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Hellbender Journal Autumn 2002
This proposal, the largest single leasing of publicly-owned oil and gas drilling rights, would have divided the half-million acres into 141 tracts, and included drilling rights under such treasures as the "Pennsylvania Grand Canyon" and the Hammersley Wild Area, home to the largest roadless area in Pennsylvania. The drive behind this enormous auction of the state's oil and gas reserves is the money that can be made tapping the Trenton-Black River - deep Ordovician formations reaching from New York into West Virginia and Kentucky. The Trenton-Black River formations are buried as much as 14,000 feet below the surface, where the gas will be extracted under intense pressure and high water flow. Large well sites covering 3 to 5 acres each will be required for the drilling operations, which in total could have resulted in the clearcutting of up to 4,000 acres of forest for well pads and the construction of hundreds of miles of roads and pipelines. The Tenton-Black River is the same formation that gas companies in New York were trying to tap into under the Finger Lakes National Forest (see Finger Lakes article.) Most Pennsylvanians would assume that the DCNR would have to go through a lengthy process of environmental analysis and public involvement. But they would assume wrong. In Pennsylvania, unlike many states, there is no requirement for the DCNR to involve the public or to prepare an in-depth environmental analysis before implementing such a major project. The only public notification of the leasing plan was a legal advertisement for bids from oil and gas corporations that was placed in a few local newspapers. Environmental groups across the state were shocked to learn of the plan, which the DCNR had even failed to mention to their own advisory group. A coalition quickly formed that included the Allegheny Defense Project, the Pennsylvania Environmental Network, PA chapter of the Sierra Club, the Pennsylvania League of Conservation Voters, PennFuture, The Wilderness Society, and Trout Unlimited. After major publicity and much public outcry, the DCNR Advisory Committee voted to ask the DCNR to postpone the auction to allow for public input. The result was a postponement of the auction, a few DCNR dog-and-pony shows, and still no environmental analysis. Continually citing the amount of money the DCNR hoped to make from the sale of the leases, the DCNRÕs general statement was "Trust Us." But they failed in justifying why we should trust them. More public outcry followed, demanding a meaningful public involvement process that would include real public hearings, and a meaningful, in-depth, and public environmental analysis. Citizens also demanded to learn the names of the companies that had approached the DCNR to "nominate" tracts for drilling. But these calls for basic procedures which came from citizen's groups, legislators, and the media, went unheeded. The response? "Trust Us." After the brief public comment period ended, the DCNR announced that they would go through with their plans for deep well oil and gas leasing, but did reduce the amount of acreage to 218,210 acres of state forest land primarily in Northcentral Pennsylvania, with one tract in Fayette County in southwestern PA. The rights to 51,203 acres were successfully bid upon during the auction by just two companies. Texas-based corporations Cabot Oil and Gas and Pioneer Natural Resources landed the leases. The remaining 440,000 acres could still be leased off at a later date. This experience has led to a push for legislation in Pennsylvania that would require a meaningful environmental analysis and public input process in the future |
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On
March 28, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural
Resources (DCNR) announced plans to open 499,858 acres of state
forest and state park lands to oil and gas drilling via a public
auction in Harrisburg on May 8 and 9.
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