PITTSBURGH – Marcellus Shale Coalition president David Spigelmyer issued the following response to the Attorney General’s report released earlier today.
“Environmental safety and public health is a priority for the industry. The tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians who work across the sector – building and union trades, professional engineers, environmental professionals, health and safety experts, as well as exploration and production companies that contract with hydraulic fracturing service providers, midstream companies and countless other Pennsylvania-based small, family-owned businesses – have every reason to place the highest value on regulatory compliance and transparency.
Our industry’s long and clear proactive and collaborative approach to ensuring Pennsylvania’s regulations encourage safety is unfortunately not reflected in this report, which we are closely reviewing. For example, Act 13 already requires the disclosure of chemicals, including proprietary information, which the public can access through fracfocus.org. Similarly, EPA and PADEP have established heightened standards for emissions, such as those developed by the Wolf Administration under the GP-5 and GP-5A air quality permits. In fact, Pennsylvania’s rigorous regulations and strong permitting requirements have been recognized by independent environmental review organizations as effective models for others to follow.
We’re proud of our industry’s shared commitments to keeping Pennsylvanians safe while enhancing our environment – especially air quality – and helping to create good-paying jobs across the Commonwealth. For anyone to suggest that we are not protecting our environment and public health while responsibly and safely producing clean and abundant American natural gas should better understand the facts and science behind natural gas energy development.”
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