Drillers Draw Stronger Warnings
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
1 September 2010
By Andrew Conte
Natural gas drilling companies should identify the chemicals they put
into the ground, embrace a tax on production and find ways to avoid
simple mistakes, the state's top environmental regulator said Tuesday.
With public confidence eroding, companies need to prove their
industry's worth, John Hanger, secretary of the Department of
Environmental Protection, told industry officials at the Pennsylvania
Independent Oil & Gas Association's conference in Monroeville.
"We have to have the vast majority of Pennsylvanians believing that
this (gas industry) is a good thing -- or certainly not a bad thing --
for Pennsylvania," Hanger said.
Hanger has increased his warnings to gas operators in recent weeks. He
used the event to praise the benefits of natural gas while demanding
"operations excellence" from the industry. At the start of his
40-minute speech, Hanger invited the audience to "fasten their
seatbelts" or "get their tomatoes ready" -- depending on their
perspective.
The crowd of about 300 politely clapped when Hanger finished. He said
afterward that some companies seem to be "hard of hearing," but
industry executives vowed to amplify his message to operators with
violations.
"If the DEP finds people who won't follow the rules, they should have
their permits revoked, and they should go back where they came from,"
said J. Brett Harvey, CEO of Consol Energy Inc., who did not attend the
meeting. "Everybody should step up and start doing it right."
Separately, Harvey and other industry officials gathered in Washington
County yesterday to talk about the economic benefits of Marcellus shale
gas drilling.
So many companies wanted to exhibit at the Monroeville conference that
the gas association ran out of room. A parking lot in front of the
Monroeville Convention Center showcased shiny tanker trucks,
compressors and fluid storage tanks.
Gas operators are damaging their reputations by refusing to say what
chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing, a process in which they
send millions of gallons of water, sand and additives into the ground,
Hanger said. Consol, Range Resources and a few others have started
identifying the additives.
"A lot of very good people, reasonable people, don't accept the version
that says, 'I'm not telling you what is in the mix that we're injecting
down the well,' more or less, 'Trust us,' " Hanger said. "They're not
buying that, and they're not ever going to buy it."
Officials at two companies that Hanger recently identified as having
too many violations per well -- Chief Oil & Gas of Dallas and
Citrus Energy of Castle Rock, Colo., have asked to meet with
regulators, he said after his speech. Other companies remain on the
state's watch list, Hanger said, but he declined to identify them.
Andrew Conte can be reached at andrewconte@tribweb.com or 412-320-7835.