Art in the Age » Blog Archive » CAUSE UPDATE: Moratorium on Drilling Passes in the House

Blog

CAUSE UPDATE: Moratorium on Drilling Passes in the House

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed H.B. 2235 last week, a bill demanding a moratorium on further leases of state parks for natural gas drilling. Initiated by Haverford democrat Greg Vitali, the moratorium would postpone new drilling activities for three years, and require a comprehensive, two-year environmental study by Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection. This study is crucial to the safety of Pennsylvanians, as the deleterious effects of drilling into PA’s Marcellus Shale are not yet fully catalogued. To date, there are roughly 750 natural gas wells on state forest land, and environmentally-minded legislators are worried about their long term ramifications for ecology, drinking-water, air quality, and local economies. Indeed, citing these and other concerns, New York state presently prohibits natural-gas drilling.

Vitali has stated that “If it were up to [him] no more state forest land would be leased out,” arguing that regardless of any safeguards installed, industrializing a state forest will impact people and communities, as well as ecosystems.”

The bill was approved in the house 157-33 – an overwhelming and bipartisan majority – but it remains to be approved by state senators. At present it does not appear that the bill will find such easy passage in the senate: state senator Mary Jo White, who chairs the senate’s committee on energy and resources, has recently issued a press release disputing the necessity of a moratorium.
Please contact your representative in the PA State Senate to express your support for a moratorium on natural-gas drilling. This is a critical juncture for Pennsylvania and Pennsylvanians.

Written by robin on 05/14/2010 in Activism | Blog | Politics

Share this post:

http://topsy.com/trackback?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L2&url=http://www.artintheage.com/blog/cause-update-moratorium-on-drilling-passes-in-the-house/ Twitter Trackbacks for Art in the Age » Blog Archive » CAUSE UPDATE: Moratorium on Drilling Passes in the House [artintheage.com] on Topsy.com

[...] Art in the Age » Blog Archive » CAUSE UPDATE: Moratorium on Drilling Passes in the House http://www.artintheage.com/blog/cause-update-moratorium-on-drilling-passes-in-the-house – view page – cached The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed H.B. 2235 last week, a bill demanding a moratorium on further leases of state parks for natural gas drilling. Initiated by Haverford democrat Greg Vitali, the moratorium would postpone new drilling activities for three years, and require a comprehensive, two-year environmental study by Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental… Read moreThe Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed H.B. 2235 last week, a bill demanding a moratorium on further leases of state parks for natural gas drilling. Initiated by Haverford democrat Greg Vitali, the moratorium would postpone new drilling activities for three years, and require a comprehensive, two-year environmental study by Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection. This study is crucial to the safety of Pennsylvanians, as the deleterious effects of drilling into PA’s Marcellus Shale are not yet fully catalogued. To date, there are roughly 750 natural gas wells on state forest land, and environmentally-minded legislators are worried about their long term ramifications for ecology, drinking-water, air quality, and local economies. Indeed, citing these and other concerns, New York state presently prohibits natural-gas drilling. View page Tweets about this link Topsy.Data.Twitter.User['stevengrasse'] = {“photo”:”http://a1.twimg.com/profile_images/518237184/steve_twiiter_normal.jpg”,”url”:”http://twitter.com/stevengrasse”,”nick”:”stevengrasse”}; stevengrasse: “http://www.artintheage.com/blog/cause-update-moratorium-on-drilling-passes-in-the-house/ yeah!!! ” 2 minutes ago view tweet retweet Topsy.Data.Twitter.User['kimconstruction'] = {“photo”:”http://a1.twimg.com/profile_images/796844916/dreamstime_8996194__KimElectronics_normal.jpg”,”url”:”http://twitter.com/kimconstruction”,”nick”:”kimconstruction”}; kimconstruction: “Art in the Age » Blog Archive » CAUSE UPDATE: Moratorium on …: Blog. CAUSE UPDATE: Moratorium on Drilling Passes… http://bit.ly/dsEKDM ” 6 hours ago view tweet retweet Filter tweets [...]