A dangerous legislative proposal discussed in Harrisburg this week would effectively ban natural gas development in Pennsylvania, destroy millions of jobs, jeopardize domestic energy security and take away a critical emission reducing tool, energy and labor leaders stressed in a series of hearings at the state capitol.
The bill, House Bill 170, would arbitrarily and without any scientific data impose a half-mile setback and represents ”nothing but a backdoor ban” on development, Marcellus Shale Coalition President David Callahan warned legislators during the House Environmental Resources & Energy Committee hearing.
If the bill were to become law, the vast majority of acreage in Pennsylvania would be off limits to natural gas development, a MSC whitepaper concluded. The maps of Susquehanna and Washington Counties, Pennsylvania’s top two producing counties, demonstrate the impact of the increased setbacks being proposed. Present setbacks eliminate activity from 30% and 40% of land in Susquehanna and Washington, respectively. The proposed setback, however, would essentially sterilize the counties from any development.
In fact, there are severe consequences in all major producing counties of the state. Confounded by other harmful policies such as leasing moratoriums under state parks and forests, less than 1.5% of developable land in Lycoming County, for example, would actually be available for exploration and production, the whitepaper notes.
Not justified or supported by any scientific or health data, this shortsighted policy will kill jobs and deprive hundreds of thousands of citizens of the ability to develop the natural gas resources they own.
Pennsylvania’s natural gas sector employs over 123,000 direct jobs and contributes ~$40 billion in annual economic activity to the state, economic impact data shows. More than $6 billion was paid by the industry to government and private landowners in royalty payments last year – which would be erased should legislation like HB 170 take effect.
“To state this development must be banned because it cannot be done safely is a slap in the face of the men and women we represent,” President Rob Bair of the PA Building & Construction Trades Council testified at the hearing.
Indeed, our industry’s track record demonstrates Pennsylvania can be an energy powerhouse while safeguarding our environment and making significant progress on emissions reductions. In addition to the more than 40 laws, permit authorization packages and technical guidance documents within the DEP, Pennsylvania currently has the most stringent setback distances of any major energy-producing state in the nation.
Furthermore, independent empirical studies from the PA Department of Environmental Protection, Yale, Duke, Penn State, and many others, all have reached the same conclusion: there are no systemic, widespread environmental issues tied to natural gas.
“We need to have a balanced energy policy in PA, and natural gas is a part of that. Natural gas has to be the big player in the industry,” said Bair.
“Make no mistake. House Bill 170 is a ban on natural gas development in Pennsylvania. It is horrible legislation from an environmental, economic and property rights perspective,” state Senator Gene Yaw, Chair, Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement.
“Moreover, the hydrogen hub projects…and the billions of dollars involved, are dead on arrival without a continuing natural gas industry. No energy company on the planet will consider doing business in Pennsylvania.”
Natural gas remains one of the most essential tools in our toolbox for reaching shared environmental goals, generating energy security for our nation and allies, and providing reliable and affordable energy to consumers here at home. Increasing setbacks is a misguided policy that threatens this progress and economic prosperity while trampling on the private property rights of Pennsylvania citizens.
