HARRISBURG - The governor's Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission focused Wednesday on natural gas drilling in state forests and new technologies in hydrofracking as protesters outside criticized the gas industry's prominent role in its work.
The focus of additional leasing of state forest land will be on parcels adjacent to existing well pads where gas deposits can be reached by underground drilling, Richard Allan, secretary-designate of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, told the commission.
Allan said the agency will follow its own environmental impact assessment and guidelines and seek to minimize disturbance to the land surface in selecting forest parcels for leasing.
While drilling for oil and gas on state forest land dates back 60 years, DCNR officials estimate that some 3,800 deep Marcellus wells will be drilled on state forest land by 2018.
So far, 164 Marcellus wells have been drilled on state forest land.
DCNR is developing a comprehensive program to monitor the drilling impact, said Daniel Devlin, director of the forestry bureau. The agency is urging the 18 Marcellus firms operating on forest land to jointly share use of gas and water pipelines to minimize the impact of drilling operations, he added.
Sierra club opposed
Former Gov. Ed Rendell placed a moratorium last fall on additional leasing of public forest land for drilling. Gov. Tom Corbett has said he will lift the moratorium, but has yet to do so.
It's too soon to consider opening up more state forest land for drilling, said Jeff Schmidt, lobbyist for the Pennsylvania Sierra Club, an environmental group.
"We do not support additional leasing of state forest land until the (DCNR) environmental assessment is completed and released to the public," he added.
At a commission meeting devoted to environmental issues, several references were made to last week's blowout accident at a Chesapeake Energy Marcellus well in Bradford County.
The emergency response to blowout accidents that involve chemical spills is best handled by specialized teams based mainly in Texas that are kept on retainer by gas companies, said Glenn Cannon, director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
To reach destinations in Pennsylvania, these teams have to fly to airports in either Elmira, N.Y., Harrisburg, Philadelphia or Pittsburgh because of the heavy equipment they bring, he added. They need to obtain special state permits to haul that equipment over the highways.
Demonstrations outside
A coalition of anti-drilling groups demonstrated outside the Rachel Carson Building in downtown Harrisburg where the commission met. Speakers called on Corbett to bring more balance to a commission they said is dominated by the gas industry or else disband it.
The meeting was briefly interrupted by a protester who called the commission members "prostitutes" before security ushered him from the room.
The commission faces a July deadline to present comprehensive recommendations on the development of Marcellus Shale reserves.
Philadelphia-based Clean Water Action criticized the appointment of representatives of Chesapeake Energy and Chief Oil and Gas to the commission because the two companies have a high a number of environmental violations.
Meanwhile, Dave Spigelmyer, Chesapeake Energy's vice president for government relations, is no longer on the commission.
Spigelmyer resigned voluntarily and his spot hasn't been filled, said Chad Saylor, spokesman for Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, the commission chairman.