{"id":440,"date":"2012-05-02T02:03:22","date_gmt":"2012-05-02T02:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gastruth.org\/?p=440"},"modified":"2012-05-14T18:41:32","modified_gmt":"2012-05-14T18:41:32","slug":"bgts-act-13-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/?p=440","title":{"rendered":"BGT’s Act 13 Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here are descriptions of the actions Berks Gas Truth is taking as part of its Act 13 campaign. If you’d like to get involved or to find out if there is a similar campaign in your area, please contact Karen Feridun at berksgastruth@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Ask municipalities to pass a resolution opposing Act 13<\/strong> – We are attending every council or township supervisors meeting in Berks County in May and June to explain the issues surrounding Act 13 and ask them to pass a version of the attached sample resolution prepared by Jordan Yeager. He prepared the lawsuit filed by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network that called Act 13 unconstitutional and sought an injunction. Seven municipalities joined in the suit over local control issues in the law and a physician joined over the gag order on physicians in Act 13. See links at the bottom of this post to the sample resolution and a great summary of the issues from the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. On April 11th, a Commonwealth Court judge issued a 120-day injunction on the section of Act 13 dealing with local control. Fracking opponents are using that time to solicit support from municipalities throughout the state. DRN is looking for resolutions and letters of support at this point to help strengthen their case.<\/p>\n

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The points to be made at municipal meetings are the following:<\/p>\n

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1) Our County Commissioners adopted the ordinance required to collect impact fee money for drilling in their counties. Currently, the ordinances passed have no legal weight because Act 13 states clearly that you need to have a well or a spud well in your county before you can adopt the ordinance. A spud well means a new well they’ve just started to drill. Once you have a spud well, you can adopt the ordinance and start collecting impact fee dollars in the following calendar year. The reason the commissioners adopted the ordinance is that the northwestern edge of Berks County is in the outcrop of the Utica Shale. The outcrop is the certainly the most accessible part of the Utica Shale, but it is not the richest shale, so it’s probably not the first place the drillers will want to drill.<\/p>\n

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2) SHOULD they want to drill the Utica Shale, it’s important to understand that, thanks to PA old Oil and Gas laws, forced pooling is legal in the Utica Shale. If you were to look at a geologic cross-section of PA, you’d see that the Marcellus Shale sits on top of a limestone layer called the Onondaga layer. Far below that layer is the Utica Shale. Our old Oil and Gas laws pertain to everything below the Onondaga layer. Marcellus has been spared forced pooling because it’s above that layer. The industry has been clamoring for forced pooling and the Governor’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission recommended “modernizing” the old Oil and Gas laws to include Marcellus for that reason. Even Corbett opposes forced pooling because he believes in property rights. Forced pooling means that if in a unit (drillers refer to the parcels of land they want to drill as units — roughly square-mile parcels), 60% of the land is owned by people who have signed leases, the owners of the remaining 40% can’t say no to drilling. As you might suspect, forced pooling diminishes property values everywhere it’s done.<\/p>\n

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3) The imminent threat, however, is not drilling. The imminent threats are other operations related to drilling. The local control section of Act 13 takes away local control over ALL gas drilling operations, including pipelines, compressor stations, waste disposal, seismic testing, and more. There are already two pipelines coming to Berks County; a third is possible. Act 13 is comprised of three main sections – the impact fee section, a section establishing woefully inadequate environmental regulations, and the local control section. Thanks to sections two and three, a pipeline can now be placed 300 feet from an elementary school and there’s not a thing our municipal officials can do about it. And, by the way, if you recall the “spud well” requirement in section one, it’s clear that the impact fee only goes to communities impacted by drilling, not drilling operations.<\/p>\n

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We’re putting a lot of emphasis on the pipeline issue not only because it affects us directly, but because pipelines are so poorly managed in PA. Listed below is a document called PIPA. The federal Department of Transportation’s pipeline safety group wrote PIPA. It deals with pipelines and land use. It recognizes that pipeline projects are dangerous and emphasizes the importance of municipal participation in pipeline project planning. Act 13 flies in the face of PIPA.<\/p>\n

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There are two roles we’re asking people to play in this part of the campaign. We’re asking people to represent Berks Gas Truth at the municipal meetings. They need to be conversant in the issues enough to make the brief presentation. They are also responsible for being the point people for those municipalities. They need to contact the municipality to try to get on the agenda or, failing that, register to make a public comment, if that is required. They need to follow up with the municipality and coax them to move on passing a resolution. They’ll also relay questions they can’t answer to me. We’re also asking people from the municipalities to attend the meetings with the Berks Gas Truth reps. It’s always helpful to have people from the community with you when you go to these things.<\/p>\n

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They’ll have the Basics of Act 13 document, the sample resolution, and the PIPA summary to hand out to each official. They’ll also have a script\/talking points sheet to read from. All of these documents are available below. There is also a letter of support municipal officials can sign, but we’d rather get resolutions passed by councils and boards of supervisors. Any letters collected should be copied to Tracy Carluccio at the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. They’ll help with the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

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Because the 120-day injunction ends on August 9th, we’re going to as many meetings as we can in May and June. The groups I’ve already spoken to want a little time to think about it. If we wait until July to attend a meeting, they’ll decide after the injunction has ended. It’ll probably still be helpful, but we’d rather get them done before the injunction ends.<\/p>\n

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Circulate a petition<\/strong> – We’re circulating a petition targeting our County Commissioners, asking them to reconsider their position on Act 13. We’d like them to pass a resolution. Sign and share the petition online!!\u00a0http:\/\/signon.org\/sign\/commissioners-say-no<\/a>\u00a0Prefer to circulate a petition? Download and print copies!\u00a0BGT Commissioners Petition<\/a>\u00a0Let me know when you have sheets to turn in by emailing me at berksgastruth@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Hold a public forum<\/strong> – We’re holding a public forum on pipelines and Act 13 on May 30th. The last Wednesday in May is the only evening when there are no municipal meetings. We’re going to model it after the forum in Lake Nockamixon and invite elected officials, environmental groups, etc.<\/p>\n

We’re holding our forum from 7 – 9 p.m. at EDI, Inc., 1300 Hilltop Road, Leesport, PA 19533. The event is open to the public free of charge.<\/p>\n

Our speakers will \u00a0be Tracy Carluccio, Deputy Director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Jordan Yeager, environmental attorney and Partner at Curtin and Heefner, Paul Rubin, Hydrologist\/Hydrogeologist, Hudson Highlands Environmental Consulting, and Lynda Farrell, Executive Director of the Pipeline Safety Coalition. We’ve also extended invitations to speak to all of Berks County’s state legislators.<\/p>\n

Here is a flyer for the event:<\/p>\n

Forum Poster 1 – 5-30<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0a<\/span><\/p>\n

Resources:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Delaware Riverkeeper Network has a page dedicated to the Act 13 campaign.<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.delawareriverkeeper.org\/act-now\/urgent-details.aspx?Id=102<\/a><\/p>\n

Sample Resolution prepared by Jordan Yeager<\/strong><\/p>\n

sample resolution support JY<\/a><\/p>\n

Sample Letter of Support<\/strong><\/p>\n

Municipal support sample letter3.12<\/a><\/p>\n

Delaware Riverkeeper Network’s Basics of Act 13 Handout (print pages 1 -3 only for municipal meetings)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Basics of Act 13 DRN<\/a><\/p>\n

Summary of P.I.P.A.<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.naco.org\/research\/pubs\/Documents\/Infastructure%20and%20Sustainability\/Pipelines-Report-June2011.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

A more print-friendly version of the report<\/em>
\n http:\/\/www.nahb.org\/fileUpload_details.aspx?contentTypeID=3&contentID=173700&subContentID=408679<\/a><\/p>\n

A two-page summary that can be used to take to municipal meetings<\/em>
\nhttp:\/\/phmsa.dot.gov\/staticfiles\/PHMSA\/DownloadableFiles\/Pipeline\/Technical%20Advisory%20Committees\/Tab%2012%20-Briefing%20-%20%20PIPA.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Sample script\/talking points
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sample Script and Talking Points for Municipal Meetings<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are descriptions of the actions Berks Gas Truth is taking as part of its Act 13 campaign. If you’d like to get involved or<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":446,"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions\/446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastruth.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}