Payback Time: Governor Corbett Fast-Tracks the Drilling Process

Tens of thousands of gas fracking wells are planned along the 

Delaware watershed, the drinking water source for 15 million of us

Posted by: Noël Jones

Things have just gone from bad to worse. Joseph Tanfani and Craig R. McCoy report in today's Philadelphia Inquirer on line, that Governor Corbett has just issued a new internal directive that no environmental inspectors can issue violations  to natural gas drillers in the Marcellus Shale without prior approval from Corbett's newly appointed DEP Secretary, Michael Krancer. As stated in the article, "Inspectors worry that the new order amounts to a 'backdoor way to castrate the regulations,'" and as Pennsylvania's former DEP Secretary John Hangar says, the unprecedented rule is "akin to forcing a highway trooper to get approval from the head of the state police before writing a ticket." 


Governor Corbett is reported to have received $800,000 from gas industry contributors to his campaign for governor. Apparently, it's payback time, and he is fast-tracking drilling before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can finish its cumulative impact report on health risks that is due to be completed next year.


I'm sure that most readers here are familiar with the health risks associated with fracking for natural gas by now, and the plight of 16 families in Dimock, PA, just two hours north of us, who


have settle with Cabot Oil & Gas for millions, including in-home water mitigation systems, since their drinking water has become toxic and made them sick (along with destroying their property values). If you have not already seen the films Split Estate, which focuses on fracking out West and/or GASLAND, which focuses mainly on fracking in PA, please watch them on Netflix to get up to speed.


Without the ability for inspectors to issue violations, the gas drillers can continue to dump frack waste on land and into streams and rivers, without fear of consequences. There were 750 violations issued to gas drillers in PA last year alone.


Here are three in-depth articles from The New York Times on this issue:


Regulation Lax As Gas Well's Tainted Water Hits Rivers
Pressure Grows for Answers on Fracking
Water Recycling No Cure-All In Gas Process


Please use the Access Government links on the right side bar of this page to call or email our state officials to express your outrage, and demand a statewide moratorium until the EPA study on health risks is complete.