Marcellus Shale: Pennsylvania Must Prevent a Repeat of the BP Drilling Disaster

In hard economic times, state legislatures are prone to take the path of least resistance. You can't raise taxes on people who lost their jobs. You can’t collect taxes from businesses that are going bankrupt. You can’t collect property taxes from homes that are in foreclosure.

Too often, rather than face necessary cuts to luxurious benefits and bureaucratic programs, we let our state legislatures give energy corporations unrestricted access to our natural resources in exchange for handsome revenue streams in the form of royalties and other taxes.

The Louisiana legislature did this - allowing unregulated offshore drilling in exchange for free-flowing revenues to pay for school reforms and community development. When the sweet crude behaved itself, the state treasury overflowed.

Sadly, as Gov. Bobby Jindal advocated -- these revenues would have paid for post-Katrina coastal restoration if the BP catastrophe had not occurred.

How do I know this? Shortly after Governor Jindal was elected in 2008, he spoke to community leaders on the West Bank and in Plaquemines Parish. In his talk, he argued passionately that part of the state’s oil tax revenues had to be “invested” in coastal restoration, because this was desperately needed to protect the way of life in the southern part of the state. He worked to convince the legislature to earmark oil and gas tax revenues for coastal restoration.

But now, because of the disaster, the coastal marshes can’t be restored. They are being destroyed by the very liquid gold that was supposed to bring Louisiana’s coastal communities to prosperous times. Louisiana's fishing, farming, energy, tourist and other industries are now threatened with extinction.

Tragically, in Pennsylvania, the governor and state legislators have not been able to sit down at the table to make prudent expenditure cuts to bring the state budget in alignment with declining tax revenues and a shrinking working population.

The governor and state senators are vulnerable to the same temptation that is destroying the Louisiana coast: they want to strike it rich by turning the Marcellus Shale over to unregulated drillers and frackers.

Sure, as long as there are no accidents, the state will be flush with cash. But, can we afford to repeat the BP catastrophe, and allow our beautiful forests, farming communities, rivers and habitat to be destroyed?

Fortunately, there is legislation on the table that will prevent reckless drilling in the Marcellus Shale.  HB 2235, championed by Rep. Greg Vitale, requires that rigorous safety and environmental standards be enforced whenever explorations or drilling is conducted in the Marcellus Shale. 

If you want to do something to save Pennsylvania from the fate of the Gulf Coast, then, you can contact Governor Ed Rendell and tell him to live up to the endorsement he has enjoyed from the League of Conservation Voters.   He has to turn down the easy cash, and do everything in his power to preserve the forests and habitat that are part of the Marcellus Shale.

You can reach Governor Rendell’s office by following this link:   http://www.governor.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/contact/2998

Now is the critical time to tell Pennsylvania state senators that safety comes before profits and easy tax revenues. Every state senator in Pennsylvania needs to be told to vote for HB 2235. You can help with this by contacting your state senator through this link: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/member_information/email_list.cfm?body=S