Newsletter - Full Edition - September 2014
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Act 13 Comes to Butler County
As recently as a year ago, that sentence would have struck terror into the hearts of county residents concerned about fracking. In its original form, Act 13 required that all municipalities statewide permit natural gas drilling and fracking in all zoning districts, including residential. Drillers could put in a well literally anywhere they could find the amount of space required. Then came the PA Supreme Court ruling of Dec. 2013 that declared the zoning provisions of Act 13 unconstitutional. This restored zoning powers regarding drilling to the municipalities, and also stated that municipalities must zone for drilling in a way that complies with Article 1, Section 27 of the PA Constitution, often referred to as the Environmental Rights Amendment. Article 1, Sec. 27 reads: “The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.” The PA Supreme Court ruling was a breath of fresh air for those concerned about fracking. Not only did it strike down the requirement that local governments allow drillers to put in a gas well virtually anywhere, but it gave legal weight to what was once an obscure section of the state constitution known only to environmentalists and drilling opponents. Curiously, municipal officials in Butler County seem not to have gotten the memo re: the “constitutional obligations” associated with the revision of Act 13. Either that or they assume that adherence to DEP regulations is sufficient to meeting those obligations – something that has yet to be legally tested under the Act 13 ruling. But what they seem to have heard loud and clear is that zoning powers have been restored to them as regards drilling, which they seem to interpret as meaning that they can amend their zoning and drilling ordinances any way they want to accommodate drillers and gas leaseholders. Or, as in the case of Butler Township, they can leave the drill-anywhere ordinance mandated by the original Act 13 in place, for the same reasons. |
Enter Jordan Yeager, the Philadelphia-area lawyer who successfully argued for the overturn of the zoning provisions of Act 13 before the PA Supreme Court.
Initially at the behest of the Mars Area School District parents' group and with backing from various environmental groups, Jordan has come to Butler County on a mission to assist groups fighting for their environmental rights in the midst of the fracking boom and to attempt to educate municipal leaders as to their rights and obligations with respect to the revised Act 13. To date, Atty. Yeager has written letters to four Butler County municipalities advising them as to where their drilling ordinances run the risk of incurring lawsuits re: potential violations of Act 13 and Sec. 27 of the constitution. To date, Atty. Yeager's attempts at enlightenment have for the most part been either misinterpreted or ignored. Butler County seems poised to become “ground zero” for the first test cases to be tried under the state supreme court's ruling on Act 13 and the legally reinvigorated Sec. 27. Several citizens' groups are considering legal action, including the Mars School District group, Franklin Township and Butler Township. If pursued and if successful, these county actions could set a legal precedent for similar cases across the state. On July 17, Commonwealth Court overturned another portion of the original Act 13: the section that allowed the state Public Utilities Commission to determine whether or not a local ordinance was in compliance with the original Act 13. With regard to that change, the Commonwealth Court ruling states (emphasis added): "Local zoning matters will now be determined by the procedures set forth under the MPC [Municipal Planning Code] and challenges to local ordinances that carry out a municipality’s constitutional environmental obligations." |
Indeed, the new Act 13 has come to Butler County.
Butler County Action Updates
Currently, as mentioned in the editorial, there are three primary citizens' actions occurring in Butler County. In the Mars Area School District, a concerned parents' group has been trying to implement a “zoning overlay” within the district, which spans Middlesex and Adams townships, to keep drilling two miles away from district schools. In Franklin Twp., residents have attempted to dissuade officials from approving a Marcellus Shale well in the Lake Arthur watershed of Moraine State Park. And in Butler Twp., a group of concerned citizens has quickly come together to protest the approval of a drilling site in an R-1 Single Family Residential zone and the township's current drilling ordinance which allows drilling in all zones. |
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The second annual Fossil-Free Energy Fair was held on July 26, 2014 at Slippery Rock University. Events, vendors and presenters were focused on the theme, “Energizing for a Sustainable Energy Future.” Author and environmentalist Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, gave the welcome address via videotape. The keynote speaker was Robert Hinds, Ph.D., professor emeritus at SRU, who spoke on “The Legacy of Fossil Fuels” – how they contribute to climate change and environmental degradation, and the challenges we humans face in curtailing our use of them. Other presenters included Patricia DeMarco, adjunct faculty member at Pitt/Duquesne universities, Randy Francisco of Sierra Club and Ron Rademacher and Adam Haas of Phipps Conservatory. Vendors included purveyors of electric cars, solar panel installation, alternative energy choices, and green burial. And, of course, free hot dogs cooked with solar energy were available!!! Entertainment was provided by musicians Sam Giannetti and T. Mitchell Bell. Thanks to all the presenters, vendors, musicians, sponsors and attendees that made this year's energy fair a success! May it spawn even greater success in the use of sustainable energy in our local communities and beyond...
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FRACKING in the News
According to a little-known policy the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued May 5, FEMA has indefinitely banned the use of hazard mitigation assistance money for properties that could eventually host horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, even if the leases don’t allow for development on the surface.
Read more.
According to a little-known policy the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued May 5, FEMA has indefinitely banned the use of hazard mitigation assistance money for properties that could eventually host horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, even if the leases don’t allow for development on the surface.
Read more.
Skytruth Alerts has reported that drilling has begun on two shale-gas wells in Oakland Twp., just north of and upstream from the Oneida Valley Reservoir, which is the municipal water source for 35,000 residents in and around the city of Butler. Meanwhile, in his own district, Senate President Pro Tempore and drilling advocate Joe Scarnati (R-Jefferson) has “reached out to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to express serious reservations with permitting any further drilling at the proposed site or any nearby site which could potentially compromise the [Brockway Borough Municipal Authority Rattlesnake] reservoir.” One might ask why State Representative Brian Ellis and State Senator Scott Hutchinson aren't doing the same for Butler residents... maybe take some time and voice your concerns to them.
Several StateImpact PA articles have followed an unfolding story of former state health department employees saying they were forbidden to talk to people calling with health complaints that the callers felt were connected to natural gas drilling operations. Five different environmental groups are calling for an investigation into the health department's handling of the issue. Meanwhile, former state health secretary Dr. Eli Avila claims that PA has failed to seriously study the potential health impacts of fracking. And a pair of w. PA health care professionals have written an excellent op-ed piece on this subject.
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission says its officers are struggling to monitor possible violations at Marcellus Shale gas drilling sites.
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So, if we call it “salt water,” does that make it safe?
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
recently published an article about the shale-gas well set
to be developed in
Middlesex Township on property owned by Bob and Kim Geyer.
This well is the focus of the Mars Parents Group and their Protect
Our Children campaign. “These people are trying to tell me
what to do with my property,” said Bob Geyer said of the opponents. In an e-mail received by MOB and others, Atty. John Smith, another member of
the Act 13 legal team, had this response to that statement: “Here
is a quote from Justice Baer in the Robinson Act 13 decision, that
should prove useful to the arguments all of you are appropriately
making. If nothing else, this should add to your Latin
vocabulary: 'Pursuant to Article I, Section 1 of the Pennsylvania
Constitution, and the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United
States Constitution, no person may be deprived of his private
property without due process of law. In the early years of the
Union, this constitutional guarantee translated into the general
notion that a landowner had the right to do as he saw fit with his
property. As modern American jurisprudence developed, however
that constitutional guarantee developed an important limitation: sic
utere tuo ut alienum non laedas
- so use your own property as not to injure your
neighbors.' This is the basis
for constitutional use of police powers and zoning to ensure your
neighbor's use of his/her property is compatible with surrounding
properties and is not used in a way that injures a neighboring
property. This legal maxim was left out of the article.”
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Wouldn't a well fire like this be lovely near a school or residential area in Butler County? This fire was subsequently linked to a massive fish kill in an Ohio River tributary. Halliburton made the EPA wait 5 days for a list of chemicals that were present at the well fire site. Reaction was strong when this report became public.
The group Concerned Health Professionals of New York has released a 70-pg. compendium of “scientific, medical and media findings” demonstrating the risk and harms of fracking. Risks include “adverse impacts on water, air, agriculture, public health and safety, property values, climate stability and economic vitality.” The report also states that “our examination of the peer-reviewed medical and public health literature uncovered no evidence that fracking can be done in a manner that does not threaten human health.”
When asked to make a choice between
health concern and energy production and profits, governments and
regulatory agencies generally favor the latter over the former. An
illustration of this is the story of a woman with severe chemical
sensitivities who learns that a shale gas well will be drilled a
half-mile from her home.
State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale recently issued a withering review of the Department of Environmental Protection‘s oversight of the shale gas industry and the regulatory agency’s practices for responding to citizens’ complaints that drilling has affected their drinking water.
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Recent news reports have seen an interesting pairing of religion and climate change. The World Council of churches recently announced that it would pull all of its investments in fossil fuels, saying it had determined that the investments were no longer ethical, due to the role fossil fuels play in climate change. And Pope Francis has called the destruction of nature a sin of modern times, and compared battling climate change to the safeguarding of creation.
Frack quakes in Oklahoma continue to be in the news, with the L.A. Times reporting significantly on the subject. Also, learn how gas-charged earthquakes have been generated in a Louisiana sinkhole that formed under a salt dome used for storing hydrocarbons and industrial waste. Watch the incredible video of this sinkhole swallowing an entire stand of mature cypress trees.
And on the clean energy front, according to this article on Forbes.com: “Cries of 'higher energy costs' and 'lost jobs' are no longer credible arguments against the clean energy revolution.”
UPCOMING EVENTS
SEPTEMBER
On September 21 in New York City a quarter million citizens are expected to demand that the world's leaders take immediate action on climate change.
The Peoples Climate March will be held just before President Obama and his Chinese counterpart attend the UN Climate Summit, http://www.un.org/climatechange/summit/.
The Sierra Club and Thomas Merton Center have hired two buses to leave early on the Sunday morning and return late on Sunday night. If you are interested in reserving a seat on the bus, please contact Peter Wray with CLIMATE on the Subject line … pjwray@verizon.net.
On September 21 in New York City a quarter million citizens are expected to demand that the world's leaders take immediate action on climate change.
The Peoples Climate March will be held just before President Obama and his Chinese counterpart attend the UN Climate Summit, http://www.un.org/climatechange/summit/.
The Sierra Club and Thomas Merton Center have hired two buses to leave early on the Sunday morning and return late on Sunday night. If you are interested in reserving a seat on the bus, please contact Peter Wray with CLIMATE on the Subject line … pjwray@verizon.net.