‘Mystery Moratorium’ Sticks In Pennsylvania’s Craw

“Democrats Exploded”

Gotta hand it to our governor. The ban on unconventional gas drilling in the South Newark Basin has been more divisive than a new Duke water study.

Since the Bucks and Montgomery county moratorium was tucked into the new state budget signed on July 2, 2012, the articles, posts and Op-Eds decrying the hypocrisy of the measure have been proliferating. The Inky editorial, Fracking Ban Is About Our Water, says it all. Turns out, when you slip seven all-important paragraphs into a late draft of an already cumbersome state budget, as did Sen. Chuck McIlhinney [R-Bucks], the body politic leaves for summer recess with a sour taste in its mouth. Reporters Michael Macagnone and Angela Couloumbis lay out the details in Local Drilling Moratorium Rankles Rest of State on Philly.com. 

Diverting Attention From Key Issues 

In case you’re tempted to think the six-year moratorium is a good thing, consider how increased shale gas production in every other county of the state will impact Bucks and Montgomery, regardless of our fancy drilling ban. Pipelines, processors, dehydrator units, and compressor stations en route to South Philadelphia and Delaware County refineries are planned to crisscross our parks, roads, the Brandywine river, and maybe even your backyard. Air pollution won't stop at county lines.

Of even greater concern, exporting shale gas in the form of LNG is a very dangerous enterprise, one which presents serious considerations. In 2004, Peter Levene, CEO of Loyd’s, a British insurer of natural gas port facilities, stated that “Specialists reckon that a terrorist attack on an LNG tanker would have the force of a small nuclear explosion," according to Mark Reynolds on EnergyBulletin.net. In case the header doesn’t grab you, maybe the subhead will: U.S. regulators don't share the concerns of the top official at the world's second-largest commercial insurer.

Duke Dares To Publish More Science
And in case you’re living under shale rock not over it, here’s the link to Abrahm Lustgarten’s piece in ProPublica.org, New Study: Fluids From Marcellus Shale Likely Seeping Into PA Drinking Water and Confirmed: Fracking Can Pollute by Sarah Larsen in Salon.com.

The paper’s findings suggest that deep, salty brine fluids could migrate upwards through natural pathways, but Duke scientists made no estimate of whether that might take years or centuries. Naturally, that didn’t stop bloggers and the media from speculating on the pollutive possibilities. Is-you-is-or-is-you-ain’t remains to be seen, but the new Duke paper highlights the notion that, soon, the answer may be in reach.

Here’s the link to the Duke paper, "Geochemical evidence for possible natural migration of Marcellus Formation brine to shallow aquifers in Pennsylvania":  http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/07/03/1121181109