Responsible Drilling Alliance
Seeking truth about the consequences of shale gas development   
RDA e-Newsletter, December 2012 v.1        
In This Issue
RDA In The News
Exposing Our Children
Support The Keep It Wild Campaign
Philly Teachers Denounce Marcellus Shale Training Program
Public Hearing Set for Lycoming Co. Natural Gas-Fired Power Plant
Josh Fox's Latest: Occupy Sandy
Opposing Views: Shaping Our Future
RDA In The News

RDA Board member Mark Szybist is quoted in this front-page story published by Chesapeake Bay Journal. For more information about the Keep it Wild campaign to protect Rock Run, visit the Keep it Wild blog.


State News  
 




Since the first quarter of 2008, Pennsylvania has lost 974 jobs in the steel tube and pipe industry (Source: US Dept. of Labor & Industry). This isn't counting the 147 layoffs US Steel is proposing. Where the the gas industry acquires their pipe and how safe it is are open questions.


National News








Exposing Our Children


Inflection Energy LLC is constructing a well pad and impoundment near Loyalsock Valley Elementary School along Route 87 corridor. A first-of-its-kind study has recently detected 44 hazardous air pollutants at gas drilling sites, InsideClimate news reports.
 
For more information about the study, click here.
Support the Keep it Wild Campaign! 
 
 
Responsible Drilling Alliance is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization funded entirely by donations. Running the Keep It WILD campaign costs money and we need your help to recuperate funds. Please considering donating.   
 
We accept money through PayPal via the
 
Donations may also be sent by mail: 

Responsible Drilling Alliance 
PO Box 502 
Williamsport, PA 17703 
 
 
 Thank you for your support!
        Philly Teachers Denounce
 Marcellus Shale Training Program
Image: Terry Wild
by Morgan Myers  

From Central Mountain High School's Hanna Electric vo-tech program to the Pennsylvania College of Technology's Marcellus Shale Institute, the natural gas industry has targeted PA schools to train and recruit future gas workers. In our neck of the woods academic liaisons with industry are construed as mutually beneficial, but faculty at Community College of Philadelphia released a statement this week denouncing such programs as unsafe. 

CCP faculty say they want "no part of an environmentally destructive industry that continues to cause many documented health problems," Philadelphia City Paper reports.

The statement declares the faculty's "unequivocol opposition to the College's initiative to prepare students for work in the Marcellus shale gas industry." They cite the following "unacceptable dangers" caused by shale gas development:
  • Exposure to and poisoning from toxic substances
  • Dangerous working conditions
  • Migration of contaminants into groundwater and surface water drinking supplies
  • Pollution of air, water and soil
  • Destruction of natural habitats and degradation of public lands
  • Habitat destruction and loss of biodiversity
  • Dangers from leaks, explosions, spills and accidents
  • Release of greenhouse gases, known accelerators of climate disruption and global warming
CCP faculty are not alone in their denouncement of academic ties to industry. Penn State University abandoned its fracking study last October after faculty criticized its pro-industry slant. Last month SUNY Buffallo closed its shale research institute citing potential conflicts of interest.
 
"At a time that we are witnessing such catastrophic weather events related to human-induced climate change, it is short-sighted and foolhardy to promote fracking," Margaret Stephens, professor of environmental conservation and geography told the Philadelphia City Paper. "We now know that shale gas drilling actually accelerates climate change." 

The CCP's opposition is part of a growing movement calling for college and university divestment from the highly-polluting fossil fuel industry.
Public Hearing Set for Lycoming Co. Natural Gas-Fired Power Plant
Steam rises from a natural gas-fired plant in San Francisco. (Image: Alan Grinberg via Creative Commons)

 

Energy company Moxie Patriot LLC has submitted an application to build a natural gas-fired power plant in Clinton Township, Lycoming County. If approved, at least 2.7 million tons of greenhouse gasses including carcinogenic volatile organic compounds will be emitted each year into the air we breathe. Air pollution can travel hundreds of miles and kills thousands of people annually.

 

The PA DEP will hold a public hearing regarding the proposed plant at 8 pm Thursday, January 3 at the Clinton Township Volunteer Fire Co., 2311 Route 54 Highway, Montgomery, Pa. 17752. A public meeting will be held prior to the hearing at 6:30 pm to discuss the permit and proposed facility.

 

If you would voice your concerns about the plant's construction, please send your contact information to Matt Walker of the Clean Air Council. On the evening of the hearing he will give the list to DEP to ensure everyone gets a chance to speak. DEP will not accept advance sign-ups for oral testimony.

  

Written testimony will be accepted. Please submit a written statement by the close of business on Monday, January 14, 2013 to: 

  

Muhammad Zaman, 
Environmental Program Manager 
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
Air Quality Program
208 West Third St., Suite 101
Williamsport, Pa. 17701 
 

For more information about the hearing, see the PA Bulletin. To read Moxie Patriot LLC's permit application, see our website.

Josh Fox's Latest: Occupy Sandy
Opposing Views: Shaping Our Future
The videos below juxtapose starkly different world views. Thomas Linzey of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund describes how extractive industries degrade public health and the environment. Rex Tillerson, Chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil, highlights the economic advantages of fossil fuel extraction.
Thomas Linzey
Thomas Linzey
Rex W. Tillerson, chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil
Rex W. Tillerson