The Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale Scorecard was created by four of Pennsylvania’s largest citizen-based environmental organizations: the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter, Clean Water Action, PennEnvironment and the Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania.
“Receiving a perfect rating on the scorecard is an honor for me,” Freeman said. “It shows that all of the hard work on the issue has not gone unnoticed. Still, we have a long way to go if we want to protect the environment and ensure that protection for years to come.”
The scores are based on a series of votes on H.B. 1950 (Act 13 of 2012) held by the legislature between November 2011 and February 2012. Freeman said the law pre-empts local ordinances on gas drilling, establishes one of the nation’s lowest gas extraction fees, and makes only minimal improvements to environmental and public health protections from oil and gas drilling.
“I voted against that legislation because I believed it was woefully inadequate on many levels, and I could not support it,” Freeman said. "Overall, this law does very little to protect our environment. It raises insufficient revenue to mitigate the impact of drilling, and robs local governments of their ability to protect the health, safety and welfare of their communities. The big winners from this legislation are the big oil and gas companies; the losers are the people of Pennsylvania.
"The Marcellus Shale gas reserves offer tremendous potential to Pennsylvania – if managed correctly. This law does not do that," he said.
Jenn Mann got a 92%.
Lehigh Valley Republicans did not fare too well with the environmental groups. Here are the scores for LV GOP House members and their scores: Justin Simmons (23%); Gary Day (31%); Joe Emrick (31%); Marcia Hahn (23%); and Julie Harhart (23%); Jenn Mann (92%).
State Senators Pat Browne and Bob Mensch got perfect 0s. That's something to be proud of, too, i suppose, depending on your POV.
19 comments:
Don Ritter used to call dummies like Freeman et. al. "chemophobic."
Freeman has been on the dole since Moravian and has never done a thing for his country or state that wasn't paid for with someone else's money. He still wants 19-year olds to die on foreign soil for jahadists' oil and gas. Has this POS ever attended a local serviceman's funeral? Didn't think so. What a environmental chicken hawk. Go back to pretending you've been dead for years.
Bernie,
Did Rep. Simmons vote for this legislation?
Bernie,
People shouldn't forget the impact Coal extraction had on Penna. during the early part of the 1900's.
It took years to clean up abandoned mines and strip mines.
And this isn't finished. Further the old gas wells drilled were not plugged properly.
Don Ritter used to call these types "chemophobic." They'd prefer to send 19-year olds to die for oil and gas exploited from anywhere else but here. Has Freeman ever attended the funeral of a local serviceman killed in action so Bob can gas up his car? This bunch is shameless.
So, that makes it ok to pollute the planet now? Using that logic, they had slaves back in the 1800's.
I'll bet that Tim Holden is pretty close to a "0" as well.
It appears he sides with the GOP on this issue, most of the time!
Obama says that fracking can be done safely, same as Andrew Cuomo in NY. Rendell opened completely unrestricted drilling in PA. Corbett got slammed for putting restrictions in place where there were none. Where were these members of the country's worst legislature for the last four years? They did nothing and provided no leadership on the issue. The only thing perfect about their records is their long streak of doing nothing and being Rendell's bitches while Fast Eddie made sweet deals with Mobil-Exxon, Shell, Mountain, Range, Talisman, Cabot, Slumberger and Halliburton.
So far, shale gas recovery in Pa. has outperformed all the "stimulas" project spending wasted by "O".I was in Western Pa. recently and this is a boom to that distressed area. The hotel parking lot was filled with out of state vehicles related to gas activities.
By the way, the people out there wish the people in Harrisburg and the eastern part of the state would keep out of their business. A common theme there is:"All the east wants out of it is a big tax grab."
We need to follow through on the safety and environmantal side. There was a per well fee approved
( I believe) to fund these activities.
A new cracker plant has just been announced for western PA. Cranberry Twp., north of Pittsburgh, is becoming the Houston if the Northeast with favorable business conditions and easy reach to Marcellus and Utica deposits in WV OH, and PA. Youngstown OH is coming back from the dead quickky. OH will add 60,000 energy jobs this year. Penn State estimates a $100 million impact to PA last year. The price of natural gas has dropped to half in the last three years. These legislators HATE private sector job creation.te against
Joe (one-hit-wonder) Emrick leads the repos with an F minus! Keep up the work Joe.
Anon 12:21, you just don't get it. So the parking lot was full of out of State vehichles related to gas activities? ok so the owner of the hotel makes alot of money, maybe he hires a few more minimum wage employees to handle the extra business. Would'nt it be great if all those gas related jobs were performed by locals instead of out of state people, then maybe 'our' unemployement would decrease. That is the big picture!!!
Permission to change subject.
T-Mobile is pulling out of Hanover Twp. and taking 600 jobs with them. Wonder if Barron von Footinmouth's "hospitality" had anything to do with their decision. What have we been doing to retain business and industry? We fall asleep at the wheel and POOF - 600 jobs gone here, 500 there. "Economic Development" - hardly!
So the people of PA take all the risks of oil activity while big oil,out of towners and the free oil market get all the bennys. So if last year 100 mill was such a bonanza for the state why all the gloom and doom plus budget cuts from Corbet.
They also had a perfect record in voting for swaptions to be legal in Pennsylvania. Not one legislator in the house or senate voted against it. Tell me they understood it including the expert accountant Pat Brown.
Freeman has done many wonderful things for PA, including being a a long-time advocate of land use, zoning, and planning reform. He is one of the most beloved state representatives anywhere in the Lehigh Valley. 6:19 a.m. Anonymous owes him an apology.
3:11 good point. And allow me to point out, that Corbett brought the cracker plant to western PA as part of a KOZ....
SS
How dare those people in Western PA have jobs. They should just be happy living in their ghost towns. Don't they know those of us that live in the South eastern part of the state don't like this? Dont they know we like to vacation there? We have to drive past those horrible well sites on the way to Jersey Shore! Oh there's a Jersey Shore PA?
Guess I really have never been to Western PA. Just like the rest of the idiots complaining about this. Doesn't matter people should only have electric 3 hours a day! We have to save the planet! Everybody should drive electric cars! Oh you have to plug them in? Well then bring back the horse and buggy! Get a clue
When wells are polluted in communities and the future fracking that will take place in Pike County begins to have negative affects on the Delaware River, or when YOUR drinking water is no longer drinkable because of a neighbor or yourself allowing fracking .......then tell me how you feel about fracking!
The icebergs are melting so that should give us plenty of water
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