Activists hope new Pa. governor shifts gas debate
Posted: Wednesday, January 21, 2015 6:00 am
By Joe Mahoney Staff Writer
The natural gas that would fill two proposed local pipelines comes from Pennsylvania, a state that got a new leader Tuesday in the person of Gov. Tom Wolf, a millionaire Democrat who defeated one of the most pro-drilling governors in the nation, Tom Corbett, in November.
Distressed by what they say would be negative environmental impacts from proposed pipelines that would slice through Delaware and Schoharie counties, anti-fracking activists in both New York and Pennsylvania said they hope Wolf will follow the footsteps of his Empire State counterpart, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and ban shale drilling.
Were that to happen, they said, the Constitution Pipeline and the Northeast Energy Direct Pipeline would be left high and dry. But what are the chances that even with its new leader, the Keystone State would adopt a New York-style ban on hydraulic fracturing?
“I don’t think there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that he would do that,” Tom Shepstone, a gas industry advocate and creator of the blog www.naturalgasnow.org said when reached in Honesdale, Pa.
Wolf, whose Tuesday inauguration in Harrisburg, Pa., drew some anti-drilling protestors, has never directly threatened the industry, Shepstone noted.
“He may throw a few token words here and there to the leftist wing of his party,” Shepstone said. “But he is not going to undermine the industry.”
Having a decidedly different interpretation of the significance of Wolf’s rise to the top in Pennsylvania was Josh Fox, the activist and filmmaker who produced the award-winning anti-fracking documentary film, “Gasland.”
“I think we stand a chance of making friends and making a huge amount of progress with Wolf,” said Fox, who also lives in Pennsylvania and is planning to be with scores of other drilling foes in Albany today to thank Cuomo for banning fracking in New York.
Wolf, the only Democrat nationally to topple a sitting Republican governor last fall, has made some in the energy industry uneasy by promising to enact a 5 percent severance tax on gas production to raise $1 billion in new revenue, opposing gas production on state-owned land and urging more-stringent regulation.
http://www.thedailystar.com/news/local_news/activists-hope-new-pa-governor-shifts-gas-debate/article_01e1f43b-ed41-54b7-bbe2-aaa53c7b3e3b.html
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