Fracking Madness In Pennsylvania

Blue America is concerned about every congressional seat in the country but PA-17 is especially important for a few reasons. For one, it's the only realistic shot to replace an incumbent Blue Dog, with a progressive champion. This cycle. The race pits our friend Matt Cartwright against corrupt reactionary Tim Holden. Holden has voted more frequently with Boehner and Cantor against core Democratic issues and principles than almost any other Democrat in Congress. But there are two more reasons. I used to live in Stroudsburg in Monroe County, now part of this district and I love the beautiful part of the state and the wonderful people who live there. And then there's Matt Cartwright himself... an extraordinary candidate committed to the values that have always animated DWT and Blue America.

Yesterday the state legislature in Harrisburg passed Act 13-- an ironically numbered bill... unlucky for everyone in the Commonwealth. As you may know, Holden has been one of the few Democrats in Congress to help the GOP with their fracking agenda and to work to allow drilling in the national parks. We asked Matt to give us his read of what happened yesterday in the legislature and how this kind of bill could have passed in a state like Pennsylvania.

I was dismayed when I read about Act 13, and I agree with the Sierra Club’s nickname for this bill. The Republicans running state government in Pennsylvania are so completely given over to the notion that out-of-state fracking companies represent economic salvation that they seem to have taken leave of their senses. It’s not only that they’ve stripped communities and municipalities of all control over local zoning. It’s also painfully obvious that Pennsylvania is getting next to nothing in return.

Think about it. Taking away local control of zoning, in the name of preventing any community objections to fracking operations, means that the people in charge of deciding whether fracking can occur locally will never be the people who have to live nearby, the people whose water wells are most at risk for contamination. The people who have most to lose have the least say. It makes no sense at all, and it flies in the face of hundreds of years of zoning practice and tradition. That local citizens can no longer show up at local zoning variance hearings to give voice to their concerns about their families’ safety and the water purity on their land-- but must now hire attorneys to file suit in Commonwealth Court, in Harrisburg-- this is nothing less than an un- American assault on property rights.

In return for relinquishing these rights, what do Pennsylvanians receive?

Jobs? Everyone living in northeastern Pennsylvania knows that the great bulk of the jobs created by the fracking boom consists of jobs given to oil and gas workers from out of state. Thousands and thousands of license plates on pickup trucks from southern and western states are silent testimony to that. The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Airport parking lot is always filled, not with the vehicles of the people whose aquifers are endangered, but with those of the faraway workers who got these jobs. Where is the evidence that tens of thousands of local jobs are being created, so as to justify this Harrisburg kowtow to the fracking companies?

Tax revenues? Why is it necessary that Pennsylvania apply one of the lowest environmental impact fees in the nation to fracking companies? Enormous fortunes are being made on the gas. Charging an impact fee that is one of the lowest in the country makes no sense when there is no evidence that there truly is a “race to the bottom” going on.

Few people are saying that fracking should be permanently banned, as it is in France. Instead, people are saying, “this gas has been there for ages. Given the clear risks of groundwater contamination, why the rush now?” Clearly, the right approach is to make deliberate, sensible assessments of the risks and benefits involved. I am not convinced that that has been done. Considering the risks to the aquifers, streams and rivers of Pennsylvania, I believe that moving forward with Act 13, while drowning out the cries of local townspeople, truly is a form of madness.

Please help Blue America replace Tim Holden with Matt Cartwright. There really is a big difference. Matt's new ad: