Company Won’t Fund City Project
Fracking ban keeps Chesapeake at bay
Morgantown Dominion Post
2 September 2011
By Tracy Eddy
Chesapeake Energy stopped talking about donations with Main Street
Morgantown after the city banned fracking, the downtown nonprofit’s
Executive Director Terri Cutright said.
Chesapeake said donations to Morgantown projects won’t be made until
the ban is gone for good.
Stacey Brodak, Chesapeake spokeswoman, said “It is important we
dedicate our company’s resources where our industry is supported.” The
company is sticking to that policy even though the city’s ban has been
overturned by a circuit court judge, she said, because the city hasn’t
rescinded the ban and still has the option to appeal.
Chesapeake will continue to support Monongalia County projects “where
our industry is operating,” Brodak said.
Some city officials said the company’s decision not to donate is
disappointing. Mayor Jim Manillia also said that it’s Chesapeake
Energy’s prerogative to decide where and when it will make donations to
community organizations and projects.
Brodak said Main Street Morgantown asked the company for $25,000 to go
to the Morgantown Market Place — a pavilion planned for the Morgantown
Farmers Market and other events. The company was considering it, but
had not formally approved the donation.
Cutright said Main Street Morgantown and the company had some “very
positive conversations” about the possible contribution.
But after City Council passed its fracking ban, Chesapeake called Main
Street Morgantown to say the donation wouldn’t happen.
“When the Morgantown City Council approved their ban on drilling and
fracking for one mile outside the city limits, we had to decline
further consideration,” Brodak said.
Chesapeake’s decision not to make a donation to the Morgantown Market
Place doesn’t change the pavilion project, Cutright said — it will
still move forward.
And as far as Main Street Morgantown’s relationship with the company?
“We’ll always be optimistic they’ll come back around the table again,”
Cutright said.
Chesapeake Energy gave Main Street Morgantown $15,000 for the pavilion
last year.
City Council unanimously passed a law to ban horizontal drilling and
hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) in June. Northeast Natural Energy
— the company drilling two Marcellus wells in Morgantown Industrial
Park — and Enrout Properties LLC — the company that owns the industrial
park — filed suit against the city shortly thereafter.
Monongalia County Circuit Court Judge Susan Tucker overturned the
city’s ban in August. The city has four months to decide if it will
appeal the decision. Manilla said city officials haven’t made a
decision yet.
Brodak said Chesapeake Energy hopes the company can once again develop
a mutually beneficial partnership with the city.
“Ideally, we would be welcomed by the community to operate,” she said.
“But at a minimum we would like to see some finality to the decision
allowing our industry to continue with our development plans before we
could continue with additional philanthropy.”
Manilla said he wasn’t surprised by Chesapeake’s decision to
discontinue donations in the city, because the company did the same in
Wellsburg — the first West Virginia city to pass a fracking ban.
Chesapeake Energy withdrew a promised $30,000 donation for band
instruments at Wellsburg Middle School in July.
“I thought that’s probably what they were going to do,” Manilla said.
Councilman Bill Byrne said he would hope that Chesapeake Energy would
understand the city’s concern for its well-being. Byrne was the city’s
mayor when council passed the ban.
“We’re in the business of protecting the quality of life for our
community,” he said.
The city was responding to a specific situation — the two Marcellus
wells being drilled at Morgantown Industrial Park and about 3,000 feet
from the area’s water intake — when it passed the ban, Byrne said. At
the time, there were no comprehensive regulations for Marcellus shale
drilling, especially regarding how wells were sited.