Letter to the Editor on Marcellus Shale Concerns

The following is my opinion on hydraulic fracking and Marcellus Shale.

While I do not want to see either regulated out of existence in Pennsylvania, I also cannot grasp the way some of our elected officials from our governor on down are walking on eggshells with this industry.

They are coddling them, while some are running rampant in our communities, beginning with their company land agents and independent representatives acting on behalf of various companies with the leases, on down to the drilling and fracking of these wells. 

Pennsylvania elected officials should give all property owners a fair shake on the oil and gas leases.

One lease may extend 13 percent royalties, while their neighbor's lease is up to 16 percent and some higher. The leased land rentals with the gas companies can go anywhere from $25 an acre to $4,500 an acre (more or less).

Presently in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania minimum Royalty Act provides that companies can not offer below one-eighth the minimum royalty or 12.5 percent.

I have had citizens express to me that they have been threatened with “sign or we will pool anyways and you are left with nothing.” I am against pooling an owner’s property without a signed lease with that property owner in Pennsylvania—that is my opinion.

Furthermore, I am certain pooling from property of unsigned lease holders has not even taken effect to date in Pennsylvania. I will have to research that again. It hadn’t the last time I checked.

I believe the minimum royalty law is outdated and needs to be addressed to protect the interest of our citizens throughout Pennsylvania. Who are our elected politicians protecting anyway—the gas drillers or our Pennsylvania property owners? 

I am concerned over not only the fracking chemicals, but the storage, transportation and the eventually dumping of these fluids. Yes, there is a Pennsylvania disclosure regulation in place for listing the chemicals being used during fracking.

The operators are required to submit reports to the state Department of Environment Protection, and let’s not forget there are the chemical operators “trade secret” protection to keep one from viewing all the chemicals being used in fracking.

Why aren’t our elected officials doing more than just making a company list of their chemical cocktail mixture? In my opinion, we need to not only regulate the listing of these chemicals, but downright forbid certain chemicals from being used in fracking and pumped into our ground in Pennsylvania—if we discover they are harmful to our citizens and our environment.

If elected to the 48th House District of Pennsylvania, I would be able to further investigate through forming an open public task force to meet with chemist, environmental protection groups, fracking company representatives, etc.

Together we could go over the list of chemicals to find out exactly the individual chemical compounds and the short-term and long-term effects of each chemical on our health, surroundings, air quality, water supplies, etc.

Is it possible that some could be eliminated in the fracking process or maybe some are not necessary for the fracking process? Is there another way to extract the gas without the use of the toxic chemical mixture? Do we know the answer to any of this now? No! Why not? Because our elected officials just make the companies provide a list. Unbelievable—anyone can read a list. In my opinion, now that we have the lists from the companies, they need to be dissected for the protection of our citizens, air, water and our ground in Pennsylvania. 

Yes, I am excited that we have this industry now operating in Pennsylvania due to the economic advantages it brings into our area, but at the same time I want to see guidelines in place to protect our citizens and our state.

We have drilling companies driving our animals out of our parks, state game lands and cutting down our trees, etc. Those areas were designated to protect what our elected officials are now are signing on to destroy. 

Will our water supplies be able to handle pumping 500,000 gallons of water more or less mixed with fracking chemicals into these well sites? I don’t want to see our state becoming a wasteland because we sold ourselves out to the gas drillers.

Marcellus Shale is relatively new to Pennsylvania. We can learn by visiting other states, where the deep gas well drilling has taken place, and review what regulations (etc) they have put into place.

I am not above seeking advice from others or listening to the concerns of others, so I can introduce bills—when elected—to better our environment and protect the health of our citizens, while developing a sound-working relationship with this industry. 

Also, since our state property owners are paying tax on their royalty income, then the companies' production with Marcellus Shale need to be also taxed in Pennsylvania.

I realize our governor is against any tax, and said he would veto such if it came onto his desk. I disagree 100 percent with our governor and his attitude on this subject.

There is the impact fee, which—to me—is a form of taxation being considered at this time, but I still believe that does not go far enough.

The production from these companies are being traded as a commodity and being sold in the world markets to China, Japan, India, etc., and we are not taxing their production in Pennsylvania.

That just doesn't make sense in my opinion. I also believe the income revenue from taxing these companies' production should be set aside for use toward educating our children by going back into our school districts thus reducing school district property taxes on property owners—the same as the reduction now experienced from the portion of casino income into the state earmarked toward the Homestead Act. 

I do not consider myself unfriendly toward the new companies with Marcellus Shale operating and moving into our area.

I welcome them into our neighborhoods.

At the same time, our elected officials have to remember we have something here that they want from us. So, we need to make sure they obey our laws while operating in our state and we need to make sure we have laws in place in order to protect not only our citizens, but our environment.

Together, we can work side by side with this industry to become good stewards of our state.

Sincerely, 
Judith L. Fisher 
48th state House District Democratic candidate, Pennsylvania State House of Representatives

Editor's Note: Want to voice your thoughts? Write a letter to andrea.bosco@patch.com and we'll be happy to publish it.