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Critics blast NEPA rules for new forest drilling |
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Written by Publisher
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Monday, 04 May 2009 |
Photo by Ted Lutz
U.S. Rep. Glenn "GT" Thompson (R-Centre County) speaks Friday at a State House Republican Policy Committee hearing in Warren. Thompson claims new Forest Service policies on oil and gas development in the Allegheny National Forest are having a negative impact on the local economy.
By Ted Lutz
Republican Staff
A federal Forest Service plan to apply NEPA rules for new oil and gas drilling projects in the Allegheny National Forest (ANF) is being met with sharp criticism.
Steve Rhoads, the president of the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association (POGAM), claims the imposition of NEPA “threatens jobs, income and capital investments” linked with oil and gas development in the ANF.
Speaking at a hearing Friday in Warren, Rhoads said the “extra-legal regulatory framework” under NEPA will “fundamentally and substantially damage the fragile economic base of much of Warren, McKean, Forest and Elk counties forever.”
As part of a proposed settlement of a lawsuit, the Forest Service said it has agreed to process “all future proposals” for oil and gas development in the ANF “after the appropriate level of environmental analysis has been conducted under the NEPA.”
According to the Forest Service, “NEPA and its procedures mandate public comment; consideration of alternatives; an analysis of the environmental, social and economic effects of these alternatives; and public disclosure of all relevant information.”
NEPA—the National Environmental Policy Act—was adopted in 1969, but hasn’t been previously used to guide oil and gas development on the ANF where 93 percent of the subsurface mineral rights are privately owned.
The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has been the main watchdog agency for drilling in the ANF and has its own stringent regulations.
The Forest Service also has its own regulations in place now for related drilling operations such as road building and timber cutting.
A lawsuit filed late last year challenged the Forest Service’s authority to issue “notices to proceed” for drilling in the ANF without preparation of environmental analyses under NEPA.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (FSEEE), the Allegheny Defense Project and the Sierra Club.
As a result of this lawsuit and four others, an unofficial moratorium on the issuance of “notices to proceed” began in January.
In announcing the proposed settlement of the anti-drilling lawsuit last month, the Forest Service said it now would process 54 pending oil and gas proposals for 588 wells.
But, at the same time, the Forest Service said that all future projects would be subject to evaluation under NEPA.
This stipulation is raising the ire of many who support the rights of private companies to access their oil and gas reserves in the ANF.
Craig Mayer, chairman of the Allegheny Forest Committee for POGAM, said Friday in a statement that “officials at the highest levels of the federal government, after calculating and lengthy deliberation, have arrived at a decision to drive our businesses into bankruptcy and our families into the streets.”
“These officials are perfectly comfortable with these outcomes—even at a time of the most severe economic crisis our nation has faced in decades,” Mayer said in a statement presented at the three-hour legislative hearing hosted by State Rep. Kathy Rapp (R-Warren).
Mayer, a Warren resident who serves as general counsel Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) based in Warren, claims that the proposed settlement was reached without input from the oil and gas industry or state, county and local government officials.
“We here in Warren and the ANF counties and you in Harrisburg had nothing to say about it (the proposed settlement),” Mayer told the seven state legislators at the House Republican Policy Committee hearing. “In fact, we all were deliberately excluded from any discussions.”
Because of the proposed settlement and the NEPA rules, “jobs and businesses dependant on lands that the federal government never acquired are suddenly lost,” Mayer said in his statement. He estimated that as much as 10 percent of the gas production and 20 percent of the oil production in the ANF “can be soon lost” due to the Forest Service plan to implement NEPA rules.
Rhoads unveiled figures to show the impact that oil and gas operations have on the economy in the McKean, Elk, Warren and Forest counties.
In 2008, oil and gas drilling “directly” supported 1,100 full-time jobs in the four-county area, Rhoads said. The drilling of 956 wells “provided support” for an additional 1,743 jobs related to oil and gas drilling, he said.
More than $122 million was paid out to the workers in the oil and gas operations in the four-county area in 2008, he said.
According to Rhoads, the oil and gas industry for nearly a century had an “excellent working relationship” with the Forest Service on the ANF.
“That relationship is now being put to the test and it may be destroyed by the arrogance of a few local U.S. Forest Service employees and their counterparts in Milwaukee (the Forest Service regional office) and Washington who are trying to use the federal courts to cut a deal with their friends in the Sierra Club and the Allegheny Defense Project and assume power that no federal or state law gives them,” Rhoads said in his statement at the hearing.
Rhoads said “these Forest Service employees are accomplished bureaucrats—well skilled in the passive aggressive arts of public administration.”
“They are proud of what they are doing,” Rhoads said. “They may very well accomplish their cynical finesse of the law with this settlement.
“We don’t know how the court will rule on their proposed settlement, but, if they are successful, it will be an historic event.”
John Bortz Jr., one of three commissioners for Warren County, claims the proposed use of NEPA rules by the Forest Service will have “a detrimental impact” on all four counties within the ANF.
In a statement at the hearing, Bortz said the Forest Service’s policy change on oil and gas development in the ANF will “increase unemployment, threaten our school districts, lower our public revenues, erode our desirability as a tourist destination and challenge our ability to promote community and economic development.”
He said the Forest Service is “embarking on policies and practices which will effectively shut down” oil and gas development in the ANF.
U.S. Congressman Glenn Thompson (R-Centre County) said in a statement last month that he is “mystified” by the proposed settlement that “would so blatantly disregard the legal process and private property rights.”
Thompson, who also spoke at Friday’s hearing, has said that the settlement has “the potential to kill the regional economy, increase unemployment and further our dependence on foreign oil and natural gas.”
Under a proposed timetable, the Forest Service will issue its “notice of intent” June 1 to conduct environmental studies under NEPA.
Public meetings to explain and discuss the notice are planned for June 2-4. Times and locations for the meetings will be posted on the ANF Web site. The past few meetings on the oil and gas issues have been held on sequential days in Warren, Bradford and Clarion.
More public meetings are slated for Aug. 26-28 to review public comments and discuss alternatives for the environmental study.
A preliminary alternative is due to be released at public meetings Nov. 4-6. More public meetings are set for Jan. 19-21, 2010 to discuss the draft environmental impact statement for the study.
A final environmental impact statement is due April 15, 2010 followed by a comment period.
The earliest the Forest Service would begin processing of new oil and gas projects in the ANF would be in July 2010. However, possible litigation or other delays could extend this timetable.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 12 June 2009 )
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