The Fracking Debate

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Over the last decade or so improvements in oil welling have led to a growth
in different types of oil mining that have re-sparked the environmental
debate over oil. These range from oil sands in Canada, Fracking in the
United States, and Deep Ocean drilling off the coast of Brazil. This of course
has caused a rush to extract these new resources especially with the growing
political argument of energy independence and political tensions in the
Middle East. This issue is especially important for Pennsylvanians as
Fracking is a viable option in the State that has two sides both with logical
positions and laws that differ from other states that have similar initiatives.
To begin Fracking is a process that mixes chemicals with water and sand
injects it into the ground through a deep well to a shale that creates fissures
and allows the Oil and Natural Gas to escape. The water that has been
dumped into the ground then returns to the surface as flow back water often
times with radioactive and toxic elements that pose a hazard to the local
water supply and thus have to be disposed of properly for the safety of local
residents. This of course means that the citizens of the state have an
extremely important interest in the current laws and regulations regarding
fracking. As of right now the main push in terms of regulation for fracking is
to place a moratorium to study the health impacts on the community and to
close other loopholes and regulations that would allow the process to be
more safe for the community. As of right now the Haliburton loophole
allows exempts drillers from the clean water act which as of right now is the
primary issue with fracking. The chemicals that companies use for fracking
are considered trade secrets and thus in PA do not have to be shared with the
public and form a major health concern in that regard. While the other states
that have fracking have set up websites that monitor the chemicals in each
individual well PA has not yet taken up this policy.
Other concerns include a 50 year old law that would allow energy
companies to force there way into drilling lands through forced pooling.
What this means if enough members of a community sign on with the
company then those who do not support this would be force to relinquish
their claim to the community.
During the 2011-2012 PA legislative session 28 bills where introduced to
deal with the topic issue and only 1 (HB 1950) was enacted which
introduced an impact fee capped at $355,000 for 15 years and based on the
average price of natural gas to compensate for local communities. The other
major debate around this issue of taxation is the issue of a severance tax.
Pennsylvania as of right now is the largest and only state for Natural Gas
that does not impose a severance tax on the industry for the purpose of
funding environmental protection efforts. This in turn has led to a decrease
in the possibility of regulators to examine the facilities of the Oil companies
and has allowed for certain safety concerns to expand unchecked.
Furthermore the jobs argument has been a major contention as evidence
suggest that Wellers have been providing more out of state jobs simply due
to the lack of training and experience that local Wellers have. This causes
major problems for the economic benefit as the act of establishing the well is
the main source of jobs since when the well is established the procedure
becomes a much more automated process and the jobs cease to exist.
All of this leads to an important truth in the scrutinization of fracking and
the argument for a moratorium since even from an economic standpoint if
companies were less willing to work with the state the resources would still
be in Pennsylvania and allows leeway for the state to bargain from a
legislative standpoint.
Sources.
http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/tag/fracking-disclosure/
http://www.ncsl.org/documents/energy/frackingguide_060512.pdf
http://closup.umich.edu/fracking/bills/fracking-browse-results-
joined.php?browsetype=state&browseterm=pennsylvania
http://www.law360.com/articles/474030/pa-fracking-moratorium-bill-
pushed-by-state-senator
http://www.ibtimes.com/50-year-old-law-may-force-pennsylvania-
landowners-allow-fracking-under-their-properties-1566887
http://www.cleanwateraction.org/feature/fracking-explained