Pa. Marcellus Shale Coalition Unveils Drillers' Principles
Washington PA Observer Reporter
2
October 2010
By Joe Mandak
Associated Press
PITTSBURGH - A coalition of natural gas exploration companies on Friday
released a list of industry principles that they said will make the
Marcellus Shale drilling boom a positive force, and they criticized a
proposed gas-extraction tax passed by the state House as "onerous."
Former Gov. Tom Ridge joined the heads of the Marcellus Shale Coalition
to unveil the seven principles, which range from workplace safety,
environmental protection and "transparency" to cooperation with
communities where the drilling occurs and efforts to hire more local
workers.
"I like the notion that perhaps 10 years from now people will come to
Pennsylvania and say, 'You know what? They did it right. They didn't
just do it, they did it right, they were smart, they were
responsible,"' Ridge said.
The opportunity for the Marcellus Shale industry to add 100,000 to
200,000 jobs to Pennsylvania's economy is unprecedented, he said.
But Ridge also slammed the bill, passed by the state House on
Wednesday, that would impose a new extraction tax of 39 cents per
thousand cubic feet of gas produced. Ridge said the tax was "too high"
and could discourage drilling activity.
Ridge and Ray Walker, chairman of the coalition and senior vice
president of Range Resources Corp. of Fort Worth, Texas, both said the
bill does get the ball rolling toward what they called an inevitable
tax. Pennsylvania is the only major gas-producing state that doesn't
tax the activity.
"Having been a legislator in Washington and as a governor in
Pennsylvania, I know that the House does their work and the Senate does
their work and what you end up getting at the end of the day will
probably differ," Ridge said.
The Marcellus Shale Coalition hired Ridge over the summer as its
strategic adviser while it tries to improve its public image and lobby
the Legislature.
Kathryn Klaber, executive director of the coalition, said drillers are
working with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
and other agencies on regulations that will undergird the principles
put forth.
Walker said the coalition began with a meeting of 17 industry
executives in May 2008 and formed 10 months ago. The group developed
its principles for its first-annual meeting in Pittsburgh on Thursday
night.
Klaber acknowledged that the principles include no hard-and-fast
standards that the group can police. Rather, the principles are meant
to exert a kind of positive peer pressure, she said.
"We're all in this together," Klaber said. "We're all only as good as
whoever had a mistake this morning."
The principles, Ridge said, are about attitude and approach.
"We're not here to tell you that everybody involved on a daily basis is
going to comply on a day-to-day basis," he said.