You Call This A Ban? 10,000 More Gas Wells Will Be Drilled In State Forests

It’s a bit like declaring a ban on candy the morning after your child has sickened herself by gorging on a garbage bag full of Halloween treats.  Not a bad idea, perhaps.  But if you’re concerned about all that sugar…maybe you should have set some thoughtful limits before October 31?

Pennsylvania Governor Rendell recently announced an executive order banning new leases or permits to drill for natural gas in state forests.

“Failing to protect these areas will significantly alter the ecological integrity and the wild character of our state forest system,” Rendell proclaimed.

Right on, governor!  Except that… in order to raise money and balance the state budget, state officials already signed leases to allow gas companies to drill on nearly a third of Pennsylvania’s 2.2 million acres of state forests. That means that as many as 10,000 new natural gas wells will pop up in the state forests over the next 30 years, according to figures released by the governor's office.

Moreover, even if this executive order creates a brief pause in the machine-gun-like approval of new gas wells in state forests, Pennsylvania voters will be electing a new governor tomorrow.  And that new governor will be free to toss out that order as soon as he is sworn in.

It would have been more effective if Governor Rendell had imposed this ban four years ago, before the recent avalanche of approvals of gas wells in the state forests.  More protective, still, would have been if the state Senate had approved House Bill 2235, which would have imposed a moratorium by law on new leases in state forests.

To be sure, Pennsylvania has allowed some drilling in state forests for decades.  But the new threat is the incredible surge in drilling and hydraulic fracturing that has occurred in recent years in the Marcellus Shale formation that lies under Pennsylvania, New York, western Maryland, West Virginia and other states.  Done wrong, drilling can rip up forest lands, pollute streams, and contaminate drinking water.

I think there ought to be a law against drilling in state forests.  And there ought to be a tax on natural gas extraction statewide, so the state can use the funds to create a warchest to protect and maintain natural areas.

Trading in state forests for quick cash makes about as much sense as switching your diet from meat and vegetables to Twix and Pop Rocks. Ouch. Not sustainable.

By Tom Pelton

Chesapeake Bay Foundation

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