Lawmaker: Gas Industry Should be Able to Police Itself
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
24 May 2011
By Joe Napsha
The state should institute a penalty that lifts the license of any
natural gas-related company that repeatedly breaks environmental rules,
a member of Congress said on Monday.
Companies that continually violate the state's environmental
regulations not only should be penalized, but the industry should
police itself by not hiring those violators, Rep. Tim Murphy,
R-Upper St. Clair, told about 250 industry representatives at the Gas
Business Briefing's Shale Play Tubulars
conference in the Omni William Penn hotel, Downtown.
Murphy, who heads the Congressional Gas Caucus, said the proposal was
suggested to him by a representative of the natural gas industry.
The state does not have laws to pull the license of a repeat
environmental offender, but the agency has forced a company, such as a
driller, to suspend operations until a problem is
resolved, said John Repetz, a spokesman for the state Department of
Environmental Protection. Some companies have had
multiple violations, Repetz said.
In addition to banning repeat offenders of environmental rules, such as
those that dump hydraulic fracturing wastewater into the state's
waterways, Murphy said the industry should have a "zero tolerance" for
accidents that harm workers and the environment.
"I need to hear the industry say the same thing, and I haven't heard
them say it," Murphy said.
The industry "would support that kind of high bar on our performance
and compliance with the laws and regulations," said Kathryn Z. Klaber,
executive director of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a Cecil-based
industry trade group. "The scrutiny on the industry demands that."
The natural gas boom has impacted companies, including U.S. Steel
Corp., which is spending $95 million for a new quenching and temper
line at its tube-making plant in Lorain, Ohio, said U.S. Steel CEO John
Surma.
The line will be used in the finishing process for small-diameter
tubular products at Lorain. The plant has a capacity to produce 264,000
tons of tubular products a year.
The market for oil country tubular goods has improved this year with
the increase in oil and natural gas exploration.
Tubular goods include drill pipe, tubing that carries the oil and gas
to the well, casing to line the holes, seamless tubes and pipe that
transmits oil and gas.
U.S. Steel last month added to its tube-making capacity by taking
control of Camp-Hill Corp.'s pipe mill at the former National Tube
Works site in McKeesport.
The steelmaker retained ownership of the plant while it was operated by
Camp-Hill and used steel from U.S. Steel's Mon Valley Works for its
cold-formed electric resistance welded standard pipe, line pipe and
other oil country goods.
Joe Napsha can be reached at jnapsha@tribweb.com or 724-836-5252.