources and has been at the center of a controversy surrounding the eviction of the residents of Riverdale Mobile Home Park. Nicholas DeBenedictis served on the 2010 Energy-Environment committee for the then Governor-Elect Corbett.

PVR’s headquarters is in Radnor PA. Radnor is an unincorporated community in Radnor Township of Delaware County and Tredyffrin Township of Chester County.

Berks Gas Truth Responds:

Senator Chuck McIlhinney (R-Bucks, Montgomery) got the exemption added to the bill even though he voted for Act 13 earlier this year. His lack of understanding of the law he had helped pass was evident in an op-ed he wrote the day after the law was enacted. “As we worked to craft a compromise, protecting the environment and preserving local zoning control were two of my primary concerns. The final legislation accomplished these goals, earning the support of Pennsylvania Association of Township Supervisors, other local government organizations and the state’s Growing Greener Coalition. While not perfect, it is a balanced and thoughtful approach to protecting our environment and regulating an industry that is here to stay in Pennsylvania. It does not affect Bucks County’s townships, like Nockamixon Township. It would only pertain to non-conventional wells.” When he learned that the law removes local control over all gas drilling operations, including those related to pipelines, compressor stations, waste disposal and others, he vowed to amend the law, but appeared to take no action. The announcement from the U.S. Geological Survey last week that the South Newark Basin that covers much of both counties is rich in shale gas prompted him to get the language into the Fiscal Code bill at the eleventh hour.

Implications and Questions

The Corbett administration has been one of the major cheerleaders for natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania, and maintains that natural gas drilling is SAFE. The Corbett administration has ignored concerns of the risks and hazards associated with natural gas drilling.

Michael Krancer,DEP Secretary, has gone as far as berating the EPA for their involvement in Dimock, PA. On Act 13 he said: "Act 13 reaffirms our strong commitment to safe, responsible, environmentally sensitive and transparent natural gas development here in Pennsylvania".


In the original version of Act 13, State lawmakers had allotted $2 million from the proposed Marcellus Shale impact fee last year for a health registry. But that money was cut from the bill before it came to a vote. The impact fee passed, without money for a health registry.

Republican State Senator Joe Scarnati, who steered the bill to passage in February, said he was “not a fan” of the registry. Instead, he favored giving money for water testing by the Department of Environmental Protection.

Drew Crompton, Scarnati’s chief of staff, called a shale health registry potentially “inflammatory and unnecessary.”

Whenever the issue of safety arises around Natural Gas activities, Corbett's administration is quick to divert attention to JOB JOBS JOBS.

Lt. Governor Cawley’s position on Natural Gas activities in Pennsylvania is that it will create Jobs, Jobs Jobs. “Natural gas is already providing thousands of jobs for Pennsylvania. You can see it right here at Cleveland Brothers. They may not be drilling here, but jobs are being created here in Wilkes-Barre and across the state," said Cawley.

Mmmmmm, wonder why they don't want to create Jobs in the exempted areas?






Questions:
If Natural Gas Drilling is safe, why are just these areas exempt and have a 6-year moratorium?

If Natural Gas Drilling is safe, why, all of a sudden, does a study need to be done on just these areas?
Did PA Legislature shoot itself in the foot with regards to the ACT 13 challenges?

The exemptions, moratorium and call for a study to be done implies Natural Gas Drilling may not be all that safe – especially in counties where many elected, appointed state official live, and where interests to the Natural Gas industry live and/or have their headquarters.
If the PA Legislature can exempt these special areas from ACT 13 and impose a moratorium why not the same for the rest of Pennsylvania where we see the harmful and dangerous results of Natural Gas Drilling?


The two of the recent harmful result is the creation of “Old FRACKful” in Union Town­ship, Tioga County. Royal Shell issued a vol­un­tary evac­u­a­tion request to peo­ple liv­ing within a mile of the well. The Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion is inves­ti­gat­ing the incident.

The second is at a Chesapeake Energy site in Leroy, Bradford County which is experiencing “methaneplumes.” Both counties are located far away from the exempted locations.


And by the way if anyone is expecting anything to be done to correct the Krancer-Cawley Exemption bill – don’t look for it to be done any time soon:

The Senate will reconvene at 1:00PM on September 24, 2012 unless sooner recalled by President Pro Tempore.

Without the entire PA legislature in session - nothing will be done.

Pa. state Rep. Jesse White speaks out against legislation
that would allow two -- and only two -- counties in the
Philadelphia suburbs to ban Marcellus Shale drilling.
White says this unconstitutional bill is terrible policy
that will lead to long-term problems.

http://fracktoids.blogspot.com/2012/07/krancer-cawley-exemption-bill.html?showComment=1341211603785#c426088935593926255