Don’t Let PA Senate Roll Back Conventional Drilling Rules

From PennEnvironment (http://www.pennenvironment.org):

There’s a lot of things to love about the ‘80’s. But outdated controls on oil & gas drillers are not on that list.

Yet a vote this week by old-school legislators in Harrisburg would turn back the clock on Pennsylvania’s protections to 1984. It would end disclosure of toxic chemicals used in drilling, undermine safe drinking water standards, and remove consideration of drilling’s impact on state parks and forests. The new rules would be even more lax than the American Petroleum Institute’s own standards for the industry.¹

Go to https://pennenvironment.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=26005 to tell your state senator: “We need stronger protections from fracking and conventional drillers, not weaker.”

The bill, SB1088, eases regulations on smaller conventional wells even though they are just as prone to spills and leaks that can leach into our groundwater as fracking rigs. And the bill defines the operations so poorly that many fracked wells drilling closer to the water table would also be able to shirk protective responsibilities as well.¹

And the dangerous rollbacks don’t stop there. This backwards bill would also:

• Weaken protections for drinking water, exempting certain drillers from requirements to replace impacted sources with water that meets Safe Drinking Water Act standards.
• Reduce required distances for wells from homes as well as rivers and streams.
• Attempt to once again have the state preempt all more protective local regulations on drilling, a scheme already struck down by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2013.^{1 2}

Tell your senator to protect our water and vote against SB1088.

With a deal this sweet, it’s clear that state senators are hearing from oil and gas lobbyists who want to take dirty industry back to their “good old days.” We need to make sure they hear from five thousand Pennsylvanians before a vote this week.
PS. Forward this email to your friends so they can make sure we don’t go back to 1984.

¹Andrew Williams and John Walliser, “Opposition to Senate Bill 1088 (P.N. 1546)” Environmental Defense Fund and Pennsylvania Environmental Council, April 11, 2018.

²Marie Cusick, “Bill would roll back standards on conventional oil and gas drillers,” StateImpact, April 12, 2018.