House Bill 2235, Marcellus on State Forest Lands

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troutbert

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Things are getting serious now. This could be a biggie for us trout fishermen.

In committee, there were both Dems and Reps voting for the bill. Contact your legislators on this one. Please let us know if you do. I contacted mine (again).

House Bill 2235 could see consideration by the full House as early as next week thanks to its 26-8 approval by the Appropriations Committee. The bill requires a minimum five-year freeze on further leasing of our state forests for deep gas drilling. The drilling industry already has access to approximately 700,000 acres of state forest, about one-third of the entire state forest system and nearly half of the acreage that overlies the Marcellus Shale formation. The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources estimates that 5,000 to 6,000 wells will be drilled on these acres.

http://pennfuture.org/media_sd_detail.aspx?MediaID=1137&Home=Y
 
Good find troutbert, I made sure to contact my local representatives in support of this bill.

Just a thought...in an effort to get more attention on this to the masses, maybe post this in the General forum--even though this is a conservation issue.
 
Here is a link to TU's action center on this bill, which makes it easy to contact your legislator.

http://tinyurl.com/TUMarcellusLink
 
Troutbert, thanks for posting the TU link. Everyone should do this, it will take only a few minutes of your time.
 
Thanks Dwight! Done!
 
I just received a reply from my Rep and he said that he is supporting the bill. I have written him many times about this subject and it is good to see that he will support HR 2235.
Troutbert put the link up so it is very easy to send a message to your Rep.
 
thanks for the link, message sent.
was talking to a guy this weekend who was retired from the gas/oil industry, he agrees that PA needs to put a halt to future permits and take a look at the long term effects of drilling. he predicts that moving at the speed we are now will result in certain disaster.
hopefully this bill will go through. things just need to be done correctly.
 
The vote is on wednesday, so act fast. I did.

http://takeaction.tu.org/c.ntJSJ8MPIqE/b.5961669/k.8A35/Pennsylvania_House_Bill_2235/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx
 
Thank you troutbert , that makes it easy.
 
My rep is pretty conservative. At the end, I changed it a bit, and said:

"I am not against drilling so long as it is done in a way that shows we learned from our previous environmental mistakes in PA."

Good alert
 
Good work TB.
 
Sent and forwarded to our email list.
 
DGC.............that's exactly the way i feel about this , we can accomplish this safely and cleanly , we can do it 'cause we are who we are , i feel strongly about what our role , as flyfishers and lovers of fresh clean water , should be , we have this site and the ability to communicate with each other in real time , there are also several tiplines with 800 numbers to call , and remember to follow up to see what happened , i've been keeping an eye on three active sites and so far all looks ok , but if that changes i know what i have to do. Troutbert did a great thing by posting that TU link we should all do that at least.
 
I did it and sent it to a couple of friends.
 
Well at least one positive response . . . .

Dear Mr. Schronce:

I’m contacting you in response to your e-mail regarding the suspension of further expanding the gas drilling on our state forests.

Representative Kessler has read your e-mail and is in full support of Representative Greg Vitali and Representative Dave Levdansky’s legislation and meets with them on a regular basis in regards to this subject. He has also signed a letter that has gone to the governor, supporting the halt of any further leasing of state forests. Representative Kessler voted for HB 2235 in committee and plans on doing the same when the legislation comes to the floor.

We thank you for contacting us with your concern and hope that in the future you will contact us in regards to any other state issues.

Blair Haring
Legislative Assistant
Rep. David R. Kessler - 130th Legislative District
2 Scholl Drive, Oley, PA 19547
610-987-0980 Fax: 610-987-0798
 
Osprey,

Just curious, what stage of the process are the sites you are watching on?
 
This has passed, now moving to Senate.

One thing here that I am not exactly sure how accurate this is right now. This news site is saying" The bills states that DCNR will get the sole right to determine which state land is leased when the moratorium ends." House bill passes

The PGC has had two drilling experiences so far and both were negative. As one commissioner has said, we are 0-2 with the drilling on the game lands.
 
Brownout wrote:
The has passed, now moving to Senate.

One thing here that I am not exactly sure how accurate this is right now. This news site is saying" The bills states that DCNR will get the sole right to determine which state land is leased when the moratorium ends." House bill passes

The PGC has had two drilling experiences so far and both were negative. As one commissioner has said, we are 0-2 with the drilling on the game lands.

Do you have more info on these Game Lands drilling sites? The locations and problems?
 
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