Dear RDA members and friends,

As evidenced by his own admissions, the governor of Pennsylvania needs your help. 

Australian video-journalist Nick Lazaredes accomplished a rare feat when he interviewed PA Governor Tom Corbett as part of a 19-minute video on shale gas issues shot in September, 2011. 

As we begin a new year, the RDA board would like to encourage all Pennsylvanians who value private property and individual rights to contact the Governor and ask him to meet with Pennsylvania citizens who believe their private drinking water wells have been dangerously impacted by shale gas development. Encourage the governor to start his investigative journey with Dimock Township's Carter Road residents Craig and Julie Saunter and Victoria Switzer.

The Corbett interview leads us to believe his career as a prosecutor may be having an unreasonable influence on his behavior as a governor.  In the interview, Corbett claims his failure to act to protect people's rights is caused by what he believes to be a lack of evidence that would hold up in court, evidence linking gas drilling to negative health impacts. 

The Governor states that he has not seen, "empirical evidence that the production of natural gas is an overall dangerous health hazard." As Governor, his duty to his fellow citizens should go far beyond that standard. It is our belief that any open-minded person who meets and talks with the Sautners and Victoria Switzer would come away knowing they are fair and honest people. At the very least, they have quality of life and property value challenges that need to be heard. 

If situations like theirs are so infrequent, why can't their Governor personally listen to them and hear what they have to say? This past week, officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were in Dimock to reopen an investigation and visit with residents (Read more at:  HYPERLINK "http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/epa-dimock-water-supplies-merit-further-investigation-1.1251334" In spite of renewed concern from federal officials about water contamination, there has been no word from the governor. 

We encourage you to contact Governor Corbett and request that he act as a leader, not a prosecutor. Letters can be mailed to: Governor Tom Corbett, 225 Main Capitol Building, Harrisburg, PA 17120. Phone the governor at: 717-787-2500. Email: Governor@pa.gov

 We have transcribed segments of the Tom Corbett (TC) - Nick Lazaredes(NL) interview below. This Q and A, and the entire Journeyman Productions video, is available here:  HYPERLINK "http://www.5min.com/Video/Learn-About-Hydraulic-Fracking-in-the-United-States-517220980"

NL: Since you mentioned agriculture, there have also been a few reports of cattle that can't drink water because aquifers have become contaminated up north in Bradford County.  

TC: Well see, you keep wanting to talk about, there have been reports, and Nick, I can't talk about reports that I haven't seen... I was a prosecutor most of my life. I have to prove something beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law after the question has been conducted. I haven't seen those reports and I haven't seen that those reports have proved that it was the drilling that caused that.

NL: Will you go there (the Dimock area) at some stage?

TC: At some point. I personally am not aware that I have received any kind of communication from them to go there. But certainly I will go up there.

NL: Do you accept that wells can be contaminated by the drilling process?

TC: Well, I accept that the old gas wells that we have, the shallow wells we have had here in Pennsylvania have had the ability to, and probably have, contaminated wells. 

Off camera question after a clip regarding campaign contributions.

TC: Various individuals involved in natural gas, and corporations can't give me money, it's individuals, if they expect they're going to get favored nation status, or I'm not going to enforce the law against them, then they've made a bad investment. 

Off camera question after a clip of Crystal Stroud in which she describes going to Harrisburg in a failed attempt to speak with the Governor.

TC: The question is jobs or no jobs. That has a lot to do with it... I have not seen anybody produce to me empirical evidence that the production of natural gas is an overall dangerous health hazard.

NL: But the fracking, of course, is a different element.

TC: The fracking is something new but it is not something new to areas like Texas. They've been doing it for, I think, 25 or 30 years.

NL: What would you like to see done in that area? Do you think it's wise to investigate it and then perhaps draw up regulations?

TC: That's a very broad question. So it's very hard to answer a question that is - I'll go back in the courtroom - a leading question. Again, I need to know that there are health complaints and what those specific health complaints are.

In conclusion, your governor has stated his need to know. We ask you to encourage him to meet that need. 

Responsible Drilling Alliance, Board of Directors

Ralph Kisberg

Robert Cross

Janie Richardson

Barbara Jarmoska

Mark Szybist

Jennifer Slotterback