« Coker Installation Pending | Main | Counties Go With Secure Payments »
September 30, 2003
Shallow Gas Well Ban
The Post-Gazette reported last Friday about the planned ban on future shallow oil and gas leasing in Pennsylvania's State Forests. The article is misleading in some of its assumptions such as:
"Regardless of whether the forest plan is adopted as written, about 400 shallow wells will continue to operate until they're tapped dry, Leslie said. She also noted that the state's controversial Trenton-Black River deep wells -- the rights to which were auctioned last year -- haven't been drilled, and the state has yet to realize royalties."
The misleading part about this is that it is not revealed that Trenton-Black River deep wells will continue to be allowed to be drilled. The article does not do a good job of clarifying that this is just one auction. Also, anything over 7,000 feet will still be available for leasing. So the state is not ending drilling on state forest lands - they are just making way for the most lucrative kind.
The beginning of the article was misleading also in that it makes it sound like the DCNR has committed to protecting most of the state forest land from drilling
"Environmental groups scored a major victory over commercial loggers this year when Pennsylvania's conservation agency unveiled a new forest plan that prohibits timber harvesting in the state's most fragile forest areas."
This "major" victory for the state's most fragile areas is a good step in the right direction - but most of the 2.1 million acres would still be available for commercial extraction purposes. This also is not a victory yet as the forest plan has yet to be adopted so the conclusion drawn by the reporter is premature.
Posted by Ryan at September 30, 2003 09:42 AM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)