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State legislators plan hearing on oil, gas issue |
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Written by Publisher
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Saturday, 25 April 2009 |
A state legislative hearing is planned next week in Warren on the oil and gas controversy in the Allegheny National Forest (ANF).
By Ted Lutz
Kane Republican Staff
A state legislative hearing is planned next week in Warren on the oil and gas controversy in the Allegheny National Forest (ANF).
State Rep. Kathy Rapp (R-Warren) said the hearing is tentatively set next Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Holiday Inn in Warren.
Rapp will preside at the hearing along with State Rep. Martin Causer (R-Turtlepoint) and State Rep. Matt Gabler (R-Clearfield/Elk).
Rapp is serving her third two-year term as a state legislator for a district that includes Kane, Mt. Jewett, Hamilton Township, Ludlow, Wetmore Township, Hamlin Township and Hazel Hurst. She is a member of the legislature’s Environmental Resources and Energy Committee as well as other panels.
U.S. Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-Howard) is expected to speak at the hearing. Representatives of oil and gas producers also are expected to speak at the hearing along with other state legislators.
The U.S. Forest Service will be asked to send representatives to participate in the hearing, Rapp said.
According to Rapp, the hearing is planned to generate comments on the oil and gas drilling issue in the ANF.
For the first 3 ½ months of this year, there has been an unofficial moratorium on the issuance of “notices to proceed” for oil and gas wells in the ANF. The holdup began when the authority for issuing the notices shifted from the ANF headquarters in Warren to the Milwaukee regional office of the Forest Service.
A proposed settlement in one of five lawsuits filed over oil and gas well drilling in the ANF has given ANF Supervisor Leanne Marten the “green light” to issue notices to proceed for 588 pending well applications. However, the ANF proposes to hold any new applications in abeyance for at least a year while another environmental study is conducted.
Rapp said this delay in approving new applications is expected to have an adverse effect on oil and gas operations in the ANF.
“It affects our economy,” she said in reference to the holdup of consideration of new applications. Rapp said this issue would be discussed at the hearing tentatively set for next Friday.
“The state of Pennsylvania should have input,” Rapp said in discussing the ANF plan to postpone consideration of new well applications until another environmental study is completed.
About 93 percent of the subsurface mineral rights in the 513,000-acre ANF are owned or leased by private companies, who claim they have the legal authority to access their property.
Meanwhile, the ANF is planning public meetings next week on the development of its Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) linked with oil and gas drilling.
“We will share the preliminary significant issues and proposed alternatives,” the ANF said in a notice of the meetings.
The first meeting is Monday at 7 p.m. at the ANF headquarters on Route 62 in North Warren.
A meeting Tuesday is set for 7 p.m. at Rice Auditorium at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. A third meeting is Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Holiday Inn in Clarion.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 12 June 2009 )
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