Just Do the Math
Washington PA Observer Reporter
30 May 2010
The writer of the letter on this page under the headline, "Editorial on
gas tax misguided," brings up a couple of points worth commenting upon.
She notes, "there are 19 specific acts and laws in place that regulate
the impacts of drilling in the Marcellus Shale region." The problem
with the laws is not their number, however, but rather their age. The
Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Act came into being in December 1984, a
quarter of a century before anyone here had ever heard about fracking
fluids or horizontal drilling.
The writer also points out that the state Department of Environmental
Protection already has 190 employees working on oil and gas oversight.
There were 195 Marcellus gas wells drilled in 2008; 768 in 2009; and
the industry-sponsored Penn State study to which the writer refers
predicts 1,700 more will be drilled in the state in 2010. That is 2,663
wells in three years, which is in addition to the thousands of other
types of gas wells the DEP must monitor.
Readers, please do the math before deciding who is misguided.